Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
Doctor Doom & Rocket Raccoon #1
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Will Robson
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Editor: Wil Moss
Associate Editor (you'll see why): Danny Khazem
First issues were slim pickings this week, but this one-shot by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Will Robson might be the best thing published this week. Admittedly, I haven't read much else this week yet, but this issue is an insanely high bar to clear. Right off the bat, I'm saying pick this up — and if it's any indication of what the rest of the J. Michael Straczynski one-shots coming up over the next few months are like, immediately place an order with your local comic shop.
High, high, high praise. I felt my love for comics grow three sizes while reading it.
Seeing Straczynski getting to just have some one-and-done fun with big-name characters like Doctor Doom and Rocket Raccoon is like watching your puppy play in its first snow. You don't know what's going to happen next, but you're enthralled by every skip and step. He's been doing good work at Marvel over on Captain America, but it wasn't until his last arc where he got to write for a perpetually jokey Spider-Man that we got to see him really let loose. This just amps up that sense of joy to a ridiculous degree.
Doom's latest plot is to explore the time before the Big Bang, but to do that he has to admit that there is someone better suited to interstellar tech than he is: his old acquaintance Rocket Raccoon from 2020's Guardians of the Galaxy series. Most of the issue is Rocket as a guest of Doom's, getting some of his backstory as well as bonding over a shared project. It's Rocket that solves the mystery, but Doom who makes the sacrifice of part of his soul to go past the creation event. I won't let you know what they find there (I'm kind of left wondering if this is going to lead to anything in the future), but just be assured that the journey of these two serious-yet-mismatched protagonists is where the fun is.
(Fun fact: if you try to search for a certain issue of Guardians of the Galaxy in Google by typing in something like "Guardians of the Galaxy #14", Google will just pretend you didn't include the issue number and serve you up results for the Guardians movies, no matter how many times you add the issue number back in. What a shit search engine.)
This is Straczynski writing without a net. This isn't part of some grand continuity that will be pored over for decades. It's straight up comedy. From the beginning where multiple Doombots blow themselves up while repeating the same cliches about how they are unstoppable, to the ongoing parenthetical jokes between editor Wil Moss and associate editor Danny Khazem arguing over if page numbers should be included in editorial references, it's going to keep a smile on your face from the start to the finish.
There is a "Who's On First" routine that I can imagine Straczynski giggling over while typing out.
Robson's art is remarkable, if a little cartoony, but he jumps through some cool conceptual hoops during the trip through time that are very impressive. Andrew Dalhouse's colors are spot on, and I appreciate the muted shine from various fires and electronics that play across all the characters from panel to panel. It's immersive and proper for this unlikely team-up. I also must point out that the sneaky double-cross cover by Gary Frank is a nice return to Marvel after working over on Image's Geiger for a while. (His last credit was 2023's Captain America #750.)
Straczynski has more of these one-shots coming up in the next few weeks, with Captain America & Volstagg #1 coming next, followed by Nick Fury vs. Fin Fang Foom #1. Believe me, these issues are already on my pull list.
Meta Nonsense: 5/5
Meta Fun: 5/5
Editor's Notes: 4/4
Associate Editor's Notes: 4/4
New Characters Introduced: 1/1
Verdict: I'm not a huge fan of either of these characters but this book made me love them for their quirkiness. Definitely pick it up and read it twice. Give it as a gift to someone who doesn't read a lot of comics, then give another copy to a person who likes science stuff.
