I have always loved the Rocket Reds, and the reason is simple: they are the Barry Horowitz of the DC Universe.
Barry Horowitz, for those not in the know, was a professional wrestler and probably the last truly great jobber – the designated loser, the one who showed up to get his ass kicked by the up-and-coming star or the veteran needing the easy win to re-establish himself. He jobbed out for twenty years in the WWF before it became the WWE, and he was a master at not only making his opponents look good at kicking his ass, but at getting the crowd to love it when they kicked his ass. Barry Horowitz with his trademark self-pat-on-the-back, always entirely undeserved and always pointedly obnoxious, who always got pinned. Of course, over time the crowds came to love Horowitz, because you had to recognize skill when you see it, which eventually led to the “HOROWITZ WINS!” angle, wherein he finally managed a win and the crowd went nuts.
Which brings me back to the Rocket Reds. It’s worth remembering that the Rocket Reds were, for the most part, not a very pleasant bunch when they first arrived: Rocket Red #7 – the “classic” Rocket Red we all remember from the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League – was an exception to the rule. Most of the Rocket Reds were portrayed as clueless peons of an oppressive regime. And so they remained… until they weren’t that any more, because dammit, there is something likeable about the Rocket Reds. The Rocket Reds somehow have become something like the Russian ideal of a superhero – soldiers rather than vigilantes, sense of duty to the state, predilection for getting their ass kicked but in a stoic, we’ll-wear-you-down-eventually sort of way. In the Villains United special during Infinite Crisis, which was really the high point of the whole misguided exercise, Gail Simone has former Rocket Reds busting into their old armory to suit up in Rocket Red armor to go fight the army of villains, all the while chatting calmly about how this will most likely get them killed, and the humour of the scene just feels very grimly Russian in a way that’s very essential.
Nowadays the Rocket Reds are more or less a required element whenever one does a DC comic that might involve Russia. It’s almost impossible for there not to be Rocket Reds – it would be like going to Gorilla City and not having sentient gorillas. (If and when Batman ever goes to hire the Batman of Moscow, that Russian Batman should be a former Rocket Red.) Because the Rocket Reds might be the guys who get their asses kicked so the real heroes can look good – but they’ve got such a great way of getting their asses kicked that you can’t but help rooting for them.
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Bonus points for the armor being designed by Kilowog.
Funny how the Russian superheroes are so locked into the “Red” motif… Red Star, Red Trinity, Rocket Red… American heroes get Green Arrow/Lantern, Blue Beetle, Black Canary, Booster Gold, and the primary colours of Superman/Wonder Woman etc., but with Russians it’s always Red this, Red that. Sheesh!
I did like Rocket Red #7 though.
@Die Macher, what does that say about Red Tornado?
Clearly he is a subversive, pinko, leftie, latte-munching, arugula-sipping, Marxicommie agent.
@Psych – That Ma Hunkel being a card carrying Communist was another reason why the JSA quit instead on doing the House Un-American Activities hearings?
@DistantFred: That would actually make for a great book idea. Nicely done, sir.
Plus they’ve got a great design, comic book armor that acutally looks like armor and not metallic spandex. They’ve got a great industrial feel to them and he have heroic colors as well.
Good article.
DC should do what Marvel did with Scourge and assimilate as much villain tech into the Rocket Red body armor as they can – even if its entirely redundant to what they already have.
Put enough jobber tech together and you’ll get something entirely badass.
I love that the armor doesn’t like traditionally “superheroic” — it looks like a bunch of hazmat suits. It lends itself to the Soviet-equivalent motif. “They’re definitely superheroes, but they aren’t American superheroes.”
Zenrage: Even X-Cutioner?
I’m such a sucker for anything that has a hammer and sickle slapped on it. Me and Putin, we miss the Soviet Union so hard!
@Zenrage, I really liked the idea and design for the Jack Monroe Scourge that plagued the Thunderbolts. It came together really well.
That visor has to go, though. If you can’t see their faces, how are they going to be able to give that Rocket Red glare?
In fairness, the suits have gotten more streamlined over time. But they’re still much more armor-ish than most suits of armor.
@Marionette: As awesome as that might be, “Rocket’s Red Glare” comes from the American national anthem, and is not something that a typical Soviet-inspired hero might go for.
@Die Macher- I lol’d hard at “arugula sipping.” Well played.
@Die Macher – well I guess that explains Red Arrow…
The fact that, if destroyed, they become low-yield fission bombs (as seen in DC 1,000,000) seems like a very Soviet-era design flaw.
@Adam Farrar–I especially like that the Jack Monroe Scourge tooks it’s design cues from Paul Kirk’s Manhunter outfit.
Seriously–look at the placement of Nomad’s stun discs and the shurikens on Kirk’s tunic.
The Rocket Reds are awesome. They look so damn Soviet–bulky, overbuilt, and powerful. That’s been lost a bit in later redesigns, because unlike Iron Man, sleekness is not the point.
I wonder how many guys make up the Red brigade. Apparently a brigade can have anywhere from 600 to 6500 guys in it, depending on the size and number of the battalions that make it up.
I really don’t care about the Rocket Reds in general but I LOVE RR#4. Dmitri Pushkin is what would happen if Yakov Smirnoff were Iron Man and that is all kinds of awesome.
I had no idea that these guys ever existed. After reading “The Winter Men” it’s kind of cool to know that such figures existed in more mainstream comics, and the way that MGK discusses these characters puts me almost completely in mind of the premise of that other series. Neat.
The Rocket Reds are to American superheroes as the Soyuz is to the space shuttle. And I LOVE the Soyuz.
Hey MGK, didn’t you also mention you like the “new” Rocket Red Gavril Ivanovich in JL: Generation Lost?
If I recall correctly, you thought he was pretty funny — which I agree with, by the way.
And yes, the Rocket Reds are awesome.
That Englehart/Staton GLC was a rollicking good read. (Creepy stuff about kinda-jailbait Arisia aside.) Did Doctor Ub’X get his own Who’s Who entry? If so, you know what to do for next Thursday. (And Ch’p really has to be in at least one crowd shot in the GL movie.)
Ah, Rocket Reds – sure, they are kind of stereotypical, but considered most of the other Russian superheroes created by Americans, at least they don’t (usually) suck.
*Wonders if they could make a good KHL team.*
Remember the scene in Chase where it turned out that unemployed post-Soviet Rockets Red had been selling off pieces of their armor to the Senderoso Luminoso?
God damn, Chase was a magnificent comic.
I loved these guys back in the 80’s when they seemed to be all over DC Comics. I’m not a fan of the redesigned armor. I could handle the Apokalyptian armor from Justice League International, I could even kind of handle the idea that they used it to upgrade the others so they all matched (the idea works better if all the Rocket Reds looks alike so you can’t tell them apart except by their number) but the totally new designs are just way too sleek for my taste. Bulking works so much better.