Rocket Raccoon #1

Writer – Skottie Young
Artist – Skottie Young
Colours – Jean-Francois Beaulieu

If you read the Free Comic Book Day issue of Rocket Raccoon, it bears a slightly similar premise with Rocket rescuing a princess from imprisonment.  After that, Skottie Young, the book’s writer and artist takes it in a slightly different direction, though not too far, and has a doppelganger, or it could be another member of his race which remains to be seen, that is causing him a good amount of trouble.  We see Rocket attending a wrestling match with Groot as one of the competitors and then all sorts of hijinks ensue during and afterwards as well.  It also looks like Rocket is a wanted man, so to speak, with said lookalike the cause behind it.  Young also sets up the series’ evil villain, or villains, and after seeing Rocket in action this issue you realize they are not so evil perhaps as spurned.  It is good to see Young on a new book after seeing his work in the Oz line for the past number of years, his variant covers for various Marvel books and his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Fortunately the Milk.  The man’s creativity knows no bounds when drawing all sorts of weird and fantastical creatures and though the book might be geared towards a slightly younger audience, it is fun for all ages.  And while the story is not highly original, it is written well and it looks as if Young has a direction in mind that bears hanging in for the long run if they end up being as entertaining as this one.  With Star-Lord and Guardians of the Galaxy on the stands, Marvel’s space-faring line of titles look to be in a prime position for the release of the Guardians of the Galaxy motion picture this summer and it can only help by adding Rocket Raccoon and Skottie Young to the mix.

4 out of 5

Doctor Spektor: Master of the Occult #2

Writer – Mark Waid
Artist – Neil Edwards
Colours – Jordan Boyd

Looks like Abby is having a hard time serving as Dr. Spektor’s assistant.  She gets flustered easy, does not understand half the stuff he asks of her and is having a little trouble understanding him as well.  Lenny’s ghost is still hanging around to help her out though thankfully.  When Abby finally makes her way back to Adam’s apartment, it turns out that it is not his apartment and she starts to freak out.  Strange things are happening to Adam Spektor as well, seeing dead people as ghosts, seeing dead people that are alive and he realizes that something is definitely going on.  Heading to his lab to try and get to the bottom of it, the scientists do indeed find something and that something is Magnus: Robot Hunter!  This was a good issue by Waid and Edwards that at times was a little bit too much with the time jumps, but delivered despite of them.  It was not as fun as the first issue, but it was interesting to see just as much time devoted to one of the main supporting characters, mainly Abby, as it was to Doctor Spektor himself.  Also of interest was seeing Waid play up the playboy side of Adam with him in his board meeting as well as heading off to his fully staffed research lab.  To top it all off we get an appearance by another Gold Key member in Magnus which is cool, but maybe a bit too early in the series for a guest star.  It obviously remains to be seen how it all plays out, and Neil Edwards, Mark Waid and Dynamite make it intriguing enough to come back and find out.

3.5 out of 5