What I Bought 9/5/2014 - Part 3

Was reminded last weekend that it really annoys me when people are getting ready to go somewhere, but they can't seem to get organized. They keep remembering something they need to bring they haven't packed, or they can't get everyone on the same page about when they're leaving, or who is driving. And so everyone dithers around and nobody goes anywhere. That drives me up the wall, even if I'm not going with them. Just watching such disorganized people is irritating.

Rocket Raccoon #2 & 3, by Skottie Young (writer/artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color art), Jeff Eckleberry (lettering) - This is really strongly giving me the Earthworm Jim vibe, with the talking animal riding a rocket through space and all.

Rocket gets himself sent to the prison on Devin-9, then promptly escapes with the help of Groot, who regrows himself from a splinter Rocket grabbed from the wrestling ring the first issue. See, Rocket requested to be sent to this prison so he could find Macho Gomez (who Rocket sent to prison), and have him bring Rocket to Gomez' boss, Funtzel, in the hopes of tracking down this other raccoon. In space, they rather easily fend off an attack of the space armada of ex-girlfriends, and utilize guppy warp to reach Funtzel's towing company. Once there, Funtzel contends he looked into this other raccoon, but could only finds rumors of some bunch of loonies in a tower, which Rocket interprets as being about the Book of Halfworld. Then the other raccoon appears, having already subdued Groot, and ready to fight.

It doesn't sound like much when I put it that way, but I think the plot is less than relevant for its details, and more for what it weird stuff Skottie Young wants to draw. So Macho Gomez' spacecraft is a sedan crossed with a fish, complete with little squid like space helmets and squid missiles that make a SQUIIIDOOSH effect when fired. So the prison break is a two page sequence that sprawls across the pages like a hamster wheel. This is second set-up like that so far in this batch of comics, the other being in Ms. Marvel. In both cases, I found it difficult to follow, because each one starts in the lower left corner instead of the upper left. The one here works a little better because Young moves the dialogue balloons diagonally across the page with a series of brief exchanges between Rocket and Groot, but actually puts the first balloon at the top each time, whereas that wasn't the case with Caramagna in Ms. Marvel.

So it's still very pretty, and I'll admit I'm curious about both what's going on with Halfworld, and how Rocket's going to make things up to the jilted ex-girlfriends. It's my guess, though not confirmed, that rocket didn't break up with them so much as cheat on one with the next, in a string of sleazy moves. Which is the sort of thing that makes me not like the protagonist, if his tendency to just murder whoever wasn't enough reason. That's still the biggest problem, I don't particularly like this version of Rocket. He's too amoral. He's not someone jaded by experience, or who has lost his ideals, he acts like he never had any to begin with. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it. Six issues, at least, I guess.