Saturday Splash Page #209

"Chessboard," in Rocket #5, by Al Ewing (writer), Adam Gorham (artist), Michael Garland (colorist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer)

After Skottie Young's Rocket Raccoon, there was Rocket Raccoon and Groot, also written by Young, but drawn by Filipe Andrade, whose art ensured I didn't last past issue #1. Post-Secret Wars, there was a brief Rocket series when the Guardians were stuck on Earth for some reason. And in late 2017, we get this, ultimately 6-issue mini-series, about Rocket being duped into pulling a heist, then trying to pull another heist to balance all debts.

Most of it feels like Ewing using Rocket to write a noir/heist story. You've got Rocket getting fooled by a lady otter from his past into stealing land deeds for a corporation. He ends up working with another dangerous, amoral woman and her crew (Gatecrasher and Technet.) There's a prison break, one much quieter and less chaotic than Skottie Young's, although the freak out Rocket fakes to kick off his plan feels like a play off Young's feral, hyper-violent version.

The art mirrors the tone. Gorham's Rocket is similar to Young's in proportions and stance, but this isn't a book for exaggerated reactions, so there's none of that. A lot of the people involved are wearing nice suits or dresses like you'd see on Earth, rather than anything alien. The prison Rocket's stuck in is (with the exception of its version of solitary) much like an Earth prison.

Ewing's Rocket has some charm and plenty of self-confidence, but mostly accepts double-crosses and bad outcomes with muttered curses and weary resignation. He's not shooting wildly or hamming things up for the hell of it. If the book isn't necessarily drenched in shadows like a noir, Garland keeps the colors dulled. The setting being outer space may be strange to us, but it's old hat to Rocket. There's nothing bright or whiz-bang about it these days.

Even a group of oddballs like Technet is treated as something that isn't noteworthy or odd. Not that they're played as a joke, just that, with the exception of Joyboy (who's more malevolent in Ewing's hands than I remember from Alan Davis' Excalibur), their powers and their shtick are not considered strange. They aren't adversaries, even when they cook up a scheme to keep busting Rocket out of prison so they can turn him in again for the bounty. They're businesspeople, who can be negotiated and bargained with, if you speak the language. So they aren't (again, excepting Joyboy), drawn as particularly menacing.

In the last issue, Ewing's tries to make most of the past Rocket Raccoon stuff fit. The events of the Mantlo/Mignola mini-series did happen, no longer just some stuff in a book Rocket scoffs at. Rocket was the protector of the Keystone Quadrant. He fought killer clowns and lethal clouds to protect the Loonies, alongside his pal Wal, and his lady love Lylla. They left their home, and in the wider galaxy, Rocket stopped being so heroic, fell in with Otta, got arrested, met Star-Lord. "Blam! Murdered you!" gets referenced, though this Rocket is more cerebral, playing with him being an innate tactical genius. Never busting out any ludicrously large guns, and mostly trying to avoid killing.

(The series doesn't address the back-up story in Annihilators where Halfworld is still a psychiatric planet, and only Rocket actually left, and that because there's a dangerous bit of info stored in his mind, although Ewing does have Lylla and Blackjack O'Hare end up married, which was a part of that.)

Ewing doesn't really explain how Rocket ended up like this beyond "people change." Stuff keeps happening, time keeps passing, and one day, you aren't the person you used to be. At least, that's what Rocket tells himself. It's apparent at least part of the guy he used to be is still in there. Otta manipulates him by making him think they're helping the little guy, and even after all that, he still tries to reason with her. So if that guy is still in there somewhere, was it the rift with Lylla that caused Rocket to try and bury that part of himself, or did the shift cause the rift? Or are they simply unrelated outcomes of being thrown into a much wider, more dangerous universe?

I want to add the book isn't all misery and betrayal. There's a gag with Rocket's attorneys in issue 2, and there's a Deadpool team-up in issue 4. Granted, Deadpool is running from his fuck-ups during Secret Empire, but Ewing gets some mileage out of 'Pool trying to pretend to be a gangster, and Rocket getting absolutely none of his references. Well, why would he? All of Star-Lord's are from the '80s, and Deadpool's are even more dated than that!

Saturday Splash Page #205

"Prison Break," in Rocket Raccoon (vol. 2) #2, by Skottie Young (writer/artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer)

After his mini-series and escape from Halfworld, nobody much used Rocket Raccoon for the next 20+ years. I've heard Peter David had a panel in one of his Captain Marvel runs where Rocket's pelt was a rug on someone's floor, because, well, I assume he thought that was funny. As with all Peter David's humor, your mileage will vary. Then came Annihilation: Conquest, and Rocket is drafted into Star-Lord's Dirty Half-Dozen. He was a regular in the Abnett/Lanning Guardians of the Galaxy. Probably Bendis' version, too, though I didn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

Then Rocket shot to super-stardom, courtesy of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and that, more or less, brings us to this solo book, with Skottie Young as writer and sometimes artist. Young leans into the movie portrayal, with Rocket as a merc who does essentially anything for money. Rescuing kidnapped princesses, stealing stuff, blowing up giant undersea monsters.

I was never totally drawn into this book, in no small part because I found this Rocket Raccoon a scumbag. Part of the initial story is Rocket, under suspicion of murder, also being hunted by an army of angry princesses he wooed and then scammed out of money to pay off his gambling debts before vanishing into the night. In other words, Young's Rocket is one of those people who dates you to steal your bank info. This did not make me inclined to see Rocket escape the princesses' vengeance, or even really to see him beat the rap for a murder he didn't commit.

(He is, eventually, ordered to pay back all the money he swiped or go to prison.)

When I wrote a Favorite Characters post about Rocket Raccoon, I said that if Mantlo's version was an Errol Flynn swashbuckler, Abnett and Lanning's was more in the line of Bruce Willis, the wise-cracking cynic. Young's version is basically Deadpool, a violent lunatic who occasionally does good things while leaving a trail of ruined lives. Innocent of that particular murder, Rocket still killed a lot of other people, though he argues they're all justified. And the killing is largely a joke, as he even has a catchphrase, assuming "BLAM! Murdered you!" qualifies. When he pleads his innocence to Quill, Star-Lord correctly guesses that Rocket is in the middle of murdering someone right that moment. Movie Rocket was no saint, always focused on a payday or at least protecting his and Groot's hides, but this version seems tipped even further towards, if not villainy, close enough to shake hands with it.

