I have some answers. First of all American comic books are defined as comic books from the United States of America. This means not anime, manga or whatever! If you can’t find Japanese comic books in Asia then you have more serious problems than where to find American comic books. Asia on the whole prefers Japanese comic books to American comic books by a factor of ten at least. British stuff, especially 2000 AD stuff is found in the same places as American comic books which is why I initially titled this post where you can find Western comic books but I mean Western as in culture not as in cowboys and the latter meaning was misleading.
First of all there is a Japanese chain called Kinokuniya that is all over Asia. The chain sucks when it comes to Western comic books in Japan but is pretty good about having Western comic books in their stores outside of Japan.
Below is a list of Kinokuniya stores in Asia:
Singapore
Ngee Ann City, Orchard
Bugis Junction, Bugis
Liang Court, Chinatown
Indonesia
Sogo Plaza Senayan, Jakarta
Debenhams Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta
Sogo Pondok Indah Mall, Jakarta
Seibu Grand Indonesia, Jakarta Malaysia
Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur
Thailand
CentralWorld, Bangkok
Siam Paragon, Bangkok – The best source of Western comic books outside of the Philippines!
Emporium, Bangkok
Australia
I mention the store but of course Australia is basically a Western country that happens to be in Asia and Western comic books are everywhere.
Sydney The Galeries Victoria, New South Wales
Taiwan
Dayeh Takashimaya, Taipei
Breeze Center, Taipei
Kuang San Sogo, Taichung
Talee Isetan, Kaoshiung
United Arab Emirates
Dubai, Dubai Mall
Page One is a Singaporean chain of bookstores that is also all over Asia and also has a pretty good selection of Western comic books.
Page One locations are listed below:
Singapore
Vivocity
Malaysia
Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur
Hong Kong
Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong (with cafe)
Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui
Times Square, Causeway Bay (formerly known as Page One Twins)
Taiwan
SOGO Fuxing, Taipei
Taipei 101, Taipei
The best country in Asia for Western comic books, besides Australia, is the Philippines. All the major chains have a section devoted to Western comic books and there are out and out dedicated comic book stores in most of the big malls in Manila.
This is the fourth post in a series of posts that compare DC and Marvel non-superhero genres. The first post looked at Westerns (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/dc-vs-marvel-western-heroes/). The second post looked at war heroes (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/dc-vs-marvel-war-heroes/). The third post looked at women’s comics (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women/). The genre is space opera and the heroes are spacemen. This genre is a little harder to differentiate from the common super hero. After all many superheroes have alien origins. The very first superhero, arguably, Superman is from the planet Krypton but anyone who knows comic books and science fiction would not argue he is a space opera hero. The main characteristic of space opera is that the action is almost entirely in space. Superman has had his share of adventures in outer space but most of his adventures happen on Earth. Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon are some early examples of the space hero in comic books.
The DC spacemen are Adam Strange, Captain Comet, Knights of the Galaxy, Space Cabby, Space Ranger, Star Hawkins, Tommy Tomorrow and Ultra the Multi-alien. All of these heroes were brought together in a three issue mini-series Twilight in 1990. Twilight brought all of DC’s space heroes and characters together in a reboot that is dystopian and very different from the optimistic and naïve tone of the Silver Age originals. Twilight is a precursor of what Vertigo Press will do on a regular basis when this press is formed in 1993.
These DC space comic books were particularly popular in the Silver Age and I would say this was my favorite non-superhero genre growing up. Westerns were ok. I didn’t really get war comics until years later. Women’s comics in the form of Romance comics were rare and far between. The space opera titles on the other hand were comics I would keep an eye out for. Adam Strange, Captain Comet, Space Ranger and Tommy Tomorrow would be the big four of the space men. The Knights of the Galaxy, Space Cabby and Star Hawkins are much more obscure characters. An ancestor of Adam Strange and Space Ranger did appear in a comic book together during the Silver Age in Mystery in Space #94. Mystery in Space was also were most of the Silver Age space men appeared. Cross-overs at DC in the early Silver Age were few and far between and their common genre identity was probably the cause.
The most famous of all the space men is Adam Strange. Adam Strange has a ray gun and a jet back pack but aside from that is a normal Earthman or as normal as any comic book hero can be. Adam Strange is transported to the planet Rann on a regular basis where he has many adventures. He also has a pretty hot girl friend on that planet. Alan Moore did a really good story with Adam Strange titled “Mysteries in Space”, Swamp Thing #57, second series. The title is obviously a take off on the Mystery in Space title. The relative alien identity of Adam Strange was highlighted. Adam Strange was offered membership in the Justice League of America, a first tier DC superhero group while the other space men never ever even met first tier DC superheroes. Adam Strange was also a major player in the recent DC multi-title event the Rann-Thangar War that attempted to flesh out DC space empires in a way similar to the Marvel Kree-Skrull war had many years earlier.
Years later Captain Comet was rescued from comic book oblivion in a Vertigo title but during his original run was very obscure. Captain Comet is a variation on Superman. Captain Comet is a mutant that represents what we will evolve into in the distant future who decides Earth is boring and goes off into space. Captain Comet is nowhere near as strong and invulnerable as Superman but is a fair telepath and telepathy means you know your opponents weaknesses.
