Continuing our deep dive into the backgrounds and origins of the Guardians of the Galaxy, we take a look at the foul mouthed, furry little creature, Rocket Racoon.
Background
Rocket was created by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen, and was inspired by The Beatles song “Rocky Raccoon”. He would make his first appearance in Marvel Preview #7 in 1976 by the name “Rocky” (later revealed to be short for Rocket). Before he became a Guardian of the Galaxy in 2008, he made an appearance in The Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982), he received his own four-issue limited series in 1985, popped into issue #15 of Quasar in 1990 and finally in the 1992 Sensational She-Hulk for issues #44, #45 and #46. Rocket would briefly appear in a 2006 issue of Exiles after 14 years of being off the page. He would prove to be a good team player in the 2007 series, Annihilation: Conquest and appear again in the limited series, Annihilation: Conquest – Star-Lord.
Then in 2008, Star-Lord wanted to put together his team of galactic bouncers. He would go on to recruit Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Mantis, Phyla-Vell and Rocket Racoon and Groot (He is Groot). The Guardians of the Galaxy series would only last 25 issues before being cancelled in 2010 but some storylines from this series would be concluded in The Thanos Imperative (2010). While Rocket and Groot (He is Groot) would pop up again in Annihilators (2011) and again in Annihilators: Earthfall (2011-2012), they wouldn’t appear with their fellow Guardians again until Avengers Assemble #4-#8 (2012). Finally Rocket and the team are brought back for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2013) and he has remained a popular character ever since. He is that popular that when he was given his own series, Rocket Racoon back in 2014, the first issue sold over 300,000 copies. While that series was cancelled for Marvel’s Secret Wars event, he would receive another series in 2016, one he would share with his best friend, Groot (He is Groot).
Origin
When a bunch of humanoid alien physicians needed a place to dump all of their mentally ill, they settled on the largest planet in the Keystone Quadrant star system, later called Halfworld. After building a facility to house and treat the patients, along with creating a force field surrounding the planet, the founders built robots to help care for them and gave each patient a furry animal companion to help comfort them. Not long after, the founders left. When a nearby star went nova, the robots were bathed in radiation and gained sentience. Not wanting to stick around and take care of the “Loonies” anymore, they came up with the clever idea of genetically enhancing everyones support animals to let them take care of the patients instead.
Each creature gained intelligence and awareness in order to care for their patients. So the robots legged it off to the other side of the planet where they wrecked the gaff and stripped the place bare through their industrial endeavours. One of their endeavours was to build a ship (not just any ship, it was a humanoid ship that was named… Ship) that could break through the force field that the founders had put in place. It was due to this separation of the two inhabitants of the planet that gave it the name Halfworld.
The robots would provide the animal caretakers with equipment, weapons and parts for making toys. Yes they made toys. The toys were important tools in Halfworld society as they provided entertainment for the Loonies. Without them the patients would lapse into a terrible melancholy so the animals prioritised the manufacturing of the toys. Two otters would form the first toy factory. The protectors of the animal society and their patients were the Keystone Kops. The commander of the Kops was none other than Ranger Rocket, who patrolled Halfworld alongside his partner Wal Russ (yes, he was a walrus) and his girlfriend Lylla (an otter).
When the owners of the toy factory died it was taken over by a mole named Judson Jakes. He had plans to steal the psychiatric diary left behind by the original physicians/founders of Halfworld. This book, named “Gideon’s Bible”, contained the sum of all the knowledge on the Loonies colony. It was pretty much indecipherable but Judson wanted to steal it anyway and learn its secrets and turn them to profit, and eventually help him conquer Halfworld and the entire Keystone Quadrant.
Luckily when the Hulk landed on Halfworld, he befriended Rocket and Wal Rus and agreed to help them protect Gideon’s Bible from Judson. Soon after a war broke out between groups of Halfworld’s animal civilians. In an attempt to end the war, Rocket brought Gideon’s Bible to the Head Robot who could decipher the book and combine the knowledge with the robot’s advanced technology to create helmets that would cure the Loonies. If the founders could see them now. So the bad guys lost and the war was over. The now cured Loonies (or the previously Looned), started to plan for the future and offered the animals and robots positions as assistants and entertainers. Yeah boss, we just cured your illnesses and finally got a break from minding you, so of course we would like to stay and work for you. Some of the animals and the robots hopped into Ship and left without getting a reference.
Soon after departing Halfworld, Rocket was imprisoned a couple of times, but managed to escape each time before he finally landed in a highly secure Kree prison for trespassing in a restricted zone. It was during this stretch of prison time that some Kree officials drafted the poor guy into a ragtag team of prisoners and forced them to embark on a suicide mission to destroy the Phalanx and to stop Ultron’s invasion of the Kree home world.
And that brings us to when Rocket would meet Peter Quill, A.K.A. Star-Lord, and his teammates Bug, Deathcry, Mantis, Captain Universe and of course Groot (He is Groot). He would later be recruited for further missions with Star-Lord and go on to become one of the most valued members of the Guardians.
Keep your eyes peeled for more backgrounds and origins of the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy!
The Nerd Army 