This Rocket also doesn't know anything about his past. The last two issues are him breaking the terms of his probation to pursue a lead on the mysterious "Book of Halfworld," and learning that he is possibly not the only one of his kind in the universe, as he apparently tells everyone. The climax is played as a joke. None of the answers the book provides are satisfactory, and Rocket decides it's stupid to worry about where you came from. Life is somewhere ahead of you.

Eh, it's not the worst lesson I've seen in a comic book.

Young's artwork is fantastic, however. Wild and expressive and exaggerated. His aliens, if still broadly bipedal, can look weird or gross as the situation requires. There are motorcycles that transform into rocketpacks, all manners of spacecraft and weird monsters to blow up (though some of that was drawn by Jake Parker, artist in the back half of the series.) Rocket is far more expressive than a raccoon is likely capable of, and that's put to good use. He's alternately charming, pitiable, or homicidal, depending on what he thinks he needs from one moment to the next.

Mignola and the various GotG artists stuck closer to a raccoon's true body type in their renditions. Chubby body with short, stubby limbs, Rocket walking on the pads of his toes. Young goes leaner, with stick-figure arms and legs, what look like regular feet, and a scruffier fur coat. Past Rockets looked like they put some care into their appearance, but this version actually looks like he spends most of his time one step ahead of angry creditors/cops/ex-girlfriends. His eyes are just red-orange orbs, which also lends a feral air.

I don't think this was ever one of my favorites during it's 11-issue run, not with the Duggan Deadpool, Waid and Samnee's Daredevil, G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel, or the Soule/Pulido She-Hulk run going concurrently. But it was the ongoing series that got me back up to buying 10 titles from Marvel in Summer 2014, for the first time in 7 years. Of course, that only lasted 3 months before Avengers Undercover ended, and Rocket Raccoon itself was canceled by the following summer during Hickman's Secret Wars. But if I didn't necessarily enjoy reading it, the art was always fun to look at.

Saturday Splash Page #204

"Monkey Business," in Rocket Raccoon (vol. 1) #3, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Mike Mignola (penciler), Al Milgrom (inker), Christie Scheele (colorist), Ken Bruzenak (letterer)

Released in 1985, Rocket Raccoon was a 4-issue mini-series set on Halfworld, a bizarre planetary asylum where the "Loonies" are looked after by talking animals, including their protector, the raccoon himself, Ranger Rocket.

It's a strange book. Halfworld is divided into two halves, one for organics and one for robots. The robots, while they do produce the toys the animals devise to keep the Loonies entertained, are mostly busy building an enormous Oscars trophy of a ship, for reasons unknown. After all, there's an energy barrier around the world that should prevent anyone entering or leaving (the Hulk having been a notable exception.)

Most of the series revolves around a war between the two chief toymakers, Lord Dyvyne and Judson Jakes, because Jakes wants to be the sole toymaker and charge exorbitant prices. Rocket is really more concerned with translating the "Halfworld Bible", left behind by those who founded Halfworld and originally tried to treat the "Loonies." Yet he's drawn in because his lady love Lylla will assume ownership of the toy company Jakes runs once she's old enough, and that's enough to make her, and Rocket, a target.

The overarching feeling I get of Halfworld is that it's a system that outlived its viable lifespan. The robots adapted and grew and decided caring for illogical humans was exhausting, so they modified the animals meant as companions for the patients, and left the job to them. But increasing the intelligence of the animals has given them their own desires and needs. "To serve," is no longer good enough. Jakes and Dyvyne each turn their toymakers towards weapons of war like cybernetic killer clowns that speak in rhyme as they blow you up, or clouds of living bad breath that erase anything they touch. There are mercenary groups, led by Blackjack O'Hare, who serve only the highest bidder, or their own desires. The patients are now just, in the way. Collateral damage in a war for control.

Even Rocket, who never hesitates to leap into the fray and protect the loonies, is weary of them. He's trying to translate the Halfworld Bible for answers, but mostly he wants out of the Keystone Quadrant. He wants to know if sanity exists, somewhere out there, because he doesn't see any around him.

This is early Mignola, so it's quite different from what'll be on Hellboy. Busier, more complicated, shadows not nearly as large a presence. Which is not to say he can't still draw some terrifying things. The panel of a patient tearing off his face to reveal a leering clown mug underneath has stuck with me ever since I bought this mini-series. There's a 3-panel sequence in issue 2 of a partygoer being erased by the "Red Breath" Dyvyne unleashed. The coloring sometimes muddies Mignola's lines, but he's also cramming a lot into some of these panels, so that may have been unavoidable.

(Rocket also smokes a pipe, which feels like it codes him as much older than Lylla, who apparently can't take control of her deceased parents' toy factory from Jakes until she's old enough. And while Rocket can be melodramatic, he's not making a lot of quips or banter. He's a straight-laced, if somewhat resigned, hero.) 

Mantlo's script shifts from gags about the bizarre rituals the Loonies have concocted around the Halfworld Bible, or gags about "gorilla wars" and "Keystone Kops", to an extended "Masque of the Red Death" homage in issue 2, and a desperate fight in a Star Wars-style scummy cantina in issue 3. At times it feels like he's being satirical, at others, entirely serious. Which is maybe the point. Halfworld is a planetary insane asylum, and what goes on there may look crazy to us on the outside, but for those living there, it's life. Being the sole toymaker, and the power it would provide, is a big deal to Jakes. Enough to kill for.

What I Bought 12/30/2015 - Part 4

Rocket Raccoon and Groot #1 shipped last week, but Diamond asked stores not to put in on the shelves until this week. Why they didn't just wait another week to ship them, I don't know. But either way, I found a shop that didn't wait, so screw it, I'll buy it now.

Patsy Walker aka Hellcat #1, by Kate Leth (writer), Brittney L. Williams (artist), Megan Wilson (color artist), Joe Sabino and Clayton Cowles (letterer) - I'm disappointed none of Patsy's fans are representing the costume she briefly had in that Engelhart/Breyfogle mini-series. With the blue and yellow reversed? Surely there is someone out there who defends it as the superior costume choice. Or is that up to me, because I'm not the best person to rely on as an advocate.

