The setup is that Cliff Secord is being hired by the US government to help look for Ameila Earhart after her disappearance. They're aware of his Rocketeer alias (and we learn the rocket technology is in fact fairly simple and dirt cheap to produce, so the government has kept it under wraps because they fear it would be far more dangerous if every regular Joe had acccess to it) and are hiring him specifically because of it. Betty and Marco go along to get a South Seas island photo shoot, and the group is also accompanied by Titin (acting as a journalist to document Earhart's rescue), Popeye (who owns the boat they charter to get to the area) and Alexandra Payne (I believe a new character who has some background in the region). They dock at Skull Island and begin looking for Earhart, who they believe may have crashed there. While they begin to grow worried after encountering some slain dinosaurs, Betty is captured by natives who offer her to Kong. (Basically just like the original movie.)
Cliff runs into a giant Tyrannosaurs while looking for Betty and damages his rocket pack. It's then that he runs into Earhart, who takes him back to her plane, hidden behind a waterfall. Meanwhile, Betty finds that Kong is actually pretty friendly and he protects her when the T-Rex shows up. There's a giant Kong/T-Rex battle -- joined by Earhart in her plane and the natives being led by Alexandra -- and the dinosaur eventually goes down. Betty, pointing to Kong's behavior, is able to convince everyone that he's actually friendly and helpful. While they've found Earhart and prepare to leave with their mission accomplished, Earhart opts to stay behind on the island, as she detested the spotlight she was always put under in the States and couldn't stomach the thought of being center stage even more after her prolonged absence.
The critic in me found some foundational issues with the premise. First, Earhart disappeared in 1937 but Kong was killed in 1933, so he shouldn't even be around. It's a minor point, but it's one thing that's bugged me about pretty much every Kong appearance post-1933. Second, Popeye's and Tintin's appearances here feel like stunt-casting. Neither one do anything for the story that couldn't be handled by any nameless background character, and seem dropped in only because they're come into the public domain recently and they could be dropped in. They're not badly handled in their appearances, but they don't serve any purpose other than to say, "Hey, Popeye and Tintin also appear in this story!"
Despite those critcisms, though, I still found it to be a fun story. It's grand adventure in much the same way the original King Kong movie was. It's not especially deep, but it makes no pretense otherwise. The Rocketeer on Skull Island with King Kong. It delivers pretty much exactly what it says it will deliver. If you get past a couple of those conceptual conceits with the setup, the story holds together pretty well. In fact, I accidentally read issue #2 in its entirety before #1 and I had zero problems following along. The first issue offers some additional context and setup, but Layman and Edgar do such a good job with their storytelling that you can jump into the middle and pick up everything critical really quickly.
I'll also note that Edgar's illustration style here works really well. I'm used to seeing Rocketeer in a more finely detailed manner, following closely in Stevens' style, but things are a little more simplified here. Which, with the additions of Popeye and Tintin, acts as a really good middle-ground between Steven's elegant linework, the overtly cartoony style of E.C. Segar, and the ligne claire style of Hergé. While none of the characters 100% match their original design specs, all of them remain easily visually recognizeable and none of them feel out of place relative to one another either.
It's a fairly quick and enjoyable read, as long as you can get over yourself about largely inconsequential points of continuity. 😉 I think it's worth picking up if you're a fan of The Rocketeer, the original King Kong film, or just that type of pulpy adventure in general. The four-issue series wrapped up a couple months back, but there will be a trade paperback collection out in November for $17.99 US.
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