The Rocketeer is a comic book superhero, created by writer/artist Dave Stevens. The character first appeared in 1982 and is an homage to the Saturday matinee serial heroes from the 1930s through the 1950s. The Rocketeer's secret identity is Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovers a mysterious jetpack that allows him to fly. His adventures are set in pre-World War II America, and Stevens gave them a retro, nostalgic feel.

Analogues of pinup diva Bettie Page and fictional pulp characters appear prominently in the series. The character first appeared in publications from Pacific Comics, and would be printed by several other independent companies until 1995. Stevens' meticulous drawing style, perfectionism and careful research gave the various Rocketeer adventures a notoriously slow publishing schedule. Following Stevens' death in 2008, his estate licensed the Rocketeer to IDW Publishing, who have since produced numerous titles starring the character.

The Rocketeer was adapted into the 1991 Walt Disney Pictures film The Rocketeer by director Joe Johnston.

Creation

In 1981 Stevens was largely a jobbing artist, doing fill-in work on various comics as well as working in animation and design. In 1981 he was approached by Steve and Bill Schanes, brothers who had co-founded the independent Pacific Comics (and with whom he was acquainted from being a customer in their comic stores in San Diego) to produce short creator-owned back up features for Mike Grell's Starslayer. An avowed fan of Art Deco and pre-war Americana, Stevens swiftly designed the basic idea of The Rocketeer. A major influence was Republic Pictures film serial character Commando Cody.

Publication history

Pacific Comics

thumb|upright|left|The cover to the 1985 collected edition of The Rocketeer, art by [[Dave Stevens.]]

The Rocketeer's first adventures appeared in 1982 as a backup feature in issues #2 (April) and #3 (June) of Starslayer. The concluding chapter had actually been completed and was slated for inclusion in Pacific Presents #5 when the company went out of business.

Stevens also had to deal with a lawsuit brought about by Marvel Comics, who had featured a gang of super-criminals called 'The Rocketeers' in a 1975 issue of Daredevil. Some years later, a fan sent Stevens a copy of Blast-Off #1, a 1965 Harvey Comics title featuring a Jack Kirby story called The 3 Rocketeers, which he felt only underlined the absurdity of Marvel's legal action. Stevens also felt Marvel's actions were influenced by his decision to turn down an offer to take the series to Marvel-owned Epic Comics following Pacific's demise. He would credit Disney coming onboard for the film adaptation of The Rocketeer with ending Marvel's pursuit.

Eclipse Comics

Like many of the creator-owned titles left without a publisher by Pacific's collapse, Stevens made a deal with California-based publisher Eclipse Comics to complete the storyline. The result was the one-shot Rocketeer Special Edition in November 1984, which concluded the story arc. The comic also included 8 pages of pin-ups by different artists, a sign of Stevens' growing status within the comics industry. The contributors included Gray Morrow, Doug Wildey, Murphy Anderson, and Al Williamson

Following the publication of this Special Edition, Stevens worked with Eclipse to produce a trade paperback collecting the material produced so far. Stevens revised several pages for the compilation and recolored the story by hand, beating volumes of Love and Rockets and Nexus.

The collection would go on to become Eclipse's best-selling graphic novel, going through three printings. Eclipse's treatment of the series, which used high-quality over-sized pages printed using Baxter paper stock (, compared to the standard comic book size of ), led to Stevens signing a deal that would see the company print future collected editions, though none were completed before Eclipse folded in 1994. Eclipse also licensed the material for overseas publication, without Stevens' permission - and without paying him.

Despite being planned for the summer of 1987, the first issue of the title did not appear until July 1988 due to Stevens' detailed approach and the concluding stages of the Marvel lawsuit. Due to the relative lack of money in independent comics at the time, he was also forced to frequently pause the series to produce covers for other series and other freelance assignments. Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson, who were working on the screenplay for the film version, would contribute to the writing of the storyline. — appeared before Comico declared bankruptcy in 1990.

As part of the promotional onslaught, an official adaptation of the film was made and published as a one-shot by Disney's comic label Hollywood Comics. This was adapted from the script by Peter David, and featured interior artwork by Russ Heath, who was hand-picked by Stevens. T.K. Dean awarded The Rocketeer: The Official Movie Adaptation four stars out of five in a review for Amazing Heroes, praising the pace and David's dialogue.