Patsy loses her job working for She-Hulk, but makes a friend in a young Terrigen-activated guy named Ian. And it's through Ian she realizes there are plenty of people out there with powers with no interest in fighting crime, or who just need work, and resolves to start her own temp agency to help those people out. Though this will require her to start working in retail to raise the funds. Except she also ran into her old friend Tom, who told her Hedy had signed some deal to re-release all of the old Patsy Walker comics, which netted him a handsome payout. Shouldn't Patsy be seeing some of that cash? Even if she's pissed at Hedy for doing it, she should still get some of the money, right?

There's this conversation with Ian in his apartment - although most of the book is an extended conversation with Ian, it just sometimes involves other people, not meant as a criticism, just an observation - where Patsy alludes to her difficult past relationships, and says she's trying to move on. And I guess I had taken it that she already had. They brought her back back from the dead in 2000. Even with Marvel's slow progress of time, that should have been a few years ago. And I guess I'd figured she'd mostly made her peace with that and moved forward. It isn't a big deal at the moment. I liked the book, the humor of it, and I thought Leth had a pretty good grasp on Patsy's character, that she enjoys getting to fight evil and uses it as a way to escape her other problems, but she means well and makes friends easily.

The combo of Williams and Wilson on art helps things out. Williams does this thing a few times where she simplifies Patsy's face - mostly removing her nose, enlarging the eyes, and giving her a sort of cat mouth - that I like. Tends to represent her mischievous side. The "angry She-Hulk" gag, where even the force of slamming the door is gamma-irradiated (and thus colored green). Though I think my favorite panel is that one of Patsy reacting to Tom telling her Hedy claimed to have Patsy's blessing. The gritted teeth, the way her shoulders are higher than normal (like she's arching her back, like a cat?), the narrowed eyes. It's a really good example of barely controlled anger. Wish they'd used the icicle effect on the speech balloon.

Rocket Raccoon and Groot #1, by Skottie Young (writer), Filipe Andrade (artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) - I'm curious why Marvel gave each character their own solo book first, then went with the team-up title (although Groot was in Rocket's book constantly).

The rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy presume our title characters are dead, for some reason. But a familiar looking cloaked figure hires two mercenaries, Pockets and Shrub, to deliver something to evil Lord Rakzoon, who promptly orders them tortured, then executed until he learns they brought him a gift. Then he just orders them tortured. Then he inspects the package, which turns out to be Groot, with a bunch of stuff carved into him. Oh, and Rakzoon is Rocket.

Not the most gripping first issue. Didn't feel as though much happened. I know there's a mystery to be revealed as to why Rocket's acting like this, and what happened to Groot, but I don't find myself caring. Will Pockets and Shrub become recurring characters, or was that an one-off joke? Depending on how this "evil Rocket" plot plays out, they could have a serious grudge against him.

Andrade's art remains a mixed bag. I don't really enjoy the figurework - although the fact most of the characters are aliens, and most of them are cloaked in robes and masks obscures some of Andrade's issues with anatomy - but some of the layouts are well done. On one page, Pockets and Shrub are being pursued through space and towards the right side of the page. Pockets "gets his swerve on" and the steering wheel's position leads the eye to the panel of them basically pulling a hard turn to get behind their pursuer. That panel's basically in the middle of the page, and the movement of their ship is aimed for the lower left corner, which is where they are in the final panel, and now the pursuing ship is on the right side of the page, because it's continued on in the same direction. I feel maybe the actual swerve could have been depicted a little better, but the overall concept was sound. So pretty much the same reaction I had to Andrade's art when I first encountered it on DeConnick's Captain Marvel.

This was kind of a letdown, especially compared to Hellcat, so I don't know if I'll be back for issue 2.

What I Bought 5/9/2015 - Part 1

I went out last weekend and perused some of the local comic shops. I tried three stores, and still didn’t manage to get all the books I was looking for. And the back issue pickings, while substantial, weren’t much help for the things I was looking for.

Ant-Man #5, by Nick Spencer (writer), Ramon Rosanas (artist), Jordan Boyd (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer), Idette Winecoor (designer) – I was going to admonish Scott that riding a white blood cell wasn’t sanitary, but I guess something that destroys bacteria would be about as sanitary as it gets. So maybe I should be warning the white blood cell that Scott’s not sanitary.

Darren Cross is back among the living, and was pretty happy stomping Ant-Man, until his son mentioned that Cassie Lang was right there on an operating table. At which point Darren decides to kill her first, but Scott manages to prevent that by getting smashed through a wall. Things are looking bad for Scott until the Pym Particles in Cross’ new heart cause him to shrink, and have to be saved by his needy, idiot son. Seriously, Augustine is more desperate for Daddy’s approval than Harry Osborn was, and that’s pretty damn needy. Anyway, Dr. Sondheim got one of those extra hearts Cross had ready into Cassie, but her body’s rejecting it, so it’s into the bloodstream for Scott, and he saves his daughter. At the hospital, Sondheim averts the wrath of Peggy by telling her Scott saved Cassie from a myocardial infarction, by getting in touch with Sondheim after Cassie called him for help. Peggy is so terribly grateful, she actually encourages Scott to spend more time with Cassie. So naturally Scott gets all, “This is my fault! I am a danger to my loved ones!”, and resolves to bail.

We’ve got at least until July before anything happens with this, and that’s assuming that Annual is going to follow up on this, rather than be either a movie tie-in or some Secret Wars junk. So I’m going to hope this is one of Spencer’s fake outs, like the ones he was so fond of in Superior Foes of Spider-Man. You know the ones. “Oh, we aren’t really here for Silvermane’s head!”, or “That isn’t really Boomerang getting his ass beat”. Scott seriously just opened his business and hired two employees, so now he’s going to pack up and move to Montana? Come on.

Real talk here: If Scott was to blame for what happened to Cassie, it was either because he rescued Dr. Sondheim from Cross the first time, which is how Cross wound up dead the first time, or because he tried to remain an active part of her life while continuing to be a superhero part of the time, which is how she got exposed to all the Pym Particles. But if he hadn’t saved Sondheim, Cassie would have died anyway, and who knows what Darren Cross would have gotten up to. As for the Particles, it wasn’t like Scott knew that was happening, and Cassie has been risking her neck for years as a superhero. Ultimately, while Augustine might have liked the symmetry of using Scott Lang’s daughter to revive his father, it was the Pym Particles that made her the choice. Sticking it to Scott was just a bonus.

