They said it couldn’t be done. The jokes that were made at Marvel's expense when he was announced as a main cast member were many. A walking , talking raccoon with a pet tree and a gun fetish? This, at a time when super hero movies were seemingly getting more serious with the rise of DC’s more grim Superman interpretation? Well guess what. It worked and now Rocket Raccoon, and certainly Groot, were thrust into the public consciousness. But what exactly do you know about the history of our favorite semi-heroic trash panda? Well, I’m going to go into what exactly makes this furry Guardian tick.
(Oh My God, this is the most adorable thing I have ever seen!)
Rocket Raccoon, voiced by Bradley Cooper, is introduced as a fuzzy intergalactic bounty hunter with attitude issues, a sentient tree for a partner he uses as muscle, and little backstory. All we know is that he was experimented on by an alien race and given sentience through cyborg implants. Throughout his journey between two movies and a massive crossover event, he has to learn not only how to make friends and trust others, but to allow himself to let others trust him as well. Also, he likes to make things go boom. Oh, and he has issues winking.
Soooo, Rocket has gone through….some changes. His first appearance in Marvel Preview #7 belied what would happen to his character later. Here he was portrayed oddly as a sentient raccoon named Rocky who spoke with a very “proper” British accent.
Before we go any further, I would like to pay homage to Rocket’s creators. Writer Bill Mantlo and artist Keith Giffen. Bill Mantlo, also the creator of Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger which is currently in its first season, unfortunately met with tragedy years ago. While rollerblading, Mr. Mantlo was hit by a car, suffering permanent brain damage.
Losing much of his cognitive functions, Mr. Mantlo was sentenced to life in a nursing home with numerous medical bills piling up until Guardians was announced. Finally, after being prodded by the general public, Marvel paid attention to the ailing creator and negotiated a generous compensation package which also allowed him to see early viewings of both Guardians movies. With this money Bill's brother was allowed to finally take the writer home to care for him.
Rocket’s next appearance had to wait for 6 years when he popped out of nowhere in the Incredible Hulk. And yes, his name was based off the Beatles song Rocky Racoon.
(Looks...a bit better?)
Springboarding from there, our favorite sarcastic mammal got his own 4 issue mini series detailing his adventures. Yet, after that our favorite furry “rabbit” was reduced to just cameos for the first 30 years of his existence, showing up only 10 times. That was until a twist of fate happened and in 2007 Rocket joined the fight in a Marvel crossover event named Annihilation: Conquest. This included a bunch of Marvel’s cosmic level heroes and villains which soon spun off into a new Guardians of the Galaxy series featuring a cast closely resembling the one from the movies.
So Comics Corner, I hear you ask, that’s all well and good but what’s the real history in universe story of the furry gun nut? Well, there are few things that are pinned down but our favorite Raccoon has gone through loads of retcons. That doesn’t even mention the fact, that to be honest, his history is absurd even for comic logic. Let’s try to break this down, shall we?
Rocket hails from a planet called Halfworld, in the Keystone Quadrant of the main Marvel universe. He and his kind were created to be the animal companions and caretakers of the planet’s population, who just so happened to be mentally ill aliens. Yes, essentially Rocket was created as a warden for an intergalactic insane asylum because apparently Earth’s animals are just too cute and cuddly for words.
And yes, there are more of his kind. His best friend at the time was a character named, I can’t make this up, Wal-Rus.
(I just CAN’T make this up.)
There were others of course. Rocket had an otter girlfriend named Lylla, who was an easter egg in the Guardian’s movie if you watched carefully. He also had his own group of baddies led by the villainous Blackjack O’Hare and his evil Black Bunny Brigade. They all exist, I swear!
But everyone here wants to know how the lovable scamp, or homicidal rage raccoon, met his best friend in the universe, Groot. Well, it depends. There’s a couple of different histories on that but I prefer the most recent origin for those two besties.This story first appears in Groot #2, from a mini-series where Groot is searching for his best buddy and in this issue falls into a flashback regaling us with their first meeting, which of course, takes place in prison.
They don’t start off as friends, considering Groot’s lack of language skills and Rocket...being well, Rocket. Still, the prison guards are jerks to the big huggable tree and our favorite space mammal just can’t sit idly by as his new plant based roomie is mercilessly attacked so the two join forces. And finally, after a while, Rocket just starts understanding what the big tree man’s saying, allowing them to escape custody and eventually go on to join the Guardians.
(I wouldn’t usually post another pic so soon but this is the most adorable portrayal of Rocket in any official comic. I can’t help it!)
And so, we shall end it on Rocket and the Guardians, continuing their crusades by doing good, doing bad, and maybe doing a bit of both. Thanks for reading the comic origins of one of my favorite characters of all time. And stay tuned for next issue, where I channel my inner Rocket and take aim at one of comics most insidious evils… The Comics Code Authority. Excelsior!
Sources:
https://www.cbr.com/rocket-raccoon-creator-bill-mantlo-marvel-compensation/
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/guardians-galaxy-how-rocket-raccoon-rescued-my-brother-bill-mantlo-999096
