| Rocket Red | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Gavril Ivanovich,JLI's second Rocket Red; art byAaron Lopresti. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Pushkin Justice League #3 (July 1987) Ivanovich Justice League: Generation Lost #4 (August 2010) |
| Created by | Pushkin Steve Englehart (writer) Joe Staton (artist) Ivanovich Judd Winick (writer) Joe Bennett (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Dimitri Pushkin Gavril Ivanovich |
| Team affiliations | Justice League Rocket Red Brigade Justice League International Justice League Europe Pushkin: Black Lantern Corps |
| Notable aliases | Rocket Red #4 |
| Abilities |
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Rocket Red (Russian:Ракетно-Красный,romanized: Raketno-Krasnyy) is asuperhero appearing in theDC Comicsuniverse. Created bySteve Englehart andJoe Staton, he first appeared inGreen Lantern Corps#208 (January 1987),[1] appearing shortly afterward inJustice League in issue #3 (July 1987); Rocket Red was inducted into the Justice League inJustice League #7 (November 1987).
The term "Rocket Reds" refers to any member of theRocket Red Brigade; the name in the singular is used to refer to the three individual characters named Rocket Red who were members of the Justice League. These comprise the original Rocket Red #7 (later revealed as an android),Dmitri Pushkin (Rocket Red #4), andGavril Ivanovich.
Dmitri Pushkin (Rocket Red #4) joins theJustice League International after Rocket Red #7 is revealed to be aManhunter. A kind-hearted and jolly man with a taste for American culture, Pushkin serves with the Justice League International for many years.
When his armor is destroyed byLobo, he replaces it with a more advanced model made onApokolips. Rocket Red later joinsJustice League Europe, withMaxwell Lord arranging for his wife Belina and their two children, Mischa and Tascha, to live with him at the League's Paris embassy.
In the 2005 seriesThe OMAC Project, Pushkin is killed while protecting the Justice League's members.[2] He has remained dead since, but was temporarily resurrected as aBlack Lantern during theBlackest Night event in 2009.[3]
In theBooster Gold series, Rocket Red's grandfather, Sergei Pushkin, is revealed to have been a Russian scientist working with the U.S. on thespace race in 1952. After being exposed as a traitor working for Russia, Pushkin is placed under house arrest, working on the Rocket Red armor in secret. Pushkin dies before completing the suit, which was finished by his son.[4]
The 2010 ongoing seriesJustice League: Generation Lost introduced a new Rocket Red named Gavril Ivanovich. In this title, several members of the erstwhile JLI, pursuing a group ofOMACs controlled by the resurrectedMaxwell Lord, encounter a fight among a group of Rocket Reds incited by Ivanovich, who remains loyal to the oldCommunist cause and is resistant to thecapitalist values of the modern Rocket Red brigade. He also sports a bulkier, outdated suit of armor that resembles Pushkin's armor rather than the sleek, modern suits worn by the other members of the brigade. The Justice League members intervene to prevent collateral damage, and Ivanovich joins the group.[5]
In September 2011,The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Ivanovich is reintroduced in the ongoing seriesJustice League International as a member of aUnited Nations-assembled superhero team led byBooster Gold.[6][7] After helping to repel an invasion by the alien conqueror Peraxxus, Ivanovich is killed in an explosion during a press conference introducing the team.[8]
The Rocket Reds were originally created for theSoviet Union byKilowog and the Rocket Red Brigade — normal human beings enhanced using "forced evolution" and armored battle suits — proudly defended the USSR.
Their abilities included super strength, invulnerability, flight, the ability to project powerful energy blasts, and "mecha-empathy", the ability to sense and control computers and machines.
