 Hey guys, welcome back to Come Again! We're all geek culture collides. I'm Shannon, and today I'm going to be taking a look at The Rocketeer, The Complete Adventures by Dave Stevens, recolored by Laura Martin, and republished in one complete, collected edition by IDW Publishing. The Rocketeer was created by Dave Stevens and debuted in Star Slayer No. 1 way back on February 1, 1982. In May of 2011, IDW began publishing Rocketeer Adventures with painted cover art by legendary artist Alex Ross. But we're not here to talk about Rocketeer Adventures. Oh no, that's a review for another day. Today we're going to be talking about the original graphic novel, The Rocketeer, which spun off from Star Slayer No. 1. The Rocketeer is a rollicking tribute to pulp novels and serial matinees of the 1930s. It follows the adventures of stunt pilot Cliff Secord and his girlfriend Betty after Cliff finds a mysterious jet pack and takes to the sky. The review I'm doing today is on the re-release of the original stories with all new coloring. 122 pages of art and writing by one person, Dave Stevens. This volume was re-released with the new coloring in December of 2009. I never got my hands on a copy of the original, so I won't be able to compare this one with that, but I'm pretty sure that with the exception of coloring, they're pretty much identical, since Dave Stevens, who passed away on March 11, 2008 from Leukemia, is credited as both writer and artist. The Rocketeer was published originally by Pacific Comics in Mike Grail's Star Slayer series. With two more installments in Pacific's Showcase comic, Pacific presents No. 1 and 2. Chapter 4 ended with a cliffhanger, which eventually concluded in a special Rocketeer issue released by Eclipse Comics. Eclipse then collected the entire story of five chapters in a single volume entitled The Rocketeer. After Eclipse released Volume 1, the story was continued by Comic-O-Comic in 1988 and 89 in the Rocketeer Adventures magazine for two issues. 1995 saw the release of the third installment six years later by Dark Horse Comics. There was an official movie adaptation graphic novel which was illustrated by Russ Heath in 1991, but that's not a part of this, as it's not official canon and it's not included in this reprint. Coloring for this new reprint was done by Laura Martin, who was personally chosen by Stevens for IDW publishing prior to his death. Cliff Secord's girlfriend, Betty, is modeled almost identically after the pinup queen Betty Page. The comic presents Cliff Secord as a jealous, slightly clumsy, dim-witted young man. However, it also presents him as resourceful. His girlfriend, Betty, started out as an actress but got conned into doing nude photo shoots that she thought were for art, but in reality was just a long con pulled off by Hollywood elitists in order to show her off until he got bored with her and then kick her to the curb. Cliff ends up following Betty to New York, but ends their relationship with her returning to LA and Cliff remaining in New York for a time where he ends up working for a very wealthy man who goes by the name Mr. Jonas. But the art styling as well as the writing and character of Mr. Jonas presents him actually as the shadow in disguise. The shadow who you guys may know from some of our other videos and from the Alec Baldwin movie from the 90s was a 1930s era vigilante. Mr. Jonas recruits Secord because of his special skills and because of the Rocket Pack, which Cliff is surprised that his new employer knew about. Everything in this story suggests that Jonas is the shadow, even though he's never actually seen in the shadow disguise. He's an effortless fighter, he hides well in the shadows, he's wealthy, he can't be lied to, can see through falsities that people put on. Then there's the ruby red ring, which looks identical to the shadows as well as the fact that he has operatives throughout the city. Secord is tasked with entering into gangland bar where one of Jonas's operatives will be waiting for him. His job is to get into room 1305 on the top floor and find anything that will identify the occupant and then leave via Rocket Pack. It turns out the operative was actually Jonas in disguise. The person staying in room 1305 was a member of Cliff's old carnival troupe and has been killing every last member of the troupe that Cliff performed with by snapping their spines. The killer's name is Lothor, the strongman from the troupe and now he's after the great Orsino, escape artist extraordinaire and when finished with him he'll be going after Cliff. It turns out Lothor had been killing the other carnies because a midget woman he had fallen in love with in the days of the carnival had fallen in love with Cliff but he had fallen for a different woman. Cliff hadn't shown up to Orsino's act in time and the tiny woman took his place. You see originally it was Cliff's job to be encased in a wooden trunk with chains locked around it at the bottom of a glass cage full of water. Orsino would then be strung up upside down over the glass with a stray jacket on. He would have to escape in time to unlock