Groot got his start in a 1960 issue of Tales to Astonish. In that story, Groot could say much more than " I am Groot" and was a bad guy. It's classic Stan Lee and Dick Ayers sci-fi fun.
Rocket was first known as Rocky Raccoon. He first appeared in a trippy story in 1976 about a Prince who lives in a Heavy Metal type universe were medieval meets technology. I think whoever did this book was on some serious drugs. The story ended with a cliffhanger that asked readers to write in if they wanted to see more. Since there isn't a follow-up chapter, I'm assuming readers didn't.
But this wasn't the end of Rocket. He reappeared in an anniversary issue of Incredible Hulk. Here, the big green machine has been transported to the asylum planet of half-world. I had just read this story not 6 months ago, so I kinda just glanced over it. It's a good thing too since the Rocket Raccoon miniseries take place right after the events of the Hulk story. So, it was a good refresher.
The Rocket miniseries was insane in more ways than one. Rocket is the chief of security on the planet Halfworld in which insane patients received therapeutic treatment by anthropomorphized animals. On the other half of the world, robots build toys to help keep the patients happy and calm. I had this miniseries on my wish list but having read this now, I probably wouldn't seek it out for my collection unless I found it for less than a buck an issue. It does feature some early work from Mike 'Hellboy' Mignola and it's visually stunning but this story was really weird (and maybe just a little too weird for me.)
Annihilators was awesome. It was funny and full of action and contained great amounts of Easter Eggs. It takes place after the Peter Quill led Guardians of the Galaxy have disbanded. In that series, Rocket has no memory of life on Halfworld. This series attempts to rectify that retooling some of the events in the RR miniseries. I loved it and thought it was the best part of this collection.
The Annihilators sequel was very funny too. It featured the media mogul Mojo and was a great parody of cartoons and action figures. The only problem with it was that it was a secondary feature and was way too short a tale.
Why Rocket and Groot have never been given their own monthly series is beyond me. They're a fantastic duo that work well together. They have crazy adventures and more importantly- they make me laugh. With Guardians being the darlings of the Marvel Universe, they probably won't get a series anytime soon. But hopefully EIC Axel Alonso will green light another miniseries soon.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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