Publication history
The character was created by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen,[1] inspired by the Beatles song "Rocky Raccoon".[2][3] Other references to the song were featured in Rocket's appearance in The Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982), which was titled "Now Somewhere In the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived a Young Boy Named Rocket Raccoon" and saw the Hulk help Rocket stop a villain trying to steal "Gideon's Bible", which in the Marvel Universe was a book that contained the sum of all knowledge on the Loonies colony.[4]
Rocket Raccoon first appeared in Marvel Preview #7 (Summer 1976) in the back-up feature "Prince Wayfinder: The Sword in the Star", where he was called "Rocky".[5][6] In this appearance the character spoke using stock British English phrases such as "bloody well," "old bean," "jolly good," etc., which did not continue in later appearances. He next appeared in The Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982), where it is learned that "Rocky" is short for "Rocket". In 1985, he received his own four-issue limited series and, in an afterword to the first issue, Mantlo asserted that this was the same character seen in Preview, penciled by Mike Mignola and inked by Al Gordon with Al Milgrom. Rocket appeared in Quasar #15 in 1990 and later appeared in three issues of Sensational She-Hulk in 1992 (#44–46).[4] The character only appeared in a total of ten comic books in his first thirty years of existence.[7]
Besides a brief appearance in a 2006 issue of Exiles,[4] Rocket Raccoon was next seen in 2007's Annihilation: Conquest and Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord limited series,[4][8] and their spin-off series, a new volume of Guardians of the Galaxy.[4][9] He remained a regular member of the series cast until it was canceled with issue #25 in 2010, also appearing in the follow-up limited series The Thanos Imperative.[5] Along with fellow Guardian Groot, Rocket starred in backup features in Annihilators #1–4 (May 2011 – August 2011) and Annihilators: Earthfall #1–4 (November 2011 – February 2012 ).
Rocket Raccoon, along with the other members of the Guardians, appeared in issues #4-8 of Avengers Assemble, a series intended as a jumping-on point for fans of the film The Avengers. He appears prominently in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, a part of the 2012 Marvel NOW! relaunch.[10]
In February 2014, it was announced that Skottie Young would write and illustrate a Rocket Raccoon ongoing series.[11] The series began in July 2014, with the first issue selling over 300,000 copies.[12] Jake Parker replaced Young as the artist beginning with issue #5.[13] The series ended in May 2015 as one of many titles to be cancelled for Marvel's Secret Wars event.[14] A new volume, titled Rocket Raccoon and Groot, began in January 2016 as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel relaunch.[15]
