“History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.” — From Godzilla, written by Buck Dharma.
If I were to make a list of what I consider the most important comic book series ever launched by Marvel Comics, The ‘Nam would make my top five with ease. Maybe the top two.
So The ‘Nam Omnibus, all 1128 pages of it and weighing in at six and one-half pounds, deserves a revisit. These humongous omnibi usually have pretty small print runs so they might be hard to find after a bit — this big dog was released last August but at $349.00 a pop you might still be able to find a copy at a friendly neighborhood comics shop. If so, they might be willing (if able) to cut you a deal.
“War comics” is something of a misnomer. Gung-ho stories about the evil enemies, be they German, Japanese, Viet Cong, or MAGAts, aren’t interesting. The white guys carry their bazookas into combat and shoot down all the snipers firing from the trees… and that’s about it. We are always the good guys, and the enemy is always bad — no matter who the enemy might have been at the time.
War might be the single least humanitarian means of setting disputes ever devised by politicians who rarely put themselves in harm’s way, but the real story of war is as human as we can devise, as repeatedly proven by Harvey Kurtzman, Archie Goodwin, and their collaborators. Even famed comics typist Robert Kanigher came up with a masterpiece of the genre, Enemy Ace, co-created with the incredible Joe Kubert. Generally speaking, Bob’s writing overall was so purple he had to send out for custom typewriter ribbons. Enemy Ace was a remarkable series about a German WWI air fighter told from his point of view and, for a DC war comic at the time, it pulled no punches.
These types of stories about the true horrors of war are the exceptions and not the rule, and in so doing they missed the significant and profound sagas about what makes a human being go to war, risk their lives, and — sometimes — return to society. Vietnam was our most controversial foreign war to its date, and while there have been some terrific “independent” comics published during and after that war ended, Marvel Comics produced a seriously strong ongoing series about the conflict.
The ‘Nam was launched in 1986, and it may or may not be part of the House Of Ideas official yet ever-mutating canon. I dunno; continuity never was meant to rival the Dewey Decimal System.
The creation of Doug Murray with Michael Golden (no relation) as the predominant artist and Larry Hama as the editor and company commander, The ‘Nam was set in real time, one month of story per monthly issue. It focused upon each character’s twelve-month tour of duty, which is what our real ‘Nam vets endured. As new or fill-in writers and artists came in, we were treated to the fine efforts of veterans such as Don Lomax and Wayne Van Zant. I should point out that Editor Hama himself was a veteran as well.
In comics, Marvel only fought the Vietnam War for seven years. Let us remember that Sgt. Rock fought in World War II monthly for some thirty years, with many sequels and crossovers in the subsequent thirty-eight years — and counting. Over here on Earth-Prime, Rock’s war only lasted six years, and of that the United States wasn’t directly involved during the first two years.
If only we could cancel war as fast as we can cancel comic book titles.
The Vietnam conflict provided a historical documentary about how not to conduct a war, although I’d temper that statement with praise for those who actually fought it. Sadly, these lessons have been ignored completely by all American governments during the past 50 years. Indeed, our latest Iran War is beginning to look like a reboot of ‘Nam but with that trademarkable Donald J Trump “fuck you” gena se qua.
I wonder if Marvel Studios will do a movie or a teevee series on The ‘Nam. I’m not sure I think we’re ready for that. In fact, I’m not sure we will ever be ready for that.
Although seeing Robert Downey Jr. as Ho Chi Minh might be amazing.
(Logo art by Pepe Morano)