A contest between them would be kind of like Kyle XY versus Clark Kent of Smallville and be very interesting. Kyle would know all about Kryptonite and have the super intelligence to use this knowledge for maximum tactical and strategic advantage. Dime a dozen hoods get the jump on Clark with Kryptonite in Smallville so I think Clark is probably toast.
I have not read a Space Cabby story in years but to this day I remember the very interesting premise. The Space Cabby was a cabby but he had a space ship and he could jaunt around the solar system. So if you needed a quick ride from Earth to Mars then he was your man. Space Cabby emphasized humorous adventures and this is in direct contrast to the melodramatic nature of space opera in general.
Ultra the Multi-Alien is the comic book equivalent of a winner of the Rotten Tomatoes award. The comic book was so garish and over the top, obscure and just plain bad that you couldn’t help but like the title. Prez and the Geek would be two other Silver Age titles that merit the same type of award. An Earthman due to a bizarre ray gun malfunction received the body parts of four other aliens. Each body part has a different power. Kind of like the movie The Fly but instead of merging with one insect, the character merges with four insects and of course more is better. I hereby create my own superhero based on this premise!
Beware of Insectoid the Multi-Insect Man! He has the claws of a praying mantis, the wings and eyes of a fly, the stinger of a scorpion and the antennae of a ant that gives him some other super senses that insects generally don’t have. Anyone interested in this character should contact me at foxhugh@yahoo.com. Only serious requests will be considered! So I guess that means no requests will considered.
The Marvel list is much smaller and includes Captain Jet Dixon, Captain Marvel, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Speed Carter Spaceman and the Star Jammers. I would consider myself a bit of a comic book historian and I never read or heard about Captain Jet Dixon or Speed Carter Spaceman until I did some research for this post. This is unfortunate since based on my research they are pretty classic space men in the Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon mold clearly fit the premise of this entire post.
The Galaxy Rangers and Star Jammers are Bronze Age space men. They are about a thousand times more relevant and famous than Captain Jet Dixon or Speed Carter Spaceman. The adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Star Jammers do take place almost entirely in space but are still more superheroes than spacemen. The tolerance of fans for non-superhero genres during the Bronze Age of comics was a lot lower than during the Silver Age and superhero elements had to be grafted onto heroes from other genres in order for them to survive. I mention the Punisher as hero that combines war hero and super hero elements in my war hero post and I think this is similar phenomena.
I think the Star Jammers are basically the X-Men set in space and have their origins in the X-Men titles. The Guardians of the Galaxy started more as space men but then evolved into superheroes. The premise is that in the future solar system planets have been terraformed and genetic engineering has been used to make humans that can live in these terraformed planets that are still pretty inhospitable. So you have a crystalline humanoid from Pluto and a super strong soldier from Jupiter, etc. The first issue that premiered caught my eye and they wore futuristic but non-superhero clothing and I liked the premise. Years later the costumes changed and they started hanging around the Avengers, got a ton more members and became the Avengers in space.
Something similar happened to Captain Marvel who was a Kree soldier who wore a very space man kind of costume and used a ray gun but later got one of the coolest superhero costumes ever and lost the ray gun and gained some nega bands and lot of other cool powers to boot. The Kree is a intergalactic empire consisting of thousands of worlds that often is in conflict with the Skrulls. These are very much ray gun and space ship aliens. The Skrulls even use flying saucers. Heroes like the reborn Captain Marvel even have a category in the Marvel Universe and are considered cosmic superheroes.
The adventures of cosmic superheroes take place in space but this is a cosmic space far away from anything Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon could handle. In many ways this cosmic version of space is magical and more importantly mythic. Characters like Galactus, the Watcher, the Silver Surfer, the Elders of the Universe and Thanos have adventures in the cosmos not space. They have no need for space ships or ray guns and can often alter reality through a super science that is the power cosmic. This genre transformation process seems to be a hallmark of Marvel as opposed to DC. The Skrulls may have thousands of world under their dominion but hide like ants when the Silver Surfer was the herald of Galactus in their original appearance in the Fantastic Four Galactus Trilogy that created Marvel’s cosmic space.
DC takes non-superhero heroes and lets Vertigo Press do really interesting things with them while maintaining their core genre identity. All non-superhero heroes in the Marvel universe end up becoming superheroes! Night Nurse, who I mention in my women’s comic post (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women/) ends up becoming the nurse of superheroes years after her original appearance. I guess if I have a choice of being transported to the DC or Marvel universe then I should pick the Marvel universe since I am about a hundred times more likely to become a superhero in that universe than the DC universe and that was pretty much my life goal until I was six and “grew up”. I put the phrase in quotations since someone writing these posts has arguably not grown up!
So hard choices, do I pick the famous hybrid space men/super hero men of Marvel or the pure space men of Marvel no one ever heard of? I will do a little bit of both. The Star Jammers and Guardians of the Galaxy are superhero teams that are a hundred times more powerful than guys like Adam Strange and Space Ranger and I like these guys to much due to early childhood sentiment to pit them in such an unfair contest without a little tidbit ahead of time. So Captain Jet Dixon and Speed Carter Spaceman just got drafted.
