MILITARY COMICS #1
Writers: S.R. "Bob" Powell, Bud Ernest, Frank Frollo, Klaus Nordling, John Steward, Jack Cole, Dick Scopes & several unknowns
Artists: Charles Cuidera, Bud Ernest, Fred Guardineer, Frank Frollo, Klaus Nordling, William A. Smith, Jack Cole, Phillip "Tex" Blaisdell, Elmer Wexler & Henry Carl Kiefer
Millennium Edition One-shot
Published by DC Comics
$3.95

Reviewed by Alex Bernstein

MILITARY COMICS #1 is a 64-page freak-show of, well, military comics. Or, more specifically, "Stories of the Army and Navy!" (Although the Air Force seems to get most of the attention in the book - just about everybody's flying a plane.)

Originally published in 1941 by Quality Comics (POLICE, NATIONAL) I was expecting a book full of super-heroes - with maybe a slight military slant. Sure, "Blackhawk" got the lead, but after him we'd get, who? "The Ray?" "Quicksilver?" "Bozo the Robot?" (Yes, there was a "Bozo the Robot.") True to it's title, MC was 100% military comics. No costumes.

The Quality folks seemingly took every military-themed idea they had, no matter repetitive or slight and thew it in. Yes, "Blackhawk" is here - but ill-defined and not worthy of the cover slot. Alongside him are no less than 10 other stories: men stranded (in small towns, jungles) building incredible planes out of spare parts; mismatched duos ("Loops and Banks," "Shot and Shell"); almost-but-not-quite-super-heroes ("The Blue Tracer," "Yankee Eagle" - who can talk to eagles!, the Spectre-like, omnipotent "Miss America" - who gets her power after dreaming about the Statue of Liberty); and the one stand-out gem of the pack: "Death Patrol" by Jack Cole.

"Death Patrol" is an extremely well-executed precursor to both "The Dirty Dozen" and SUICIDE SQUAD. It's about a band of convicts who escape to Europe and decide to lend their talents to the war effort. The catch: every issue one of them dies. How's that for an idea decades ahead of it's time?

There's really no way to review MILITARY without putting yourself into the scout pants of a nine-year-old boy in 1941, listening to Fred Allen on the radio and watching "March of Time" newsreels at the Bijou before a John Wayne oater. Being a War Hero was something cool back then - a boy's ideal, probably moreso than being a superhero - because War was actually happening.

Though never a fan of "war" books, I did eventually begin to understand the attraction here. Despite being divided into "Army" and "Navy" sections - not one man or woman in the book is actually in the military. All are mavericks, unable for one reason or another to actually join up. Yet all are determined to serve, to fight the "enemy" one way or another - on their own terms - unencumbered by bureaucracy. This kind of blind patriotism, a novelty by today's standards, still carries tremendous inspiration and emotional weight - even housed in oddity's like "Q Boat."

Perhaps Butch of "Death Patrol" put it best:

"We're willin' t'fight fer youse. But we ain't takin' any silly orders! None o' that red tape fer us!!"

Alex Bernstein is Reviews Editor for PopImage.
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