Tag Archives: super soldier

DC vs. Marvel War Heroes

sgt. fury013

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 (http://foxhugh.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 the Twilight of the Superheroes, (http://foxhugh.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:

http://foxhugh.com/2009/04/11/dc-vs-marvel-working-women/

 

 

My other website at:

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Other DC vs. Marvel Posts

Big Monsters

Fourth Wall Heroes

Funny Animals

Horror Hosts

Kids

Robots

Sidekicks

Spacemen

Superpets

Teenagers

Transportation

War Heroes

Weapons

Western Heroes

Women in Refrigerators

Working Women

WereVerse Universe Baby!

 

Alan Moore’s Superhero Universe Reboots 1: The Albion Universe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion_(comics)

 

The main superheroes of the Albion universe include Bad Penny, Brian’s Brain, Captain Hurricane, Charlie Peace, the Cloak, Cursitor Doom, the House of Dolmann, the Dwarf , Eagle-Eye, Faceache, Grimly Feendish, Janus Stark, Jason Hyde, Kelly’s Eye, Martha’s Monster Make-Up, Mytek the Mighty, Queen of the Seas, Robot Archie, Rubberman, the Spider, Tri-Man and Zip Nolan.  Alan Moore’s daughter is credited with being one of the creators of the Albion Universe and I am sure this is the case but the hand of the master is clearly in evidence.  The Albion universe highlights the ability of Alan Moore to take the most sketchy superhero source material and raise the quality of this material to another level.  Chronologically this is Moore’s latest reboot and is only dealt with first because these posts are organized alphabetically.  Moore took a group of superheroes published by Fleetway press in the 1960’s in Great Britain and gave them new life.  These comic books were never distributed in the US so they would be totally unfamiliar to US audiences and even readers in England. 

 

I remember talking to a British friend of mine about the series after buying and reading the graphic novel that collected the series.  My friend is a fellow comic book fanatic and he had no idea what I was talking about despite my descriptions of the various characters.  After he borrowed the graphic novel from me he said “Yeah, yeah. I read some of these characters back when I was a kid but totally forgot about them”.  I have spent time in London and spent a lot of my time in comic book shops, to the chagrin of my wife at the time, ex-wife now, perhaps there is a relation between the two events, and of course was more interested in stuff from England than stuff from the US.  To my chagrin, the people working in the comic book stores pointed me to Judge Dredd stuff that is easily available in the US in the form of graphic novel reprints.  I didn’t run into any Fleetway stuff back then and I am a fairly obsessive person when it comes to finding weird comic books.

 

I was vaguely aware of the Fleetway stuff since as a kid in Venezuela in the 1960s I was friends with a kid from England and read some of that stuff in his house.  The publication quality was far below US standards.  A lot of the strips were black and white!  They were in a tabloid format.  The covers were on regular paper rather than slick!  Still, like Moore I have always had an interest in obscure super hero universes, the more obscure the better, even as a youth and did read his collection avidly.

 

Some of the original material from the 1960s is also included in the graphic novel and this helped me dredge up memories of those comic books.  As I have stated in the introduction, comic books of that time period were much more innocent and light hearted than comic books today.  I have started collected Marvel Essentials and DC Showcase editions which reprint a lot of stuff I read as a kind in the sixties, and going down memory lane is fun, but I am often amazed I could be entertained by such simplistic and juvenile material but then have to remind myself that I was a juvenile back then!  Even by US sixties standards the Fleetway stuff is even more light hearted and many of the strips would have to classified as comedy rather than drama. 

 

In particular, Captain Hurricane has undergone a radical reboot!  The original sixties Captain Hurricane was more like a Popeye character than a super hero.  In Moore’s reboot, Captain Hurricane has been turned into a dark British version of the Captain America’s super soldier story.  Captain Hurricane is the only successful subject of an experimental procedure that killed over 300 other subjects.  Furthermore, the process turned Captain Hurricane into a homicidal maniac who during rages is capable of killing whole platoon of Nazis with his bare hands in the most brutal manner imaginable.  Alan Moore does some other interesting things with the other characters.

 

Rubberman is a major character in the Albion universe and as far as I can tell he was an obscure character in an obscure superhero universe and I think his importance in the Moore reboot is indicative of a feeling on Moore’s part that super stretching is an important super power that is generally underestimated except by the greats.  The Elongated Man and Plastic Man are prominent in Frank Miller’s, The Dark Knight Strikes Again.  Frank Miller is the second greatest comic book writer ever, after Moore, but a distant second in my opinion.  Batman states that Plastic Man has the power to kill us all i.e. Batman and Elongated Man together.  Batman is a first tier super hero and a master of assessing combat abilities so this comment is very interesting.  Batman is talking for Miller and stating this type of power can be very dangerous.  Most writers have not taken super stretching very seriously and have exploited this power for comic effect rather than thinking this power gives great durability, a means of escape from any prison and the ability to inflict great harm.  Plastic Man has generally been treated as a funny character and not as a dangerous character.  Elastic Lad, Jimmy Olsen’s super hero persona, generally had funny adventures.  Elongated Man engaged in amateur sleuthing and fought common criminals rather than super villains except when teamed up with the Flash.  Superheroes with super stretching as a power generally don’t get much respect.  The big exception is Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four who is a heavy weight.  I agree with Moore that super stretching is probably the second most underestimated super power. 

 

The most underestimate super power is super speed.  A common “what if fight” is between the Hulk and Superman.  If Superman can dodge bullets then he can certainly dodge blows from the Hulk or from anyone without super speed yet he never does this when fighting opponents with super strength but without super speed.  Superman should be able to dodge every blow by the Hulk and deliver every blow he aims at the Hulk but I guess this would not be a very fun comic book battle.

 

Part of the story involves the main character trying to track down old comics that are hard to find.  We later learn that the comic books actually portray real events!  In a twist one of the funnier and more juvenile comic books portrays, perhaps the most dark and evil character in this universe.  This is a consistent characterization thread.  There is the character as portrayed in the comic books and the actual character.  There is also a Machiavellian angle.  The British government employed the Spider to round up or destroy all the super powered heroes and villains and this same government then betrayed the Spider.  The surviving heroes and villains are put in common gulag rather than separated since as far as the government is concerned they are all guilty of the same sin of creating disorder.  Moore is a student of power politics and this is reflected in many of his works. 

 

V is for Vendetta, possibly his best work after the Watchmen, explores the relationship between fascism and anarchy and is one of the most, if not the most, political mainstream comic books ever published.  Is fascism justified to prevent anarchy?  Do ends justify the means?  The Albion series in contrast to some of Moore’s other works does not pose any deeper question but therefore cannot be put in the same league as the Watchmen and V is for Vendetta.

 

On the other hand, Moore’s level of characterization has never been better.  Subtle differences between British and American thinking about the role of authority are explored using the conversations between the director of the gulag and a CIA agent sent from homeland security to evaluate the gulag’s security.  The heroes and villains are old men who have spent decades behind bars and this has affected their thinking and therefore their speech and behavior.  The old men look and act like old men.  Generally in comic books the younger version and the older version of the same character are indistinguishable except for the fact they are drawn differently.  There is also great use of British expressions that clearly make the reader feel they are in England based on the dialogue.  Not the usual “Jolly Good Batman” banter that is so common in comic books.  In Albion different characters of different social classes do speak differently as is the case in England to a greater extent than the US.  Of the five superhero reboots, I would rank the Albion reboot as being first in characterization and a rank of number four of the five universes!

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