Real Name:
Unknown, probably inapplicable.RAMROD
Real Name:
Unknown, probably inapplicable.
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial-created mechanical android
Occupation: Enforcer for Worldform, Inc.
Group Membership: Worldform, INC.
Affiliations: Other members of Worldform, INC;
Ramrod or another like him was one of Thanos' "Thanos-Thrall" agents
Enemies: Iron
Man (Tony Stark), Marianne Rodgers; many New Yorkers, especially New York Police Department;
presumably scores of aliens from worlds previously
targeted by Worldform, Inc.
Known Relatives: Possibly the Changers
Aliases: None known.
Base of Operations: Mobile at least through the galaxy, perhaps wider.
First Appearance: Iron Man I#36 (April 1971)
Powers/Abilities: Ramrod was, as expected,
very strong (probably class 75 at least) and durable. He seemed a bit
more vulnerable on his second fight against Iron Man, for reasons not
yet clear. He could fly under his own power and was most likely capable
of space travel with no additional support. And he had a great
vocabulary, too.
His primary purpose was to flatten a landing spot on a target
world and to serve as an advance scout to confirm the planet's
suitability.
History:
(Iron Man I#37 (fb) - BTS) - Worldform, INC. was contracted by the
dominant species of a doomed world. They were offered Earth. There were
two catches - Earth was quite inhabited already (the story does not
really address this point, however) and its surface were not
glass-smooth, so it would not suit the needs of the aliens. Ramrod and
its master were (presumably) the workforce sent to Earth to reform it.
It was implied that "The Changers" would follow shortly after; Ramrod
considered them long-unseen brothers for some reason.
(Iron Man I#36) - Arriving on Earth, Ramrod began to destroy things and terrorize people in the Manhattan area. His apparent goal was to build a large enough, smooth enough surface for the Changers to land. Tony Stark saw the confusion on the streets while on a date with Marianne Rodgers a number of stories above, and after a moment of hesitation, decided to intervene as Iron Man. Ramrod bragged a lot about his obvious superiority, the coming of the Changers, and how Iron Man must be dead after being buried by tons of rock during their joint "earth-diving" maneuver, but was proven wrong when Iron Man fought his way out of the hole immediately after. However, his transplanted heart began to collapse and he fell to the floor, feeling the first signs of a major heart stroke. Ramrod told the people present that Iron Man was now dead for sure, and that he would be remembered as a worthy foe by Ramrod, and by the way, the Changers were coming and everyone better accept that...
(Iron Man I#37) - After Worldform/the Changers
arrived, the Ramrod adopted a role of serving the Foreman. He captured
Marianne Rodgers under his orders.
After a rather
dramatic rescue by Kevin O'Brien, Tony recovered enough to go after
Ramrod for a second round. This time, his repulsors were much more
effective and actually destroyed (or at least deactivated) Ramrod.
(Captain Marvel I#31) - After Thanos had acquired the Cosmic Cube and used it to capture
Mentor, Eros, Iron Man, Captain Mar-Vell, Moondragon and Drax the Destroyer, the mad Titan could not resist
bragging about what he had accomplished and what he was going to do.
As part of this boasting, Thanos showed his captives his fleet of space raiders that were ready to plunder Earth and were crewed by his personal horde of outcasts and criminals collected from throughout the galaxy. Ramrod or a similarly-appearing member of Worldform, Inc. was shown to be part of this horde.
Comments: Created by Allyn Brodsky, Gerry Conway, Don Heck and Mike Esposito.
Iron Man I#36 was also the first
appearance of Marianne Rodgers, one of the most lasting, interesting
and complex of Tony Stark's love interests. Although you would not
guess it from these two issues, where she is very much the archetypal
male-fantasy devoted beauty/shrinking violet combo. In the course of
just a few panels, Tony goes from complaining about Whitney (Madame
Masque) suddenly breaking up with him to phoning to a scantily-clad
Marianne Rodgers that seems to have been posing and waiting right there
for his call for a few months at least. If you think
I am exaggerating, check the issues!
Iron Man I#36 is Marianne's first confirmed
appearance, but she may be Marion from Tales of Suspense I#40, as
indicated by the Marvel Index series.
In the Brazilian Portuguese
version of this story, the Changers were referred to as the
Transformers, hence Luis' next comment:
After a lot of teasing, we never actually saw the Transformers.
When Marvel began to publish the Transformers comics of the mid-1980s,
I looked for a Ramrod connection for an embarrassingly long time.
I hope this does not make it sound like I disliked Iron Man I#36-37; quite the opposite, in fact. However, the point remains that it raises a lot of unanswered questions and features some badly-dated characterization. Also, it is very much a blunt "change of pace" issue.
In Iron Man I#36, Ramrod seemed to laugh off almost everything Iron Man threw at him. When Iron Man finally hurt him, Ramrod plunged into the ground from a great height, incapacitating Iron Man, but recovering seemingly without harm himself. In Iron Man#37, Iron Man defeated Ramrod with a blast of his repulsors. Why Ramrod was so easily defeated the second time was not explained. He may have been much more seriously injured by the crash from the previous issue, or else Iron Man found his weak spot (a lot of robots in the older days had a deactivation button that could be found and used), or...something...
The name Changers (or Transformers in the translated version) seemed to refer to both the organization Worldform and to the robot "Doom-Carriers" at different instances. Given that Ramrod considered them his brethren, and that they were the ones who carried out the Changing process, I refer to the robots as the Changers in this entry.