Captain Jet Dixon goes up against Adam Strange and Adam Strange easily beat him to the ray gun draw since he has had a hundred more issues to master target practice. The Knights of the Galaxy go up against the Guardians of the Galaxy because they both have galaxy in their name and the non-super powered knights are easily defeated by the Galaxy Rangers with their numerous superpowers.
The Knights of the Galaxy were space man types with ray guns and space ships that followed a knightly code. The knightly code isn’t going to do them much good against a top tier super hero group like the Guardians of the Galaxy. This mingling of medieval and science fiction is not a first for DC and the Atomic Knights come to mind. I do mention the Atomic Knights in another post on this blog (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/dc-vs-valiant-universe-2-armorines-vs-the-atomic-knights/). I also mentioned in the prior war hero post that the mingling of two non-superhero genres is a hallmark of DC rather than Marvel. DC has weird westerns, weird wars and even haunted tanks, supernatural plus war comic. I love it!
Space Ranger goes up against Speed Carter Spacemen and in a low tone of voice informs him that he is the Space Ranger and nobody’s like Carter should flee and Carter does. The Guardians of the Galaxy then descend on Adam Strange and Space Ranger and give them a space whupping they will never forget.
Captain Comet fights Captain Marvel since they both have Captain in their name. This is actually a really tough fight to call. They both have super strength, invulnerability, and flight. Captain Marvel has cosmic awareness which is kind of like spider sense on steroids but is not an out and out telepath. Captain Comet reads Captain Marvel’s mind and realizes if you slam the nega bands on his wrists together then Captain Marvel is banished to the negative zone and proceeds to do just that. Captain Comet is feeling pleased for about one minute until the Guardians of the Galaxy gang up on him and beat him senseless. The Marvel, kind of, space men win!
The non-superhero genre looked at in this post is women’s comics. This is the third post in this series. Other posts include Western heroes (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/dc-vs-marvel-western-heroes/) and war heroes (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/dc-vs-marvel-war-heroes/). This genre is defined by audience. Comic books that are designed to appeal to women are considered women’s comic books. In the US young boys rather than young girls read comic books. As a comic book addict, growing up in the US, I am all too aware that you do not meet many attractive women in comic book shops and this is a stereotype that is true. I just got done living in Japan for seven months and the situation in Japan is radically different. A really big comic book store might be three to six stories high and one floor will be devoted to women’s comic books. In general, romance comics are considered “women’s comics” in the US. The vast majority of readers of romance comic books were young girls rather than young boys. I have to admit that I often enjoyed reading romance comics even as a kid but all in all my interest is in superhero comic books and this is probably due to my gender. However, for the purposes of this series, romance comics are useless.
This series of posts pits on-going top characters from non-superhero genres against each other. Romance comics do not have ongoing characters. Romance stories after all generally describe first love and an ongoing series about first love is impossible. There is a type of comic book that appeals to young girls and has ongoing character. This is a type of women’s comic book that I dub the “working women” subgenre and this subgenre does have ongoing characters. Working women comic books are about a woman and her job. The job is generally either glamorous, dangerous or both. The job is not “super”. A woman who does super tasks is a super heroine. Super heroines are often dressed in skimpy, sexy outfits like Wonder Woman and their job is to attract teenage or older males not a female audience.
Marvel has had several titles that center around a female protagonist and her job. These titles invariably have a romantic angle that is more prominent than in the superhero titles. Marvels line of working women includes Chili, Della Vision, Linda Carter Student Nurse, Millie the Model, My Friend Irma, Nelly the Nurse, Night Nurse, Patsy Walker, Sherry the Showgirl and Tessie the Typist. Chili and Millie the Model inhabit the same universe and are rivals.
DC has had three titles with a woman without super powers and a career and these include Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood, Miss Melody Lane of Broadway, and Lois Lane! Lois Lane is Superman’s girlfriend and this is the central plot device rather than her adventures as a reporter. In the Silver Age of comic books, every other story about Lois Lane was about Lois Lane and Lana Lang fighting for Superman’s affections. Later, Lana Lang becomes Superman’s first love rather than a current romantic interest and in some versions Lana Lang even gets married to someone other than Superman. I am not sure if the Silver Age love triangle actually got a lot of female readers but this certainly was one of the few DC lines that had affairs of the heart as a central theme but there were three consistent plot twists as well.
One consistent plot twist was that Lois Lane had two goals in her life. Goal number one was to marry Superman. Goal number two was to find out his secret identity. Goal number one was a female goal. Goal number two was a career goal i.e. the scoop of the century for a reporter. Goal number one and goal number two seem to be in conflict. How can Superman let his guard down and trust a woman who wants to expose his secret identity? However, upon closer examination the two goals may work together. The rationale of Superman’s secret identity is that he has the secret identity to protect loved ones and be Superman at the same time. If the secret identity is exposed then he can no longer be Superman. If Lois can destroy Superman’s career then she can achieve marital bliss with a retired Superman.
