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| ROCKET RACOON No. 1, September 2014 |
I’m something of a long-time fan of the Guardians of the
Galaxy, having first encountered them back during the late Seventies when they
teamed-up with the Mighty Avengers. Of course that was when I was reading the
old British monthly black and white reprint magazine “Marvel Superheroes” and
the Guardians consisted of the likes of Vance Astro, Captain Charlie-27, Yonda
Udonta, Martinex T’Naga and Starhawk. These days the roster for the spacefaring
superhero team, reimagined a few years ago by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, are
somewhat different… very different in point of fact.
Rocket Racoon and Groot
appear to be the most popular of the new Guardians, and both feature prominently
in this first issue of “Rocket Racoon”, despite the comic book only being
titled after the medium-sized mammal. First impressions are really good if you
like the cartoony zany artwork of Skottie Young, and I do. The American comic
book artist’s pencils are absolutely perfect for the animated capers of the captain
of the starship Rack ’n’ Ruin and the insane gun battles the furry fellow gets
involved in.
Equally as compelling is the beautiful ‘color art’ of Jean-Francois
Beaulieu, whose red-purple hues used for the wrestling match contrast
wonderfully with the green-blue colour scheme used as Rocket escapes down “a
pipe full of #$@%.” The sheer amount of sound effects used in this book are
both staggering and worthy of note too, as panels are packed to the point of
bursting with “Bigidy! Blam!”, “Thud”, “Chud”, “Ting” and “Splosh”. There’s
even the odd “Smooch”, “Fragaboom” and “Pinky Out Click”!?!
Skottie Young’s
plot is also a good bouncing romp to begin a comic series with, and manages to
include all the other Guardians in some way shape or form, whether it be
avoiding “death by evil spaceships” or ‘zigapping’ a giant alien monster. The
writer even seems to throw a nod to the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation days
of Mike Carlin’s time writing “The Thing” in the early Eighties, by having Groot grapple in the
Bonavaglia Arena.
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