Rocket Raccoon: Bio, Origin & History

Real Name: Rocket Raccoon

First Appearance: Marvel Preview #7 (Summer, 1976)

Powers: Skilled in firearms and hand to hand combat. Excellent, tactician, and field commander. Similar attribute to a normal raccoon.

Affiliation: Guardians of the Galaxy 

Did You Know? Rocket was actually inspired by the Beatles song, Rocky Raccoon.

A Little History

Rocket Raccoon was created by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen. He first appeared inside the pages of Marvel Preview #7 a way back in 1976.

Rocket Raccoon hails from a place deep within the Marvel Universe known as Halfworld. Halfworld, for as strange as it sounds, was a once uninhabited world. It became inhabited after a group of technologically advanced humanoids found it and turned it into an outpost for mentally ill patients. If this sounds like it became an insane asylum, you’d be correct.

Eventually, the humanoids ran out of money to fund their asylum and as such, were made to leave. The did leave but not without creating an army of robots that would stay behind and care for those that had sent to Halfworld. After they left, to ensure that none would get in or out, the humanoids placed a force field around the entirety of the planet. If the robots would spend the rest of their existence in the service of the inhabitants of the planet, all would’ve been well. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened.

Wanting a better life for themselves, the robots left one side of the planet and made their way to the other side. By doing this, they purposely left the mentally ill behind under the watchful care of the animals that had been brought in for amusement. The humanoids began experimenting and looking for a way that the animals could become capable caregivers. This meant that they aimed to give the animals human-level intelligence. Rocket, of course, was one of these animals. 

Their work was so impressive that some of the animals, Rocket included, became more intelligent than they could’ve ever imagined. Due to this, it was actually Rocket who captained the ship carrying the humanoids and animals who wished to leave off the planet.