Mark Waid (w)
Chris Samnee (a)
The hardcover, which reprints a four-issue miniseries, begins with pilot Cliff Secord, aka the Rocketeer, having to save the niece of his mentor Peevy Peabody, Sally, whose plane is falling out of the sky owing to acts of sexual harassment against her by a Civil Aviation Authority officer. The Rocketeer saves the plane and its occupants from a fiery crash, but learns that his alter-ego Cliff is grounded for failing to pay the government his monthly pilot dues. That, however, turns out to be the least of his problems as a mysterious villain pulling into Los Angeles in a ship filled with an even more mysterious cargo will soon be gunning for him and his rocket pack, putting him and everyone he cares about in mortal danger.
Having read this book, I came to understand the appeal of the late Dave Stevens' creation, and even formulated a little armchair theory as to why the movie tanked at the box-office.
If I understand correctly, The Rocketeer is to 1930s, 40s and 50s pulp fiction what The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is to 19th century literary characters. It's not quite the same thing; after all the Rocketeer (who was, himself, created in homage to the pulpy Rocket Men serials of the 1940s) just lives in the same world colorful characters like Doc Savage and King Kong, while the LXG basically are the characters from literature (and conveniently, public domain). Still, the references that littered this book, from the appearance of Doc Savage bad guy John Sunlight, to mention of King Kong and Skull Island, were plain as day for anyone who either recognized them straight away or cared enough to look them up (as I had to do in the case of the Doc Savage villain, considering I'm not a DS fan at all).
In terms of these references, and even in terms of overall story, the book was fun to read. Mark Waid, who writes Marvel's Daredevil in a similar "swashbuckling adventure" tone, nonetheless significantly shifted creative gears here; this book is lighter in tone than DD (though surprisingly bloody in some instances). Waid's DD is still the better book overall, but Waid still turns in some solid work here. It's the little details I appreciate. Waid's characters talk like they actually lived in the forties, with their temporally appropriate idioms and expressions and more or less topical references. Perhaps less credible was a black guy occupying what seemed to be a fairly high-level government position in 1940, when racism in the U.S. was a lot more blatant than it is now, though considering the setting was in California and not in some state in the deep south I suppose it was possible.
As for Samnee, he is absolutely in his element here. I first fell head over heels for his work in his five-issue stint on Captain America and Bucky, which featured stories set in the 1940s and 1950s, and when the individual issues of this compilation came out last year I was thrilled at the thought of Samnee revisiting that period, because to my mind there is no one among today's mainstream comic book artists quite like him in terms of drawing that specific period in history (I was, unfortunately, unable to pick up the individual issues because my retailer simply didn't order enough copies). I was a huge fan of the way the recent Captain America: The First Avenger film (directed, incidentally, by Joe Johnston, who helmed the Rocketeer adaptation) had a nice old-fashioned feel to it, with a few modern twists, and to my mind Samnee captures that exact vibe: a perfect mix of the old and the new. His artwork here, especially his rendering of the Rocketeer, is so crisp and striking that it would not surprise me in the least if, years from now, many of the images appearing here are used just as often in identifying the character as those of creator Dave Stevens. It is icing on the cake that, as an added feature, the hardcover contains several pages containing Samnee's rough pencils for all four issues, and offers a great deal of consolation to folks like me, who were unable to get the individual issues and had to settle for the hardcover. I know I've said something like this before, but art like Samnee's is the reason I still buy comic books; his images enthrall me like no other medium can.
As enjoyable a read as this book was, it was far from perfect. The grand scheme of the villain, for one thing, is distinctly harebrained, and, quite honestly, the sort of thing that is more likely to come from the mind of six-year-old Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame rather than that of a villain who is meant to be even remotely dangerous. The ultimate fate of the bad guy sort of bears out just how idiotic his plan was, and though I suppose it was meant to be humorous, I'm not completely sure that it was.
Another thing that irked me about the book was how, while it said a lot about what made The Rocketeer, as a property, a cult favorite, it told me very little about what makes the actual character, Cliff Secord, really tick. What really motivates the guy, apart from the desire to fly and make out with his hot girlfriend Bettie? This also hit home for me why the Rocketeer adaptation was never going to be particularly successful as a movie property, especially not at the time of its release. Even setting aside the fact that he isn't super-powered, Secord is not a particularly remarkable character, he's not particularly clever, nor does he have a particularly outstanding characteristic like Tony Stark's crazy-cool charisma or Clark Kent's farm-boy charm. At some portions of the story he isn't even particularly likable. Still, I'll admit that often times he does have an 'everyman' vibe that makes it fairly easy to relate to him, even if he has a bombshell of a girlfriend. I attribute that largely to Waid's writing and Samnee's visualization, the latter of which is a far cry from the 6'3, square-jawed movie-star who played the character in the movie.
When The Rocketeer came out in 1991, it followed the significant success of movies based on extremely well-known comic book properties like Batman and Dick Tracy, who between them had over a century of publication history at the time. The Rocketeer, in sheer contrast, had only been in existence for less than a decade, and had a much more limited fanbase. Of course in the interest of avoiding lawsuits, Disney dropped all of the "pulp culture" references. Cliff's Bettie Page-lookalike girlfriend became a more generic Jenny Blake, the rocket pack was invented by Howard Hughes and not Doc Savage, etc. As a result, the film played pretty much like a straight-up superhero adventure...one that no one really cared to see.
