Get Fury #5

In the penultimate issue of this 2024-25 miniseries, Frank Castle initiates his rescue of Nick Fury from the confines of the Hanoi Hilton. Meanwhile dirty CIA operatives Steve and Dave convince General Mackie to send out a group of commandos to eliminate Castle and Fury, branding them Communist double agents. 

It's a really powerful chapter, especially when seen through the eyes of Lt. Castle. As much as he needs to free Nick Fury from the notorious North Vietnamese prison, it's killing Frank to have to overlook the hundreds of other American POWS being held under deplorable conditions. 

Man, I just brainstormed  what would be a freaking awesome What If... What if the Punisher existed during the Vietnam War? Have Castle's wife killed while he's in Nam. Have him lose all care and go all Rambo, armed to the teeth, staging a raid on Hóa Lò. Through in a few characters from 1990's The 'Nam series. Have Larry Hama and Garth Ennis pen it together. Give it the Marvel MAX treatment. I would be first in line, pre-ordered for that epic! Think it over CB Cebulski! 

An awesome issue that opens up a multiverse of opportunities.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Get Fury #4

Col. Nick Fury has arrived at the notorious Hanoi Hilton. Lt. Frank Castle has established himself in the capitol city of North Vietnam, posing as a Soviet army advisor. But his Russian is limited and he's leaving a trail behind him everywhere he goes. Thankfully, Castle has found a pair of allies that have a way of getting inside the prison and they both have a history with Nick Fury. That's because one of them is Fury's former lover and the other is Nick's daughter.

Meanwhile, back at base, CIA agents Steve and Dave have uncovered further evidence that Castle and Fury are working together to end the agency's drug trade in Cambodia. Instead of following his orders to execute Nick Fury, it's becoming increasingly clear that Frank is going to rescue the Colonel. This is calling for a Plan B, which will mean the elimination of both Fury and Castle.

The scenes involving Frank Castle were perfect. I wouldn't change a thing; especially the whole added dimension of Nick's daughter being added to the mix. As for the scenes where Dave has figured out that Frank Castle was the last person to select for the Nick Fury mission, I understand the importance of those scenes. I just found that they went too freaking long. This is a 6 issue miniseries. But if Garth Ennis could have made the CIA scenes a little more streamlined, Get Fury could've ended in 4 issues. 5 tops.

I know that nothing that the CIA did in Southeast Asia was anything but concise or ethical. But I still felt like I could have done without a majority of it.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Get Fury #3

So you might be wondering how in the heck is Frank Castle able to operate in downtown Saigon in the middle of daylight. He's over 6 feet tall and whiter than paper. Not exactly the most Asian looking bloke in the heart of Communist Vietnam. He sticks out like a sore thumb.

It turns out that just as the South Vietnamese had American advisors, the North had advisors from the Soviet Union. This was totally new information to me but it makes total sense. So using what little amount of Russian he knows and his amazing array of survival skills, Castle is making do. But he's also leaving a rather long trail of bodies in his wake 

Back at base camp, there's a third party at play that I haven't mentioned in my previous 2 reviews: a pair of dirty CIA operatives named Steve and Dave. They've been involved in the illegal drug trafficking scheme in Cambodia; which is where Fury was captured by North Vietnamese forces. They believe that Col. Fury discovered the illicit trade and was in route to spill the beans on the whole operation. Thus why the push to send Lt. Castle into enemy territory to neutralize the future Director of SHIELD.

However, when a different pair of CIA spooks wind up dead in a locale that neither man would have frequented in a million years, Steve and Dave smell a rat. It turns out that the one guy to send to eliminate Nick Fury was the wrong G.I. to send. Because Fury and Castle have history. It turns out Nick has been using Frank to wipe out the loose threads dangling from the Cambodian drug trade.

Things just got complicated. Why couldn't Garth Ennis have just made this a simple extraction caper? Maybe you can't have the Punisher going after Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD without any sort of permanent repercussions. But did Ennis have to make the reason for Castle not eventually going through with his mission so freaking complex that I feel like I need one of those charts with the red strings going all cattywampus like an obsessed conspiracy theorist might have up in their bedroom??? 

