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| Front cover of Marvel's Rocket Raccoon TPB - Volume 1 A Chasing Tale |
Score: 2 out of 5 Capes
A sometimes fun, candy-coated trip through Rocket's more colourful personality traits that, like any guilty-pleasure candy, crosses the too-much-of-a-good-thing threshold.
My Review
Take every endearing element of Rocket Raccoon. His wisecracking humour. His love of exotic weapons and spaceships. His reckless abandon. His violent, tactical brilliance and strategic depth.
Take the most essential elements of his back-story. His uniqueness. His tragic origins.
Now crank the dial up to max on every one of them, simultaneously. Throw in some heavily stylized art and a colour palette so loud it hurts. What do you get?
That is the formula behind Skottie Young's short-lived monthly series focusing on Rocket and his sidekick Groot. As both writer and artist, Young has complete creative control of this series (well, within any restrictions the editors at Marvel Comics imposed). He takes full advantage of that freedom, delivering a vision of Rocket that exults in all of his best / worst behaviours.
The result is a blurringly fast-paced, gaudily rendered tale (or tail, as the pun is made more than once). Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen, because this is one wild ride.
The backbone of this book is Rocket's attempt to both clear his name and uncover what appears to be an evil twin's efforts to pin murders on him. A chaotic escape from ringside seats at Groot's wrestling match leads to a prison break from a maximum-security penitentiary, then to an interstellar battle with an armada of ex-girlfriends, a mafia deal and a final showdown with Blackjack O'Hare.
It's loud; it's angry; it's occasionally sweet and always violent. Like Rocket himself.
And that is just the first four chapters.
The fifth is the best of the collection. Groot tells the tale of a grand quest he joined Rocket on, a treasure hunt of epic proportions. Best of all, as the narrator, Groot's inimitable style of speech saturates the story. So much imagination, told in a way that the Groot gimmick remains fresh throughout, never tipping over into complete farce.
It is a balance that Young cannot manage to maintain through the rest of the tales / tails. As fun as it is sometimes, bathing in the crazy eccentricities of Rocket Raccoon, somewhere it crosses the threshold of too much of a good thing. When it does, when the reader reaches their saturation point of Rocket's trademark snarl and combat brilliance and cheeky sense of humour, when the unique and strongly stylized visuals reach their max, the book turns into more of a slog than a joy for the worn-out reader.
Young drives the plot relentlessly, whipping it in an onslaught of ever-accelerating tempo. Like the worst aspects of your social media feed, it turns into the comics equivalent of doomscrolling, an endless series of train wrecks in candy-wrapper colour schemes. Perhaps he sensed his time was limited and needed to get all his ideas out there. The finished product is weaker for it, unfortunately.
What I loved
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| A tale told by Groot sounds a lot like Groot |
A true pinnacle of Skottie Young's creative vision is the chapter narrated almost entirely by Groot. Of course, everyone only ever says "I am Groot". Everyone. In every panel. Because that's what it sounds like Groot is saying to us.
By stripping out the words - or rather, replacing them all with "I am Groot," Young forces his art to carry the entirety of the storytelling. Why is that such a rare thing in graphical stories like comics and graphic novels? Seems so natural - use the visuals to drive the plot!
The result here is over the top, hilarious and absolutely brilliant.
What I didn't love
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| About to enter Guppy Warp |
The zany silliness never lets up, never stops. Everything, every plot twist, every character element, is all wrapped in layers of carnival-coloured absurdity. Every aspect of Rocket's personality and back-story is amped up to max. The results can be hilariously funny. They also can and occasionally do become a never-ending assault on the eyes and senses. When this happens, the whole topples over into weary exhaustion.
Related Reviews
Captain Marvel (2014) volume 2 - Stay Fly
Guardians of the Galaxy: Guardians of Infinity
Guardians of the Galaxy volume 5 - Through the Looking Glass
Quick Reference Details
Writers: Skottie Young
Artists: Skottie Young (#1-5), Jake Parker (#5-6)
Published By: Marvel Comics
Published When: Nov 3, 2015
Parental Rating: Teen
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| Back cover of Marvel's Rocket Raccoon TPB - Volume 1 A Chasing Tale |
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