The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #1 & 2, by Mark Waid (writer), Chris Samnee (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors), Shawn Lee (letters) - The Rocketeer is a well-designed character when it comes to striking dramatic poses, you gotta give him that.Cliff Secord is having his usual problems. He's broke, so he hasn't paid up his fees to be a licensed pilot. When told that leaves him grounded, Cliff let his temper do the talking and slugged the guy. Sure, he was a sleazeball and probably deserved worse, but Cliff didn't know that. The CAA fellow who inherited the case is roughly the size of Montana and goaded Cliff into a fight (which didn't take much work) so he could deck him. Cliff's been neglecting Betty - as usual - leading to her being cross with him. As usual. And none of that is being helped by Peevy's niece Sally, who has a serious crush on Cliff. She was also nearly the victim of an assault from that first CAA guy during her flight inspection, though she looks maybe 14. Cliff, being a meathead, has not been much help for her sorting out her feelings.
Oh, and a freighter showed up in L.A. with a guy in a frilly shirt and dinosaurs on it. The dinos are headed for NYC, to wreak havoc at the behest of a Mr. Trask, but frilly shirt guy thinks they'd be more effective if he can steal the rocketpack, duplicate it, then attach them to the dinosaurs. I can't argue with that logic.
Chris Samnee does a bang-up job on the art, which should be no surprise. There are a lot of little touches that he does very well. Framing one panel within the sound effect (panel 5, page 1, issue 1), or having a panel in the shape of the Rocketeer helmet's eye holes as shorthand for Cliff being suited up (panel 8, page 3, issue 1). The first glimpse of the dinosaur's eyes was suitably scary. Also, the bit in issue 2 when Cliff wakes up and learns his new CAA fellow has just learned his "secret" identity (I put it in quotes because Cliff's worse at keeping a dual identity than Ultimate Peter Parker was). The reaction was very Charlie Brown, though the "AUUGGHH" helped, and so did Garland standing with one foot casually on Cliff's helmet. Lucy with the football.
It is a little tough to deal with Cliff as the main character, because he is almost constantly being an ass to someone. If he isn't pissing off Betty with neglect, he's hurting Sally with dismissal of her feelings, or doing something stupid and hotheaded. The key things Waid does to mitigate this are that 1) Cliff tends to recognize his mistakes, if just a moment too late (a bit like Hawkeye, then), and 2) there are consequences for it. He thought he could slug Mr. Feeny and it'd be no big deal, but it got Mr. Garland brought in, which puts Cliff up against someone who not only has the law on his side, but is sufficiently big and tough enough he can't be pushed around by Secord. Cliff rushes to recover the rocket alone, and he winds up getting tossed to a hungry dino. If he keeps hurting Sally, Peevy will probably brain him with a wrench. It's OK for a character to be a jerk, as long as there are consequences, or someone at least calls them on it. When neither of those things happens (Buffy in Season 6, Batman pretty much any time in the previous 20 years of comics), it's just aggravating.
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