The action parts are fantastic. The introduction of clandestine government programs was muddling at best. Yeah, I know that the CIA did some really unethical and illegal stuff in Southeast Asia during Nam. I have no doubt that they're still doing something in the name of American interests that would result in plausible deniability if the agents running the scams were ever found out in the open.  I just didn't need it's historical insertion into this story.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Get Fury #2

Along with examining Nick Fury's time in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, Get Fury acts as another chapter in the origin story of Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher. A Marine Lieutenant on his third tour of duty, Castle has seen a lot of horrors and atrocities that have numbed him to the point of doing some very sinister things for the American armed forces. Hence his unquestioning ability to accept a CIA backed mission to infiltrate Hanoi and assassinate Nick Fury before he can be tortured into spilling all of his country's covert secrets.

With his wife, Maria, still alive and waiting for him back home, Frank still has his moral compass. His hands might be dirty. In fact, they're down right bloody. But Castle has yet to have lost his soul.

This issue sees Castle being snuck across enemy lines and taking up a presence in Hanoi. The process of getting the Marine into North Vietnam involves a thrilling dogfight sequence by Jacen Burrows, between an American jet (I'm not an expert but I am assuming that it's a Grumman A-6 Intruder based on looks) and some Communist surface-to-air missiles. I mean I know that Frank wasn't going to die because he's got to survive in order to one day become the Punisher. Yet I was enthralled by that scene. Plus, there's still the fate of the fighter pilot...

Another decent introductory issue that's setting up all the pieces to the chess board. Definitely not a wasted issue. Still pretty heavy on hard swears but it wasn't a chapter devoid of action.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Get Fury #1

When this miniseries was first advertised in Previews, I put it on my wish list. I didn't need to buy the issues new. But I am a big fan of Nick Fury, owning complete runs of many series, titles and one shots involving various incarnations of the character. Considering that Fury fought in World War II and Korea, it's natural to assume that the one-eyed super spy was poking around Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. 

In Get Fury, Nick has been captured by North Vietnamese forces while involved in a clandestine operation in Cambodia. CIA Intel has information that Fury is being transported to the infamous Hanoi Hilton POW prison, where he will be tortured until he reveals every little government secret hidden in the folds of his brain. To prevent sensitive information from getting to the Communists, Lt. Frank Castle, currently on his third tour of duty, has been assigned to enter Hanoi, infiltrate the prison and assassinate Nick Fury before his torturous information sessions can begin.

Get Fury was written by Garth Ennis. Had I known that, I probably would have skipped putting this title on my radar. I'm just not a fan of the North Irish writer. His stories have tons of blood, viscera and the F-word. Plus he's no fan of the American government, or just about any world power, unafraid of upsetting the skeletons in any nation's closet. Ennis is a lot like Tarantino; only without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia. At least he refused to kill the puppy!

This 2024-25 miniseries marks the long awaited return of the Marvel MAX imprint. In other words, the House of Ideas version of Vertigo. If you ever wanted to see Nick Fury operating outside of the confines of the Comics Code, this is your chance. It's rather unsettling as I prefer the character when presented as a Our Man Flynn type of secret agent with an unlimited budget and madcap imagination. I'm going to trudge through this 6-issue series all the way through to the end. I just don't think that I'm going to like it.

Fantastic cover by Dave Johnson. Love this homage to the first appearance of the Punisher!

Worth Consuming, so far...

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Vietnam Journal #1 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

The time just seemed right. It's the mid-1980s. Darkly realistic films about the conflict in Vietnam are becoming big box office draws. Platoon and Full Metal Jacket show how American culture glorified a righteous war while our troops who fight over in Vietnam are faced with horrors unimaginable and for some, inescapable, years after the fighting has ended. 

For artist Don Lomax, the 1980s were a chance for him to show comic book readers what the Vietnam War was really like. Lomax was drafted into the Army in 1965. A year later, he was sent to Vietnam with his unit, the 98th Light Equipment Maintenance Company, conducting a series of odd-job missions along the Cha Rang Valley. During this time, Lomax would sketch out the villagers, soldiers and equipment he came into contact with, thinking all the time "This would make a great comic." However, it would be almost 2 decades before any comic book publisher would agree to any such project. 

