Rocket Raccoon #3 Review (Skottie Young)

If you look at the bare bones of this comic, it’s actually a fairly mundane story: Rocket and Groot hitch a ride to meet a mob boss who might know something about Rocket’s imposter. Seems straightforward, no? And it is. And I think that’s why I was actually quite bored with this issue. 

Skottie Young writes Rocket and Groot really well but the myriad other characters in the comic aren’t interesting in the least. Macho, the Mojo-lookin’ dude who they broke out of jail with, is just some space Latino-esque bad boy - that’s it. The jilted exes of Rocket? Angry women - that’s it. The alien mob boss? He’s like the stereotypical mafia boss sitting in the restaurant front eating the space equivalent of spaghetti and meatballs. 

The weird juxtaposition of that is the artwork which is incredibly original. Macho’s character design is interesting, his seafood space cadillac is awesome, the space battle with Rocket and the exes is eye-popping, and the entire comic as a whole looks utterly tremendous. 

Rocket and co. take a portal fish from space into a desert planet and the whole double-page sequence is silent but looks fantastic. A shot of the alien world, then the alien nomad looking up, the portal fish appearing in the sky spewing out the seafood cadillac, a shot of the nomad again and its totally deadpan reaction, then the portal fish looking at the reader, crumpling, as if to say “phewf, I’m beat!”. It’s such a brilliant couple pages of art. 

But the story itself? Eh, I’m not feeling it. Maybe it’ll get going again but it feels like Young’s already run out of steam - he can make stuff look original but he can’t make it sound original. 

And Marvel - wow, holy fucking god, is the comic getting in the way of your advertising? That’s the downside of Rocket Raccoon #1 being the massive seller it was - the subsequent issues will be crammed with ads and fold-outs for forthcoming Marvel comics. Tons of stuff about Axis, an event comic I have no interest in, cartoon shows, and plenty of Marvel merch for parents and kiddies alike. Yeesh. It feels like a heavy comic but that’s because of all the crap shoved in there. But Marvel’s gotta make their money, right? Right. 

I’m still blown away with the art but by this third issue, the story’s all but ground to a halt - at least that’s how it seems to me. Maybe it’ll pick up in the next ish? I’m hoping it will anyway. Rocket Raccoon #3: wonderful Skottie Young art, so-so Skottie Young writing.

Rocket Raccoon #3