Writer/Artist: Skottie Young
Rocket Raccoon #3 literally picks up from the “same place, last issue”. Rocket, Groot and Macho Gomez are in space and being attacked by the Ex-Terminators, a group of Rocket’s ex-girlfriends. A crazy space battle ensues with the trio only able to escape through the use of a “guppy warp”. They are spit out on a desert planet as a mysterious stranger watches. After recovering from the rough landing, Macho leads the pair of Guardians to his boss Funtzel’s towing company. Rocket has hopes that Funtzel’s connections to the underworld will be able to gather some intel on just who is out there murdering people in his name. After a dust up with several other towing company employees, they finally make it to Funtzel’s place. Funtzel questions Rocket’s heroic reputation as a member off the Guardians of the Galaxy, which Rocket takes in stride as he’s just broken out of prison and is wanted for murder. The two go off to speak in private. At first, Funtzel has no answers to give, but when Rocket calls him out for being weak, the owner of the towing company reveals that he’s already looked into whoever is killing in Rocket’s name. His connections were only able to come up with some vague information that surprises Rocket. Funtzel brushes it off as fairy tales when the lights go out. When they come back on, Rocket is confronted by his evil double.
This issue of Rocket Raccoon drawn out to me. The battle with the armada of exes at the beginning of the book was inevitable and it was kind of fun seeing all the fish based technology that Macho Gomez had. Humor and inventiveness aside, the scene didn’t really accomplish anything. Rocket briefly sees the leader of the angry exes, Amalya, but he’s still unaware that the entire armada is comprised of ex girlfriends. After the arrive at the desert planet where Funtzel’s base is, the characters walk through the desert and then get into another fight with a gang of henchmen that just seems to be filler. The most interesting part of the whole issue is the info that Rocket picks up from Funtzel near the end. It’s also nice to see that Rocket has finally caught up to the person framing him. Hopefully next issue will give us some good revelations.
While Skottie Young’s story may be a bit lacking substance this issue, his art is just as great as ever. There’s a manic energy to every aspect of this book, from beginning to end. The level of detail is also tremendous on everything from all the alien life forms (including Rocket and Groot) to fish guns to a variety of space ships. Every planet that Rocket and company visit has a unique landscape and overall visual quality. There are even fun sound effects like NAILED IT when a missile hits its intended target. There’s a lot of attention to minutia that you might expect from “cartoony” art like this, but Young really goes the extra mile. Helping make his art really pop are the vibrant colors of Jean-Francois Beaulieu. He lends a vibrancy to the book that just makes it look that much better. And even when the colors aren’t on the brighter end of the spectrum, such as the scene with the lights out toward the end of the issue, they are still spot on.
While this issue felt mostly like filler, it was still fun and worth checking out just for Skottie Young’s art. I just hope that next issue starts to actually move the story along some more.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
love skottie young!