The Incredible Hulk #271
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982) is the issue that brought Rocket Raccoon into Marvel's main Earth-616 continuity for the first time, establishing the character's full name, personality, home world of Halfworld, and the cast of allies and villains who would anchor his mythology for decades to come. While a character named 'Rocky Raccoon' had appeared six years earlier in the black-and-white magazine Marvel Preview #7 — a story later assigned by the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe to an alternate reality — this is where the definitive, in-continuity version of Rocket debuted in full color and on a cover. Writer Bill Mantlo packed the story with loving Beatles references (the title itself reworks the opening line of the White Album song 'Rocky Raccoon'), giving the issue a playful literary texture rare for a Bronze Age Marvel book. Few readers in 1982 could have predicted that this oddball one-off would eventually feed into one of the most commercially successful film franchises in Hollywood history.
In "Now Somewhere in the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived a Young Boy Name of... Rocket Raccoon!", the Hulk is mysteriously transported to Halfworld, a surreal planet inhabited by sentient animals, where he teams up with Rocket Raccoon and his allies to face bizarre threats. Meanwhile, on Earth, Betty pleads with Bereet to save Rick Jones, who claims he’s never met her before. Written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated by Sal Buscema, with colors by Bob Sharen and letters by Jim Novak, this 1982 Marvel classic features a cover by Al Milgrom.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Bill Mantlo, who had originally sketched 'Rocky Raccoon' for the Marvel Preview back-up six years earlier, returned to the character when writing the Hulk's 20th-anniversary period under editor Al Milgrom, weaving him into the book's ongoing space-adventure arc. Sal Buscema, the issue's penciler and inker, redesigned the character visually for color comics, and Milgrom himself supplied the cover art. The issue was edited during the Jim Shooter era at Marvel, when the Hulk book was part of a broader creative push under Mantlo and Buscema that fans and critics later credited with laying groundwork for the character's definitive modern treatment.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Rocket Raccoon in Marvel's Earth-616 (main) continuity, his first appearance in color, and his first appearance on a comic book cover — all in one issue.
- Also marks the first appearances of Lylla (Rocket's girlfriend), Wal Russ (his walrus companion), villain Judson Jakes, scientist Uncle Pyko, Blackjack O'Hare, and the Killer Clowns, all set on the planet Halfworld in the Keystone Quadrant.
- Written by Bill Mantlo; interior art (pencils and inks) by Sal Buscema; cover by Al Milgrom; colors by Bob Sharen; letters by Jim Novak; edited by Al Milgrom under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
- The story's title — 'Now Somewhere in the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived a Young Boy Name of Rocket Raccoon!' — is a direct riff on the opening lyric of the Beatles song 'Rocky Raccoon' from the 1968 White Album; the issue is laced with additional Beatles references, including the name of Rocket's walrus sidekick Wal Russ (a nod to 'I Am the Walrus').
- Rocket's earlier appearance as 'Rocky' in Marvel Preview #7 (Summer 1976), drawn by Keith Giffen, was later assigned by the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe to alternate-reality Earth-7614, making Hulk #271 the character's first canonical 616 outing and the issue where 'Rocky' is retroactively revealed to be short for 'Rocket.'
- Published in two editions — a Direct Market edition and a Newsstand edition — with a Mark Jeweler advertisement insert variant also documented.
- The issue has been reprinted in at least three collected editions: Rocket Raccoon & Groot: The Complete Collection (trade paperback), Rocket Raccoon: Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant (hardcover), and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Team-Up (trade paperback).
- Rocket Raccoon went on to appear in only about ten comic books across his first thirty years of existence before the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy relaunch by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and the 2014 MCU film catapulted him to mainstream prominence; Hulk #271 is the foundation stone of that entire trajectory.
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Reprints
Reprinted in L'incroyable Hulk #130/131 (1982), Hulk #2/1983 (1983), Hulk #2/1983 (1983), La Masa #11 (1983), O Incrível Hulk #24 (1985), Rocket Raccoon: Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant #[nn] (2011), Incredible Hulk: Pardoned #[nn] (2012), Rocket Raccoon & Groot: The Complete Collection #[nn] (2013), Marvel Héroes #46 (2013), Marvel Universe Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Team-Up #[nn] (2014), Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude #[nn] (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Solo Classic Omnibus #[nn] (2015), Rocket Raccoon and Groot #2 (2016), Marvel-Verse: Rocket & Groot #[nn] (2023), Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk #18 (2024), Incredible Hulk Epic Collection #11 (2026), Der unglaubliche Hulk #12
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