Left to right: Alpha Centaurian, Jalin (a Sagittarian), a Queega, an Aakon, an Astran, a Reality-616 version of one of the Emissaries of the Overlord), a Tribbitite, one of the Worldform, Inc. enforcers (a la Ramrod), an Archeopian, a member of the unidentified extraterrestrial race who resembled those impersonated by agents of Mysterio/Tinkerer, another unidentified (oval-patterns over both eyes; the only thought, who doesn't quite fit to me is Para-Man), a Skrull, an unidentified blue-skinned alien, a Badoon, a Rigellian, and a Xeronian.
Profile by Luis Dantas and Snood.
Thanks to Markus Raymond for identifying the character as one of the Worldform Inc. enforcers!
CLARIFICATIONS:
This Ramrod had only these two appearances, and is not to be confused with:
Worldform, aka the Changers, or in the translation, the Transformers (Ramrod's alleged brothers), have no known connection to
WORLDFORM, INC
They are an intergalactic terraforming organization, which re-engineers and/or rebuilds whole worlds to meet the needs of their clients. Once a world is chosen, the Ramrod is sent to scout out the planet and to clear a landing spot for their ship. The Foreman designs the terraforming process, which is given to the Changers. The Changers unleash the Earth-Former, which can than restructure the planet in a relatively short time period.
Worldform was hired by S'tan'd'ard to supply a planet for his race. Although Earth was both populated and uncharacteristic of their surface requirements, it was chosen nonetheless, as the terraforming process would solve both of those problems. The Ramrod successfully enabled them to land on Earth, and the Changers were sent out to initiate the process. However, Iron Man defeated the Foreman and destroyed the Dominator helmet which controlled the Changers, terminating the process.
It is unclear whether the group sent to Earth was the entire Worldform INC, or just one team. Nonetheless, the team was defeated, and no further efforts were made to complete the contract.
--Iron Man I#36 (mentioned only), 37 (37(fb), [36], 37
Also known as the DOOM-CARRIERS, these were a group of robots who carried out the terraforming process once a planet was chosen and prepared by Worldform. They did this by splitting up, with the four of them each traveling to different parts of a world, and then activating the Earth-Former. They were controlled by a Dominator helmet, worn by the Foreman. They were considered brethren by Ramrod.
On Earth, the Changers traveled to Mexico (or another Spanish speaking country), China, the North Pole, and Africa. They were prepared to activate the Earth-Former, but the Foreman's Dominator helmet was destroyed by Iron Man, rendering the Changers inert.
They could fly under their own power and likely possessed some degree of superhuman strength and durability. They appeared to be otherwise intelligent, but were limited by the Dominator helmet, which may have been their power source. There appeared to be some friction between the robot Changers and the humanoid members of Worldform, such as the Foreman. The Earth-Former itself was never actually seen. It was just described as a small device contained within the four Changers, which could then be activated when they were spread across the planet.
One would have to assume that after this issue, the Avengers or some other group located and dismantled the four Changers and the Earth-Former, and didn't just leave them sitting there, waiting for some villain to come along and utilize the technology for his own needs...
--Iron Man I#36 (mentioned only), 37
Some period of time, centuries ago, the man who would become the Foreman was a hapless street urchin, the last of his people on a dying world. Worldform arrived on his world, and the Foreman at the time saved him, taking him aboard their ship and teaching him their ways. In time, the youth became the Foreman himself.
The Foreman fell in love with a woman at some point--a silver-skinned alien with jet-black, glistening hair. They shared a relationship for a time, but she died half a century ago.
On Earth, while preparing the
terraforming process, the Foreman saw an image of Marianne Rodgers, who
reminded him of his former lover. He sent the Ramrod to collect
Marianne for him, but he didn't understand why she was terrified of him.
After Iron Man defeated the
Ramrod, the Foreman attacked Iron Man himself. Iron Man managed to
destroy Worldform's ship, which would have left him stranded on Earth.
Maddened by the concept, the Foreman attacked anew, planning to slay
Iron Man as he activated the Earth-Former. However, Iron Man removed
the Foreman's Dominator helmet, which terminated its anti-aging
effects. The Foreman's many centuries caught up with him in seconds and
he fell to the ground and died.
The Foreman did not seem to possess any inherent powers, but he did control the Changers via his Dominator Helmet. The Helmet also kept him eternally young, although once removed, its effects were reversed almost instantly. He most likely engineered the Earth-Former for each world and supervised the process himself. He had access to blaster weapons in the ship, and (presumably) his suit allowed him to fly. He used a hand-held blaster as well.
--Iron Man I#37
MISTER
KLARK
He appeared to be a spokesman, salesman, or other representative of Worldform, INC. He made the contract with S'tan'd'ard to prepare Earth for his race.
--Iron Man I#37 (37(fb)
He served as representative to his race, making the contract with Mr. Klark and Worldform to prepare Earth for his race. Why they needed a new home was not revealed, but they did require a completely smooth, glass-like surface across the entire planet, on which their suction cups could function.
--Iron Man I#37 (37(fb)
Appearances:
Iron Man I#37 (May, 1971) - Gerry Conway (writer), Don Heck (pencils), Jim Mooney (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Captain Marvel I#31 (March, 1974) - Jim Starlin (story & art), Green & Al Milgrom (inks), Roy Thomas
(editor)
First Posted: 11/28/2002
Last updated: 11/27/2020
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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