The debut issue feature Jack Kirby's premiere of the mythologcial character Atlas. Kirby had previously tooled with the character to little avail. Issue #2 featured Kirby's former creative partner Joe Simon. Along with artist Jerry Grandenetti, Simon created a kid-centric title called The Green Team.
The Green Team was comprised of 3 child millionaires. There's the Commodore, a shipping magnate with a toy boat that really pops! JP Huston is an oil tycoon who is more interested in adventure than digging oil wells. Cecil Sunbeam is a director who never uses a script but manages to produce amazing blockbusters.
As the Green Team, these boy millionaires meeting regularly to agree on funding projects for the price of a cool million bucks. Through the crack pots and the occasional greedy Gus, the Green Team wade through the proposals to find the diamond in the roughs in hopes of making more money of their investments.
The only rule to join the Green Team is that the members must have at least $1 million dollars in their bank accounts. Thanks to a computer error that pays off in the stock market, the Green Team has welcomed it's newest member- Abdul Smith, a black shoeshine boy who longs to be a part of an elite club.
In the Green Team's first adventure, they fund a project that promises to replace print, music, TV and movies with the ultimate pleasure experience. All done by computers. A shyster leads a protest of actors and performers who claim the Green Team's latest venture will put them out of a job. But deep down, the protest leader is just hoping for a shakedown. And he'll get his just desserts when he barricades himself into the pleasure-dome as the human mind just can't handle that much entertainment!
1st Issue Special marked the only official full comics appearance of the Green Team. The response to the comic was enough to green light a regular series. Two issues were plotted out and illustrated. Unfortunately, the DC impulsion resulted in the series being scrapped. Only those lucky enough to get their hands on the fabled 2-volume Cancelled Comics Cavalcade got to read those tales.
Other than the occasional cameo, the Green Team operated in the shadows of the DC Universe. Then in 2013, with the New 52, the Green Team finally returned to print. Thanks to inflation, members had to be trillionaires to join the club. Cecil was gender-swapped into Cecilia. Adbul was replaced as the young Arab prince, Mohammed Qahtanni. Instead of longing to fund exciting projects, this Green Team sought to become superheroes who used money to save the day. The series lasted 8 issues.
As for the issue itself, this is an odd duck. The artwork is great. But it's also a product of the times. With Simon and Grandenetti being in the later stages of middle age, their attempts at teen lingo was about a decade out of date. The addition of the colored Abdul was revolutionary for it's time, marking him as one of the first black characters in comics that wasn't portrayed as a stereotype or sidekick.
Honestly, I was surprised to learn that the Green Team was popular enough to merit a potential series. But it really doesn't surprise me that it got the ax considering how unlike DC this title was. The Green Team reads more like a satire of America's growing millionaire culture. With the boys admitting that their theme park was a failure so they'll have some fun blowing the structure to bits, this issue was more like something you'd expect to find in the pages of Mad Magazine. Not as a DC Comic. Experimental or otherwise.
Not Worth Consuming!
Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.
Completing this review completes Task #24 (With A Green Cover) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.
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