Review by Karl Verhoven

It’s the late 1930s and pilot Cliff Secord is once again short of funds. German saboteurs and spies are infiltrating the USA, and as the Rocketeer he only just escapes alive from an encounter with a group of them, after which he promises his girl Betty there’ll be no more heroics. The $100,000 prize for winning an international air race sure is tempting, though.

Picking up The Rocketeer and following in the footsteps of Dave Stevens is surely an intimidating prospect for any artist. Stephen Mooney isn’t Stevens, but there should be no expectation of that. Mooney’s very good, both as an artist supplying the period atmosphere and and as a writer providing an exciting plot with a pulp mood, with his own work very much influenced by the Rocketeer. His versions of the main cast are recognisable as the characters Stevens drew, if sometimes a little stiff in Betty’s case for reliance on picture reference. Len O’Grady’s colouring is the final touch recreating the Rocketeer’s bright Californian world.

Mooney introduces the primary plot elements well in the opening chapter, then gradually connects them. Cliff’s hired to fly an experimental new plane, which is both testing and advertising the technology, but the Nazis have heard about the plane and want it. Throw in an assortment of other respected pilots and the exotic global locations and we’re set for take off. The star turn among them is an arrogant Nazi who knows exactly how to push Cliff’s buttons. “What in the world is a woman like Betty doing with a pathetic idiot like you?” is designed to provoke a bar fight, and does.

The art is good and the adventure is good, but The Great Race may have a failing for some. There’s plenty of room for Cliff and his likeable impetuous personality, but very little room for Cliff as the Rocketeer. Even allowing for a plot that builds, it’s only in the final chapter that the Rocketeer finally breaks loose. The way The Great Race plays out as a race in stages almost determines that.

A really enjoyable bonus feature traces the Rocketeer’s history from starting doodle to cinema and beyond, told by Stevens’ friends and collaborators.

Mooney continues with The Rocketeer: In the Den of Thieves.