The looming juggernaut that is the Guardians of the Galaxy movie finally hits comic book shelves in a big way: Marvel have been publishing a relaunched Guardians comic for more than a year now, but this week's they've added new ongoing monthlies based around Peter Quill, aka Starlord, and Rocket Raccoon. I haven't sampled Legendary Starlord - I can't buy everything - but I did pick up a copy of Skottie Young's Rocket Raccoon to give it a look. After all, he's an intergalactic raccoon who shoots people with laser guns: what's not to love?Skottie Young has established a very successful career doing immensely cute alternative covers for Marvel's books, and prior to that he was illustrating a long run of L. Frank Baum Oz adaptations. It's nice to see him tackle something within the Marvel Universe proper, and Rocket Raccoon is a pretty perfect fit for his style. This is a straight-up comedy comic book, with alien wrestling matches, chase scenes, shoot-outs and zippy one-liners.
Now I've personally come away from the book slightly underwhelmed. It feels a little too self-aware and a little too scrappy and loose, when this sort of thing needs to be tight as can be in order to properly work. I suspect a lot of people will absolutely love it though, and if it looks like your kind of thing there's a good chance that it probably will be. (3/5)
Marvel. Story and art by Skottie Young.
Under the cut: reviews of Action Comics, Aquaman and the Others, Batman Eternal, Black Widow, Enormous, Justice League 3000, Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: New Animated Adventures and The Woods.
