The all-ages Rocketfellers launched last month right in time for the holiday season to kick into gear for The Rocketfellers #2. A time-displaced family from the future is trying to fit in while a threat attempts to locate and possibly kill them! It’s a family made up of a grandpa, little ones, and two parents trying to make things work, and in this week’s issue, it’s time to get ho-ho-holly for the holidays.
The Rocketfellers #2 opens on Earth in 2425, where the enemy contemplates where the Rocketfellers have gone off to. We then get an excellent double-page splash of the four realities making up the Ghost Machine universe drawn by Francis Manapul. The snapshots give us a taste of the various Ghost Machine titles, and they feel like an important reminder that all of these stories can and will connect at some point. The opening and closing of this issue end up feeling like a good preview of what is to come for this book and others.
The main thrust of the issue focuses on the Rocketfellers on a mission to get a Christmas tree. That means a trip to the farm to cut a tree and the eventual science-related solution to get a tree up while also protecting all life. They’re from the future, you see, and killing a tree feels quite wrong.
Cool double page splash.
Credit: Image
Characterization is on point throughout, be it the grandpa’s super strength, the mother’s agility, the daughter’s empathy, or the brother’s computer skills. The father is a bit like Reed Richards, only he’s a bit more bumbling with his end-product inventions. That leads to a rather fun caper involving a supertree that leads to a comical moment or two.
As far as fitting in, writer Peter J. Tomasi and Manapul use a worker at the Christmas tree farm and a neighbor to show how strange the family is. It mostly works, although more as gags than showing how the family doesn’t quite fit in.
As a bottle episode, this issue delivers fun while reminding us who these good future people are. The larger story definitely takes a backseat, though, with the cliffhanger promising more for the main plot.
The Rocketfellers #2 is a delightful holiday-themed installment that highlights the charm and quirks of its futuristic family while teasing broader connections to the Ghost Machine universe, though its main plot takes a backseat to festive fun.
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