Rocket Raccoon = My New Hero

Sometimes you just have to buy a comic because of the cover.

RR and Groot on a recent issue of The Annihilators

Nevermind the fact that I currently don't read this series and couldn't care about the other characters. It has a picture of a ray-gun wielding anthropomorphic raccoon on the front, with rocket ships and some sort of wooden dude in the background.

$3.99? Sold--I can't get my debit card out fast enough.

Image: OHotMU

I vaguely remember reading about Rocket Raccoon in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHotMU) series from the late 80s. I thought he was a little childish then. I was into Star Wars and Avengers comics, so I couldn't be bothered with "kiddie" comics.

Part of my prejudice may be blamed on Howard the Duck. Not the laudable comic book, but the dismal movie that was relegated to cinematic shovelware as soon as it hit theaters. I'm not gonna lie, I looked at the raccoon and saw a man in a duck costume. 

Was I ever wrong. RR is about as pulpy-adventure as it gets. The  latest Annihilators issue (pictured above) has a solo adventure that's not to be missed.

"WHO SAYS I DIG THROUGH TRASH? 

Rocket's comeback is now in full swing. At San Diego Comic Con, Hasbro revealed that they're giving the lil' guy an action figure--which is like saying "you are now worthy to be duplicated thousands of times and lost in playground sandboxes all over the country". And really, that's something special.

In any case, RR is okay in my book.

• Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (on Wikipedia)
• Official RR Marvel page. (FYI, Marvel's website is strewn with broken and bad links)
• Rocket's plant buddy, Groot

Props to Cool Toy Review for taking great photos ad SDCC '11.

"Battleship" board game turned into a movie--with aliens?

If you're in Google Reader you'll need to read this on Exonauts to see embedded video.

WTF? Seriously, this is just weird. Battleship is based on the board game of the same name. No, I'm not making this up. Even better it's about the US Navy battling aliens at sea! While the concept doesn't seem to be anything better than what's usually vomited onto SyFy by Asylum Entertainment, it does have higher production values and (inexplicably) Liam Neeson. Perhaps Stephen Colbert and Jeff Goldblum should have been cast instead? (Skip to 3:20 for relevant bit.) No word on if giant red and white pegs will be depicted.

MTV has a few assumptions based on the trailer:

Speaking of alien weaponry, the ship is capable of unleashing some kind of bubble force field that encompasses an enemy and, so it seems, destroys everything within it. We'll just ignore, for now, how the bubble reminds us of that containment unit in "The Simpsons Movie." Instead, let's concentrate on the alien tech. We're hoping for originality and cool visuals to join forces and deliver us a satisfying early summer movie experience. The bubble, perhaps, is the harbinger of fun, absurd, eye-popping stuff to come.

Comes out May of 2012 which seems like a long time to promote a stinker (or is that sinker)? Then again, I'm all about the alien invasion genre.

• Wikipedia entry
• IMDB entry
• Official site

New Star Wars Deleted Scenes Trailer

The official Star Wars website has posted a deleted scenes teaser trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray releases of the entire saga. You may recall the deleted scene of Luke building his green lightsaber in Return of the Jedi, that was teased last year, which is included. Feast your eyes on wampas in the rebel base on Hoth and the sandstorm scene from Jedi. But there's also several scenes that took me by surprise--some that I've not even heard of (I won't spoil them here so you can have the pleasure of seeing them yourself!)

One that I'm pleased to see make the cut is my personal favorite, the deleted sequence with Luke on using macro binoculars watching the star destroyer chase and capture the rebel blockade runner above Tatooine. Here's hoping Biggs' scene is there too!

UPDATE: the trailer is now embedded for your viewing pleasure.

July 20, 1969

Image: NASA, obviously!

Hat tip to the real Exonauts, and the people who put them there.

Barsoom link round-up

Okay, okay, so I've been on a Barsoom kick lately, who can blame me when the trailer just came out? Speaking of which, I don't recall a trailer having such a short-lived excitement, met by seemingly tepid aftertaste. The blog community is a fickle mistress, no?

In any case, one shouldn't let this trailer, that blog post, or whatever this or that dude says overcome the general awesomeness that is outer-space barbarians. I took the liberty of creating a resource page here on Exonauts--mainly to satisfy my own need to have a central location--but I figured others out there might appreciate a point from which to dive back in to Burrough's Mars mythology.

Just click the Barsoomiology button there up top to see what I've dug up so far. Feel free to let me know in the comments if I missed any biggies.