They're Fashionable And Tactically Useful!

I was thinking, Rocket Raccoon needs to get his jet shoes back. I think they'd look good with his current uniform, and provide valuable paw support. The Guardians teleport into all sorts of weird locales, and you never know when you might wind up in a Land of Linoleum, which observation of my father's dogs suggests would be difficult to find purchase on. Last thing you want to have happen when you try to jump out of the way of some projectile is for your feet to slip out from under you and leave you where you were.

Beyond that, it's just good sense to have a flier on your team. Air superiority can be crucial in a battle and what with Phyla and Adam Warlock off doing their own things, the Guardians don't have a single airborne member. Given Rocket's penchant for large weapons and his small size, he'd provide considerable offense, while presenting a miniscule target for the enemy target. It's the kind of help the Wasp or Yellowjacket can lend the Avengers, except Rocket's probably going to be bringing more pain, to a wider array of foes than either of them could. Plus, for a being with such a high level of tactical sense, being able to look over the entire battlefield can only be a benefit. He could even use Groot as a launching pad! You know, start out riding on Groot, usuing some very large piece of field artillery or something, then, as the situation requires it, switch to a (slightly) smaller weapon and take to the skies, raining plasma energy hell upon the poor fools who though they could match skills with him. Can't you just picture it? Doesn't it look so awesome in your head*?

Then I see the cover for Guardians of the Galaxy #15. Well, I guess a jetpack is OK. It probably provides more propulsive power than the boots (though I bet the boots allow for greater maneuverability), and there would also probably be less chance of setting Groot on fire, since it's easier to angle the jetpack away from the bark-encrusted bruiser than the boot jets. 'Course, that's offset by the increased chance of igniting his own tail. I bet Cosmo would get a good laugh out of that.

The first image is from the Rocket Raccoon #1, and which I found posted by Googum here. And no worries, I'm not a dastardly hotlinker (as I've heard that practice is frowned upon in the blogosphere). I punched "Rocket Raccoon" into Google Images to find a shot of Rocket using the boot jets, and that was the first image that fit that criteria. It was on the third page of results, but at least all the other results were actually for Rocket Raccoon, rather than random raccoons, or irrelevant rockets.

* Does it look like something out of his mini-series, or is it an entirely new vision of awesome?