Deadpool in space! This is not a drill!

So we've been dicking around with our Deadpool in space storyline "The Stars My Aggravation for, um, well over three and a half years now. We've been at it so long, Deadpool's actually gone back into space in the comics again! From 2017, Rocket #4, "The Blue River Score, part 4: Dirty Money" Written by Al Ewing, art by Adam Gorham.

Rocket Raccoon has found himself in a jam: framed by an ex, he's now the subject of a "perpetual warrant," which the bounty hunting Technet (from classic Excalibur comics) is putting to good use: they've actually busted him out a couple times, to cash in on "capturing" him again. But Rocket has some new help: Deadpool! What's he doing in space? Well, post-Secret Empire, he's not in a good place...

Pool suggests buying off the Technet, and for that much money, Rocket can't hit a legit business, or his bounty would go up, so they'll have to hit the mob. Specifically, mob boss Cordyceps Jones. (The name is a clue!) While the heist goes off without a hitch, afterwards Rocket grudgingly realizes Pool is hurting, but Pool doesn't reach out for help, because he doesn't feel like he deserves it. (And in his own book, I think Pool would go "screw it, I'm a villain now.") Rocket pays off the Technet; in fact, he goes a step further and hires them. The Technet are way more competent here than I'd ever seen them, and in the next couple issues Ewing actually makes you sympathize with Gatecrasher, if you can believe it. And while he's working within the current plot for him, Ewing's Deadpool is on point.

This was part of a big ol' box I got from Forbidden Planet, including another surprisingly glum Rocket Raccoon book, the trade for Grounded. Even with Kraven the Hunter and his glorious van (a joke I thought originated in Squirrel Girl) or more accurately, because of them; Rocket has a miserable time trapped on earth. Lot of jokes, sure; but still kind of a downer.