Exclusive Marvel preview: Rocket Raccoon visits Captain Marvel #8 to fight alien kittens

David Lopez’s cover for Captain Marvel #8 says everything you need to know about the contents, showing a battle-ready Carol Danvers and Rocket Raccoon drowning in a flood of adorable cats. It’s a hilarious image that embodies this book’s light-hearted spirit, and writer Kelly Sue DeConnick understands that superhero comics shouldn’t take themselves too seriously, even when the stakes are high.

The second volume of DeConnick’s Captain Marvel has seen Carol relocate to space, where she’s become a member of the Guardians Of The Galaxy and helped an alien race deal with the fallout from last year’s Infinity crossover. It’s been an action-packed run that has continued to establish Captain Marvel as one of the Marvel Universe’s heavy hitters, but DeConnick hasn’t lost sight of the humor in the midst of the cosmic warring.

Much of the book’s comedy stems from Carol’s interactions with Rocket Raccoon, who is at odds with her pet cat Chewie, because he believes the animal is actually an alien Flerken. Turns out the raccoon is right, and now Carol and Rocket have to figure out what to do with a bunch of hatching Flerken eggs while mysterious forces try to retrieve the feline alien for themselves. It’s all pretty silly, but it’s also a lot of fun, especially when paired with the smooth, animated artwork of Marcio Takara, who fills in for regular artist Lopez on this short arc.