Interview: The Super Global High-Octane Sport of 'Ramgod'
Jul 23, 2024
Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen
In comic shops now, Ramgod takes Point Break (the original) and Fast & Furious, but tosses it in a cyberpunk blender! Written by the brotherly duo of Morgan and Owen Rosenblum, this is a high-octane ride from Massive!
In the following interview, Owen and Morgan describe the future's most dangerous sport!
PREVIEWSworld: So, what is Ramgod? On paper, it gives me some Running Man vibes.
Owen Rosenblum: Ramgod is a new cyberpunk comic series that I co-created with my brother Morgan. The title “Ramgod” is actually the name of the new sport that we created which the story centers around. It's like a hybrid of UFC, American Ninja Warrior, Formula One Racing, but structured like the Olympics since it’s a point system. And this series definitely has some Running Man Vibes. At its core, Ramgod as a story, is really about a father and son who are trying to see one another as they are. It's a story of redemption, ego, and the price of stardom - all set in an adrenaline-pumping cyberpunk world.
PREVIEWSworld: How did you two come together for this project?
Morgan Rosenblum: We’re brothers, and have worked together on multiple comic and graphic novel projects before, but had never co-authored a series together…until now. During Covid, Owen had been doing some soul searching and decided he wanted to finally make his own series from scratch, and asked me to partner with him on. But I was tough on him, and told him that if I was going to get involved he had to really wow me with his initial concept. He did. And so we embarked on this creative process together and the result was Ramgod!
PREVIEWSworld: What can you tell us about Clint Bowler?
OR: When we meet Clint, he's kind of stuck. A 35-year-old working as a patrolman for the New City Police Department. He’s kind of a deadbeat dad to his teenage son, Malcolm, who he can't seem to connect with. We learn that Clint was once a superstar collegiate athlete who was drafted first overall to the NFL, but due to his rumored ties to organized crime, he was essentially blacklisted by the league and was thus forced to forge a new path for himself. He's been struggling to make ends meet ever since, living in his own shadow of what could have been.
PREVIEWSworld: What can you tell us about the Ramgod sport? What makes it the most dangerous game?
MR: For starters, you can die in Ramgod. It's got the highest mortality rate by far among all of the professional sports leagues in our world. Each team is composed of 4 players, three humans, and one bot athlete. The athletes all wear these cool high-tech suits that are equipped with enhancements like jet packs, weapons, shields, etc. BUT they all start off as locked and inaccessible, and the only way to access their various enhancements is to collect “Boosts” which are found on certain courses and/or acquired by achieving certain milestones during “Heats” (events). So for example, if a Ramgod athlete is participating in the Climb Heat, and they were to slip and fall, if they haven't unlocked a Jetpack Boost, they will plummet to their gruesome death. It's kind of messed up when you think about it, because technically the league could simply activate the jetpack inside their suits to save the athlete, but choose not to, because that's not in the rules and it would hurt their viewership numbers.
PREVIEWSworld: Is this more a cyberpunk story or a sport story? Or both!
OR: Definitely both! Our story, at its heart, is a character (action) drama, but the high-octane cyberpunk setting greatly influences and shapes our characters. There is also a crime thriller element to the story as we learn that one of the teams in the Ramgod league secretly moonlight as bank robbers, of course adding to the tension and raising the stakes even higher.
PREVIEWSworld: In terms of audience, who would you say Ramgod is for?
MR: It's meant for a slightly more mature audience given its R rating for violence, language, crime, and sex. If you're a fan of Cyberpunk (as a genre), Fast And The Furious, Point Break (the original with Keanu), Rollerball, Tron, or The Running Man - then we think you're going to dig Ramgod!
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THE FUTURE'S MOST DANGEROUS SPORT JUST GOT A NEW PLAYER.
RAMGOD follows Clint Bowler, a former troubled star athlete turned NCPD Beat Cop, as he tries to balance his dueling responsibilities as a cop and as a father. But his teenage son, Malcolm, wants nothing to do with him. That is until Clint is recruited by Malcolm's favorite team in the world's most dangerous sport, RAMGOD, after a video of him chasing a perpetrator goes viral.
With a second shot at his dreams, and a chance to find common ground with his son, Clint's future is looking bright. But looks can be deceiving in New City, and for Clint's new teammates, they have a nefarious side hustle that will force Clint to sacrifice his newfound stardom or his morality. Either way, it's a dangerous game.
RAMGOD feels like Point Break meets Fast & Furious, but in a CyberPunk setting that introduces a brand new super high-octane global sport.
THE FUTURE'S MOST DANGEROUS SPORT JUST GOT A NEW PLAYER.
RAMGOD feels like Point Break meets Fast & Furious, but in a CyberPunk setting that introduces a brand new super high-octane global sport.
NCPD Beat Cop, Clint Bowler has his son Malcolm for the weekend -the one time per month he's allotted by the courts. While at a local diner, their quality time is interrupted when a nearby crime in progress is reported. Though off duty, Clint chooses to pursue the perpetrator. The chase is captured on video and goes viral.
Meanwhile, RAMGOD the world's hottest sport, has just announced that all teams must add a fifth player. The Barracudas, fresh off a loss in the finals, must now figure out who to add to their tight knit group, given their nefarious "side hustle."
With all eight RAMGOD teams being mandated by the league to add an additional player to their rosters, the Barracudas hold an open tryout to fill the new spot. Having seen the now viral video of the gutsy NCPD Beat Cop pursuing a perpetrator, they extend an invite to Clint. With other pro athletes also invited to the tryouts, the competition is stiff. Out of his element, and unfamiliar with the new sport, Clint must rely on his instincts and athleticism if he's going to make the cut. But when it comes to RAMGOD, even in tryouts, safety is never guaranteed. RAMGOD feels like Point Break meets Fast & Furious, but in a CyberPunk setting that introduces a brand new super high-octane global sport.
THE FUTURE'S MOST DANGEROUS SPORT JUST GOT A NEW PLAYER.
RAMGOD follows Clint Bowler, a former troubled star athlete turned NCPD Beat Cop, as he tries to balance his dueling responsibilities as a cop and as a father. But his teenage son, Malcolm, wants nothing to do with him. That is until Clint is recruited by Malcolm's favorite team in the world's most dangerous sport, RAMGOD, after a video of him chasing a perpetrator goes viral.
With a second shot at his dreams, and a chance to find common ground with his son, Clint's future is looking bright. But looks can be deceiving in New City, and for Clint's new teammates, they have a nefarious side hustle that will force Clint to sacrifice his newfound stardom or his morality. Either way, it's a dangerous game.
RAMGOD feels like Point Break meets Fast & Furious, but in a CyberPunk setting that introduces a brand new super high-octane global sport.
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