Marvel Comics has revealed Rocket Raccoon: Rocket Rewind, a special celebrating the 50th anniversary of the furry Guardian of the Galaxy’s first appearance in 1976’s Marvel Preview #7. The book will feature three brand-new stories by J.M. DeMatteis & Shawn McManus, MacKenzie Cadenhead & Enid Balám, and Christos Gage & Todd Nauck, and a reprint of the first Rocket story by Bill Mantlo and the late Keith Giffen.
DeMatteis and McManus’s story is described as a “brain-bending tale” where Rocket “encounters a mysterious galactic book collector, before coming face-to-face with the one-and-only Rocky Raccoon (wait, what?!)” Cadenhead and Balám’s “BoomShakaLaka” sees him head to a “paradise planet full of good vibes and an immensely powerful artifact that’s just begging to be stolen by a cybernetically enhanced creature with a bad attitude,” and Gage and Nauck’s “The Fight in the Raccoon” is a team-up with Hank Pym, where the pair must fight an invasion from the Microverse’s Sub-Atomica.
Editor Mark Pannicia states, “Fans of Rocket Raccoon are going to love this special featuring all-new stories that span through his bold, adventurous, and sassy career. I’m excited to include the first appearance of Rocky Raccoon. That’s right, old bean, in that story by legendary comic creators Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen, Rocket went by Rocky and inexplicably had a British accent. Wild and fun stuff!”
It should be noted Rocket was inspired by the 1968 Beatles song “Rocky Raccoon,” which DeMatteis and McManus’s story is apparently paying homage to, and that before Bradley Cooper‘s portrayal in the MCU, he was voiced with a British accent on Disney XD’s The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2010-12). The book comes during a lull for the character in the comics, with the last Guardians of the Galaxy series having concluded in 2024, and his absence from the roster of the newly launched Imperial Guardians.
Rocket Rewind will be released on July 29, with a main cover by Ryan Stegman, and variants by David Baldeón and Mike Mignola. In the meantime, Marvel’s latest 50th anniversary special, for Jack Kirby‘s Eternals, is available now, and a new series of one-shots marking half a century of What If…? will kick off on June 3.
