Rocket (DC Comics)

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Rocket
Rocket from Icon #35, art by M. D. Bright.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Icon #1 (May 1993)
Created by	Dwayne McDuffie Denys Cowan
In-story information
Alter ego	Raquel Ervin
Team affiliations	Shadow Cabinet Star Chamber Young Justice Justice League
Partnerships	Icon
Abilities	Expert athlete and acrobat Skilled hand-to-hand combatant Inertia Belt grants: Superhuman strength Flight Kinetic energy manipulation Force field generation

Rocket (Raquel Ervin) is a fictional superheroine appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, who was introduced by Milestone Media.^[1] She was the sidekick of the superhero Icon. Rocket's powers come from her inertia belt, based on tech from Icon's ship.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2010)

An original character from DC's Milestone Comics imprint, she first appeared in Icon #1 (May 1993) where she was created by Dwayne McDuffie (writer), Denys Cowan, and Mark Bright.

Rocket, along with Milestone Universe and characters, was revived and merged into the DC Universe proper in the late 2000s. The merger treats the characters as new to the universe, ignoring the "Worlds Collide" Milestone/DC crossover of 1994. Rocket reappeared in Justice League of America (vol. 2) #27, written by creator Dwayne McDuffie.

Raquel Ervin was born in Paris Island, the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhood in Dakota.^[2] Although she is only the sidekick of the title character, Icon, she is the actual protagonist of the series. She yearned to become a writer like Toni Morrison, but lacked inspiration until she met Augustus Freeman IV, a corporate lawyer who was secretly a stranded alien with superhuman powers.^[2] This occurred while she and her friends were robbing Freeman's home. Raquel convinced Augustus to become the superhero Icon, and to take her on as his sidekick, Rocket.^[2] While in costume, she wore a belt that Icon fashioned out of his escape pod's inertia winder, which allowed her to manipulate kinetic energy.^[2][3]

Shortly after she began adventuring with Icon, Raquel discovered that she was pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, Noble (one of the other robbers from the day she met Freeman).^[4] She gave birth to a son, Amistad, who is named after a ship that transported slaves from France to the United States.^[5][6]

Rocket also assists the Blood Syndicate member Flashback in fighting her addiction to crack cocaine.^[7] Rocket is more liberal than Icon, which caused them to clash on a number of occasions. She befriends Static, another teenage superhero from Dakota City.

Following Darkseid's death in Final Crisis, the space-time continuum destabilizes, threatening the multiverse. In response, Dharma transports the Dakota characters to the DC universe, rewriting history so that they were always present there.^[8][9] Subsequently, Rocket becomes an ally of the Justice League and Shadow Cabinet.^[9][10][11]

Rocket has no innate superhuman abilities, but is a skilled gymnast and hand-to-hand combatant. She can manipulate energy using her inertia belt, which enables her to increase her own strength, fly via energy propulsion, and briefly paralyze others by negating their energy.^[5][6][12]

• Rocket appears in Young Justice, voiced initially by Kali Troy and later by Denise Boutte.^[13] This version initially works with Icon before joining the Team. Later in the series, Rocket joins the Justice League and becomes engaged to Noble Davis, with whom she has a son, Amistad.^[14]
• Rocket appears as a playable character in Young Justice: Legacy, voiced by Cree Summer.^[13]

Rocket held liberal views on economic and social issues, which resulted in her often clashing with her conservative partner, Icon. Under her influence, Icon eventually began re-evaluating his views.^{[citation needed]}

W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk was a major influence in shaping Rocket's liberal views.^[2]

• The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art, ed by Frances Gateward and John Jennings (Rutgers University Press, 2015)

• World of Black Heroes: Rocket Biography
• International Heroes: Rocket
• Rocket at the DC Database Project