In Review: The Rocketeer: The Great Race #2 (of 4)

Synopsis: Cliff Secord has finally decided to abandon the Rocketeer persona for good and concentrate on making his gal, Betty, proud of him by taking an honest-to-goodness legit gig—piloting an experimental rocket plane in a death-defying race halfway around the world! Cliff must navigate both the route and the myriad ace pilots assembled against him in order to secure one of the most valuable prizes ever offered. If only the competition were as prepared as Cliff to play it straight… Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!

The Story

It’s race day and Cliff Secord finally gets to meet some of the pilots that he’ll be racing against. However, when The Iron Baron makes a play for Bettie. Cliff’s jealousy comes to the fore and a new rivalry begins. Little does cliff know that The Iron Baron is in fact a Nazi Spie who has been tasked with learning about Professor Nkosi’s new super plane, which cliff will be flying. As the race draws closer. The rivalry between Cliff and the other pilots begins to simmer.

The Artwork

Gabriel Rodriguez does a great job of illustrating the excitement of the build-up to the race as we see an airplane fair type of atmosphere. The artist continues to pay homage to Dave Stevens’s art style and does so impressively. I loved the panels depicting the excitement of the race as we see all the planes take off. However, some planes wind up having an incredibly short race.

Overall

Stephen Mooney continues to bring us an incredibly pulpy story that feels very much like a Rocketeer story. The rivalry between Cliff Secord and the other pilots is well written. And he gives us a great villain in the form of the Iron Baron, who am already taking a dislike to, but in a very sort of love-to-hate kind of way.

I’m also loving the somewhat fractious relationship between Cliff and the professor. Especially when it comes to how Cliff should be racing his plane.

Overall. A solid second issue that leaves us with an exciting cliffhanger to stew on until next month.