(repetitive notes playing)
- Now somewhere in the vast expanses of YouTube,
there was a show called
♫ Alter Ego, and one day,
♫ It's writer decided to give cover lyrics a try
♫ Turns out, it's kinda dry ♫
DK didn't like that.
He said, "I'm gonna talk like a normal person now."
Yeah, we're no Paul McCartney, but in the style
of the Beatles, Rocky Raccoon, we're here to tell a story.
One in which a lowly trash panda becomes a bonafide hero
through a tribute to one of the most influential bands
of all time.
Hello, I'm DK and this is Alter Ego, the show that strives
to take a deeper look at some of our favorite names
in comics.
The year was 1976, and Marvel writers Bill Mantlo
and Keith Giffen were as entrenched in writing
Prince Wayfinder as they were in the music of the Beatles.
They especially love the story told in the band's
folk ballad Rocky Raccoon.
So, logically, when Wayfinder's journey took him
to Witch World, also known as Hailailae,
Hi-lay-lie? Hi-lie-lie.
Hi, Hi, Hi-lie-lay?
Hilailae, it's definitely Hilailae.
Anyway, they capitalized on this perfect opportunity
to bring their own version to life,
a bit more literally, though.
You see, where the Rocky in the Beatles' song was simply
a young boy whose love ran off with another man,
the Rocky in the Marvel comics was an actual raccoon,
living on planet Halfworld, made sentient
by robot assistants who were themselves left behind
by alien scientists.
Hopefully you followed that.
Just a tad different, but hey, their personalities
are pretty similar.
Rough and tumble cowboys, confident they can take on
whatever comes their way.
Phew- phew!
So, Wayfinder crosses paths with Rocky
in Marvel preview number seven.
And together, they defeat a monstrous plegasaur,
only to be confronted by a powerful sorceress
who forces them to surrender.
And that was it for our guy, for six years,
because like another one off character, we spoke about
recently, Rocky Raccoon had a fairly disposable purpose
in the beginning.
It wasn't until 1982 that Mantlo championed Rocky's return
and renamed him to Rocket to mark the occasion.
The issue was The Incredible Hulk number 271, titled,
"Now somwehere in the black holes of Sirius Major
"there live a young boy named Rocket Raccoon."
Which is a direct quote from the opening lyrics.
"Now somewhere in the Black Mining hills of Dakota
"there lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon."
In this story, the Hulk finds himself unconscious
on a mysterious planet with two strange figures
examining him.
One being Rocky, and the other Wall Russ.
Yeah, he's the walrus.
Goo-goo-ga-chew.
The posse ends up joining forces to stop the mole,
Judson Jakes, from stealing Gideon's bible.
A little different from the Bible referred to in the song,
this Gideon's bible is the greatest treasure
in the Keystone Quadrant, written by the First Comers,
it's supposed to hold the secret origin of the planet
and it's inhabitants.
Turns out, though, it's just the alien scientist's
research log, which also happens to hold the cure
to the ailment that has been crippling the population
since the planet's colonization.
Not super sure why they didn't just cure them to begin with,
if they had the cure, but that's fine.
Rocket would later star in a four part limited series
in 1985, and that's where that Gideon's bible stuff
comes back.
But again, experienced a drop in popularity
for some time afterwards, having only four more issues
containing and published throughout the 90s.
A sad total of 10 issues in it's first 30 years.
Thankfully, for Rocket fans of today, it turns out that
third time's a charm.
Rocket is now a mainstay in the Guardians
of the Galaxy series, even taking up the helm occasionally
when Star Lord is not around.
With this information in mind, it's actually pretty neat
how the creators of the 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy
movie included music from the same period
in Star Lord's awesome mix.
The message is all about those sweet jams from the 70s.
Maybe tonight's movie will be a musical, who knows?
So, I've got a question, what characters from songs
do you think would make cool comic book characters?
I'm gonna stick with the Beatles here, and go with
a Maxwell Silverhammer.
And with that, if you happen to like this show,
and want to see some more of it, go and check out
this playlist of all the Alter Egos to date.
And if you're already caught up but wanna check out
some more of my stuff, go check out this video I did
on who will kill Cersei in Game of Thrones.
It might not be who you think.
If this is your first time with us here at Net Synch,
we publish new videos every week.
So make sure you slap that Subscribe button
so you don't miss a thing while we explore the art,
history, science
and names behind our favorite comics.
Once again, guys, this is DK.
Thank you so much for joining us for Alter Ego
and I'll see you next time.
Guys, one last thing before I let you go.
We talked about Bill Mantlow,
he's one of the creators of Rocky Raccoon,
he was sadly involved in an accident in 1992,
which left him with irreparable brain damage.
Most of the comic book creators, then, were free lance
and made fairly meager wages.
This means that if they didn't have any sort of
retirement plan or health insurance, so in cases like this,
where a creator is in great need of extra assistance,
the charity organization, called the Hero Initiative,
is here to help out.
These folks provide a financial safety net
for comic creators, fueled by contributions from donors.
So, in the description below, we thought we'd include
a link to where you're able to buy your Wizard World
Comic Con tickets with a percentage going
directly towards towards the organization.
And who knows?
Maybe we'll even see you at the Con.
Neither the Heron Initiative or Wizard World Comic Con,
is a sponsor at all, I just wanted to take a moment to help
raise awareness in this video that wouldn't exist
without the guy.
Thanks guys.