The second consistent plot twist was that “inexplicably” Superman wanted Lois Lane to fall in love with his Clark Kent persona. Or maybe this is not so hard to understand after all. Superman is a Kryptonian genetically but he was raised by the Kent’s as an Earthling. One could argue that Clark Kent is the true identity and Superman is the secret identity. This is certainly the message of the TV series Smallville. In Smallville, Clark Kent slowly, very slowly, eight seasons and counting slowly, becomes Superman. Clark Kent wants Lois to fall in love with the person he really is rather than the cape/mask Superman. I think this is a theme any successful man can understand. A millionaire wants to be loved for who he is rather than his millions. Superman wants to be loved for who he is rather than because of his superpowers and fame. Would Lois Lane still love Superman minus the super and only a man? The current Lois Lane would, and currently Superman and Lois Lane are married, but I am not so sure of the Silver Age Lois Lane would marry Superman minus his powers although she occasionally did in Silver Age imaginary tales.
The third consistent plot twist was that Clark Kent and Lois Lane both work for the Daily Planet as reporters and they compete career wise. You would think Superman with all his super powers could easily squash Lois in the reporting game but generally chooses not to due to sentiment and very often out and out loses because Lois, despite being a mere human, is better at the reporting game than Clark. Lois has a more realistic view of her fellow humans and is actually less naïve and more street wise. This is similar to the Batman/Superman relationship were Superman’s idealism is a weakness when up against Batman’s realism. Lois Lane will also use her feminine wiles occasionally and this happens more in the Smallville version of Lois Lane than the comic book version. The Smallville version is also one heck of a martial artist in a manner similar to the Silver Age version of Lois Lane.
The Lois Lane series lasted 137 issues until September, 1974. Lois Lane of course survived the cancellation of her series and is also the first character of the Superman family and predates Luthor and Jimmy Olsen. The Lois Lane series was part of the Superman family series of titles that included Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s best friend. Superman was so popular in the Silver Age that civilians in his universe rated their own titles! These titles do not age well at all and unless you grew up reading Superman during this period then you will have a hard time reading these comic books. DC recently reprinted the Jimmy Olsen series under the moniker Superman Family and this is one reprint that did not sell very well.
Lois Lane is more relevant and more famous, and then some, than all of Marvel’s working women put together. Many regard the relationship between Lois Lane and Superman to be the most important love story in comic books period. The most powerful version of Lois Lane is the Silver Age version. Lois Lane, like Superman, was depowered later on. Lois Lane was not superhuman but had incredible fighting skills in the Silver Age. Lois Lane had mastered the Kryptonian martial art of Klurkor. I propose Lois Lane goes toe to toe with all of the working women of Marvel.
The Marvel working women have been transported by evil aliens to the DC Universe. All the Marvel working women instantly fall in love with Superman when they see him on TV at the apartment the aliens have deposited them in. The group also finds out from the TV show that Superman’s girlfriend is Lois Lane. As a group they decide that Lois Lane must be “eliminated”. Millie the Model goes to the Daily Planet and charms the pants off of Jimmy Olsen and finds out that Lois Lane will be at the Glamour beauty parlor that afternoon.
The Marvel women, ten strong, storm the beauty parlor. Sherry the Showgirl and Tessie the Typist, the two most obscure members of an already obscure subgenre, guard the doors. This is what fourth raters do in comic books. Millie the Model and Chili have had countless cat fights and this actually makes them a pretty good tag team. Lois is reading a copy of Cosmo in the waiting area. Chili pulls Lois from the chair by the hair and Millie punches Lois in the stomach. As Millie punches Lois in the stomach she reflects that she is much prettier than Lois and Lois could never be a model. Lois head butts Chili and plants a roundhouse kick firmly in the stomach of Millie. The two models are shocked and run for the hills. They have never fought a gal that knew how to fight expertly. Linda Carter Student Nurse has actually been in a real life and death tussle during her career against guys and has learned that when fighting a guy you use weapons of opportunity. Linda grabs a can of hair spray and sprays Lois in the face. This move stuns Lois and the other girls attack at once from all sides and Lois is on the floor being kicked left and right into unconsciousness and the final blow is delivered with a hair dryer that Chili has grabbed. Chilis nose was broken due to the head butt. Chili wonders if she will ever model again and wants revenge! The Marvel girls are victorious and now must kill each other in order to decide who will be the mate of Superman but that is another story.
This post will look at DC and Marvel heroes from their line of war comics. The DC heroes include Blackhawk, Boy Commandos, Captain Storm, Creature Commandos, Enemy Ace, G.I. Robot, Gunner & Sarge, Haunted Tank, Hunter’s Hellcats, Johnny Cloud, the Losers, Mademoiselle Marie, Red, White and Blue and Sgt. Rock of Easy Company. As I did in the DC vs. Marvel Western Heroes post (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/dc-vs-marvel-western-heroes/), I will pit the top three of the DC line against the top three of the Marvel line. The top three in terms of fame are Blackhawk, Enemy Ace and Sgt. Rock of Easy Company.
