Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "rocketeer"

The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures by Dave Stevens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This books follows the two Rocketeer stories by Dave Stephens in 144 pages told in eight installments, so yet it's pretty complete.

The Rocketeer definitely has a pseudo-golden age look and feel to it which makes it appealing. The Rocketeer is an appeal back to the more normal guy heroes that made up many comic books back in the day. The rocket is pretty cool and Clint is an interesting character. It works good as a high adventure period piece, with good art work and well-drawn characters.

The negatives in the story include the portrayal of Betty who really was portrayed one dimensionally and definitely as a sex object character. And then there was the whole serial killer over a spurned midget story that was dubious.

Still, the story itself was okay. One thing that bothered me about the book is I expect special editions to give me some context about the strip, its author, its legacy. At least an introduction. We get none of this. Instead, we get the comic strips which is okay. But the lack of context is why I gave it 3 rather than 4 stars.



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The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom by Mark Waid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Mark Waid's ability to capture the spirit of almost any comic book character is unparalleled. Here he takes his spin on the Rocketeer, a 1940s rocket powered hero created by Dave Stevens.

The story features a mysterious villain who is after the Rocketeer's rocket for his own nefarious purposes. Those purposes are revealed at the end of Issue 2 and play out over the rest of the book and it's what makes the book work so beautifully.

I also like how Waid turns the table on Clint Seford's (the Rocketeer) girlfriend Betty when a young female mechanic/pilot has designs on Cliff. It's usually Betty making Clint jealous.

The plot itself is pure pulp fiction but with a level of visual detail that's quite appealing by Chris Samnee. This isn't the 1980s Rocketeer but Mark Waid writers a version that's equally fun and compelling.



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The Rocketeer / The Spirit: Pulp Friction by Paul Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This tale teams Will Eisner's Spirit with Dave Stevens' Rocketeer in a battle against a villain who has a scheme involving the naescent medium of television.

The art is good. The story itself is okay. While the characters weren't poorly characterized, it felt like writer Mark Waid was running down a checklist for superhero crossovers. He hit most of them in this four issue story, but that weakened the story itself. Okay, but ultimately forgettable



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Rocketeer Adventures Volume 1 by Mike Allred

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Rocketeer Adventures is a grand anthology of pulp adventures featuring Dave Stephens' Rocketeer, written by a talented group of artists. There's not really a bad story in here, although these are pretty standard 7-10 page pulp stories. However, Kurt Busiek's Dear Betty actual does have an emotional journey and an interesting focus on Betty that makes for compelling reading.

There's so many interesting stories, nods, and pastiches to the Golden Age of Comics and Stevens original work that if you love comics and stories of this era or enjoyed the original Rocketeer book, this is worth checking out. There's no ongoing story but a really fun anthology.



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