Rocketeer Adventures is a great collection of new stories set
in the world of the Rocketeer. There is no continuity to worry about, no origin
story to fuss with, just good stories from some of comics top creators. There’s
three stories total and frankly they’re all really good and very different from
each other. Some of the talent in this issue: John Cassaday, Mike and Laura
Allred and Kurt Busiek. With pin-ups by: Mike Mignola with Dave Stewart and Jim
Silke.
The first story is written and drawn by Cassaday and you get
a real sense that he put a lot of effort and heart into this tale (unlike some
of his covers as of late). Beatty has been kidnapped and strapped to a bomb by
some gangsters. Cliff does the only thing he can to save her and launches the rocket;
he is the Rocketeer after all. It’s a great short story that really captures
Beatty and Cliff’s character very well. The second story written and drawn by
Mike Allred has more of a 70’s twist on the character. Everyone said "groovy" and "baby" a lot and the characters were very dynamic almost as if they were
intentionally over acting their part. It was just a fun story and very
different from Cassaday’s take on the characters. Neither one is wrong, but
both are very different and good.
The third story hardly involves Cliff at all, but instead
focuses on Beatty. It takes place during World War II while Cliff has been sent
to support the war efforts. It’s a series of letters from Cliff to Beatty that
become increasingly sparse. What’s worse is that with each passing day Mr.
Stanhope, the lead of the play they’re both starring in, becomes more and more
aggressive with his interest in Beatty. The story is very good and Busiek does
a great job of showing why the Rocketeer world is so strong, because it doesn’t
need to rely on the main character to drive the tale. The art is solid
throughout the entire book, of course when two of the three stories are written
and drawn by artists, that isn’t hard to imagine.
If you’ve never experienced the world of the Rocketeer
outside of the movie, then I highly recommend picking up this book. It’s full
of great adventure stories and lots of history on the late creator Dave
Stevens. This was in fact my first experience with the Rocketeer in comics and
frankly it made me interested in picking up the earlier work from Stevens.
Overall Score –
8.5/10