Full honors go out today to one of DC's greatest serviceman...Captain William Storm. Storm starred in his own series, Capt. Storm- P.T. Boat Skipper (Jun, 1964), under the creative team of Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick. Storm was serving aboard the PT-47 during World War II, when it was attacked by a Japanese sub. He lost most of his left leg, and every single member of his crew.
Losing would continue to be the theme throughout his life. After the cancelation of his title, the unfortunate Captain would be teamed up with other DC military characters that had lost their features as well. And so, Storm, Johnny Cloud, and Gunner & Sarge became the- well, Losers. These Losers, are connected to the recent Vertigo series (and movie) in name only. The original group didn't even have an actual title, rather they were featured in Our Fighting Forces. Storm lost another body part in that book, this time it was an eye.
I have to say that the Losers is rather unique in my comics' reading experience. I first encountered them in Crisis on Infinite Earths #3, where they were killed by the Anti-Monitor's shadow demons. A couple months later, DC published a Crisis tie-in called The Losers Special. I read that, as I was rabid into getting anything to do with that mega event. Upset that the team got an "unrealistic" send-off, the creators of the special had the Losers die at Nazi hands. Storm was killed, this time around, by a grenade. Then, in the past decade, I was immersed in another epic mini-series- DC: The New Frontier- where the Losers buy the farm a third time. This time out they become dinosaur grub. It wasn't until a recent hardcover reprinted Jack Kirby's brief run on Our Fighting Forces, that I got to see them live to the end of a story.
On the 25th, DC's other evil, bald genius...
Losing would continue to be the theme throughout his life. After the cancelation of his title, the unfortunate Captain would be teamed up with other DC military characters that had lost their features as well. And so, Storm, Johnny Cloud, and Gunner & Sarge became the- well, Losers. These Losers, are connected to the recent Vertigo series (and movie) in name only. The original group didn't even have an actual title, rather they were featured in Our Fighting Forces. Storm lost another body part in that book, this time it was an eye.
I have to say that the Losers is rather unique in my comics' reading experience. I first encountered them in Crisis on Infinite Earths #3, where they were killed by the Anti-Monitor's shadow demons. A couple months later, DC published a Crisis tie-in called The Losers Special. I read that, as I was rabid into getting anything to do with that mega event. Upset that the team got an "unrealistic" send-off, the creators of the special had the Losers die at Nazi hands. Storm was killed, this time around, by a grenade. Then, in the past decade, I was immersed in another epic mini-series- DC: The New Frontier- where the Losers buy the farm a third time. This time out they become dinosaur grub. It wasn't until a recent hardcover reprinted Jack Kirby's brief run on Our Fighting Forces, that I got to see them live to the end of a story.
On the 25th, DC's other evil, bald genius...
No comments:
Post a Comment