Publication History
The character was created by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen and consciously inspired by the classic Beatles song "Rocky Raccoon" which included a reference to "Gideon's Bible" (in the comic book limited series it was a book that contained the sum of all knowledge on the "loony colony").
Rocket Raccoon first appeared in Marvel Preview #7 (Summer 1976), in the back-up feature The Sword in the Star. He subsequently appeared in The Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982). In 1985, he received his own four-issue limited series (in an afterword to the first issue, Mantlo himself asserted that this was the same character seen in Preview), penciled by Mike Mignola and inked by Al Gordon with Al Milgrom. Rocket appeared in a 1990 issue of Quasar (#15); he later appeared in three issues of She-Hulk in 1992 (#44-46) as a prisoner on a Skrull ship.
During Peter David's run on the Hulk series, Hulk went into space and David addressed reader requests for Rocket's reappearance by implying that he had been killed by the aliens known as the Troyjans, who had a pelt mounted on the wall that looked like Rocket's.
Rocket Raccoon was seen again in 2007's Annihilation: Conquest and Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord limited series, and their spin-off series, a new volume of Guardians of the Galaxy. He remained a regular member of the series cast until it was canceled with #25 in 2010, also appearing in the follow-up limited series The Thanos Imperative. Along with fellow Guardian Groot, Rocket starred in backup features in Annihilators #1-4 (Mar-Jun 2011) and Annihilators: Earthfall #1-4 (Sept-Dec 2011).
Rocket Raccoon, along with the other members of the Guardians, appeared in issues #4-8 of Avengers Assemble, a series intended as a jumping-on point for fans of the film The Avengers. He will star in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, a part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch.
Read more about this topic: Rocket Raccoon
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