The Vietnam War had left a giant wound on the United States. It was a very unpopular war that saw many of the veterans returning from Southeast Asia not getting the warm welcome of their grandparents from their time in Korea and Japan in the decades prior. Only a small number of movies even attempted to focus on the war in the 1970s and most film experts would agree that a majority of those films were anti-war pictures. With films like 1985's Rambo: First Blood, Part 2 making American's feeling a sort of pride about our involvement in Vietnam again, the barometer was starting to shift in Don Lomax's favor in order to see his Vietnam comic dreams become a reality.

In 1987, Lomax pitched his project to Apple Comics editor Michael Catron. Issue #1 debuted that fall. It introduces readers to the main character of Scott Neithammer, a war correspondent who has traded covering the conflict from the perspective of officials at the Pentagon to digging into the trenches with the soldiers stationed near Plieku. Lomax could have told the war from his perspective. He had hundreds of stories and sketches from his time in Asia. However, by adding 'Journal' Neithammer to the action, the character acts as a link between the reader and the G.I. to make the war more relatable to those who wouldn't understand because 'they weren't there.'

In the first issue, Journal is introduced to the men of Plieku base. Covering the action is going to be difficult as his typewriter is destroyed during a firefight when the Huey transporting the reporter lands. At evening chow, Neithammer meets some of the troops. Readers get a small background of the war prior to Neithammer's arrival when the correspondent is offered a replacement field jacket by the supply Sargent. Journal's story entertains the G.I.'s who are desperate for any sort of 'entertainment', while educating the reader about the growing anti-war sentiments brewing back in the States.

The jacket first appears in Vietnam when a Sargent on leave in the States takes it from a group of hippies burning an American flag. The clothing switches hands several times among soldiers who deem the jacket to be lucky. Ultimately, Journal ends up with the weather beaten coat after it is gifted to him by an unlucky vet who is ultimately killed by an errand brick thrown by rioting protesters at an American airport. It is Journal's hope to present the jacket to an active G.I. in need of lucky back in 'Nam.

Vietnam Journal would be published by Apple Comics for 16 issues sporadically through 1991. A few one-shots and limited series would continue the narrative before Apple Comics would declare bankruptcy in 1994. Lomax would continue the adventures of Journal Neithammer with the inclusion of several short stories in the pages of the short-lived Harvey Kurtzman's The New Two-Fisted Tales and later as a one-page strip in the adult magazine Gallery. 

A little bit of a spoiler: Journal would survive his time in Vietnam, going on to Iraq to cover the invasion of Kuwait in 2004's aptly named Gulf War Journal.

Completing this review completes Task #22 (Comic Book Starting With the Letter V) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965 (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In 1965, the United States Special Forces (USSF) A-Team designated A-342 was assigned to be advisors to a rag-tag bunch of Vietnamese farmers, tribesmen, 'draft dodgers' and neighboring Cambodians. It was the soldiers' mission to train these volunteers into fighters against the forces of the National Liberation Front. Due to their location, these trainees would be among the first line of defense against the Vietcong Army.

Stationed at a makeshift base in Dong Xoai, the USSF team were getting very high indications of an attack. Several spies were caught around the base perimeter and nearby smaller villages were being raided by the VC. The advisers made a request for further reinforcements. They were granted a grand total of 9 Seabees, Navy personnel whose expertise is in building temporary and permanent military infrastructures. 

At nearly midnight of 9 June, VC forces began their attack of the Dong Xoai compound. Artillery and ground forces numbering anywhere from 2-4,000 VC troops swarmed the combined forces of American and South Vietnam troops (50 years later and both sides still can't confirm the exact number of soldiers or fatalities). The first attack lasted until late morning the next day. As it appeared that the Communists were going to win the battle, nearly all of the native and Cambodian forces fled the base leaving a handful of Americans to battle for their lives until their extraction, around 2pm.

