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IT ALL STARTED HERE THE ALL-STAR
SQUADRON
[Part Three]
The ALL-STAR SQUADRON series reached its not-inconsiderable storytelling "peak" approximately halfway through its run (i.e., the issues from, say, #25 to #40). Some of the most eminently worthwhile and enjoyable issues and story arcs from this period are detailed in the following summaries:
THE UNBELIEVABLY SAVAGE PUMMELING-TO-DEATH OF A CAREER TENTH-RATER (All-Star #35). [See cover reproduction, below]
No. no... not Hourman, you big sillies.
The venerable
Rex Tyler was one of the truly "classic" characters of the Golden Age
(even if he did gain his super-powers -- once you've cleared away all
of the obfuscatory underbrush -- by dint of being A Really Major Junkie.
I'm just sayin', is all).
Hourman teamed up with a sextet of spandexed sacrificial lambs from Fawcett Comics' Golden Age era (The Black Condor; Doll Man; The Human Bomb; The Phantom Lady; The Ray; and Uncle Sam) (No... really. He actually called himself U-N-C-L-E S-A-M. Swear to Jesus.) in order to liberate an extra-dimensional "alternate Earth" which had ingloriously fallen to the Nazi war machine of its time/place.
Whilst productively engaged in the lobbing about of various (and extremely startled) German Panzer divisions headlong into brick walls and suchlike, Hourman and his fellow "freedom fighters" discover that said worldwide Nazi occupation is being masterminded by none other than one of the Squadron's most long-standing and implacable foemen the armored-and- swastika'd assassin known as Baron Blitzkrieg.
Der Baron -- upon subduing and shackling the assorted would-be alternate Earth liberators -- demanded that Hourman hand over the secret of his "Miraclo formula" (the high-potency smack which enabled the black-and-yellow hero to comfortably bench press a city bus). When the self-styled "Man of the Hour" stoutly refused to do any such thing... an irritated Baron Blitzkrieg (such an "anger management" problem he had, this meshugenah) promptly took out his frustrations on the nearest available two-legged punching bag a little-regarded spandexed laughingstock by the name of The Red Bee.
("The Red Bee," incidentally, had no "super-powers,"
per se. Instead, he relied primarily on two combat "advantages" specially trained "attack bees" which he kept secreted in his costume's belt
buckle -- oh, stop giggling, for God's sake! At least the poor,
misguided li'l pinhead tried, all right? Give him that much,
at any rate -- and the fact that nine out of every ten opponents would break
out into huge, incapacitating brays of hysterical laughter at the sight of a
grown man prancing about the battlefield in red-and-yellow striped "balloon"
panties.)
Another terrific SQUADRON storyline involved classic Golden Age icon Captain Marvel (issues #36 and #37). [See cover reproduction, below]
"The Big Red Cheese" (as he was [quasi-]affectionately referred to by his particular bad guy bete noire, the villainous Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana) found his heroic will bent to the service of the Third Reich as the result of a peculiarly malevolent magical totem in Hitler's possession the otherworldly Spear of Destiny.
Along with the equally puissant Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel, Hitler's swastika'd goon squads were getting quite the merry little wartime "boost"...
... up until the precise moment, that is, that the All-Star Squadron
decided to take certain big, red matters in hand, for good and for all.
Nothing particularly "deep" or "meaningful" to be found within the pages of this sweet little two-parter, really. Just the sort of unabashedlyF-U-N comics "read" that Roy Thomas made a nice, long career out of supplying to the comics readership of the day, month after dependable month. The kind of thing that nobody actually seems to be terribly interested in writing much, anymore.
Fans of the less "frothy" stuff, however, certainly had no "kick" coming with
issues #38 and #39 of the ALL-STAR series, God wot... as the cover reproduction,
below, should make abundantly clear.
Revolving around a real-life incident in wartime Detroit (of all places), concerning the racial integration of a previously all-white neighborhood, this intelligently-approached tale afforded the still-brand- spanking-new Amazing-Man a chance to "shine" in the (near-)solo spotlight versus the hate-fueled hooded nemesis known as The Real American.
Much of a muchness with Thomas' earlier WWII-oriented work, re Marvel Comics' INVADERS series [e.g., said title's clear-eyed examination of such societal atrocities as, say, the American-based Japanese "internment camps" of the era, for instance], this two-parter refused to shy away from any of the larger issues raised in the telling of its own tale; nor did it provide any safe, "pat" answers by way of storytelling summation. This particular entry within the ALL-STAR canon -- as much as any -- is well worth your time and energies in seeking out in the form of "back issues."
Years before Thomas' own tenure on the feature, writer Paul Levitz posited a clever (if, ultimately, sad-making) conceit as to why the heroes of the 40's might have chosen to "fade away" as the 1950's rolled around. To wit a unilateral ultimatum on the part of then- Senator Joseph McCarthy -- he of the infamous "anti-Communist" witch hunts of said period -- to the effect that all known memberss of the Squadron reveal their true faces and identities, in order that they might then be summarily "cleared" of trumped-up charges of High Treason against the United States of America.
I've opted for a page from Thomas' own re-telling of the event (as per his encyclopedic LAST DAYS OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY mini-series), as opposed to the original tale, given that the former rendition was, in my opinion, the better-written and drawn of the two. Either way, however the scene retains every bit of its shock and power, given the indisputably iconic nature of the characters involved... both "real life," and fictional.
DC Comics, on the whole, has (alas) proven itself to be a poor caretaker and shephard, so far as its earliest "bread-and-butter" characters are concerned. The vast majority of this valorous band were unceremoniously "wiped out," like so many errant gravy stains on a tablecloth, by such artless and artificial "event" storylines as ZERO HOUR and CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
Even if advanced as being (somehow) "desirable," in the pursuit of greater comic book "realism" -- a dicey (not to mention somewhat dishonest) intellectual proposition, that; given that the medium is, after all, almost entirely given over to the chronicled exploits of men and women who can, y'know, fly and stuff -- such blatant, back-of-the-hand disregard proferred towards the very characters who only helped to build the bloody company, after all, was (and remains) wholly unnecessary, of course.
There's
an aphorism which, I feel, applies in this regard, re the
proper dispersal of one's loyalties and affections "Come Prom Night...
you really should dance with the one who brought you there
in the first place."
As opposed,
I mean, to... y'know... shooting your prom escort through the back of the
head, at close range, and unconcernedly waltzing off with the next pair
of pretty blue eyes to come your way.
I'm just sayin', is all.
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