“Yesterday’s” Comic> Super-Soldier: Man Of War

Something I just wondered. Does Super-Soldier not have Superman’s invulnerability? If so, why the shield?

Super-Soldier: Man Of War

Amalgam (DC; June, 1997)

Set during the war, Super-Solider stops by the All-Star Winners Squadron to tell them that he’s off on a mission so secret even he doesn’t know what it is, and all he’s told is that it’s a mystery cargo encased in lead. Clark and Jimmy notice a strange man on the ship who seems interested in the cargo. But as Super-Soldier has to attend a banquet hosted by Winston Churchill thieves make off with the cargo. Sgt. Rock and his Howling Commandos are captured by the same thieves under Baron Zemo. Super-Soldier heads to the rescue, destroying Zemo’s War Wheel and finding out the man is a double agent, and a woman named Peggy, who is wounded in the battle. While Super-Soldier takes Peggy to a hospital, the Commandos miss catching Zemo, the cargo, and the man who plans to use the green glowing rocks that was the cargo, namely Zemo’s partner in villainy, Lex Luthor, who needs the rock to power Ultra-Metallo.

What they got right: There are some nods to the previous Super-Solider comic that places this just before Clark was frozen. (Lex wasn’t able to unleash Ultra-Metallo until modern times.

What they got wrong: There’s a scene where Lois tries to get Clark’s attention on the boat carrying the mystery cargo but he ignores her because she married Lex Luthor. There was no point to this unless it references something in Captain America’s past that I don’t know about. What few amalgamations exists aren’t really worth getting into so I’ll just breeze through it.

• All-Star Winners Squadron (All-Star Winners/All-Star Squadron): American Belle (Miss America/Liberty Belle) is the only one with any personality and it’s just worrying about Super-Soldier all of the time. Rather unimpressive. Aqua-Mariner is there as well. Human Lantern seems to be part Starheart (so possibly Alan Scott, referred to in Iron Lantern) and part original Human Torch. Whiz is a merger of Jay Garrick (the original Flash) and the Whizzer. Brooklyn Barnes is an odd one. Jimmy takes Bucky’s role but Bucky himself is amalgamated with Dan Turpin according to once source and his later (earlier?) appearance in Spider-Boy may point to that. I’m not feeling impressed in part because I don’t know who was in the two teams that make up this one.
• The Un-or semi-Amalgamated: This is an oddity of this series. Easy Company from DC and the Howling Commandos of Marvel are merged into a single team. There are some amalgamations there but at best they’re a name drop. Meanwhile, Baron Zemo is just straight up the Marvel characters unless Winslow Schott (the original Toyman) is under there or something. Mademoiselle Peggy merges two characters but I’ve only heard of Peggy Carter thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and her daughter (?) Sharon being connected to Captain America and SHIELD. I don’t know who Marie is. I’m only putting her here because I don’t know where else to put her since I have so little to say. Lex here has yet to be turned green from working with “Green-K”. We already discussed him as well as Super-Soldier and Jimmy so we’ll move on.

Would you buy the series: I think so. A series about the wartime adventures of Super-Solider and Jimmy might be interesting.

Recommendation: This is the last of the Amalgam comics I have to review and we’re ending on a high note. Look this one up. Next week we complete the Access Trilogy with Unlimited Access.