ROCKETEERS, THE

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First Appearance: Daredevil #131
History: There have been several versions of the team known as The Rocketeers.

When the shape changing alien race known as the Dire Wraith began infiltrating various societies, including Earth, they made an agreement with a corrupt American Senator by the name of Eugene Stivak. Eugene Stivak was also the leader of a criminal organization known as The Corporation. The Dire Wraith provided him with blue prints of a suit of armor that would be very powerful. Eugene recruited his nephew, a very intelligent engineer, by the name of Michael Stivak. It didn’t take long for Michael to realize that his uncle’s intentions were malicious in intent; and he created flawed version which he handed over to his uncle, then created the true version – which became the Torpedo costume – which he used to destroy all the existing blueprints for it, making it impossible to recreate. However, during this, Michael was fatally wounded and when former football player, Brock Jones, stumbled across him – he made Brock promise that he would continue to fight his father’s evil corporation. Brock accepted, donned the armor, and became the hero known as Torpedo.

The Rocketeers were given these green colored inferior costumes in an attempt to lure Torpedo out so that they could defeat him, however, before Torpedo ever became aware of them, Daredevil encountered them and defeated them and handed them over to the police.

Eugene had his Rocketeers try again, and the second time the Rocketeers succeeded in capturing Torpedo and dragged him to Senator Stivak’s mansion in Westchester, where during the battle, when Torpedo broke free – an explosive device triggered, blowing up the mansion. Stivak survived the explosion, as did Torpedo, but the fate of those Rocketeers also caught in the explosion was never revealed.

Sometime later, another group of green costumed Rocketeers went after Torpedo at his house; donning his armor and in an effort to protect his family, Torpedo lashed out at the Rocketeers, who upon being struck and defeated, their bodies – and the armor – seemed to turn to liquefied ash. Brock decided he needed to move his family to safety and moved to Clairton, West Virginia, where, coincidentally, ROM had also set up “base” after landing on Earth. The two met each other and fought briefly, before coming to an understanding that each of them was a hero.

However, moving there does not hide Brock from the Rocketeers – as this time, they show up in force – a far larger number of Rocketeers than ever before. ROM joins the battle – and after hearing what happened the last time Torpedo fought the Rocketeers outside his home and how they’d turned to ash – ROM suspects that these Rocketeers, as well as the ones that Torpedo fought outside his home, are Dire Wraith – and his gun is able to confirm exactly that – which he shares with Torpedo. Together they destroy the Dire Wraith Rocketeers. Elsewhere, someone by the name of Benjamin, who runs the Del Mar Insurance Company, kills himself with a gun, and only his ashes remain – with a note that he knew what would happen if his Dire Wraith masters found him, and he’d sent these Dire Wraith after Torpedo without realizing that ROM was also in the area.

Sometime later, the female Dire Wraith arrive on Earth, disappointed by the lack of progress the male Dire Wraith have had. The look between the male and female Dire Wraith is very noticeable – with the females having the ability to access “magic” and their appearance looking distinctly more fearsome. Tired of the failure by their male counterparts, the female Dire Wraith kill the males. Five of the males manage to escape and reach Florida, where there is a rocket launch scheduled, and assume the role of the Rocketeers again.

One of the Male Dire Wraith in an effort to escape, betrays the other four and makes it aboard the rocket – however, in his attempt to escape he has also managed to capture the Avenger known as Wasp aboard the rocket now soaring out of Earth’s atmosphere. Monica Rambeu (as then, Captain Marvel) races to the ship and is blasted – but, survives. Wasp gets the drop on the Dire Wraith who explains that he and his fellow male Dire Wraith were fleeing in fear of their lives; explaining the female Dire Wraith had been closing in on the few that had managed to escape. When Vision and Starfox join Captain Marvel and Wasp, the male Dire Wraith, rather than get taken back to Earth to potentially die at the hands of the female Dire Wraith ejects himself – and almost the others into outer space, where he dies.

The other male Dire Wraith who had been betrayed were the male who had nearly escaped provide an easy method for the female Dire Wraith to track them down. The female Dire Wraith to take over the forms of humans and gain entrance to where their male counterparts are and proceed to murder them while they’re captured.

They are finally defeated and destroyed in a battle with Captain America and with some help from Scarlet Witch who defeats the last one who murdered the male Dire Wraith.

Some years later, five engineer technicians, who had worked at the criminal organization, The Corporation had gotten it into their head they wanted to recreate the Rocketeer armor – and though the Torpedo armor couldn’t be recreated because the blueprints had been destroyed, the unique armor’s signature could be tracked – all they had to do was wait for it to be activated.

Michael “Mike” Jeffries ended up finding the Torpedo suit in a storage attic in the family home; he looked at it and could not figure out what it was and at that point gave it to his good friend, Michiko “Mickey” Musashi, who in turn ended up wearing it as a unique Halloween costume at Long Island University.

These Rocketeers, whose outfits were brown and gold, burst into the costume party and attacked Mike and Mickey – and when Mickey was blown through the window and reappeared, she quickly defeated the five men who confessed to how they’d been at the lab when the original Rocketeer costumes were made and had used their knowledge to create a tracking device to track it down – the final purpose, had they acquired the armor, was never disclosed.

Powers: The humans who used the Rocketeer armor had no powers. The male Dire Wraith who used the Rocketeer armor had a natural ability to shape shift.

Accessories: The Rocketeer Armor was equipped with a number of weapons, as well as boosters that allowed flight.

Note: The original Rocketeers who first appeared in Daredevil originally had no connection to ROM, the Dire Wraith or even Torpedo. They were merely intended to be “bank robbers” for Daredevil to encounter, according to Marv Wolfman. He would go on to retcon this himself, when he wrote the Torpedo story in Marvel Premiere #39 and 40. Another interesting note is Eugene Stivak was originally set to be a foreign power who planned on using the Torpedo armor to create super soldiers and attack the United States from within. Eugene Stivak would later go on to show up in The Incredible Hulk #231 under the name of Kligger.