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Rocket (PG 13)

Betsy Stacey
Nov 7, 2017
2 min read

Rocket or Raquel Ervin is a black female teenager growing up in the poorest section of her city. She was a debut character in Milestone Comics. A new comics media universe distributed by DC in the 1990s. The intent was to depict black superheroes with a variety of different backgrounds.

History:

Raquel Ervin was born in Paris Island, the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhood in Dakota City. She yearned to become a writer, but lacked the motivation. Until she met Augustus Freeman IV, a stranded alien with superhuman powers. This had occurred after Raquel's friends convinced her to accompany them as they went to rob Freeman's home during the "Big Bang". Raquel convinced Augustus to become the superhero Icon and to take her on as his sidekick, Rocket. While in costume, she wore a belt Hardware fashioned out of Icon's escape pod's inertia winder, which allowed her to manipulate kinetic energy. Shortly after she began adventuring with Icon, Raquel discovered that she was pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, Noble. While both Noble and her mother had wanted her to abort the baby, she decided to keep it, becoming the first single teenage mother in comics. She gave birth to a son, whom she named Amistad Augustus Ervin. "Amistad" was in honor of the famous ship that brought slaves over from Africa to America, and "Augustus" after Icon's human alias. Her pregnancy caused her to give up adventuring for a time, and so her best friend Darnice temporarily took on the role of Rocket. Not too long following her decision to go on a maternity leave, Icon left Earth to return home.

Raquel would eventually became a superhero again when Oblivion arrived on Earth intending to kill Icon. Icon returned to Earth to assist against Oblivion, and chose to remain on Earth afterwards.

Rocket also assisted the Blood Syndicate member Flashback in fighting her addiction to crack cocaine. Rocket felt sympathy for Flashback since her own sister, Della, died of a drug overdose years earlier.

Rocket was more liberal than Icon, which caused them to clash on a number of occasions. She befriended Static, another teenage superhero from Dakota City. While it has been hinted that someday they might become more than friends, their relationship has remained platonic.