Rocket Red Brigade
17 years ago - Russia begins recruiting soldiers to join its new military unit, The Rocket Red Brigade, using state-of-the-art mech suits.
15 years ago - The Rocket Red Brigade is launched, working as advanced rescue & police units, as well as military support.
14 years ago - The Rocket Red Brigade are placed in support of the government-sanctioned organization The People's Heroes.
8 years ago - The Rocket Red Brigade support The People's Heroes as they attempt to stop Ivan Illyich Gort from defecting. He destroys many of the armor suits, requiring the Brigade to commission the construction of next-gen mech suits.
5 years ago - Rocket Red #4, Dmitri Pushkin, volunteers to serve as the Russian representative in the Global Guardians.
3 years ago - Rocket Red #4, Dmitri Pushkin, joins several former members of The People's Heroes to stop mad scientist Alexi Nicolai from creating a nuclear apocalypse.
2 years ago - Rocket Red #4, Dmitri Pushkin, becomes the tactical director of The Rocket Red Brigade.
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Rocket Red Brigade's Comic HistoryThe Rocket Red Brigade traces its creation back to Green Lantern Corps #208 from 1987. At the time, the Corps was actually a bunch of aliens all living on Earth in a big house, Real World style. Among them was Kilowog, the beloved giant hippo-alien drill instructor. He actually went to live in the USSR for a time, and while he was there he helped create the technology for their new small army of mech suit wearing peacekeeper/government operatives.
After a few conflicts with the Justice League, one of the Rocket Reds joined the Justice League's International Team but was revealed to be a Manhunter (of course), and was followed by long-time League member Dmitri Pushkin, Rocket Red #4. Most of the Rocket Red's appearances are pre-Flashpoint, regularly showing up any time the action started to depict more of the world stage, but there are a number of New 52 and beyond appearances as well, establishing that they are a regular part of the world. |
Our Rocket Red Brigade's StoryThere is very little we have to do to get the Rocket Red's correct in our timeline. This is just a fun, simple idea. It's cool to see how some of the other countries in the DC landscape interact with the world of superhumans, and the idea the Russia had a state-sponsored army of robot-suited patriots just feels inherently correct.
While in the comics they are the result of Killowog's alien engineering expertise, we actually decided that really wasn't all that necessary. There are plenty of other cool mech-suit based characters in our project to set a precedent that this level of technology is achievable, and frankly part of the fun here is the idea that the Rocket Red's are perhaps LESS technologically advanced than some other mechs you might see out there. They are reminiscent of the Russian MiG fighter jets, built for rougher field operations and using older analog systems, favoring straightforward welding and metalworking over the advanced alloys and tight quality control that makes other aircraft like the F-16 vastly more expensive to manufacture. We are also creating another timeline for one particular Rocket Red whose individual story is a little more complex, but the Brigade itself is a beloved part of DC lore and deserved a page of their own. |
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