During the fight with Cross, Scott makes a Zoolander reference, then says Cross would have missed that. Would that be true? That movie is 14 years old now, and I think the gap between Cassie's age in that first story and her current age is smaller than that. She's still in high school now. Oh well, Scott was dead for awhile, he can be forgiven if he got a few things mixed up.

Rocket Raccoon #11, by Skottie Young (writer), Jake Parker (artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) – Now, THAT might be enough guns that even Cable thinks it’s overkill. Hmm. Nah, probably still not enough.

Young and Parker opt to skip Rocket’s heist of the Book of Halfworld entirely, and jump right into his escape, involving a motorcycle that turns into a rocketpack, and a lot of musing by our hero about how Life encourages us all not to look back on our pasts, but to keep running. As Rocket doesn’t know his past, his response is, “Nerts to that,” but he can’t get the case open to read the book. Which is when the other raccoon, the one we saw around the end of issue 4 shows up. Her name is Captain Sale, and she isn’t Blackjack O’Hare or anyone else posing as a member of Rocket’s species. She has the key to the case, and she’s willing to share, to even let Rocket have first crack at the book. Which he does, and before he’s finished reading, he decides he’s finished, period. He leaves the book with Sale, and he and Groot leave, only to learn that because he didn’t pay his court fees, he’s once again a wanted felon. So he’s going to jail, but it appears he’s going to bust out just like he did in the first arc, so no worries.

Well, assuming we’re meant to take the Book of Halfworld as true, Young is stating that the Mantlo/Mignola mini-series did take place, based on some of what Rocket mentions reading. Still doesn’t explain why he doesn’t remember, or why there are other modified raccoons like Sale around. Also doesn’t tell me whether the Abnett/Lanning stuff persisted, because the way the Guardians are now, it doesn’t seem likely. I don’t think current Star-Lord could ever have been a great hero who felt he disgraced himself and gave up on life, you know? He was just a disgrace, period.

I think this arc got rushed. Skipping the heist, the quick arrival of Sale, and the fact any differences are put aside quickly, that Rocket takes one page to read the book and decide this whole quest was a mistake. It feels like there should have been another issue in there, but maybe that’s just me thinking issue 12 would have been a logical endpoint. With the looming presence of Secret Wars and all the changes it’s bringing, though, I can’t help suspecting it’s to blame. It is possible Young was trying to make a point. Rocket’s spent a lot of time being defined by his past, either claiming he was the only member of his species like it was a badge of honor, to cover up the loneliness and uncertainty he felt about that. Or he’s running around like a lunatic trying to find the truth about himself, but in the process making his current situation much worse by pissing off everyone and everything around him. Of course, it’s easy for someone who already knows their past, for good or ill, to tell someone who doesn’t, “Don’t worry about it. Focus on now.” It’s not wrong to want to understand things about yourself.

Though I was never clear on what Rocket actually thought his past was. Apparently he didn’t think it was anything like the ‘80s mini-series, but what did he expect? A planet of just intelligent, talking raccoons out there somewhere? His people were wiped out by the Kree, or the Skrulls? That they were the product of tampering by the Celestials? That he has a family waiting patiently for him to return someday? Did he honestly believe his life was mundane before he got mixed up in criminal enterprises/saving the universe?

In the initial motorbike scene, was Parker doing an Akira homage with the bike and Rocket’s clothes? I suspect so, but I’ve never gotten around to watching Akira, so it’s all kind of second hand knowledge, from pictures on the Internet. And lots of people have spiffy red motorcycles. I did enjoy some the subtle body language Parker works into the issue. Rocket’s slackjawed expression when Sale responds to his ‘Nah, I’m not buying this time,’ with, ‘I’m afraid I don’t understand. Have I tried to sell you something?’ The panel before, Rocket’s standing very straight, with his gun arm extended fully towards Sale. But at Sale’s response, he moves closer, his shoulders seem drooped a bit, and the gun isn’t wielded so menacingly. Rocket’s sure it’s another fake, but the response throws him some, and he hasn’t switched fully to the anger he’ll show in the next few panels. Also, when Sale offers Rocket the key, there’s something slightly sad about the set of her eyes I can’t quite parse. I think she’s disappointed at how hostile Rocket’s being, maybe also a little tired now that her search is over.

Also, I’d like to compliment Eckleberry on the sound effect for the rocketpack ignition on pages 4-5. The way it follows the contours of the exhaust trail, and the size of the letters mimics the size of the exhaust. So the initial “BOOOOOOOOM” is large, as the rocket initial ignites, and then the letters shrink and move a little farther apart for the “oooooomshhhh” as it settles into a smoother cycle. I’m not describing it well, but I liked it at any rate.

What I Bought 4/17/2015 - Part 3

I should probably mention that the place I’m staying now doesn’t have internet. There are plenty of places within driving distance that do, but it’s a matter of having time to drive there, plus not wanting to waste a lot of fuel. So consider this the official declaration of “possible erratic posting ahead” for the next 3 months or so, barring changes in circumstance.

Ant-Man #4, by Nick Spencer (writer), Ramon Rosanas (artist), Jordan Boyd (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer), Idette Winecoor (designer) -  Oh jeez, a Miami Vice cover. It was inevitable given the location, I suppose.

So Augustine Cross has covered all the bases in his attempts to bring his father back. He’s got the right doctor, he’s got the goons to kill her and her son if she doesn’t comply. He’s got Cassie Lang, whose heart is accustomed to being large and the strain that comes with that, and donor hearts the doctor can transplant into Cassie after. And he has an adaptive security system full of things designed specifically to stop Scott Lang. But Grizz has been attending the Super-Villain Anonymous chapter in Miami, and that’s how he ropes in Machinesmith to take out the security system, enabling Scott to get in. Where he is promptly stepped on by Darren Cross. Crap monkeys. At least it saves Scott from anymore awkward conversations with his ex-wife about where her daughter is.

I’m sure Cassie will pull through – Spencer doesn’t strike me as the sort to kill her off, not after Fraction and Allred just brought her back – but I hope having a new heart doesn’t signal the end of her superhero career entirely (since it presumably wouldn’t be accustomed to size-changing). I still hold out hope for father/daughter crime-fighting adventures.