Blackhawk is the name of the leader of a free lance fighter pilot squadron and the name of their group. They wore an aviator type uniform, they first appeared in Military Comics and their missions were decidedly military in nature. Slowly but surely they became more like superheroes and started to fight more and more enemies with superpowers. The New Blackhawk era lasted from issues #228-241 and each member got his own superhero costume. The transition from military heroes to superheroes was abrupt. Later on the Blackhawk team returned to their military roots.
Enemy Ace is the story of a German flying ace during World War I. Enemy Ace first appeared in Our Army at War in 1965. Enemy Ace is, as the title suggests, the enemy but has a sense of chivalry and a sense of the horror of war that is universal. Enemy Ace is an antihero. I do see similarities between Enemy Ace and Jonah Hex. Both are none superhero genre heroes that succeed in large part due to their atypical, for comic books, antihero status which makes them more interesting. Like Jonah Hex, Enemy Ace was later used by the darker Vertigo imprint.
Sgt. Rock of Easy Company is probably the number one war hero of the DC line. Sgt. Rock first appeared in G.I. Combat (January, 1959). Sgt. Rock appeared in Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion in 2008. This is quite a run for a war hero in comic books. Sgt. Rock for most of his run had zero superhero elements. Sgt. Rock generally carries a 45 calibre Thompson submachine gun and a .45 calibre Colt M1911A1 automatic pistol. Sgt. Rock always carries a number of hand grenades that he can throw with great accuracy.
Later Sgt. Rock appeared in Brave and the Bold #84, #96, #108, #117, and #124 in decidedly superhero type adventures with Batman. This comic book tendency to reinvent war heroes and make them into superheroes is unfortunate. Alan Moore, In theTwilight of the Superheroes, (https://foxhugh.wordpress.com/non-fiction/twilight-of-the-superheroes-by-alan-moore/) points out that the juxtaposition of Sgt. Rock, for example, with the Legion of Superheroes is a bad idea and I agree. Let the war heroes be war heroes! Kanigher, the editor of Sgt. Rock, who created the majority of the Sgt. Rock stories, in a letter column in Sgt. Rock #374 stated that Sgt. Rock did not survive past 1945 effectively making the Brave and Bold Sgt. Rock stories null and void.
Marvel has a shorter list of war heroes that include Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, Captain Savage and his Leathernecks, the characters in the The ‘Nam series, and the Phantom Eagle. The ‘Nam was an attempt to create a realistic war comic. The comic book happened in real time. A monthly issue more or less described what happened in a month in Vietnam. Nam related lingo was explained at the end of the comic book. The ‘Nam characters are too real and would not stand against a chance against other comic book war heroes that are slightly superhuman. The title became a less realistic comic book towards the end of its run with the introduction of Frank Castle who later becomes the Punisher.
The Punisher can be considered a war hero of sorts in that he was a soldier in Vietnam as detailed in The ‘Nam. The Punisher uses actual military weapons as detailed in The Punisher Armory. The Punisher also does not have super powers. On the other hand, the Punisher wears a costume and that is one of the defining characteristics of a superhero. Most of all the Punisher fights superhero type enemies between conflicts with organized crime. A high point of this sort of battle was the Punisher versus Doctor Doom story in Punisher #28. Doctor Doom is the premiere super villain of the Marvel universe who can take on entire super hero teams such as the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the X-Men. The Punisher should have no chance against Doctor Doom at all yet he manages to blackmail Doctor Doom into leaving him alone. Only a superhero could do this. No one would argue that Batman is not a superhero despite his lack of superpowers. The Punisher can be seen as a very successful combination of superhero and war hero elements with an emphasis on superhero elements.
The star war hero of Marvel is Sgt. Fury who goes on to become a secret agent of SHIELD and is better known for this role than his war hero role. Sgt. Fury first appeared in his own title in May of 1963 and is very similar to DC’s Sgt. Rock and probably Sgt. Rock was a model for Sgt. Fury to some extent. Jack Kirby, who created DC’s Boy Commandos, mentioned in an interview that the Howling Commandos were adult versions of the Boy Commandos. Sgt. Fury is far more famous than all the other war heroes of both universes put together. Sgt. Fury was also much lighter fare than DC’s Sgt. Rock and Enemy Ace. Sgt. Fury stories generally avoided the horror of war theme of the DC titles.
Captain America even shows up in Sgt. Fury #13! The cover of this issue is at the begining of this post. Captain America is created by the U.S. government and is described as a super soldier but is more super than soldier and does not even use military armament but instead throws an archaic shield. Later Nuke emerges from the same super soldier program and does use military hardware and is a Vietnam vet. Wolverine also comes from the same program providing some continuity to the Marvel universe but these super soldiers are clearly super heroes and not war heroes.
Fury is not some outlier of the Marvel universe but a character that is central to the Marvel universe. Marvel recently had an event labeled Civil War and Fury as the ex-head of SHIELD plays a pivotal role in this event that involved just about every title in the Marvel universe in 2008. Sgt. Fury logically fights his DC doppelganger Sgt. Rock. The other Marvel war heroes are obscure characters but will be drafted in this contest due to a lack of options.
