Hello and welcome to Comic Drake where I talk about comic books and my name is Drake!
Forget about the spaceman, green people, or talking tree because when most people saw
the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, they were mostly confused about the talking raccoon
with a gun, but did you know that Rocket is actually a long running character in the Marvel
comics with a super weird backstory?
The concept of Rocket Raccoon was first introduced in Marvel Preview #7 all the way back in 1976.
I say concept because this story takes place in an alternate future, ten thousand years
after the mainstream Marvel continuity.
This original version of Rocket is a lot more…
British than the fuzzy critter that we know today and that’s probably because he was
named after the Beatles song “Rocky Raccoon”.
Six years later, Rocky made his official debut into the main Marvel comics when the Hulk
crash landed on Rocket’s home planet, Halfworld, a planet of mental patients and sentient robots.
Rocket is one of the many animals modified to entertain and manage the loonies.
Rocket serves as Halfworld’s chief of security, working alongside Wal-Rus.
Yes, another Beatles reference.
After Hulk’s visit, Rocket got a four issue mini series where he fights killer clowns
and has to rescue his otter girlfriend, Lylla, who is apparently the heiress of a large toy
company that is the driving force of Halfworld’s economic system.
Because everybody wants to marry Lylla for money, she’s constantly being kidnapped
back and forth.
Rocket saves the day thanks to the help of a book that somehow made a diving helmet that
cures insanity and also gives ultimate clarity.
All of the mental patients were cured, Rocket leaves to explore the galaxy in a giant golden
space robot, aaaand all of this was heavily retconned because comics.
Rocket’s new history has this explanation where Rocket created a sort of living lock
on Halfworld to be used against one of its most dangerous inmates, setting it up to where
every animal employee needed to be present in order to open the inner levels of the asylum.
Rocket essentially threw away the key by leaving Halfworld and having his own memories wiped
so it would stay locked.
When traveling the galaxy, Rocket popped up from time to time in all of these Marvel comics
either in small roles or brief cameos.
It’s also during this bit of time that Rocket apparently lost his tail in a card game and
is now wearing a parasite in its place.
I guarantee that writers are going to forget that tidbit, but I still think it’s funny.
At some point, Rocket was thrown into jail and was later joined by the talking tree person,
Groot.
The two did not get along at first I mean, Rocket couldn’t even understand Groot’s
language of him just repeating “I am Groot” over and over again, but during a fight with
some guards, Rocket actually learned that he could suddenly understand Groot and the
two became inseparable.
At some point, they managed to break out of jail and then pretty much instantly landed
in a Kree prison.
Pause.
I’d like to mention that all of this backstory with Groot wasn’t revealed until way after
this initial point in Rocket’s history and in fact it’s this storyline that really
cemented Rocket and Groot as the tag team duo that we know today, but I’d also like
to point out that this particular moment is when Rocket stopped being relegated to random
appearances and cameos and where he evolved into lovable furball of the Guardians of the
Galaxy.
Thought that was interesting.
It was a nice tidbit, unpause.
Rocket was pulled out of prison by Peter Quill A.K.A.
Star-Lord to be part of a Kree special ops unit taking on an invading techno-organic
race called the Phalanx.
This group was essentially technology free and as such, they were essentially invisible
to the Phalanx.
This squad was absolutely essential in defeating the invasion and most of them went onto Star-Lord’s
new venture, a group dedicated to taking on galactic scale threats.
Inspired by a name dropped by the time traveling warrior, Vance Astro, Rocket suggested that
the group be dubbed the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Rocket is hands down the most consistent member of the team, acting as chief strategist, pilot,
heavy weapons expert, and even filling in as leader from time to time when Star-Lord
is away.
In fact, it was revealed later on that Star-Lord had his fellow Guardian, Mantis, psychically
manipulate everyone into joining up in the first place, but Rocket was one of the few
team members to stick around after this bombshell was dropped and he even recruited a new member,
Bug, one of the old teammates from the Phalanx invasion squad.
The Guardians officially disbanded after Star-Lord seemingly died when taking on the Mad Titan,
Thanos, and in the downtime, Rocket got a job in the mailroom of Timely Inc, a space
corporation.
After some shenanigans involving killer clowns… again and rescuing Groot from being tortured,
Rocket made his way back to Halfworld where he regained his memories of leaving the planet
to keep the inmate that we mentioned earlier at the beginning of the video locked up.
This too was later retconned and Rocket again has no idea about his past.
Rocket and Groot adventured together for a bit including the time they were on space
reality TV led by a robot doppelganger of the villainous Mojo and they helped reform
the Guardians of the Galaxy when Star-Lord came back from his supposed death.
Back with the Guardians, Rocket went back to his jack of all trades role, somewhat in
the background as the stories mainly focused on Star-Lord.
However, there was this one time when his fellow Guardian, Agent Venom’s, symbiote
got loose and for a little bit and for a little while, Rocket was Venom.
That’s pretty cool.
From time to time however, Rocket got up to his own adventures like when fellow Halfworlder,
Blackjack O’Hare framed him for murder and there was the time that Rocket was being hunted
by his ex-girlfriends.
Oh and who could forget the time where he obtained the complete history of Halfworld
which he used to regain his memories of his time there…
again.
Now sometime after the Guardians got back together, Star-Lord ended up becoming the
president of the planet Spartax and started neglecting his friends so the Guardians kicked
him out and Quill’s fiancee, Kitty Pryde took over as Star-Lord.
Despite this, Rocket acted as the team’s self-proclaimed leader until Peter came back
full time to lead the group.
Then, the Guardians came to Earth to help out in the second superhuman civil war where
their ship was destroyed and the team disbanded…
again.
So these days, Rocket is stranded on Earth, eating garbage, trying to get off the planet,
fights Kraven the Hunter, and blows up the Statue of Liberty.
That essentially brings you up to speed.
Yeah, Rocket’s history was WAY complicated and sometimes very stupid, but I think it’s
very interesting that this obscure part of the Marvel universe has evolved into not only
a big part of the mainstream Marvel Comics universe, but also the Marvel cinematic universe
which let’s be honest, people care about a lot more than the comics.
I mean that’s probably why you’re watching this video in the first place, but if you
like this video then why not consider giving this a like, a comment, or even consider subscribing
and if you want to go the extra mile, you can always consider taking a look at my Patreon.
You’re able to support the show directly and you can get some awesome perks in the
process.
You can see some of the names of our amazing patrons down there in the comments below,
but before I go, I want to give a huge shoutout to Bonnie Davies, Ashley Donson, Edgar Avalos,
and Tim Wyllis for being amazing Patreon supporters, but if you like this video then why not consider
watching another one?
Like maybe out entire playlist on the Guardians of the Galaxy?
I mean if you’re watching this then you’re probably going to like those.
It’s just science.