The Rocketeer: Infiltrator! #1 — Cliff Secord trades stunts for subterfuge in WWII

You know Cliff Secord for pulling impossible maneuvers in the sky, but The Rocketeer: Infiltrator! #1 puts him on the ground where the real danger doesn’t leave contrails. Gabriel Hardman is steering this debut, trading aerial acrobatics for grounded tension and Hollywood glamour.

Hardman’s background on the Arcadia trilogy shows in the way this story handles tension. The art isn’t about spectacle; it’s about the quiet moments where a smile doesn’t reach your eyes and every line of dialogue carries a double meaning. Dean Kotz’s artwork brings a grounded, period-specific texture to the story, making the German film industry feel lived-in rather than staged. You can feel the weight of the location. This is a debut that trusts its readers to catch the subtle misdirection, and it delivers a complete first issue that establishes the new status quo while leaving the larger conspiracy wide open.

If you enjoy how this series treats espionage as a character study rather than a spectacle, you’ll want to keep Gabriel Hardman’s Arcadia trilogy on your radar. It handles the same quiet tension and post-event gravity, but in a different timeline. The artistic approach translates cleanly between the two, and readers who like tracking subtle emotional shifts in the dialogue will find that rhythm here.

The Hardman cover is tracking as the one collectors will scan for first. It nails that specific mid-century promotional style, and the initial wave tends to clear the shelf quickly. The interior does the narrative work, but the cover is the one that’ll be on the back wall by the end of the month.