Sarge Steel: An Introduction
Sarge Steel Logo
Dick Giordano art from Charlton Portfolio
In the mid-1960s, the editor job of a little publishing company out of Derby, Conn., was accepted by a man named Dick Giordano who took the company’s superhero comicbook line and cut the “super.” In doing so, he created the famous Charlton Action Heroes — with names like Blue Beetle, Judo Master, Peter Cannon (Thunderbolt!), Peacemaker and the Question. Together with Cold War holdover Captain Atom and his sidekick Nightshade, the characters Giordano edited established the silver age of Charlton Comics and, although they were quickly canceled at the time, they now enjoy a home at DC Comics (with the exception of Peter Cannon) and a cult fanbase.
“With the exception of Captain Atom, not one of the Action Hero line had a power,” Giordano said in a 1998 interview with Comic Book Artist. “They weren’t super-powered characters but were people who had something: Blue Beetle had the bug, Judo Master knew martial arts, Sarge Steel had a steel fist and a gun, Fightin’ Five were just highly-trained military personnel, even the Question just had the ability to cover his face up with a mask that couldn’t be ripped off. The concept of super-heroes, then and now, wasn’t terribly exciting to me.”
Giordano edited these books, some of which featured creators like Steve Ditko, Frank McLaughlin, Pete “PAM” Morisi, Pat Boyette, Steve Skeates, and the prolific Joe Gill. But Giordano only lent his amazing artistry to one of the action hero books — Sarge Steel.
In addition to establishing the new age of superheroes, the mid-60s was also the era of the jet-setting master of espionage. With the debut of the cinematic James Bond in 1962′s Dr. No, combined with a new age of tension between the East and West and tales of real-life spies, the private detectives and police who jumped from the pages of Spillane evolved into dapper globetrotters who carried shoulder holsters under their three-piece suits. Soon, the films and television were filled with the exploits of The Avengers, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Saint, The Prisoner, Get Smart and others.
This fad carried over to the comic books where, most notably, Sgt. Nick Fury who led the Howling Commandos during Marvel Comics’ fictional World War II years (the actual title was begun in 1963) became Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in August of 1965. Charlton had their own spy character, Sarge Steel who debuted in “Sarge Steel: Private Detective #1″ in December of 1964 — a whole seven months before Fury. Though Steel (a Vietnam vet whose battle with Communist saboteurs cost him his hand, later replaced with a solid steel prosthetic fist) was called a private detective, from the espionage-filled first issue it is apparent that he’s something a little more than your average P.I. As gumshoe aficionado Jim Doherty writes on the Thrilling Detective website: “The problem was it got started in the mid-60s, during the 007 craze, and PIs were passe, so, in each and every issue, Sarge got involved in an espionage plot instead of a more typical PI plot. By the last two issues, they weren’t even pretending to be a PI book anymore.”
Be he P.I. or be he spy, one thing could be ascertained — Sarge Steel kicked ass. With the first few issues featuring complete thin-lined cinematic artwork by Dick Giordano and solid scripts by workhorse Joe Gill, Sarge Steel was established as a force to be reckoned with. And he was, for 10 issues of his own title (first called Sarge Steel, then Secret Agent for the last two issues) and as a back-up in Judo Master for eight issues.
Sarge Steel regularly appears now in DC Comics as a gruff government man in charge of creating conspiracies and keeping an eye on the superhero population. But this week, we’ll be celebrating the original Sarge Steel — the ‘Iron Man with the Steel Fist.’
