Fighting American hails from the golden age and has a history that involves numerous publishers and creative teams. With a new home, Titan Comics launches yet another chapter.
FIGHTING AMERICAN #1
Writer: Gordon Rennie
Artist: Duke Mighten
Colorist: Tracy Bailey
Lettering: Simon Bowland
Publisher: Titan Comics
Cover Artists: Terry & Rachel Dodson
In the years following WWII, super-hero comics’ sales sank greatly, which led Marvel to cancel Captain America with #99. Crazy number right? Why not #100? Joe Simon and Jack Kirby decided they weren’t done yet and self-published Fighting American. The first couple of issues were similar fair to Cap, albeit, with a much more convoluted origin, I imagine to avoid being sued. Not LOL. Joe and Jack were and continued to be major patriots. Something happened in the 50’s however that would drastically change the tone of the series. Senator Joseph McCarthy, the leader in the fight to root out communists supposedly operating in our midst, was discovered to be a fraud, who destroyed many lives without cause, for political gain. This led Simon and Kirby to start examining the difference between patriotism, and blind jingoism. This led to increasingly bizarre villains (Kirby bizarre? No way!), and tongue planted firmly in cheek with our hero Fighting American and his trusty sidekick, Speed Boy. Sadly, Fighting American was very brief and only lasted ten or so issues. Happily, they can be found in a hardcover collection on the quality level of Marvel Masterworks and the DC Archives. In the 90’s our heroes briefly returned in a six-issue DC miniseries, similar in tone to the original. Later in those 90’s, Rob Liefeld was enlisted to reboot Captain America and was canned for bull carp reasons. Upset, Rob decided to re-purpose much already completed art into his own series, Agent: America. Marvel sued. 40 years later, Joe Simon was still pissed at Marvel. Unlike Jack, he never worked for Marvel again. Joe gave Rob permission to use the name Fighting American. Sadly, in spite of some great Ed McGuiness artwork, this run was also brief.
Review Writer: Douglas Briel
Score: 7/10