Despite broadly positive critical response, the film under-performed financially and plans to make sequels were scrapped.

<!-- A movie adaptation of The Rocketeer was first announced by Los Angeles Times in August 1987, with William Dear attached to direct and Stevens involved as a creative consultant.-->

Dark Horse Comics

After Comico's financial troubles, Stevens signed with Dark Horse Comics to publish the third issue of the series. The deal was announced in June 1991; however, it would not be until 1995 that the third and final issue of The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine, featuring the conclusion of "Cliff's New York Adventure", finally appeared. This was partly due to Comico having incorrectly listed the Rocketeer as one of their assets in bankruptcy proceedings.

Following the conclusion, Stevens lost interest in publishing new Rocketeer material. He grew tired of switching publishers, while finding new avenues for his approach dwindling after the collapse of the direct market after the early 1990s speculator boom period.

Synopsis

In April 1938, Cliff Secord is a small-time pilot at Bigelow's Air Circus, based at the Chaplin Aerodrome near Los Angeles. He discovers a rocket pack hidden by two gangsters fleeing the police in his custom racing plane, the Blind Bulldog. He takes the device to his friend, the avuncular engineer Peevy, who is fascinated by the device and designs a helmet to allow Cliff to direct the rocket pack, which they plan to test. However, their efforts cause Cliff to miss his slot for a barnstorming act at the aerodrome. To cover for him one of Cliff's fellow pilots, the alcoholic Malcolm, takes the plane up but soon has problems. Cliff retrieves the helmet and rocket pack and, after some difficulty, rescues Malcolm before the plane crashes. The dramatic rescue attracts press attention, and while Cliff is able to land without being identified by the crowd, he is captured by a gun-toting heavy. The press name the mysterious hero "the Rocketeer", while Peevy and Cliff's girl Betty search for him. Cliff and his captor are run off the road; he discovers the dead driver was a G-man, and their attackers are Nazi agents hoping to capture the rocket pack for the Fatherland. He is able to escape and is patched up by Betty and Peevy. Aghast at the danger, Betty makes Cliff promise to return the rocket pack to its rightful owner. However, the following day, Bigelow fires Cliff, and Betty is kidnapped by Nazi thugs. Cliff gives chase in the Bulldog, and is able to harry them into crashing; Betty is saved, but the hoods escape and identify Cliff as having the rocket pack. Without a job and with Betty spending more time trying to launch her modelling career with photographer Marco of Hollywood, Cliff becomes downcast until Peevy talks him through the instructions for the rocket engine, which Cliff had not bothered reading, leading to a more successful test. After returning home, he finds two colorful characters waiting for him, representatives of the inventor of the device. Cliff gives them the slip and Peevy is able to smuggle him to the aerodrome. However, when they arrive they find the new experimental Douglas Locust plane has been hijacked; Cliff attempts to clear his name by recovering the Locust, evading the rocket's inventor in the process. The latter gives chase in a Boeing P-26, saving Cliff when the pack runs out of fuel. The pair then work together, with the inventor dropping Cliff onto the aircraft. He overpowers the Nazi pilots and is able to successfully crash-land the Locust. Cliff is hospitalized; on returning to consciousness he finds that Betty has gone to New York City with Marco, who plans to launch her as a model in Europe. Determined to follow her, he recovers the rocket pack and fakes his own death before setting out in the Blind Bulldog to win Betty back.

Marco shows off Betty to his rich New York friends, but she is shaken when she hears of Cliff's apparent death. Cliff, meanwhile, lands in Long Island, meeting his old friend Goose Gander, and begins to search the city's nightclubs for Betty. He is successful but ends up in argument with her after she refuses to return to California, leading to a scuffle with Marco. The latter has Cliff restrained and beaten until he is interrupted by a mysterious figure who identifies himself as Jonas. A bitter Cliff refuses Betty's attempts at reconciliation and sulks, unaware that she has decided against sailing to Europe with Marco and is instead heading back to Los Angeles. Instead, through Goose he is engaged by Jonas to help break up the activities of a criminal gang in Bowery. The operation pulls him into a murder investigation being carried out by Jonas; the victims are all former circus colleagues of Cliff. Only two members are unaccounted for, the magician Orsino and the gigantic, monstrous strongman, Lothar. Cliff and Goose are able to save Orsino from Lothar, who is killing the troupe in revenge for the accidental death of midget Teena, with whom he had become obsessed. Lothar tries to kill Cliff and Orsini at a funfair on the Boardwalk, but, with help from Jonas, Cliff is able to once again don his Rocketeer outfit and save his friend. Lothar is killed in the process, after which Cliff returns to LA, where Betty is waiting for him at the Bulldog Cafe.

