Appearing in "Ride a Wild Rocket!"
Featured Characters:
- ⏴ Torpedo (Brock Jones) ⏵ (Main story and recap)
Supporting Characters:
- Lorraine Jones ⏵ (First appearance)
- Annie Jones ⏵ (First appearance)
- Danny Jones ⏵ (First appearance) (Unnamed)
Antagonists:
- Corporation
- Senator Stivak (Unnamed)
- ⏴ Rocketeers ⏵
- ⏴ Ainsley Wescott ⏵
- Number 12
- other Rocketeers (Unnamed)
- Agent 7
- ⏴ Rocketeers ⏵
- Senator Stivak (Unnamed)
Other Characters:
- Torpedo (Michael Stivak) (Only in recap) (Deceased)
- Daredevil (Mentioned)
- Delmar Insurance
- Lombardi (First appearance)
- Doctor Blaine (First appearance) (Unnamed)
Locations:
- New York
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Fourteenth Street
- Con Edison nuclear power plant
- Fourteenth Street
- Manhattan
- Long Island
- New York City
- Connecticut
Items:
- ⏴ Torpedo Armor ⏵
- Rocketeers' Rocket-Suits (First appearance)
- Sonic-Blasters (First appearance)
Synopsis for "Ride a Wild Rocket!"
After searching for the Rocketeers for days, the Torpedo finally finds them, unaware of the fact that they have been sent by the "man" who wants the Torpedo costume intact. Although armed with the sonic-blasters that the "man" gave them, the Rocketeers are outmatched and the leader flees the battle, escaping only after a lucky shot causes the Torpedo to briefly lose control of his flight.
That evening, after returning to his home in Westport and his wife Lorraine and their two kids, Brock Jones spends some time in his den recalling how he became the Torpedo. Meanwhile, the Rocketeer leader (Wescott) reports to a castle on the North Shore where his employer berates him for his failure and mentions how he rescued Wescott from a jail cell after Daredevil locked him up.
The next day, Brock is bored at work so when it's lunch time he goes flying as the Torpedo. Lookouts relay his position to Wescott who, while flying in a small jet plane, makes sure that he is spotted by the Torpedo in order to lure their target into a trap. Meanwhile, back in Westport, Lorraine suffers a severe stabbing pain in her stomach while vacuuming and makes an appointment with her doctor. In the castle on the North Shore, Agent Seven reports to her boss that Wescott has the Torpedo following him to the Consolidated Edison plant on Fourteenth Street where the other Rocketeers are waiting to ambush him. When Agent Seven mentions that they cannot delay their plans any longer or America will not fall, her boss assures her that America will fall when their power-soldiers march through the streets as conquering armies.
While flying, the Torpedo avoids the rockets fired at him before turning and plowing through the plane. The pilot (Number 12) uses his back-jets to reach the street where their battle carries them into a dress shop. When a customer exclaims that they're tearing up the store, the Torpedo moves the fight outside but turning his back on his foe gives the Rocketeer a chance to attack him from behind and fly off to meet up with the other Rocketeers but only after making sure to leave a clear trail. After a brief argument with the owner of the damaged store, the Torpedo flies off following the jet-stream that is visible through his costume's special lenses. Suspecting that he's being lured into a trap, the Torpedo chooses to enter it in order to get some answers and is soon attacked outside the Con Edison plant. Although the Torpedo avoids the missiles fires at him, the battle damages the plant, resulting in a power-surge that causes the nuclear pile to go crazy. As the plant's engineers discover that the emergency cut-off has been disabled, the battling Torpedo and Rocketeers enter the building. Wescott again tries to flee but is briefly trapped by the Torpedo who demands to know what they're after and who they're working for. Wescott reveals that his boss wants the Torpedo costume because it was designed by the same person who designed the Rocketeer suits but the Torpedo suit is the stronger prototype and the "man" wants it. When one of the Rocketeers warns his boss that the engineers are saying that the plant is going to blow any minute, Wescott knocks the Torpedo unconscious and leaves him in the plant to die, reasoning that his boss won't get the suit but at least no one else will, either.
As the Torpedo lies unconscious in the doomed power plant, Lorraine's doctor tells her that she is pregnant. Lorraine is delighted and can't wait to tell Brock.
Notes
- In this issue, writer Marv Wolfman retcons the origin of the Rocketeers by revealing that, although they seemed to simply be a gang of robbers in Daredevil #131, the only reason that they had been committing robberies was to try and attract the attention of the Torpedo so that they could get his costume for their boss. Unfortunately for them, Daredevil had spotted them first.
- Rom #21 will establish that, although the Rocket-Suits were later worn by Dire Wraiths, the aliens initially used unwitting human pawns to test them in battle.
- The Rocketeer piloting the small plane is initially identified as Wescott but he is later identified as Agent 12 when he reports to Wescott.