At the very beginning, Rocket Salvage reminds me a little bit of Tom Slick. For those who don’t remember, it was a cartoon about a hotshot auto racer and his wacky adventures in various races. This comic starts out similarly. Primo Rocket is the fastest man alive, preparing for his next race, where he stands poised to break the all-time racing record.
Along the way, we’re introduced to a host of other characters, such as his mechanic/mad scientist Dr. Utzman, his rival on the course Evy, and the shady crime boss Klem. With this cavalcade of crazy characters—enemies, allies, and a wacky support team—we seem all set for a crazy racing adventure in space. Did I mention it takes place in space?
Then, we fast forward 15 years. Primo is now the washed-up owner of a salvage company and single father to two kids—or possibly clones. Meanwhile, there’s an epic war being waged between the Republic of Galaxies and the Galactic Republic, and it looks like Primo is about to get caught up in it, whether he wants to or not.
This is a great beginning to what promises to be a pretty fun story. It starts off a little confusing, throwing at least half a dozen new characters at us within the first couple of pages, but it quickly mellows out as the story begins to unfold. The art, meanwhile, is very colorful and detailed, giving us a variety of different alien species for characters, plus some pretty great futuristic backgrounds and cityscapes.
It can be a bit difficult to establish a story in the first issue. With a lot of comics, I’m left with a feeling of, “This doesn’t really have much definition yet, but the story has potential to be fleshed out better in the future.” Rocket Salvage drops us right into the middle of things, though, establishing its world and characters fairly quickly, and subsequently making the story feel fuller and more concrete, even in just this first issue. There are five more issues to go. Looking forward to seeing where things are headed.