I didn’t think this day would ever come, Fangirls. The last time we talked about Rocket Girl was last May, and I’ve been counting down the days until it’s return. A short hiatus turned into a real long one, and my meaning in life began to be in question. However, I now stand here, within your computer, to happily recap the official return of the most beloved Rocket Girl. It’s okay, I’m tearing up a bit too.
The worst part about that ever painful hiatus is that we were left at a monumental shift. Not a full on cliffhanger, but there were a lot of questions. Mainly, “what the fuck is she going to do?” Dayoung Johansson, aka Rocket Girl, is now stuck in 1986, the past, which has now shifted to being the present. One thing that this book sure didn’t loose in the hiatus is that confusing past, present, future stuff. There are things that have already happened in the future, making them past events, but still more in the future than what is now considered the present in 1986. It gets a little twisted.
Surely, Dayoung is conflicted a little bit. The life she knows is now 27 years in the future and, for now, completely intangible. She must learn to continue her life here in the 80s, but her new found “friends” aren’t much help. You all remember Annie, the scientist who is partially to blame for Dayoung’s situation. She kind of difficult to deal with. She’s trying to make up for messing with her life by trying to control it. She’s telling her what she should do, that she should get into a high school, but of course, Dayoung is an independent woman who isn’t listening to shit from anybody. She takes off as Annie gets into a fight with a stranger. Exactly where she is going isn’t clear, even once she gets there. 
Before that, though, there’s a flashback to the future. A phrase only normal in a Rocket Girl comic. We see Dayoung’s first day on the job in the TNYPD, with her partner at the time, Natasha. They’re hopeful young ladies, especially Dayoung, but maybe a little two hopeful. They go down to Chinatown to find some bad guys to bring in, and end up choosing the wrong one to confront. He looks like a pimp, and they threaten to bring him in and all the jazz. He and his ladies get heated, and start beating the two of them up. Dayoung gets in a good shot of his nose, and manages to get away with Natasha. From then on, they vow to follow the rules of the law and to not try anything fancy. 
Back in the past/present, Dayoung is having some reflection time as she runs through the streets of New York. She is on a mission to find something, and seems to find it. She runs up to a young woman and hugs her tight, crying, then runs away. We don’t learn who this is, but my thought is that it’s maybe her mother. Dayoung thinks about who Rocket Girl is, what that stands for. She gets real introspective about wanting to protect people, and that being what she needs to do. She runs off to find her jetpack, but Annie seems to have relocated it.
I smell some superheroine stuff a brewin’, Fangirls. I think that Dayoung has an urge to do what is right and to help people and is going to start taking matters into her own hands. Boy oh boy, am I ready, friends. I’m also ready for some more answers. This was the first time we had seen Natasha, who had seemed to be Dayoung’s partner. When Rocket Girl was still in the future, we had never seen any sign of her. I’m thinking there is something fishy about that. Also, I’ll be anyone $5 that woman that Dayoung went to hug was her mother. Fingers crossed we find out more next issue.
For now, I’ll continue holding this comic close to my chest and glowing. She’s back, Fangirls. She’s really, really back.
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