Captain Savage #11 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN SAVAGE No. 11, February 1968

Considering that this title was actually “a spin-off of the series Sgt. Fury And His Howling Commandos”, it was probably somewhat brave of Gary Friedrich to pen a storyline concerning both military units working together against the Imperial Japanese Army so early on in the comic’s run. Indeed, considering that the book’s “Sound Off To Savage” Letters Page even contains a reader’s complaint that the Raiders are far too like Dum Dum Duggan’s comrades-in-arms, “Death Of A Leatherneck” could easily have come across as a bemusing mass of numerous, similar-sounding soldiers, with many a bibliophile soon becoming confused as to just what regiment each combatant originates from; “So all I can say is that I hope you meatheads remember what you’ve been told!”

Happily however, Nick Fury’s men predominantly take a back seat for this particular twenty-page periodical, allowing the audience to follow Captain Savage’s seemingly suicidal mission to fight his way past torpedo boats, heavily-armed enemy machine-gun posts and a plethora of partially-hidden infantrymen in order to reach “a castle on a Japanese stronghold island.” These action sequences are arguably a ton of fun, if not rather far-fetched, and allow the co-creator of Ghost Rider to provide many of the cast with some unique, if not a little stereotypical, personality.

Furthermore, there can be no disputing the impact of a narrative which ultimately kills off one of the central protagonists, especially when it is done just as the nail-biting battle appears to have died down. True, the fact that one of the Leathernecks is going to meet their end is telegraphed straight from this publication’s cover illustration. But the question as to just who will die is never divulged until the very panel in which it occurs, and even then there is a clever misdirection just beforehand.

Delivering plenty of ‘bang for your buck’ is legendary artist Dick Ayers, whose ability to imbue every square-jawed squaddie with a modicum of nervous anxiety as to their ongoing predicament, adds a genuine sense of peril to the proceedings. There can surely be absolutely no doubt to any onlooker that many a death-dealing bullet is zinging its way towards the heroes, and even reaches the point where an occasional panel probably had more than the well-pencilled figures in this book inadvertently ducking for cover.

Scripter: Gary Friedrich, Penciller: Dick Ayers, and Inker: Syd Shores