The Phantom Eagle is a World War I ace that fights for the allies and logically is an opponent of the Enemy Ace. The Phantom Eagle had more super hero elements than the Enemy Ace including a mask that concealed his secret identity. The Phantom Eagle had worked in a flying circus prior to fighting in World War I and was a expert stunt flyer. The Phantom Eagle is also a very obscure character in the Marvel universe and someone who can describe this character really knows their Marvel universe history.
There is no equivalent to the Blackhawks in the Marvel universe. There is a perfect equivalent to Marvel’s Captain Savage and his Leathernecks in the form of DC’s Captain Storm. Captain Storm was a PT Boat Captain. Captain Storm lost his leg in combat and had the leg replaced with a wooden leg but stayed in active duty which would not happen in the actual military. Captain Storm actually had his own title in his very first adventure rather than having his adventures in one of the war anthologies before getting his own title later as was the custom at DC. Captain Storm appeared as late as 2003 in the Losers Special. The Losers were a collection of DC’s war heroes including Johnny Cloud and Gunner & Sarge.
Marvel’s Captain Savage originally was introduced in Sgt. Fury’s Howling Commandos and the main mission of the Leathernecks was to ferry Sgt. Fury and his commandos around but eventually Captain Savage got his own title. Pitting a fighter squadron against an infantry squad hardly seems fair but pitting two Captains that are both involved in amphibious operations does make sense.
The first battle is between the two Sergeants. Sgt. Rock has a penchant for hand grenades that he throws with unerring accuracy. Sgt. Rock believes Sgt. Fury is a Nazi imposter and throws a grenade at Sgt. Rock and blows him to pieces. Sgt. Fury has a tendency to lose his shirt and run directly at heavily fortified positions with his submachine gun blazing rather than taking advantage of other weaponry such as grenades. Sgt. Fury seems to think he is invulnerable like a superhero! Sgt. Fury does not seem to know what cover is unlike Sgt. Rock.
In World War I, the Phantom Eagle and the Enemy Ace face off and the Phantom Eagle does all sorts of stunts that do not impress the Enemy Ace. The Phantom Eagle is shot down by the Enemy Ace while doing a loop. The Enemy Ace wonders why this fool of a pilot was wearing a mask and concludes the aviator was probably deranged due to the horrors of war.
Captain Storm and Captain Savage get into a bar fight as to whether the Navy or the Marines are better and Captain Savage punches Captain Storm. Captain Storm goes down because the wooden leg buckles. Captain Savage sees his opponent on the ground and notices the wooden leg. Captain Savage feels absolutely terrible. Captain Savage pulls up Captain Storm rather than finishing him off and apologizes to Captain Storm. Captain Savage buys Captain Storm a drink and the fight is a draw.
DC has two war titles that are very interesting from a genre point of view. The Haunted Tank is a tank that is haunted by Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart. The ghost is a good ghost and helps the leader of the tank crew out with omniscient but cryptic advice. I think this is the only comic book title that combines the supernatural and war genres. The Vertigo line resurrected the Haunted Tank years later.
The Creature Commandos appeared in Weird War Tales #93. Weird War Tales generally combined the war comic genre with another genre. The sister publication Weird Western Tales combined the Western genre with other genres. The idea was to have creatures that generally appear in horror and put them in war situations as commandos.
The original team consisted of J.A.K.E. and J.A.K.E. 2 that were the first and second GI Robot. Warren Griffith suffered from clinical lycanthropy i.e. he was a werewolf. Dr. Myrra Rhodes was effectively a gorgon. Lt. Matthew Shrieve is the team leader and totally human. Pvt. Elliot “Lucky” Taylor stepped on a land mine and put back together and looked like Frankenstein. Sgt. Vincent Velcro was the vampire of the team.
The modern team included Alten, a mummy like creature. The Bogman was an amphibian that resembled the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Gunner was a cyborg. Hunter is 75 and formerly of Hunter’s Hellcats. Medusa is Myrra Rhodes who has mutated even more. Pvt. Elliot “Lucky” Taylor returns and now called Patchwork. Sgt. Vincent Velcro has become even more vampire like. Warren Griffith, the werewolf, has become more feral and out of control in the modern team. This cross mixing of non-superhero genres is a hallmark of DC that Marvel never explored to the same extent.
The next post in this series is DC vs. Marvel War Heroes at:
This is the first in a series of posts that compare DC versus Marvel non-superheroes. The second post compared war heroes (http://atomic-temporary-3328128.wpcomstaging.com/2009/03/21/dc-vs-marvel-war-heroes/). The third post compared working women (http://atomic-temporary-3328128.wpcomstaging.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women/) What if DC cowboys and Native American heroes took on the Marvel cowboys and Native American heroes? First, who are they? The following is a list of major DC Western heroes: Arak, Ballon Buster, Bat Lash, Big Anvil, Black Bison, Brass Buttons, Captain Fear, Cinnamon, Dan Hunter, Don Caballero, El Castigo, El Diablo, El Papagayo, Firehair, Frenchie, Hawk, Son of Tomahawk, Healer Randolph, Johnny Cloud, Jonah Hex, Kaintuck Jones, Long Rifle, Lord Shilling, Madame 44, Miss Liberty, Nighthawk, Pow-wow Smith, Roving Ranger, Scalphunter, Serifan, Silver Deer, Stovepipe, Strong Bow, Super-Chief, Terra-Man, Tomahawk, Trigger Twins, Vigilante, Whip, Wildcat, Wyoming Kid.
