The Rocketfelers #14 // Review
Richie is flying through the air. Literally. He's got his hand on a strap over a piece of alien in technology. That's moving him very, very quickly through the sky. He's not afraid. But he probably should be. He could get really seriously heard. Or at least a wet. This is Olympia, Washington. There might not be a whole lot of city or planes or drones or anything like that. But there is a hell of a lot of water. He's going to need to find a way to slow down in.The Rocketfelers #14. Writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Francis Manapul continue a fun family-based sci-fi action serial.
Elsewhere in the general area, there is a small family of extraterrestrial. Life form is from Jupiter. They're fishing. Just trying to fit in. Just trying to make friends. And part of fitting in is going to be fishing. And if you're going to fish, you're going to need to learn how to fish and actually catch something. However, what they catch might just be a little bit bigger than something that could fit on the grill. And it might just involve something a little bit more than a birthday party out in a campsite.
Tomasi takes traditional science fiction concepts that aren't uncommon to comic books and finds a new way to present them on the page. Once again, this series shows that there's a new life in old premises. If you're willing to be character driven enough to find unique personalities is to place on the page. Tomasi does a good job of moving the plot forward without making it feel all that rushed. And though the extra terrestrial is from Jupiter, don't really seem to make a whole lot of strong action with what's going on with the title characters, it's pretty clear that there's a large larger order at work that will become apparent as the series progresses. It always does with Tomasi.
It would be really difficult to put something like this on the page without having the art that could carry it. The right artist really needs to be able to draw stuff that looks perfectly normal to contemporary society, but it is tweaked in a way that feels distinctly like pulp aero science fiction. Manapul. Has an act for turning the strange in pulp into something that feels mundane and earthbound. Everything seems to fit on the page just in the right way.
Though the particulars are substantially different, it's hard to readt The Rocketfellers and not be heavily reminded of the original Fantastic Four.. it's a family of people who went up in a rocket and are embroiled in weird science fiction adventures is kind of their thing. And since they've been so high profile for so long, it's kind of hard to do anything that's even remotely in that same vein without seeming like a week imitation. TOmasi and company have been at it for long enough that their particular family feels distinctive and unique.