Additionally, I don’t see this continued recruitment of super-villains ending well for Scott. Grizz seems appreciative, but Machinesmith is pretty clearly already looking to make it pay off for him, and I don’t think Scott’s providing medical and dental will change that. Letting criminals be involved in setting up security for places in probably bad, since they then know how to get in. Since Stark has apparently gotten Scott blackballed from the superhero community, I imagine it’s only a matter of time before the Avengers show up to defeat Scott and what they’ll think is his new, second-rate Masters of Evil. I wonder, though, whether this is Scott trying to give people a second chance because he got one once, or if, as Tony suggested, he’s just taking the easy route? Rather than try to force Machinesmith’s hand, or use his parole officer as leverage, he just agrees to give him a job, because it saves time, regardless of the consequences.

Rosanas’ artwork helped carry the scene where Augustine makes his pitch. Spencer writes him as though it’s just another sales pitch, so he’s mostly calm, but occasionally gets either excited or tender, for that human touch. And for the most part, Rosanas draws him as calm and collected. He’s almost always gesturing in some way with his hands. Either putting a finger to his chin to appear thoughtful, or pointing with the index finger to illustrate some point. He even hugs the tank his father is in, to better illustrate his point about bringing a family together. It also has to be significant that during that whole spiel, we only see Darren Cross’ legs, or parts of his arms. We see him in his entirety earlier in the issue, but once Augustine starts the sales pitch and moves closer, we’re too close to see all of Darren. It creates a sort of distance, because we don’t see him as an entire person, just parts. This makes me wonder if Augustine is really trying to revive his father, or just looking for a chance to unlock some secrets trapped within him. The last time Darren Cross appeared, Dr. Sondheim double-crossed him, by putting his worn out heart back inside him. She’s not in much of a position to do that this time, so perhaps Augustine’s going to pull the fast one.

Rocket Raccoon #10, by Skottie Young (writer), Jake Parker (artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) – Even Cable thinks that’s too many guns. Haha, just kidding, Cable never thinks there are too many guns.

Rocket’s trying to make some cash to pay off his court costs. Then he gets word from a criminal who says he has info on the Book of Halfworld, but Rocket will have to pay. Bye-bye clean record, hello arrest warrant. Klep shows him a photo of a case kept in a vault in a place called Tower City, and Rocket’s off, though he has to beat up some more cops and Cosmo first. Cosmo got jobbed in that fight, I tell you. Didn’t use his mental powers at all. Anyway, now Rocket’s in Tower City, and he’ll get right after that case, as soon as he finishes barfing.

This series is not exactly packed with plot. Young seems content to allow space for gags and reaction jokes, most of which involve Groot. Either Rocket’s irritated with how much Groot enjoys his drink, or Groot’s dealing with some surly bartender. Which is OK, I suppose. The relatively low number of panels – this issue averages a little over 4 per page, and only tops 5 panels 3 times - gives Parker space to draw weird aliens and hideous undersea beasts. The number of panels does increase near the end of the issue, as Rocket has to flee and fight his way through security. Which I’d guess is meant to convey a rising sense of tension or danger. Except Rocket dispatches his opponents so quickly it’s hard to buy in. Oh well, we know someone else is out there looking for the book, so that’ll be a problem for Rocket eventually. Something about Tower City makes me think of Ratchet & Clank, which isn’t a bad thing.

What I Bought 3/24/2015 - Part 8

When I ordered all these recent releases, I also bought some back issues, most of which were various Iron Fist mini-series from the '90s or early 2000s. Marvel's releasing a trade of them sometime this summer, but I figured this would be cheaper and involve less waiting. None of them were what I'd call winners, and it seems like all of them were either about someone stealing the Iron Fist from Danny, or him wanting to give up being Iron Fist entirely.

Rocket Raccoon #8 and 9, by Skottie Young (writer), Filipe Andrade (artist, #8), Jake Parker (artist, #9), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Jeff Eckleberry (letterer) - Well, Groot may have grown to enormous size and begun destroying the city, but Rocket's got his fists taped up, so I'm going with him. He could have anything hidden under that tape. Brass knuckles, attack bees, anything.

Rocket and Jink are trying to steal the yolk of a Nogu egg, because that will save Groot from the Nogu venom. Along the way, they talk a little, Rocket about how he and Groot met (it involves a prison break), and Jink about why she's helping (her father forbid her from making a similar trip months ago to save her mother). They find the nest, Rocket makes too much noise getting the yolk, and Jink kills the Mama Nogu from the inside. The day is saved, but as they leave the planet, our hero and his tree get a message from a guy who says Rocket should let Groot die. This fellow, Yak, sees possible futures, and in one of them, Groot joins the Avengers. They try to use his regenerative ability to cure diseases, but it somehow makes him grow to gargantuan stature and go berserk, to the point he's going to destroy Earth.

Iron Man tries to convince Rocket to come help talk him down, which doesn't work, then fails miserably at forcing Rocket to come to Earth. Though I guess he succeeds, because Rocket comes there mostly to kick Tony's ass, only to find Groot did it already. Rocket tries transforming his spacecraft into a mecha-Raccoonbot, and still gets destroyed. But this act brings Groot back to himself, and he helps make Earth into a paradise. It turns out what we saw was a simulation Yak had them run as a way to avert the future he saw. Quite why weird alien slug guy gives a crap whether Groot destroys Earth, is not explained, but his plan worked, so hooray?

Rocket didn't exactly live up to the recap page's promise that raccoons are great burglars. Oh right, he's not a raccoon. Well, that explains it. He made too much noise, nearly got eaten, then nearly got eaten again. Everyone has an off day. Very "power of friendship!" couple of issues. Rocket risking his neck for Groot (and his willingness to do so convincing Jink to defy her father and help him). Then Rocket dying (in a simulation of a future that won't happen) to help Groot snap back to his old self.

I'm not sure what to make of issue 9. Groot wants to join the Avengers, be a hero, Rocket didn't want to. So they parted company, and Groot ultimately gives too much, while Rocket grows bitter and alone. So this Rocket needs Groot around to remind him people are worth helping, but Groot needs someone to temper his selfless nature, someone who would have looked out for Groot, since the big fellow won't do it for himself.

I did like that when Stark tries to justify getting Groot to join to Rocket, he uses the same line about running through the door rather than walking he used to justify sending the Hulk off to die against Grootzilla at the start of the issue. Even in simulated alternate futures, Stark's still an ass.

