SUPER-AMERICAN
answers his nation's zero-hour S.O.S.!
Washington invaded...fifth columnists run wild...the skies rain parachute troops...
then into the midst of the dictator-spawned violence zooms a future U.S. soldier,
summoned by a despairing scientist from the advanced year 2350.
SUPER-AMERICAN --
shot back through time to battle the
"Hordes Of The Secret Dictator!"
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So reads the cover of FIGHT COMICS #15, published by Fiction House in October, 1941.
The attack upon Pearl Harbor was still a few months away, and the United States of America had not yet become involved in the World War that was then ravaging Europe. That would soon change, but even when this comic was published there were waves of patriotism washing over the country in North America. Marvel Comics predecessor Timely Comics had debuted it's own patriotic champion Captain America earlier that year, and other publishers were quick to follow suit. As the title suggests, the pages of FIGHT COMICS were filled with lots of action, featuring stories of boxers, brawlers, battlers, and bashers smacking each other across the face and gut with bare knuckles, gloved fists, and gauntlets.
The artist here was Dan Zolnerowich (later Zolne), who did a great job on several covers and stories for Fiction House productions like FIGHT and PLANET COMICS throughout the Golden Age. The writer credited as Jefferson Starr (without ship) was no doubt a nom-de-plume for someone whose true identity seems lost through the decades. Notwithstanding, the appearance of the character of SUPER-AMERICAN remains a fascinating and ludicrous example of the eras hyper-nationalism. In his debut and origin story, SUPER-AMERICAN emerges as the symbol of constitutional liberty become flesh, and in his zeal for justice and the protection of American freedoms he proves he is capable of standing toe-to-toe with tyranny, looking evil in the eye, and giving any and all non-Americans such a smacking that they will certainly think twice. Like a bull in a china shop, he smashes and crashes through several walls and doors in his haste to give evil a spanking, even descending upon Washington and tearing up Congress.
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In our modern day of dysfunctional politics and partisan, propaganda spewing Presidential pressers, it is possible that a ham-fisted, red tight wearing, muscle-bound champion with his personal copy of the U.S. Constitution's pages stuck together following masturbatory excesses from patriotic fervor might seem a bit odd...
On the other hand, perhaps SUPER-AMERICAN is precisely what our downward-spiraling Republic needs in order to bitch-slap us out of our collective malaise, and point us all in the right direction once again...
Yes, I can see it now...
SUPER-AMERICAN is someone we can look up to, if only because he's standing on a tall building...
"Yeah, whip the totalitarian dogs!"..."He's right!" I can picture him now bursting into Congress and smashing the heads of Democrats and Republicans together, with a hearty "Just as I thought - HOLLOW!" chortling out of his freedom-frothing maw...
SUPER-AMERICAN needs to smash through the Oval Office wall, and smack that ol' pen and phone right out of Obama's executive ordering hands! A trifle unconstitutional, indeed!
As if an alleged Constitutional lawyer couldn't grasp the concept of "checks and balances"...
By Golly!
The nut in the star-spangled long underwear might just have something there!
Then again...he's kind of a dick...
Cover by Dan Zolnerowich
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As a bonus for all you super-patriots out there,
also included within the pages of FIGHT COMICS # 15,
we have the astonishing feature of KINKS MASON and His Trained Seal, BATTLER!
KINKS MASON made his debut in FIGHT COMICS #1, and his adventures always involved lots of underwater action. KINKS didn't join up with BATTLER until issue number 7, which is amazing in itself, since it seems like BATTLER was usually doing most of the work and more often than not, saving KINKS fat from the frying pan.
How did Kinks get his name, you ask?
Well, for one thing, he did spend A LOT of time with a seal...
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Well, see what I mean?
Kinks gets himself in a jam, and good ol' Battler has to do all the heavy lifting, as usual!
Like a precursor to Lassie or Rex the wonder dog, Battler the trained seal has to search for Kinks, assess the situation, find the coast guard, communicate what kind of messed up snafu Kinks got himself into this time, lead a destroyer to the precise area, and save the day...again! Your welcome, Kinks!
What does Battler get for his hard work? Why, a pat on the head! "Good job!"
Sadly, this was the last ever appearance of Kinks Mason and Battler in the comics.
The tragic tale of what happened to them was never published, but can now be told.
While attempting to diffuse a Nazi bomb, Kinks told Battler to go to the nearest payphone and call the President, but unfortunately, forgot to give him a dime. Battler, replied to the orders with an, "Arf Arf!" Kinks mistakenly thought he was saying "I'll be back in five minutes!", when in reality Battler said, "Arf Arf!", which actually meant, "I'm hungry...I think I saw some fish down there by the rocks...I'm going to lunch now!"
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