Sgt. Fury #10

On to Okinawa!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee (the ol’ three-striper himself)
Illustrated by: Dick Ayers ( the ol’ high-flyin’ corporal)
Inked by: Geo. Bell
Lettered by: S. Rosen
22 pages

A feature of this comic has been a desire to send the Howlers to every theater of the war. They are based in England, but have already fought in Germany, Italy, Africa… now they’re off to Japan. Does it make any actual sense that a single squadron would have such geographically disparate missions? I don’t think we’re supposed to worry about it.

Captain Sawyer describes Okinawa as Japanese-occupied. An odd phrasing. Japan had conquered it over 60 years earlier. At some point, it’s just part of Japan. At the time the comic was published, Okinawa was occupied by America, but has since been returned to Japan. It remains part of Japan to this day.

Captain Sawyer and the other characters refer to the Japanese as “Japs”. Today, this is generally recognized as a racial slur that was prevalent among 1940s Americans. Having the characters use such language is likely historically accurate.

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Fantastic Four #5

Prisoners of Doctor Doom!/Back to the Past!/On the Trail of Blackbeard/Battle!/The Vengeance of Doctor Doom!
Release: April 10, 1962
Cover: July 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inker: Joe Sinnot (uncredited)
23 pages

I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby signed the issue. The omnibus credits Joe Sinnot as the inker in the table of contents.

I am of two minds about this comic. Let me tell you of both of them.

One the one hand, the premise of the series is that this team gets into fantastic adventures. Travelling back in time to battle pirates qualifies as such an adventure. And as stories about the FF travelling back in time to battle pirates go, this one is pretty solid.

On the other hand, this issue introduces Dr. Doom. Dr. Doom is perhaps my favorite super-villain ever, and this issue just doesn’t quite capture the Dr. Doom that I first met. Whatever I envisioned about the first encounter between our heroes and their arch-nemesis, it wasn’t this.

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