Characters

  • Cliff Secord/The Rocketeer: A headstrong but broadly good-hearted aviator who discovers the rocket pack and embarks on a chaotic career as masked crimefighter the Rocketeer. Cliff was modelled on Stevens himself, partly due to the artist being unable to find a suitable subject. Stevens described the character as flawed, of whom Stevens was an avid fan.
  • Ambrose "Peevy" Peabody: A curmudgeonly aviation engineer and mechanic who helps Cliff at the aerodrome. Despite his reservations over Cliff's frequent acts of idiocy and his general bad-tempered dislike of anyone apart from Betty, he helps the hero out by creating the Rocketeer helmet and actually reading the directions for operation of the rocket pack, a step neglected by Cliff himself. Both Peevy's appearance and personality were modelled on artist Doug Wildey, an acquaintance of Stevens. A second four-issue mini series appeared the following year, featuring work from

Kyle Baker, John Byrne, David Lapham, Sandy Plunkett, Stan Sakai, Bill Sienkiewicz, John K. Snyder III and Chris Sprouse.

In 2013, IDW published two further mini-series - The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom by Waid and Chris Samnee, and The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror by Roger Langridge and J. Bone. 2014 saw Waid and Paul Smith create a cross over with The Spirit, The Rocketeer & the Spirit: Pulp Friction, while IDW also published prose anthology The Rocketeer: Jet-Pack Adventures, which included short stories by authors such as Yvonne Navarro, Don Webb, Gregory Frost, Nancy Holder, Nancy A. Collins and others.

IDW planned to reboot the series with a new female lead in the 2018 series The Rocketeer Reborn, but the title was cancelled before any of the material saw print. In January 2023, it was reported that IDW Publishing would publish a one-shot anthology based on an unfinished story by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, who wrote the screenplay for the 1991 film.

In November of 2025, IDW announced The Rocketeer: The Island, a miniseries by John Layman and Jacob Edgar adapted from an unfinished Dan Stevens story outline to be published in February 2026, in which Cliff goes on an adventure to find Amelia Earhart. A trailer released in December would reveal he would be accompanied by recent public domain characters Popeye and Tintin on the endeavor.

In other media

upright|thumb|A [[cosplayer dressed as the Rocketeer at the 2011 D23 Expo]]

Film

  • The Rocketeer appears in a self-titled film, portrayed by Billy Campbell.
  • In 2012, Disney was reportedly considering a remake of the 1991 film.
  • In 2021, It was announced that Jessica and David Oyelowo planned to produce a revival titled The Return of the Rocketeer. The film would be written by Ed Ricourt and focus on a retired Tuskegee airman who takes up the Rocketeer mantle.

Television

  • A television series was released on November 8, 2019 on Disney Junior in the United States, and on November 10 on Disney Junior in Canada. The series focuses on a young girl named Kit Secord (voiced by Kitana Turnbull), Cliff's great-granddaughter, who receives the family jetpack for her birthday and uses it to protect the town of Hughesville from various villains.
  • The Rocketeer was considered to appear in the What If...? episode "What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?", but was ultimately dropped.

Video games

  • A licensed Rocketeer game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in May 1991, to tie in with the film. It is a side-scrolling action game published and developed by Bandai, and followed the plot of the film.
  • The Rocketeer appears as a playable character in the mobile game Disney Heroes: Battle Mode.

Reception and legacy

As early as 1985, Amazing Heroes described the series as critically acclaimed. IGN listed the Rocketeer as the 76th Greatest Comic Book Character, stating that the Rocketeer taps into that popular desire to fly. IGN also stated the Rocketeer saga remains a compelling one.

In 1994, Stevens met Bettie Page and showed her The Rocketeer; he recalled she found it "funny and cute". Comic artist Adam Hughes credited The Rocketeer as igniting his interest in comics. The character has also been identified as an example of steampunk, dieselpunk, and retrofuturism.

References

  • Dave Stevens Official Site