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.
No comments:
Post a Comment