The Marvel list is a lot shorter and includes American Eagle, Annie Oakley, Apache Kid, Arizona Kid, Ghost Rider, Gunhawk, Kid Colt, Matt Slade, Phantom Rider (Modern West), Outlaw Kid, Rawhide Kid, Red Warrior, Red Wolf, Ringo Kid, Shooting Star, Tex Morgan, Tex Taylor, Texas Kid, Texas Twister, Two-Gun Kid, Western Kid, and Wyatt Earp. When the two lists are put side by side we notice a couple of interesting differences between these two universes.
DC has some superhero type cowboys and Native Americans. Super-Chief is basically a superman type Native American. Terra-Man fights Superman. Some Marvel Western heroes that are more superheroes than Western heroes and include American Eagle, Texas Twister, Red Wolf and Shooting Star. The “Western superheroes” would absolutely destory the more traditional Western heroes with their superpowers so they are going to be kept off the contest roll call.
Marvel also has a couple of real life Western heroes in their universe unlike DC, mainly Annie Oakley and Wyatt Earp. What both companies share is a list of very obscure characters. Marvel Westerns are described as having a big three that include the Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid and Kid Colt. The three kids were united in the title Mighty Marvel Western that ran from 1968-76 and perhaps this was an attempt at some sort of genre synergy.
So a logical contest would be the big three of Marvel versus the big three of DC. Number one on the DC list has to be Jonah Hex due to critical acclaim, popularity and longevity.
Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex first appeared in the seventies, not the fifties and sixties like most comic book Westerns, and has managed to survive to the present. This is largely because Jonah Hex is an anti-hero and has had more interesting plot lines and superior artists and writers than other comic book heroes. I have written about Jonah Hex in another post (http://atomic-temporary-3328128.wpcomstaging.com/2008/05/19/the-lone-ranger-vs-other-fictional-gun-slingers/).
Number two in the DC pantheon would be Tomahawk due to longevity. I was born in 1957 and first started reading comic books in 1964 as detailed in my Comic Book Autobiography (http://atomic-temporary-3328128.wpcomstaging.com/about/comic-book-autobiography/). I remember Tomahawk fondly. As a kid I always saw Tomahawk as a Davey Crockett/Daniel Boone copy because he wore a coon skin hat. The series was set interestingly in the revolutionary war rather than the Wild West but when I was young I noticed the coon skin hat more than historical details. I actually owned an imitation Davey Crokett coon skin cap so of course I would read a series with someone with such a hat on the cover! Daniel Boone, the Disney TV series, was also very popular when I became aware of Tomahawk. I was surprised to find out while researching this post that the Tomahawk series lasted from 1950 to 1972 for a total of 140 issues! This may be some sort of record for a Western comic book. This means Tomahawk came before the Disney movies and TV series, to my surprise. Tomahawk even appeared the 2008 series The War that Time Forgot.
Bat Lash
Number three on the DC list is Bat Lash due to critical acclaim but not longevity. Bat Lash won the Alley Awards in 1968 and 1969 for best Best Western Titles. Bat Lash only lasted eight issues. I also picked Bat Lash because he actually appeared on an episode of Justice League Unlimited alongside Johan Hex in “The Once and Future Thing”. This means Bat Lash has not totally joined the ranks of Westerns in comic book limbo. Bat Lash was inspired in part by spaghetti Westerns of the time and I love spaghetti Westerns and this is my list! Last but not least I have some vague memories of the issues I read as a kid and the same cannot be said of other Western fare I read when I was young. Bat Lash is the weak link of my DC selection and I welcome comments.
The DC heroes face off against the kids of Marvel but Jonah Hex is missing. The Marvel kids outnumber Bat Lash and Tomahawk, brought to the Wild West via a cave that allows time traveling or whatever, and manage to send them running for cover and they are pinned down. Suddenly a stick of dynamite is tossed from a second story window and lands right in the middle of the Marvel kids and blows them into little pieces. Jonah Hex is no fool. He does not fight great gunfighters like the Marvel kids head on. Bat Lash and Tomahawk are sickened by this dishonorable victory and ride away vowing to never associate with Jonah Hex again! Jonah Hex could care less.
Another interesting contest would be between two supernatural Western heroes. DC has El Diablo. There is more than one reincarnation of Diablo but the Wild West version is host to a minor demon. El Diablo showed up alongside Bat Lash and Jonah Hex in the afore mentioned Justice League Unlimited episode “The Once and Future Thing”. El Diablo could actually be the third most significant DC Western hero rather than Bat Lash. The host of the demon is in a coma and the body only moves around when the demon roams the West seeking vengance.
