Rocket is a Guardians of the Galaxy spin-off, published by Marvel Comics. It is written by Al Ewing and drawn by Adam Gorhan.
Rocket Raccoon is a racoon with a problem. An old friend has come to him to with a job. She needs someone to break into a high-tech vault and recover some land deeds from her homeworld, to protect them from the evil Beavertron corporation, and Rocket's the best man... er, racoon for the job. Of course, a job like this would require more than just a devastatingly cunning and fuzzy racoon, it'll need a crew. But in such a crazy cosmos of oddball bounty hunters, space otters and raccoons, nothing can be trusted for long.
Rocket contains examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: The narration of issue 4 notes how Cordyceps Jones has an unusual name for an alien. Not many aliens called "Jones", after all.
- Affectionate Parody: The courtroom scene in issue 2 is a knock on the Silver Age antics of Daredevil.
- Mister Big: Cordyceps Jones is introduced as a Little Green Man, with his heavies towering over him. It turns out the real Cordyceps Jones is even smaller.
- Exact Words: The Securimax vaults are proofed against all known explosives. Solution? Unknown explosives.
- Fantastic Racism: As much as Rocket likes humans, he sure as hell doesn't want to be one. He still impersonates Max Sekuri to get to a meeting with Gnawbarque.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Deadpool's problem, thanks to Secret Empire.
- Jackass Genie: Joyboy of Technet's powers. He'll give someone what they wished for, but not how they want it.
- Lampshade Hanging: The narration points out how Technet's powers, even by Cosmic Marvel standards, are utterly bizarre.
- Meaningful Name: Cordyceps Jones, so called because he's like Cordyceps the fungus - he takes over anyone who breaths him in.
- Pardon My Klingon: Explored in issue 2, which notes humans are an oddity for swearing on things people like, rather than horrible things. The situation gets bad enough that Rocket actually borrows human swears.
- Punny Name: An otter named Otta. A prison boss named Max Sekuri. A beaver named Castor Gnawbarque.
- The Reveal: Otta wasn't trying to steal the deeds to protect her people, she was trying to steal them for Beavertron.
- Rewrite: Rocket's first meeting with Peter Quill, back from Annihilation: Conquest, had him apparently arrested by the Kree for parking tickets. Here, the first issue reveals that was what Otta set Rocket up for.
- Shout-Out:
- Rocket's drink order is a gargleblaster. Max Sekuri, on the other hand, drinks Tharg's Original.
- The guards at Rocket's trial dress like Judges.
- There's a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of the Doctor having tea with Gatecrasher (the Technet ultimately having their origin in Alan Moore's run on the kind-of-in-Marvel-continuity Doctor Who Magazine comic strip). Later, Rocket quotes Stien from "Resurrection of the Daleks": "I CAN'T STAND THE CONFUSION IN MY MIIIIND!"
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: According to Otta, the simple people of Tarka's World considered her too clever for her own good, and stifled her ambitions for a better life. This is what motivates her to betray them to Beavertron.
- Technical Pacifist: Rocket's trying to make a point of not murdering folk. Having Joyboy turn them into a dead ringer for him, and have them dragged into their own prison to be murdered, on the other hand, is alright.
- Tempting Fate: Rocket's lawyer assures him his defense, Murd Bludrock, is the best lawyer around... unless he randomly runs out of the courtroom for no readily apparent reason. Then a lizard-woman in red appears in the back holding a sign saying "come fight ninjas"...
- Wardens Are Evil: The Warden of the Colon, who tortures inmates for talking, then throws them into a sensory deprivation tank, to film and make more money. Rocket notes he was deliberately hired to invoke the trope.