the trunk and release Seacord. However this time, this time little Tina took Seacord's place because he didn't show up in time. Lothor tried to tell her it was too dangerous but the other carnies declared otherwise. When Orsino finally got to her she was dead and Lothor went after Cliff. It took three carnies to pull him off and Lothor had killed one of them and then got sent to Sing Sing prison for it. Lothor is killing everyone because he blames them for little Tina's death as her murderers. Cliff ends up stopping Lothor for good with a little help from Jonas. The book ends with Cliff on his way back to LA and Betty just getting back saying they have a lot to talk about. Since the book was never finished by Stevens it's hard to know in what direction he planned on taking the Rocketeer in the next installment. However new stories have been published by IDW in the Rocketeer Adventures but they don't pick up where Stevens left off with the character. It's hard to give the story in full a complete review since the story itself was never actually finished. But we also get graphic novels like The Rocketeer Adventures volume two by Kyle Baker and Peter David from 2013. The Rocketeer Hollywood Horror by Roger Landridge and Jay Bone from 2013. The Rocketeer Cargo of Doom by Mark Wade and Chris Samney from 2013. The Rocketeer The Spirit Pulp Friction by Mark Wade and Jade Bone from 2014. The Rocketeer at War by Mark Guggenheim and Jay Bone from 2016. And then finally there's The Rocketeer High Flying Adventures by Mike Allard and John Arcudi from July 2017. The latter being described as The Rocketeer Adventures continued where Dan Stevens' original masterpiece left off creating for the first time new stories involving the A Stunt Pilot Cliff Seacord. This oversized deluxe edition collects all 24 stories by some of the most talented creators in comics. We'll never know what Stevens had planned for Seacord and Betty but he did mention to Disney when pitching the idea for the movie that it could be the start of a multi-film project that saw Seacord being approached by Howard Hughes once again to wear the rocket pack. I will say I enjoyed it to a point. The Easter eggs in it were really nice such as having the shadow in it without actually having him in it. Pinup Queen Betty Page pretty much being Cliff's girlfriend, historical references, et cetera. I tried going into this comic with an open mind since I had been a fan of the movie for so long and once I got to The Rocketeer's New York Adventures it became clear that though the film and the comic started similarly the second half was completely different. I liked Cliff's evolution from regular guide just wanting to make enough to impress his girl to the start of his hero career. Betty was another story though. Right off the bat I was very put off by her. She seemed very high maintenance and even seemed like she would put money ahead of Cliff if she had the chance. Constantly pandering to her own doubts about him with references to money and gifts. It wasn't until the end of her story when she tells Mr. Jonas to not give up on Cliff and to get him to take the job any way he can that showed she actually does care about him and when she thought he was dead or seriously injured in the explosion it did seem as if she loved him but how much wasn't quite certain because though she doubted her actions and cried she didn't actually return to make sure he was okay. The last page made it seem like she wanted things to work out between the two of them but it also kind of made it seem like he was a consolation prize for her. I wish we could have gotten more of the story before Stevens passed away but sadly it was left open and even though I have yet to read the other stories I doubt very much if the other writers have continued the story rather than just doing their own thing but I would love nothing more than to come back with a review of another Rocketeer story that continues where Stevens left off perhaps another time. Something I really enjoy about the Rocketeer is that he's just a regular guy trying to get by. The Rocketeer could be anyone and it's not just a 1930s thing or 20th century thing. The Rocketeer embodies the American spirit and he could truly be anyone. He's not a billionaire, he's not some rich guy who's trained his whole life or got stuck on a deserted island. He doesn't have any superpowers, he's had no training at all except to be a stunt pilot. He wasn't chosen for a specific reason. Just an ordinary guy who's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like I said previously, very similar to John McClane's story. So for now I'll give this book a seven out of ten stars. Hope you guys enjoy this review. Take care. Hey guys if you liked this video make sure you smash that subscribe button and click on the little bell to receive notifications on all our upcoming videos. Hit the like button, make sure and leave us a comment so we know how you felt about this video. And don't forget to share with your family and friends. Until next time, I'm Shannon for Come Again. We're all geek culture collides.