Review: Rocket & Groot #1

COVER BY: Mike Mignola (R&G Variant)

WRITER: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

ART: Timothy Green II

COLORED BY: Nathan Fairbairn

LETTERED BY: VC’s Clayton Cowles

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

RELEASE DATE: March 2, 2011

 

I have had days like this. Everyone who has ever worked in the 9-to-5 world of office cubicles has. The only difference about the office shenanigans that begin Rocket & Groot, a wonderfully insane back-up farce for the great Annihilators tale, is that Rocky’s miscues are kinda mild compared to some I have seen around an office.

We all know Rocket Raccoon, the bad-ass space adventurer, weapons tactician and buddy of Peter Quill from our beloved Guardians of the Galaxy, but all of us – even before Marvel’s untimely cancellation (let’s call a duck a duck) of the spectacular book – have yearned to see scribes Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning cut loose with a rip-roarin’ Rocky free-for-all that was pure humor, yes?

We do not have that here: there are some serious moments, some heart-rending moments in this back-up that will tear at the heartstrings of GotG fans like myself. But there are other moments that are just plain humorous, with Rocky at his frustrated best and no Mentorto shred. Like most of us, he just has a boss and a thousand-and-one other folks to please.

I knew our hero Rocky would not be long for the suit-and-tie world of Timely. (Great in-joke by DnA using the name of Marvel’s older incarnation as Rocky’s work place, eh?) Like Howard the Duck several decades ago, Rocky cannot figure out – as Steve Gerber brilliantly titled his piece after Star Waugh! —  “what do you do, where do you go the day after you save the universe?” Rocky’s answer is less maudlin than Howie’s, but by the looks of his apartment, well …

There is a great script here, and – as soon as you get used to it – some great Timothy Green art. Every panel moves fluidly, even as you bask in the appearances of all these aliens together working in one customer-based company. The surprise mail foe is great, and the clue from that foe that leads to this tale’s climax is – seriously, if you can say that in this instance – a real stunner.

Before this tale ends, I think we will discover more about Rocket Raccoon and Groot than we could have imagined, and had some laughs and some tears along the way.

Thanks, DnA, for continuing to make my cosmic comics fun!

» Review for The Annihilators #1