Rocket Raccoon blasts out the gate; Star-Lord stumbles before finding his footing

With the Guardians of the Galaxy movie debuting in less than a month, Marvel Comics is kicking things into high gear with two solo series based on the Guardians' most popular characters, Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon, both of which are pretty entertaining. So lets delve a little deeper into both these books and see what makes them tick.


Rocket Raccoon #1
Written and drawn by Skottie Young

Young wastes no time setting the tone for this series: a book that's quirky, amusing, and lots of fun. Starting things off with a high energy prison break, transitioning to a wrestling date gone awry, and then moving on to a run in with the law is a great way to establish that the Guardians, with Rocket in particular, are the scoundrels the movie's advertising campaign makes them out to be. While the Guardians do make an appearance, it's a brief cameo showing that Rocket is part of the team but it's still his book, although Groot has an extended appearance that is hilarious, and I'm sure will result in some pretty cool moments as the series goes on.

Rocket himself is presented as a not-so-debonair ladies man, which comes back to bite him on the tush with a twist ending that's unexpected and contains just the right amount of absurdity to make this book an absolute joy to read. 

The art is also fantastic, giving it a cartoonish feel thanks to Skottie Young's amazing pencil work. Since he also wrote the book, the art couples with the story even more so than usual because he's able to channel exactly what he wants the reader to see. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more.

The Legendary Star-Lord #1

Written by Sam Humphries

Art by Paco Medina

This review will probably sound a lot more negative than I want it to. I did enjoy this book, I just have some problems with it that I can't gloss over.

As the first issue in a new series, it does a good job of introducing us to Star-Lord: hinting at a troubled past, displaying his swagger and swashbuckling, almost Han Solo-like nature, and setting him up as a scoundrel with a heart of gold. 

The problem is this issue finds itself depending too much on what's happened in other stories. His relationship with Kitty (Pryde), while not quite well-defined in other books, is added without context. I find it interesting that it would work much better if Kitty wasn't already a well-defined and established character in the X-Men universe. 

There's also the issue of the twist ending that doesn't really work well without the context of the proper Guardians of the Galaxy series. It's an interesting development, but only something I care about because I happen to know why it's interesting. I find it hard to believe that someone who picked up this title because of their interest in the upcoming movie would really care about the happenings of the final page.

On the art side of things, I think Paco Medina does a solid job, but I do have some issues with the coloring. Human/humanoid characters just seem to be too glossy, but overall I really dig the artwork. And I'd do anything to see more of this.

The Verdict

Overall, both comics are worth the purchase, but if you had to choose only one, Rocket Raccoon is by far the better of the two. It's a true stand-alone title that doesn't require previous knowledge to enjoy what's going on.

Oh, and just in case you've missed it, here's the second Guardians of the Galaxy trailer, just because it's totally rad.