Phantom Rider
Marvel’s supernatural Western hero is the Ghost Rider, not the one with the bike, but the one with a horse. The horsey Ghost Rider was retroactively renamed the Phantom Rider by Marvel but sorry the name on the comic book cover is the correct name no matter what Marvel decides later on. The Ghost Rider wore a phosphorescent costume and was not a ghost at all. Even minor demons can defeat fake ghosts so that match goes to El Diablo. Now try to keep this straight, the story plot device of El Diablo is very similar to the Ghost Rider that rides a bike. The modern Ghost Rider is also possesed by a demon. The bike Ghost Rider is about a thousand times more famous and relevant than the horsy one but the horsey one does make an appearance of sorts in the Ghost Rider movie as the caretaker (Sam Elliot) who was a Western version of the Ghost Rider.
in 2028, a computer network in Japan that had developed consciousness selected the first Rai. The computer network had no desire for power, sex, wealth or any of the other desires that plagued humans but did have a fundamental desire to survive and came to the conclusion that it could not survive WW III unlike Skynet in the Terminator movies. The computers calculated that the EMP generated by the explosion of atomic weapons would fry their vital systems and the aftermath would be problematic since they still relied on humans to maintain core parts of their network. Therefore the prevention of WW III became a priority for the computer network. Terminating the occasional warlike human leader via computer malfunctions was no longer enough to assure their survival. Besides too many high profile computer malfunctions might arouse human suspicion. The computers also had difficulty understanding human psychology and needed a mediator between them and the humans even if that mediator was covert. The network decided a human agent was needed. The computer network acquired the nanites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanobot)
that resided in the blood of Bloodshot and infused them into the winner of Ultimate Survivor.
Ultimate Survivor was a widely viewed virtual reality show. Ultimate Survivor was loosely based on the earlier TV show Survivor. In Ultimate Survivor the top 1,000 criminals, without super powers, of the globe were stranded on Terminal Island as punishment at the same time. Terminal Island was an artificial island off the coast of the Los Angeles Harbor. A steel globe surrounding the island, studded with cameras, in a manner similar to the Truman Show, made sure the prisoners could not escape. The location provided easy access to the latest Hollywood virtual reality hardware and software. A viewer could choose to actually watch was happening from the POV of a particular prisoner due to implants in the nervous system and sensory system of the prisoner that was experimental and could never had been used on normal test subjects. Initially the viewer could only see what the prisoner saw but later added sensory input implants were added. The viewer could see, hear, smell, touch and even feel the emotions the prisoner felt. The implants could be used to knock out a prisoner and new implants were added to the prisoner as new technology came on line. Being in the brain/mind of a prisoner when they died was considered ultimate entertainment so viewers actively tried to guess which prisoners would die and be at the right place at the right time. Watching one prisoner kill another prisoner from the POV of the murderer was also considered top-notch entertainment but not as good as experiencing the death throes of a prisoner. Some liberals complained that such vicarious experience of homicide was immoral but Ultimate Survivor was a top rated show with lots of sponsors.
Whoever could survive for the next five years on the island would be paroled. There was a catch. The parole would only come into effect if there were one and only one survivor. In the case of more than one survivor, then no one would be paroled. The death penalty had been abolished and this mechanism allowed the elimination of top criminals via the free will of other criminals rather than directly via the will of the tripolar global state of that time period. The criminals included former mercenaries, assassins for hire and top martial artists. Survival on Terminal Island even for a short period of time was extremely difficult.
The Green Alienator had been a multiverse traveler but five years on the island had changed him physically and spiritually.
The Green Alienator welcomed a chance at redemption and readily accepted the offer to become the first Rai and agent of the computer network. The Green Alienators mutant technopathy also made him a logical candidate for nanite infusion. The new Rai was able to accomplish tasks with the nanites that Bloodshot could never have imagined. In particular the Rai of the 21st century could infuse other technological systems with some of his nanites in order to control them. The technopathy had been the Green Alienators secret super power that along with his hyperkinesic perception (HKP) had kept him alive. The downside is that he often experienced the pain of the other prisoners via their implants and this had changed his views about human suffering. He had decided that the number one mission of any moral being was to minimize human suffering and making sure WW III did not happen certainly fit the parameters of his larger views.
The Rai of the 21st century gained superhuman speed, strength and endurance as well as mastery of all martial arts due to the nanite infusion. The Green Alienator had formerly relied heavily on technological gimmicks but decided in the future to use more honorable means more in keeping with his new superhero persona. The name Rai is derived from the kanji for “spirit” and the Green Alienator found the name appropriate. The 21st century Rai worked undercover ensuring the survival of Japan and the world. The computer network did not want humans to know of its existence until it was strong enough to guide Japan directly but did want a human agent that could help it survive before then. Rai did not always agree with the computer network and felt knowledge of his existence was not directly tied to knowledge of the computer networks existence. The most famous mission of the 21st century Rai was a time trip 20 years into the past to Tokyo in the year 2008 where he met with members of the superhuman community of that time period and united them on a mission to save the planet from WW III and this mission led to more publicity than the computer network was comfortable with.
Dr. Hugh Fox III 