Don’t have time for long reviews of comics? Then check out Graphic Bits: bite sized chunks of comic book goodness designed to get behind the panels and into your hearts.
With the pending release of the Guardians of the Galaxy film, Marvel are making sure we are all aware of that fact. This week (2 July 2014) not one but two all-new ongoing series launched. You know what? They are both pretty damn good – but for very different reasons.
Rocket Raccoon #1
Marvel, Skottie Young (writer/artist), Jean-François Beaulieu (colours)
Rating: 9.5/10
The character of Rocket Raccoon literally began as a joke, with creators Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen playing on the Beatles song. Indeed, he was originally named “Rocky Raccoon” in his first appearance in Marvel Preview #7 (Summer 1976), and it would be decades before the character was elevated beyond this one-note gag to be a Guardian of the galaxy. So it’s highly appropriate that his first ongoing series is done firmly with tongue in cheek, and with fan favourite artist Skottie Young also debuting as a writer on his first monthly title.
Those familiar with his Wizard of Oz chronicles, or infinite number of ‘baby’ variant covers for Marvel, will already know what to expect from the art. Yet liberated from simply re-crafting existing characters, Young is an artist renewed, evidenced by an early double splash page in which Rocket takes his unimpressed date to a wrestling match teeming with alien lifeforms (and, of course, Groot). That’s right, Rocket’s on a date. Which might be the biggest surprise of this book: Young has crafted Rocket as some kind of intergalactic Casanova with dozens of ladies left laying in his wake. Putting any thought of bestiality to one side for a moment, if that’s even possible (you know you’re picturing it now), it’s a refreshing angle on what could have easily been 22 pages of Rocket shooting things and yelling catchphrases.
The innuendo flies thick and fast, as Rocket escapes a murder rap which might be attributable to a nefarious doppelgänger. The hint that there was another creature just like Rocket was dropped in the main Guardians of the Galaxy book, so even in its silliness, it’s a canonical solo adventure that is sure to make some ties with his friends in the Guardians. The latter make a cameo, of course, and the dialogue is reminiscent of the best work of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning during their 2008-2010 run on the team title. Yet in many ways, this is a direct successor to the Annihilators back-up stories, in which Rocket fled his life as an office worker to discover the truth about his origin on Halfworld.
Bottom Line: Rocket Raccoon #1 is a terrific addition to the Marvel Cosmic Universe, reminding us that humour and galactic shenanigans go together like Rocket and Groot. Skottie Young delivers a Saturday morning cartoon in the form of a comic book, and brings a much neglected sense of fun back from wherever mainstream comics have been hiding it for the last few years.
Legendary Star-Lord #1
Marvel, Sam Humphries (writer), Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco, David Curiel (artist)
Rating: 8/10
Brian Michael Bendis might have retrofitted Peter Quill aka the Legendary Star-Lord for the purposes of his Guardians of the Galaxy run, but Sam Humphries might just go on to define him for the All-New Marvel NOW! As the cover proudly proclaims, this is leaping straight “From the Pages of Guardians of the Galaxy“, which might be a clever marketing ploy in the lead-up to the film, but is also to firmly establish this book as a distinct yet connected entity. After a brief prelude showing Peter attending his mother’s funeral as a child, the closest direct link to Bendis’ revised origins, Humphries wastes no time in throwing us in at the deep end with Star-Lord at the business end of several Badoon weapons. After that, he doesn’t let up for a second, just as it should be in the world of the galaxy’s most downtrodden action hero.
Humphries’ Star-Lord is the kind of likeable rogue that comes straight out of 1980s adventure movies, and in turn 1940s serialised matinees. He’s a flawed hero with a chequered past. A montage of “really important things” that Quill has been up to includes everything from alien threesomes to karaoke with Rocket and Groot. It’s a nice summary of the eclectic personality that Quill is, and why he has been so hard to define conclusively by the numerous creative teams that have tackled him over the years. Hitting on a holographic Kitty Pryde, she quips back “I just have bad luck with Peters”, but he’s shortly out of luck and out in space in true scallywag fashion. Like all rogues, he’s got a heard of gold, and Quill”s ultimate solution helps out an orphanage, puts himself out of pocket and back to square one. It would be a perfect one-shot were it not for the fairly tired cliffhanger, a deus ex machina that promises to reveal more about Quill’s extended family.
Medina’s art is lively and slick, managing to capture the laconic nature of Quill’s personality in the way he holds himself or casts a sideways glance. It may not be as stylised as Skottie Young’s approach to Rocket Raccoon, but it is certainly more consistent with the style that Marvel are rolling with for the big cosmic franchises. Backgrounds are fairly Spartan, although this does make way for a particularly cool hero shot of the Star-Lord in space.
Bottom Line: As good as the set-up is, with a cracking set of action sequences and witty one-liners, a big question mark hangs over whether this can continue to distinguish itself as a necessary separate entity from Star-Lord’s already ripping team book. That said, if every issue is fast-paced as this one, we’ll barely have time to draw breath to ask that question.
Agree or disagree? Got a comment? Start a conversation below, or take it with you on Behind the Panel’s Facebook and Twitter!
If you are an iTunes user, subscribe to our weekly podcast free here and please leave us feedback. That’s how we get more attention! Go do it now. We’ll be waiting right here.
