AERIAL ACES, GROUND POUNDERS AND SEA SWABBIES

Before abandoning the subject of Darwyn Cooke’s NEW FRONTIER, I should note that after reading it I found myself giving more thought to the dynamics of the military genre in comic books.

I watched war stories on the big and small screens, and even in my teens began to have a fair sense of what sort of military-themed conflicts were deemed critically respectable. But I didn’t collect war comic books. As a kid my funds were limited, and I’m sure that was a major reason for not investigating that genre. I did devote no small amount of coin to the western genre,, though, so I didn’t save all my money for superheroes and horror-SF anthologies. I remember dimly thinking that most of the war comics of my time seemed repetitious blood-and-thunder, and though I was aware of quality work—particularly that of Joe Kubert-- I just didn’t buy into the genre. Even when war comics included crossovers with super-types, as when Nick Fury met both Captain America and “Doctor Zemo,” I didn’t plunk down any pennies.

Some fifty years later, I have a broader understanding of the high and low points of the military genre in comics, and I can see why Jim Steranko devoted a full chapter to the subject of aerial-war comics. There’s something pristine and liberating about stories of air war, ranging from the crazy pulp-stuff of the Hillman repertoire (Airboy, Sky Wolf, et al) to the mordant, downbeat tone of ENEMY ACE. Steranko implied that the years of the aviation comics ended with the Golden Age, even though DC Comics kept a few pilots in service, notably Johnny Cloud. In any case, the aerial-war comics seem to have been the aristocrats of the battlefield in terms of their emphasis on skill and derring-do.

In contrast, the “ground pounders” have to their credit most of the really long-lived soldier-heroes, represented principally by Sergeant Fury and Sergeant Rock. The infantry, even in the form of skilled commandos, tended to engage the reader on the gut-level, constantly evoking a kill-or-be-killed aesthetic.

As for the “sea swabbies,” they don’t seem to have done well in comic-book serials. I believe DC had a PT boat guy named Captain Storm. But despite the success of fictional series-heroes like Hornblower in prose, seagoing protagonists never seemed to rule the waves of the comic-book market.

Since I’ve barely gleaned the genre even today, I’ve no definite conclusions regarding the overall execution of the genre in funnybooks. But as time permits, I plan to give military comics more than a passing glance in future.