Beaulieu's color work is really impressive on these two issues. I didn't think they were actually done by the same person, because they look so different. In issue 8, it's almost a painted quality to it, it reminds me a little of Dustin Nguyen's work when he paints the colors himself. There are these deep blues, and splashes of red or magenta for blood. It's less orderly, more Expressionistic (or what I see in my head when I think of Expressionism). Big splashes of color at times just hinting or suggesting the shape of clothing, or some huge creature. It's pretty cool, and very different from the next issue, when it's more what you might expect for a Marvel comic. It's mostly bright, sharply defined colors, staying inside Jake Parker's lines. There isn't that bleedover or anything like that.

What I Bought 1/26/2915 - Part 3

How's everybody's week going? Well, I hope.

Rocket Raccoon #5-7, by Skottie Young (writer, artist #5), Jake Parker (artist #5 & 6), Filipe Andrade (artist, #7), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Jeff Eckleberry (lettering) - That's a really effective use of negative space there. And Young even drew Rocket's eyes as slits, to make him look like he's squinting against the wind in his face.

Each issue is a separate story, though issue 7 is the part of at least a two-issue arc. 5 is Rocket and Groot out camping with some alien kids, and Groot tells a story about the two of them finding a treasure map, which leads them on a quest involving a poker game (where Deadpool is involved, oddly), killing a cyclops (but not Cyclops, sadly) with a big sword, and finally, selecting the right treasure chest from three belonging to an alien pirate ghost. Except it was all just a birthday gift from the Guardians to Rocket, which just annoys our hero since it means no pile of loot. Just friendship, and cake. The joke is that since Groot tells the story, all the dialogue is variations on 'I am Groot'. But Young and Parker tell it easily enough with the art, so it's fine (although the "I am Groot" thing is starting to get old. But I recall that when Giffen first brought him back in Conquest, he knew more than three words, and used them frequently).

In issue 6, Cosmo calls in a favor Rocket owes him (for something that happened in the current Nova series), which involves helping Brute. Brute was a war mech that was discarded on an abandoned world with other obsolete mechs. But they possess intelligence, and built a peaceful civilization. Except some interested parties found it and stole 4 of the mechs, to turn them back into war machines and sell them. Cosmo's a law dog, so he can't get officially involved, but Rocket is a wild card with a questionable rep, so he's perfect. He and the robot (which speaks in binary, so no more intelligible than Groot) find where the mechs are being sold, rescue them, beat hell out of everyone, and the mechs go home, where they make baked goods. Including dog biscuit topped cupcakes for a certain head of security at Knowhere. Parker handles art chores solo on this issue, and his style is a bit more simplified than Young's. Rocket looks a bit more cutesy than Young's stringy, slightly feral version, but that works. This Rocket is actively trying to reform a bit, do good deeds for money (since he had to repay those princesses for all the cash he bilked them out of). He still complains a lot, and he's still violent, but he's at least showing greater selectivity in who he's being violent towards, and more critically, why.

Issue 7, Groot and Rocket are stranded on an ice planet, because Rocket didn't check the fuel gauge before they left home. They get attacked by things that vaguely look like enormous jackalopes, and saved by the princess of the locals, but not before Groot is bitten. And the creature's venom blocks his regenerative ability, so he's really going to die this time, unless they can get an egg from the mama of the Nogu. But the princess' father nixes that idea, meaning Rocket will naturally go by himself. Except Jink didn't appreciate being called a Daddy's girl, so he's got her on his side. But the Mother Nogu is large. Like Fin Fang Foom large, so good luck gettin' that egg.

I haven't seen Andrade's art since the end of the previous Captain Marvel series. This involves fewer human beings, which works to his advantage. If I think Jink's eyes seem oddly small and widely spaced, well, she's an alien. I can't see that being an evolutionary advantage, but maybe it is. His Rocket looks a bit nastier than Parker's or even Young's. More snarling, less smirking. The dark color Beaulieu's using around the gums really highlights the small, sharp white teeth Andrade gives him. When Jink's dad grabs him by his jacket and hauls him up, Andrade gives Rocket a posture that suggests a small creature being threatened. His teeth are bared, his nose is kind of wrinkled, even his hands and arms are held in a manner that almost suggests trying to flash his claws at the threat. It's a style that emphasizes the animal Rocket was created from, moreso than usual.

Beaulieu's color work, like on Avengers Arena and Undercover, is superb. Andrade uses heavier blacks in his work, but it plays well against an ice planet, which is a lot of white and various shades of blue. The colors tend to be brighter in the earlier two issues, but so is the tone of the stories. A lot more warm oranges, and vibrant reds. It suits tales that are emphasizing the size and strangeness of the universe, but in a sillier way. Contrasted with issue 7, where the strangeness is hostile and dangerous, where even the traits you think will keep you safe can be circumvented and rendered useless.

It's Rough For A Freebootin' Rabbit Out There

Looking back at Rocket Raccoon #4, I do have some questions about Blackjack O'Hare.

First, if he needed to kill Princess Amalya to fulfill his contract, why didn't he go for it when she was smooching with Rocket? Just lob an explosive down there while they aren't paying attention. Or kill her any time after Rocket ditched her and she was disowned, when there would presumably be no guards, and she would be too focused on plotting to kill Rocket.

Second, if his failure to fulfill the contract wrecked his reputation, where did he get a crate of apparently valuable hyperiam gems which he can use to buy off Macho and all those other crooks? Clearly he must be successfully pulling off jobs somewhere. Maybe he went into piracy, working for himself. Not a bad strategy, if no one will hire you.

Which leads us to Third, what is with these people who hire others for criminal enterprises in the Marvel Universe? Someone botches one job, and it destroys their rep. First the Black Cat, now Blackjack. It's nuts. Sure, there's always another prospective thief/assassin/whatever looking to make a name for themselves, but then you're hoping they're actually good, and not some schmuck. If it's an important job, you'd think these criminal masterminds would pay for the presumed quality that comes with proven past performance. Stealing some priceless heirloom, or killing an important business rival are not the sorts of things to trust to just anybody.

Besides, most of the best of these crooks-for-hire types have a professional code, so if they do screw up, they'll feel like they have to make it up to you, so you can send them out to finish the job, or to handle some other dangerous mission. Assuming they didn't fail because you tried double-crossing them, of course. That's the problem with the mastermind types, always trying to cut costs, always figuring people are easily replaceable cogs, then usually eating a bullet for their presumption. Which is why there's such a heavy turnover in criminal mastermind types, I suppose. At least as much as in the specialists they hire. If said specialists didn't spend so much time switching between hero and villain, and trying to kill each other, I'd suggest they unionize.

