ROCKHEAD II

ROCKY II
dir: Sylvester Stallone

MAD #213, March 1980
w: Larry Siegel
a: Angelo Torres

Begins where the first one left off. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) are both standing at the end, making their match a tie, but Apollo is the winner because he won the most rounds. Mickey (Burgess Meredith) eggs him on as his trainer and he and his girlfriend Adrian (Talia Shire) affirm their love for each other when she runs into the ring with the help of her brother Pauly (Burt Young).

After the fight, both Rocky and Apollo go to the hospital for their injuries. Apollo originally said he wouldn't want a rematch if he won fair and square but he's beginning to change his mind.

Rocky proposes to Adrian at the zoo, they get married, are expecting, and they buy a house. He decides he's done with boxing, has a job acting in commercials, but it doesn;t work out for him.

Rocky tries to find work. In this he goes to Tony (Joe Spinell) the loan shark he used to work for, but Tony actually went to him, which he turned down because he wanted to be honest. He can't find anything, being a high school dropout, and goes back to the local gym as a janitor, even though everyone else feels it's beneath him. At home, Rocky turns on the TV and sees Apollo Creed taunting him, wanting a rematch.

Rocky decides to fight again, to the disapproval of his wife, and he goes through rigorous training again. His and Adrian's baby was born prematurely, which put her in a coma.

Adrian wakes up and Rocky begins training, beginning the “Gonna Fly Now” montage everyone associates with the Rocky series.

Both almost make it, but Rocky is the only one left standing. Sylvester Stallone's real-life son played him in the next-to-last Rocky movie.

Angelo Torres' art in the final panel was used for the cover of the South American edition.

ROOKY II
Crazy#59, February 1980
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble

from Shorty Cinema Satires.

ROCKY XII
Bananas #35, c. 1979
w: H. William Stine & Megan Stine
a: Sam Viviano

Yeah, this was singled out as having so many sequels even though there had been only two at this point, but there had yet to be so much of a glut of sequels.

The doctor is Alan Alda in M*A*S*H.

Barbara Streisand starred with Ryan O'Neal in The Main Event that year.