The Rocketeer 1991 and The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures Mini Story Review

I read through The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures collection last year and thought very little of it.  Cliff is much more of a wimp than in the film despite being a daring stunt pilot. His girlfriend Betty is modeled after Bettie Page the iconic pinup girl and poses nude often for her publicist, a pornographer named Marcus, during the adventures the comic covers.  In fact, her pursuit of a modelling career drives the plot from place to place and coast to coast.  Cliff just follows for the most part. I hear complements toward this comic limited run and they're mostly about how Bettie's likeness is used and how Dave Stevens, the author and artist of The Rocketeer did communicate with Bettie Page throughout his career.  The sex appeal cannot cure a depressing and rarely interesting story following a depression-era pilot who's down on his luck and barely manages to keep his girl before returning to LA where they started, still broke but at least where he's got friends.

The movie on the other hand is a rare example of how source material can be reshaped into an amazing piece of entertainment I'd show to just about anyone.  Jennifer Connelly's Jennie Blake is a classy contrast to Betty and Timothy Dalton plays a dashing actor who takes the place of Marcus.  Cliff is tenacious and shows courage in the face of extreme danger.  Characters make a strong impression regardless of screentime and scenes make the most of actors who are in top form.  Lothar from the comic, a giant from a circus, is retooled into an enforcer for Timothy Dalton's Neville Sinclair allowing comic characters to be nodded to while making sense in the new story.  The Rocketeer movie is one of my top three of all time and for good reason.  Please watch, it's a treat.