There'd be a lot of issues stemming from people joining the Avengers, and what do you do when some schmuck like Constrictor starts working full-time with Zemo, or Paladin busts Batroc trying to import dinosaurs from the Savage Land, both they're both in the union. That would get awkward. Also contentious. Possibly homicidal. Plus the people who wouldn't join. I saw Grosse Pointe Blank, I know how that ends.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 8

I finally saw The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension last week. Well, I saw part of it. I was flipping back and forth between it and Alien, which is why this is just a intro paragraph and not a review. But everybody in the corners of the Internet I travel talks about it, so it was nice to at least sort of understand what they're going on about. Very strange film, feels almost like something I would right in terms of throwing weird crap in there, only more so.

Rocket Raccoon #4, by Skottie Young (words and art), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color art), Jeff Eckleberry (lettering) - Rocket, you're going to get in trouble with Rachet and Clank if you keep swinging that oversized wrench around.

The evil raccoon buys off all those crooks, then blows up Groot, removing all of Rocket's backup. It turns out to actually be Blackjack O'Hare, out for revenge. Blackjack was supposed to kill that princess Rocket rescued (Amalya, who is leading the Legion of Angry Exes) in the first issue, and his single failure ruined his entire reputation as a mercenary. So he's framed Rocket for murder (except Rocket kills people all the time), and done all this just to mess with him. And now he's going to kill him. Except the Exes show up, and Blackjack gets shot by Amalya for failure to monologue to himself. Then Rocket has to defend himself against the horde of exes, which he does just before Star-Lord and the Guardians show up. On the ship, Rocket declares that this team is his family, but breaks down once he's by himself. Except there is another raccoon out there, an one-eyed lady one, who is after that book they mentioned last issue.

On my first read, I really enjoyed this. There's plenty of action, Rocket's still a smart-mouth, Young draws very well, the sound effects are funny ("Gut", for a kick in the stomach, "jack" for a punch in the jaw, "Nope" when Rocket catches a fist). I don't know if that's Young or Eckleberry, but either way, it's quality work. Rocket actually seems to avoid killing anyone, and he admits he treated all these ladies badly, and really doesn't want to hurt them. This struck me as being very good.

The more I think on it, the less sure I am of that. It would be one thing if Rocket were just a cad, a love 'em and leave 'em guy who can not or will not reciprocate the intense feelings he apparently sparks in these ladies. I wouldn't necessarily love Rocket as a philandering, Gambit style playboy, but I would generally agree he shouldn't be killed for it. Amalya and the others have the right to be hurt and angry, but killing him is a step too far.

Except that isn't all Rocket did. He convinced Amalya, for example, to let him borrow 2 million giffs, and then ran off. Which got her disowned by her family for shaming them. Rocket is a scam artist, one of those dudes who meets ladies so he can get their bank account numbers and steal all their savings. Which is not just shitty behavior, but actually criminal, so maybe I should be rooting for them to kill Rocket. I mean, he's fighting against overwhelming odds, and I'm sitting there thinking, "Maybe it would be better if he got torn to pieces." This is not really the reaction I want to be having to a Rocket Raccoon story, you know?

And I'm not sure why Young is playing games with Rocket's origin. What was wrong with his being the hero of Halfworld, who left to help keep Star-Thief locked up (or because the world was safe and he wanted to find further adventures?) Why all this muddle about, "maybe you're a robot, or a lab experiment"? Why do he and Blackjack know each other, if the Halfworld thing is possibly up in the air, but hate each other, when the last time I saw them, they were sort of pals? I don't know if this is playing off the movie version or the Bendis version, or just something Young came up with on his own, but it's really discordant with all the stuff I'm familiar with about the character, which is kind of distracting.

I feel like I'm back where I started with this comic: it's a good comic, but not a good Rocket Raccoon comic, but the potential is there.

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.

What I Bought 7/31/2014 - Part 3

Greetings to you again from the past. We're reviewing a first issue today. Maybe it's kind of, sort of relevant because the second issue will be coming out today as well.

Rocket Raccoon #1, by Skottie Young (words and art), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color art), Jeff Eckleberry (lettering) - Took me a little while to realize Rocket's standing on top of Groot.

3 years in the past, we see Rocket rescue Princess Amalya, who seems quite taken with him in turn. Back in the present, however, he's bringing a different young woman with him to watch Groot in a wrestling match. Rocket spends most of the time bragging about himself, but when they land on the Kiss Cam, we learn Rocket is wanted for multiple murders, which sets off an extended chase through a bunch of sewer pipes between him and a bunch of cops who looked like they stole their gear from the cops in The Fifth Element. Oh, and Groot lost the match. On the run, Rocket decides to turn himself in, which greatly annoys his date, who was meant to lure him into a trap devised by Princ - sorry, General Amalya, who is the leader of a confederation of Rocket's angry ex-girlfriends. I'm not sure yet whether the other raccoon is part of their plan, or a wild card, though I lean towards the latter.

This Rocket is going to take some getting used to. I assume he's similar to movie Rocket (though I haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet, not sure when I will), but it also seems consistent with his current portrayal in Marvel's cosmic titles. I glanced through a recent issue of Nova, and Rocket spends most of his time killing people for one reason or another, usually about money. I don't know if the sleazy ladies' man shtick is from Young or someone else, but I'm not sure about this. It's like Rocket's become a combination of Tommy Monaghan, and, and, Gambit. *Shudder*

The book seems like it'll be funny, and I do like Skottie Young's art work. I saw someone compare this book to Earthworm Jim, which a) makes me really want an Earthworm Jim sketch from Skottie Young, and b) seems accurate. But I'm not sure about a Rocket Raccoon who complains about being wanted for murder at the exact same time he's drowning a cop in a sewer pipe.  He's supposed to be a tactical genius! He can't devise plans that don't involve shooting people? So I don't know. I think if I continue with it, I'll just have to treat it like an Elseworlds or something, divorced from any earlier appearance of the character I actually enjoy. I mean, if the character weren't named Rocket Raccoon, and I didn't have any preconceived notions of how he should behave, I would like it a lot. But he is, and I do, so that's an obstruction.

Favorite Marvel Characters #7 - Rocket Raccoon

Character: Rocket Raccoon

Creators: Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo

First appearance: Marvel Preview #7

First encounter: Besides the Internet? Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord #1. That's where that panel comes from, courtesy of Keith Giffen and Tim Green II.

