Reviews 

Remembering Amalgam: “Super Soldier: Man of War” #1

By | November 2nd, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

One of the best stories from the first wave of Marvel-DC pairings returns for a sequel in our continuing journey through Amalgam Comics.

The Mash Up
As before, Superman meets Captain America. Unlike before, this tale is set during World War II as one of Super Soldier’s adventures prior to being frozen, thawed, and recruited to the Judgment League Avengers.

Like before, the story is brought to you by Mark Waid, Dave Gibbons, and DC Comics. Unlike before, Gibbons receives full plot credit and he’s assisted on inks by Jimmy Palmiotti.

The plot
During a meeting of the All-Star Winners Squadron, Super Soldier is asked by the US Army to accompany a top secret cargo container across the Atlantic. He’s not told what’s inside, but he is told there’s a traitor at work. In his civilian guise as enlisted man Clark Kent, Super Soldier and his pal Jimmy Olsen board a navy ship and set sail. En route, they get involved in a fight between sailors and soldiers, meet Sgt Rock and his Howling Commandos, and bump into a suspicious Frenchman. Thanks to Olsen’s impatience, they can’t be sure the Frenchman is the traitor.

In England, the cargo is delivered without incident. As Super Solider, our hero makes a special appearance at a state function, meeting both Winston Churchill and Lex Luthor. Super Solider and Luthor have an adversarial history together, but its mostly over Lex’s wife Lois.

During the function, Baron Zemo steals the cargo container. The Howling Commandos get captured, but are freed by the Frenchman, who turns out to be an underground resistant fighter and an attractive red head in disguise named Peggy. They’re unable to overcome Zemo’s defenses, so Olsen uses his signal watch to call Super Soldier. The villains escape in a U Boat with the special cargo while Super Soldier is distracted by some torpedoes they fired.

In the final pages, Luthor is revealed to be pulling Zemo’s strings, and the cargo is a space ship with a green rock in it. Luthor plans to use it to power a big robot.

What “Wizard” thought then
This was the only returning Amalgam character that also retained its writer and artist from the previous year. Naturally, that’s because “Super Soldier” was so close to perfect that no one wanted to mess with it.

“Wizard”’s Market Watch identified it as of the better Amalgam performers, but sales-wise it was 8th out of the 12.

What I think now
This was fine, but it wasn’t the masterpiece “Super Soldier” was. The story has some weakness – a lack of origin recap, for one. The reveal at the end doesn’t tell a reader what that rocket ship is. It has a fancy design, but there’s not even a hint in the text that it’s alien manufacture, nor that the dead baby that had been inside it was studied to concoct the formula that turned Clark Kent into Super Soldier.

“Man of War” also magnifies many of the complaints I had about the character’s 1996 debut: too little amalgamation. We finally learn the hero’s full name, but it’s “Clark Kent”. The villain, Lex Luthor, has not yet become the Green Skull. He’s just a bald guy. Super Soldier never throws his shield, and never fights with anything but his super powers. This is much more of a “Superman during WWII” story, and that’s disappointing.

There are really only two real amalgams in this comic. One is the Aqua Mariner, who originally appeared in the 1996 “JLX” comic. The other is the Human Torch / Green Lantern combo Human Lantern, who exists to make a joke about robot cooking.

I’m not sure why Sgt Rock and his Howling Commandos were included. They fight a lot and shout “Woo Hoooooo” every other page, but accomplish nothing. Their biggest contribution is getting captured at the right moment so Olsen can use his signal watch.

Still, this is Waid and Gibbons. The dialogue is good, and the art is beautiful. This isn’t a bad comic, but it feels like a wasted opportunity. There was over fifty years of adventures to showcase in this one issue, but we were treated to a direct prequel of the previous effort. Luthor was rehashed as the villain but in a more boring way, Zemo appeared un-Amalgamed and had no characterization or impact on the story. Was it too hard to think of other villain combinations, like Arnim Zola and Brainiac? Bizzaro and US Agent? Doomsday and Batroc?

If this were an ongoing, I might give it another shot. Eventually they might get past Luthor to a story I want to read. However, it’s not a good sign that I’m at the “maybe it will get better” stage at the second issue. I think “Super Soldier: Man of War” helped prevent a third wave of Amalgam Comics.


//TAGS | 2020 Summer Comics Binge

Drew Bradley

Drew Bradley is a long time comic reader whose past contributions to Multiversity include annotations for "MIND MGMT", the Small Press Spotlight, Lettering Week, and Variant Coverage. He currently writes about the history of comic comic industry. Feel free to email him about these things, or any other comic related topic.

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • Reviews
    Remembering Amalgam: JLX Unleashed #1

    By | Nov 16, 2020 | Reviews

    As the journey through Amalgam Comics nears a conclusion, I find myself at “JLX Unleashed”, the follow up to the disappointing 1996 “JLX”. Luckily for everyone, this story is a significant improvement.The Mash UpSome of the lesser members of the Justice League have been mixed with the X-Men, and in Amalgam continuity the team pits […]

    MORE »
    Reviews
    Remembering Amalgam: Dark Claw Adventures #1

    By | Nov 9, 2020 | Reviews

    With this review of 1997’s “Dark Claw Adventures”, we’re nearing the finish line in our journey through Amalgam Comics.The Mash UpLike the 1996 issue “Legends of the Dark Claw”, this issue merges Batman with Wolverine. Also returning is Sparrow, the Jubilee/Robin combo. Unlike the 1996 issue, “Adventures” is drawn in the Bruce Timm style and […]

    MORE »

    -->