After nearly 13 hours of fighting, 3 of A-342 and 2 Seabees lost their lives in the battle. The remaining American soldiers were taken to the relative safety of the Phuoc Vinh Base Camp. Every survivor required medical attention ranging from minor to critical. A fourth member of the USSF team died of their injuries in transport. 

The slew of South Vietnamese forces aided by American 'advisers' retook Dong Xoai just a couple of days later. The battle was considered a turning point in the Vietnam conflict and resulted in President Johnson increasing the number of military trainers to be sent to the region. At least 4 of the members of A-342 returned to active duty. The team's Executive Officer, Charles Q. Williams earned the Medal of Honor, with 3 members receiving distinguished service crosses. Numerous Bronze and Silver stars were awarded and every American soldier involved in the first night of battle earned purple hearts. 

In the late 2000s, war art legend Joe Kubert decided to chronicle the battle. Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965 features artwork that is very much like and unlike the numerous works of Kubert devoted to the history of the fighting forces, both real and imagined. Every pose is action packed and the faces of the characters bear that Joe Kubert trademarked pained look of 'war is hell'. However, Kubert decided to not ink this book. Instead all 166 pages of story are penciled sketches with some images still bearing the establishing marks artists use to frame faces and physiques. 

At the end of this book, surviving members of A-342 crafted an extensive dossier on the events leading up to the battle of Dong Xoai, along with an hour-by-hour narrative of the attack and a brief follow-up into the post-Vietnam lives of the veterans. These pages are filled with dozens of photos and charts that make the reader feel even more familiar with these heroes. (When I learned that one of my favorite characters in the book died in 2008, I was heartbroken.)

Before one gets upset that I refer to these real life members of American history as characters, it's important to point out that in Kubert's narrative, the participants in Dong Xoai really are characters. None of the soldiers' real names are used in Kubert's account. Like with a 'based on a true story' movie, some of the events are edited or condensed to make for a more cohesive story. Some actions that one soldier performed are given to another, possibly to make the artwork or script a bit more polished. There are literally dozens of names floating around in this historical graphic novel and truly it is an undertaking keeping everyone straight. Especially if you try to read the dossier simultaneously with Kubert's story.

The Vietnam War is a complicated subject in American history. There are still citizens that adamantly despise anyone who fought in the conflict even though hostilities ended way back in early 1975. For those veterans who are still alive, the scars of the war still bleed. Love them or hate them, the men of A-342 and that tiny group of Navy Seabees were heroes. Grossly out-numbered, this small handful of men did not back down nor did they stop fighting until they breathed their last breath. And 5 of those men did this very thing in the battle of Dong Xoai. 

For those who served in not just Vietnam but at any point during wartime and peace- thank you for your service.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #24 (A War Comic/Graphic Novel) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

The Big Book of the 70s

Marie Severin, Rick Geary, Joe Orlando and dozens more fan favorite artists bring the 1970s back to life in The Big Book of the 70s.

While not everything that made the 70s my favorite decade is adequately covered in this book, there's a lot of biggies here. The Pet Rock. Watergate. Vietnam. Punk and Disco. This book is supposed to be about 1970-1979. Yet, a good portion of this book looks at the years that led to the Me-Decade as well as the aftermath of the decades that followed. But then again, any history book worth it's salt must focus on both the cause and effects of history!

I did learn a lot about things of the 70s that I knew very little to nothing about. Things like how the Sex Pistols got their name. Just who is Gary Gilmore? And there was tons of fun facts peppered throughout this book.

I wasn't such a big fan of the writing. The Witching's Jonathan Vankin does a good job at presenting the facts. But he puts too much of his own commentary into the book. I was quite surprised how anti-Jerry Brown the author is. Same with Jimmy Carter. But he really skewers Reagan and portrays the 80s icon as a demon. Quite unfairly, I must say...

One subject I was surprised is absent here was the rise of the gay community. Harvey Milk is completely absent from this book. There's also nothing about the Black Panthers. And this has got to be the first book I've ever read that covers the 1970s and doesn't dip it's toe into the sensationalism that is Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre! 