Definitive writer: In his original incarnation, Bill Mantlo, obviously. He's a little more Errol Flynn, swashbuckling hero in that form. In his more recent revival, he's more Bruce Willis, with the snappy one-liners and the sarcasm. So for that Rocket, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.

Definitive artist: For the earlier version, Mike Mignola. For the more recent years, Timothy Green II.

Favorite moment or story: Just on an amusement level, I like his 'That's how we do things in the Raccooniverse' line from Annihilation: Conquest #5. He even puffed away the smoke from his blasters when he said it. His attempt to save his big buddy Groot from the cyborg woodpeckers designed to kill him (the first Annihilators mini-series). That time the Guardians of the Galaxy were able to rescue Moondragon from a planet full of Church of Universal Truth dopes because Rocket figured out how to pilot the decapitated Celestial head that is Knowhere and use it to attack the Church (Guardians of the Galaxy #22, I think). His whole '80s mini-series where he's able to survive two different factions of evil toymakers trying to kill him (with mercenary rabbits and evil clown robots), and essentially free everyone on the planet from the roles they'd been confined to.

What I like about him: He fights and destroys murderous clowns for one thing. Seriously, look at these things. Anyone who exterminates them is OK in my book.

On the most basic level, he's a cute little furry critter that saves the day with a combination of tactical genius, heavy artillery, and sarcasm. He seems like he should be a joke character, the "funny talking animal", but he's not. The situations he's placed in may seem absurd from our perspective, but they're deadly serious and real to him. Kelvin Green had a good quote that sums it up in this article here: 'Just so we're clear, he's a flying raccoon with a level of military genius that both impresses and frightens a race of warmongering space Nazis, and who rides around on the back of a giant walking tree with his collection of big shiny rotary cannons and missile launchers. If you honestly can't see why that's pretty much the best thing ever, I don't know why you're even reading comics at all.'

I mentioned Abnett and Lanning write him a bit differently from Mantlo (I haven't read Bendis' stuff, so we'll be ignoring him, but I assume he writes Rocket the same as he writes all his characters, a lot of chatter that doesn't say anything). I think you could chalk the difference up to circumstances (unless you wanted to chalk it up to him having his memories tampered with to help keep Star-Thief imprisoned on Halfworld). On Halfworld, in the Mantlo/Mignola mini-series, Rocket is a big wheel. He's the law, for all intents and purposes, and the threats are on a similar scale to him. Robot clowns that throw explosive juggling balls, weird shadow bats (as you see to the left, thank you Mantlo and Mignola), evil turtles and moles bent on world domination. Dangerous, but on a somewhat lower level. It's a world built for him (or he's a hero built for that world, whichever you prefer).

Once he got off Halfworld and went exploring, he's the little fish in a big universe. Now there's all these alien galactic empires to deal with, full of superhumans, often run by genocidal lunatics (D'Ken, Vulcan, the Supreme Intelligence, the Badoon). There are Heralds of Galactus, Mad Titans, Abstract Concepts like Death and Time that assume physical form and walk among mortals, the Phalanx. It's a completely different scale of things, and suddenly, Rocket looks a little outclassed. It gets harder to survive, the rules are different, he gets a little meaner, a little sneakier, a little more caustic. He drinks some now. Exploring what lay beyond Halfworld and the Keystone Quadrant lost some of its shine once he met reality.

Maybe it's allowed that innate tactical sense to come to the forefront. The nifty weapons he had there - the blaster, the jet boots - aren't so special out in the galaxy. Lots of people have that stuff, or better. The odds are that much higher against him, he has to be that much more clever to survive. And he pulls it off. Star-Lord might lead the Guardians, but he's no tactical genius. Rocket is the one who comes up with the plans. He's the one who figures out how to destroy the Babel Spire Ultron was using to keep the Kree Empire walled off from the rest of the universe. Star-Lord was the one who thought trusting Thanos was a good idea, that he had it all under control. Rocket was the one who had the big weapons necessary to drop the Titan when he went berserk again and thrashed the rest of the team.

He's a little smartass underdog who always comes through. I love characters like that (see also, Spider-Man). It took him a little while to remember what he was good at (helping others), but once he did, he committed to it. He didn't let the duplicitous methods Star-Lord and Mantis used to put the team together wreck what they were doing. He gathered together the ones he could, those who didn't leave in a huff, and kept on with it. Still people out there who needed help. When a bunch of the team died in Thanos Imperative, yeah, he was at loose ends for a time. He'd formed some real bonds, probably the first since he left Halfworld, and many of them died, in circumstances beyond his control. The doubts about whether he could accomplish anything crept back in. I think he'd always had so much success saving the day on Halfworld, the times where he can't make it all turn out OK hit him hard.

Well, that's not unusual. Sometimes we do well at handling the smaller problems in our lives, but find bigger things come along we can't handle. It's frustrating, it can be humbling. It happens to me, where I get mad, or get down on myself because something's come up I either can't resolve as quickly as I'd like, or I can't handle it without dragging other people in, which always bugs me. But ultimately he pulled himself together, rescued his friend, and got back on track. You can't keep him down.

I think it's worth noting that even when Rocket loses his way, he's still doing productive stuff. When Star-Lord first met him, Rocket had been arrested by the Kree for going through some restricted zone (he claimed they failed to set up proper notification beacons which yeah, sounds like the sort of crap the Kree would pull as a way to harrass all the "inferior" species out there. You know Kree cops are big on racial profiling). But he must have been doing some sort of space trucker/smuggling work (which explains how he's friends with that space trucker U.S. 1/US Ace/whatever his name is. When the team fell apart after Thanos Imperative, he took a job as the mail room guy at a company. Not necessarily noble work, but at least he's doing something. When Star-Lord lost his drive after he had to sacrifice a colony to stop a rampaging former Herald of Galactus, he let himself be thrown in prison and sat in there engaged only in self-loathing and moping. That's not helpful to anyone.

Rocket at least tries to get on with his life, until he realizes helping people is his life. He's good at it. He's brave, loyal, resourceful, fearless, and he and Cosmo have a love/hate relationship, as is only natural between a raccoon who sometimes skirts the edges of legality, and a dog that's essentially a space cop. Maybe Rocket recognizes a little too much of who he was on Halfworld in Cosmo, and that's the problem. That final image there is drawn by Wes Craig, from Guardians of the Galaxy #23 or 24.