Oddly enough, Disney has been contemplating a remake of this property, not seeming to realize that since the failure of that movie, the superhero Iron Man, who effectively has a rocket pack and then some, has rocked moviegoers' socks off for four movies in a row, and has basically made poor old Cliff Second completely redundant as a possible film franchise. I honestly don't think this character, who would now feel like a low-rent Iron Man in comparison, would really find much of an audience.
In print, though,with adventures like this and with the likes of Waid and Samnee at the creative helm, the character can really soar.
3.5/5
Having read this book, I came to understand the appeal of the late Dave Stevens' creation, and even formulated a little armchair theory as to why the movie tanked at the box-office.
If I understand correctly, The Rocketeer is to 1930s, 40s and 50s pulp fiction what The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is to 19th century literary characters. It's not quite the same thing; after all the Rocketeer (who was, himself, created in homage to the pulpy Rocket Men serials of the 1940s) just lives in the same world colorful characters like Doc Savage and King Kong, while the LXG basically are the characters from literature (and conveniently, public domain). Still, the references that littered this book, from the appearance of Doc Savage bad guy John Sunlight, to mention of King Kong and Skull Island, were plain as day for anyone who either recognized them straight away or cared enough to look them up (as I had to do in the case of the Doc Savage villain, considering I'm not a DS fan at all).
In terms of these references, and even in terms of overall story, the book was fun to read. Mark Waid, who writes Marvel's Daredevil in a similar "swashbuckling adventure" tone, nonetheless significantly shifted creative gears here; this book is lighter in tone than DD (though surprisingly bloody in some instances). Waid's DD is still the better book overall, but Waid still turns in some solid work here. It's the little details I appreciate. Waid's characters talk like they actually lived in the forties, with their temporally appropriate idioms and expressions and more or less topical references. Perhaps less credible was a black guy occupying what seemed to be a fairly high-level government position in 1940, when racism in the U.S. was a lot more blatant than it is now, though considering the setting was in California and not in some state in the deep south I suppose it was possible.
As for Samnee, he is absolutely in his element here. I first fell head over heels for his work in his five-issue stint on Captain America and Bucky, which featured stories set in the 1940s and 1950s, and when the individual issues of this compilation came out last year I was thrilled at the thought of Samnee revisiting that period, because to my mind there is no one among today's mainstream comic book artists quite like him in terms of drawing that specific period in history (I was, unfortunately, unable to pick up the individual issues because my retailer simply didn't order enough copies). I was a huge fan of the way the recent Captain America: The First Avenger film (directed, incidentally, by Joe Johnston, who helmed the Rocketeer adaptation) had a nice old-fashioned feel to it, with a few modern twists, and to my mind Samnee captures that exact vibe: a perfect mix of the old and the new. His artwork here, especially his rendering of the Rocketeer, is so crisp and striking that it would not surprise me in the least if, years from now, many of the images appearing here are used just as often in identifying the character as those of creator Dave Stevens. It is icing on the cake that, as an added feature, the hardcover contains several pages containing Samnee's rough pencils for all four issues, and offers a great deal of consolation to folks like me, who were unable to get the individual issues and had to settle for the hardcover. I know I've said something like this before, but art like Samnee's is the reason I still buy comic books; his images enthrall me like no other medium can.
As enjoyable a read as this book was, it was far from perfect. The grand scheme of the villain, for one thing, is distinctly harebrained, and, quite honestly, the sort of thing that is more likely to come from the mind of six-year-old Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame rather than that of a villain who is meant to be even remotely dangerous. The ultimate fate of the bad guy sort of bears out just how idiotic his plan was, and though I suppose it was meant to be humorous, I'm not completely sure that it was.
Another thing that irked me about the book was how, while it said a lot about what made The Rocketeer, as a property, a cult favorite, it told me very little about what makes the actual character, Cliff Secord, really tick. What really motivates the guy, apart from the desire to fly and make out with his hot girlfriend Bettie? This also hit home for me why the Rocketeer adaptation was never going to be particularly successful as a movie property, especially not at the time of its release. Even setting aside the fact that he isn't super-powered, Secord is not a particularly remarkable character, he's not particularly clever, nor does he have a particularly outstanding characteristic like Tony Stark's crazy-cool charisma or Clark Kent's farm-boy charm. At some portions of the story he isn't even particularly likable. Still, I'll admit that often times he does have an 'everyman' vibe that makes it fairly easy to relate to him, even if he has a bombshell of a girlfriend. I attribute that largely to Waid's writing and Samnee's visualization, the latter of which is a far cry from the 6'3, square-jawed movie-star who played the character in the movie.
When The Rocketeer came out in 1991, it followed the significant success of movies based on extremely well-known comic book properties like Batman and Dick Tracy, who between them had over a century of publication history at the time. The Rocketeer, in sheer contrast, had only been in existence for less than a decade, and had a much more limited fanbase. Of course in the interest of avoiding lawsuits, Disney dropped all of the "pulp culture" references. Cliff's Bettie Page-lookalike girlfriend became a more generic Jenny Blake, the rocket pack was invented by Howard Hughes and not Doc Savage, etc. As a result, the film played pretty much like a straight-up superhero adventure...one that no one really cared to see.
Oddly enough, Disney has been contemplating a remake of this property, not seeming to realize that since the failure of that movie, the superhero Iron Man, who effectively has a rocket pack and then some, has rocked moviegoers' socks off for four movies in a row, and has basically made poor old Cliff Second completely redundant as a possible film franchise. I honestly don't think this character, who would now feel like a low-rent Iron Man in comparison, would really find much of an audience.
In print, though,with adventures like this and with the likes of Waid and Samnee at the creative helm, the character can really soar.
3.5/5