Maybe not the most complete look at 10 turbulent years in world history. But you learn things that have been glossed over in American history as well. I didn't know we had a meat shortage in the 70s and I am a professional chef.  But hey, we got to learn about the 1970s in graphic novel/comics form. And that's pretty groovy!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: a very fitting 7 out of 10 stars.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 20

President Carter's official Presidential Portrait,
National Gallery.

         40 years ago today, America got a new leader as Jimmy Carter became the 39th President of the United States. In one of his first acts as Supreme Leader, Carter will dive headfirst into a very tricky subject- the pardoning of Vietnam-Era draft dodgers. Due to his Christian values, Carter was personally compelled to showing others some mercy and as a result, pardoned thousands of draft dodgers who fled to Canada. Though many veterans protested this move, the act played a large part in helping the nation heal from the Vietnam War.

     Had he ran for President four years earlier, Carter probably wouldn't had won. But changes to the primary system for selecting the candidates made it more of a personable experience allowing for a little known governor from Georgia to beat out a Kennedy. Doesn't matter if the Kennedy was Teddy, Carter still beat him in a David and Goliath political battle of the ages.

      The Democrat Carter was a very controversial President. Not because he had some major scandal or was a total dirt-bag; he was pretty decent choir-boy of a fella. Not the debate over whether Carter was a good or bad President is because he was cursed with some rather bad luck. I'm not even talking about the Iranian hostage crisis or the flap with the Summer Olympics, or even the fuel crisis and huge rise in unemployment as a result of both international issues. 

     The bad luck I'm mentioning are things like how Carter fainted once during a jog from heat exhaustion on live TV. Plus, there's Carter's 'I lusted in my heart' Playboy interview that made him the subject of much ridicule over his morals and mockery as to his manliness. Let's also not forget the time that Carter was whisked away by Secret Service agents who protected the POTUS from a rabid bunny! (Seriously!) All three of which episodes were listed as reasons by one of my college professors as to factors that lead to the President being soundly defeated 4 years later by Republican Ronald Reagan. (BTW- she was a staunch Democrat and a biographer of Carter's presidency.)

The President and Mrs. Carter walking in the Inaugural Parade.

       It wasn't all bad for Carter. His ability as a master negotiator helped him foster a peace between Egypt and Israel. Plus Carter's  tenure in the Navy's nuclear program put him in the right position to deal with Three Mile Island, the closest we've ever come to a complete nuclear meltdown.

Carter's improbable run to the White House lead to him being named
Time's Man of the Year, January 3, 1977.
The same thing happened just recently with Donald Trump.
Both are sworn in on the same day, too!
Cue Twilight Zone theme...

       Jimmy Carter's career actually got better after his only term as President. He helped make Habitat for Humanity become a household name and even personally built some of the houses himself. He's written several best sellers including a children's book. His personal dedication to his fellow man has lead to him supporting dozens of humanitarian causes to which he won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. Plus, if there's an international crisis that a President needs personal help with, Carter is the man current Commander's-In Chief will call on to lead a diplomatic envoy.

      Being a liberal and Christian has resulted in Jimmy Carter being a very complicated man. For example, he's personally against abortion but has lead many campaigns to defend it's constitutionality and legality. Carter's never been afraid to criticize any of his predecessors, Republican or Democrat. Oddly enough, he's also the only former President to RSVP to be at Trump's inauguration today. (Obama doesn't count as until Trump is sworn it, he's still the current POTUS. And Bill Clinton is coming not as a former POTUS but as Hillary's Plus-One!)

Picture from January 11th, speaking on the eradication of
Guinea Worm Disease, another cause championed by the former President.

      40 years and 2 Dark Horses come out of nowhere and become Presidents. Coincidence? With election being every 4 years, maybe not. Or is it that after 8 years of one political parties way of thinking, people desire a change? In 1976, Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford because the people spoke that they were tired of the same-old same-old of the GOP with their vote. (Like with Trump, it was a very close election. Carter got more popular votes at 50.1% but carried less states than Ford.)

     I don't know why it is that Carter and Trump's road to the White House seem to have taken similar paths. I only hope that Trump's presidency doesn't go as bad or worse as Carter's did. Because if it does, God help us all!!!
   

