Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

So, yes, I did purchase this because, y'know, Rocket.   What with the cybernetic implants in the movie, I was like awesome!   And then he was a bit tragic, and I loved him for that.   

It's been a bit of a minor obsession of mine, too.   So when I was buying up all of Newbury Comics, I wasn't interested in Nova - until I saw that Rocket trained him.   (Keep in mind, I think I literally only got one non-Marvel story, which was Transformers Energon.)   As soon as I saw Rocket starred in this arc, I snapped this up.   (Also, keep in mind they were already on sale for like half off, and then the buy two get the third free sale applied.   And if Marvel ever sends me something back about recovering my password for digital comics, this comes with a free digital download.   As do some other titles, like the Marvel Now Uncanny X-Men.)

So basically, I made out way better than I expected.   And Rocket?   Is amazing in this.   Just as ornery, and trigger-happy as usual, he speaks the truth that others - even Gamora - sugar coats a bit.   Sam isn't ready to be Nova, for example.   Sam is a child with a alcoholic father who works as a janitor as Sam's high school.   Except that Sam is taunt, and his father more so.   Still, Sam does his father's job so Jesse can keep his job - and it's not a secret.   Ostracized, disgusted by his father's fanciful tales of the Nova Corps, Sam takes it all for his mother and little sister.   

When Sam does inherit his father's helmut - and the powers of the Nova Corps that come with it - Gamora and Rocket train him.   Gamora reassures him that his father was the best Nova ever, and it falls upon Rocket to remind Sam that he's pretty much useless as a novice.  In some ways, Sam and Rocket are alike - and this may be what endeared me to Sam.   After all, both the human boy and the talking raccoon get the short end of the stick in a lot of ways.   Both are left unable to cope with dreams, with the softening the sharp edges of reality, if only because they've had those sharp edges poking at them too often.   And maybe it's that similarity that leaves Rocket disgusted with Sam, at least at first.  

Either way, this was a powerful story.   And the art was, again, gorgeous.   Nothing that sprung out at me as overly unique, as it was moire of a typical graphic novel/Marvel art - but it was still gorgeous.