A current and future President meet.
Photo from circa 1979.

The Spirit #24

   Bodies seem follow wherever the Spirit roams. Or is it the other way around? The hero goes on a globetrotting adventure from the United States to the jungles of Cambodia to recover a missing artifact.  It seems that during the Vietnam War, a unit of soldiers came across a valuable idol near Phnom Penh. Since it would be impossible to bring the statue back to the states and so they form a ton tine in which the last surviving member of the group would return to Central Asia and recover the priceless artifact for themselves. 

   Well, one of the vets has decided to end the wait prematurely and is killing off the rest of the unit one by one. But with a dwindling list of suspects, who is the killer and will the Spirit be able to stop the carnage before it's too late? 

   An instant classic by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier. The art by Chad Hardin continues to emulate Spirit creator Will Eisner's timeless style quite well. But I really would like to see MAD Magazine veteran artist Aragones give pencilling the Spirit a try. I think while it would be very cartoony, it would also be a rare treat for fans of both the legendary artist and the classic noir gumshoe.

   Worth Consuming

   9 out of 10 stars.

Dogs of War

I must admit, I broke one of my most cardinal reading rules with this book! I looked ahead! Spoilers! (And with that, be warned as my spoiling will probably spoil this book if you wanted to read it!)

But I did it with a very good reason. In this book there are heroic tales about 3 dogs used by the Brits and US Armies to aid for the war effort. The first story takes place in the trenches of the Western Front (WWI) where a young medic and his rescue dog wind up with an Irish unit after a massive shelling attack. I just knew the dog was going to die in the end and there was no way I was going to read this book if I got attached to a 4-legged friend only for him or her to buy it Old Yeller Style.

But, I finished the book, so obviously the dogs all lived, right? Well, with two of these dogs, their fate is left up in the air, but all 3 remained alive and well by stories end. So if they died tragically in combat, it’s a story for another time to be told in their future.

The other two stories involve American dog handlers. The first of those tales involves an Artic rescue team in Greenland as they provide safety and rescue for planes using the island nation as a way station before heading to Europe. I did not know that we secretly set up air strips in Greenland a good 6 months before Pearl Harbor and if the Nazis found out, it would’ve been an act of war on our parts. I also did not know that we fought Nazis on North American soil, although some consider Greenland to be part of Europe (See: A Risk board game)

The final story is told in flashbacks with a GI trying to adjust to life back home after a stint in Vietnam. PTSD, racism, and a touching story between the wounded vet and a young neighbor who’s struggling to train his new puppy makes this perhaps the most powerful of the 3 tales. But I enjoyed all three stories.

The afterword in this book gives a small history lesson on dogs and their roles in times of conflict. Events in Korea, the Gulf War, and the current war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq are briefly mentioned along with the three wars covered in this book. I would be pleasantly surprised if another volume covering the wars I mentioned early was published as a companion piece to this book. I’d very much have to read it.

The art and coloring varies. There’s a Paul Pope quality to the works with splashes of Darwyn Cooke. I really love Cooke’s art but Pope’s is hit and miss. However, it was very detailed and I enjoyed the use of color schemes as well as varying art-styles during flashbacks and scenes from a soldier’s private sketches.

Lastly, I want to talk about the rating for this book. The book itself has no rating on the front or back cover.  But I found this in the Children and Youth graphic novel shelf in New Arrivals at my local library. Amazon considers Dogs of War to be for ages 8-12. I just think 8 is too young for kids to be reading and seeing (this is a graphic novel) war and death. There isn’t any swears but at least one Nazi buys it Rambo style (Knife slit to the throat from behind) and several soldiers are gunned down violently. Yes- red ink flows from the colorist’s marker in these stories. So, I would at least advise parents and schools to possibly let only ages 10 and up read this book and with anything war/ violence/ and adult themes related, use discretion when letting youngsters read this book.

   And for adult readers like me, this book isn’t dumbed down. It’s the same quality of work I would expect from DC or Marvel’s voluminous war titles that were geared to teens and adults from the 60s onward. You too can enjoy this book and not feel like you’re reading a Disney novel!

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars