Judomaster - The Mountain Storm!

The second issue of Judomaster is numbered #89. That's because this issue, dated May-June 1966 is a continuation of another series Gunmaster which was actually a continuation of yet another series Six-Gun Heroes. If it's Charlton, you can be sure it's confusing. So, the ballistics are turned in for bare knuckles. 

The lead Judomaster story is in two parts. Part I is titled "Prisoner of War". Both story and art are attributed to Frank McLaughlin. After a symbolic splash with Judomaster battling a giant sumo wrestler in a prison camp, we leap to page two and story begins with Sgt. Rip Jagger being called into the office of General Hawkins. Hawkins asks Jagger to volunteer to go behind enemy lines and infiltrate a Japanese prison camp to rescue Captain Brian Miller who has unrevealed "valuable information". Of course Jagger volunteers and soon meets up with a Ranger unit who take him nearly to his destination where he allows himself to be captured and taken across the moat into the camp. There he meets the Commander of the camp, who turns out to be a Ninjutsu. Jagger meets up with other prisoners and discovers that Miller has malaria and hasn't been able to reveal any intelligence. He begins to plan the escape after he learns about Mountain Storm. Mountain Storm is a silent giant sumo who uses the prisoners as fodder in his fights to entertain the Japanese troops. Jagger arranges the escape and plans to settle the score with Mountain Storm. 

Part II is titled "The Mountain Storm" and sees the prisoners continue to plot their escape by building makeshift devices. But the Commander gets wind of the attempt and calls everyone out on the field. Some prisoners slip off to begin the escape using inflatable bladders used by ninjas to walk on water. Meanwhile Rip Jagger becomes Judomaster and confronts the Commander and the Mountain Storm. The next several pages are taken up with precise martial arts action sequences with Judomaster ultimately getting the better of the Montain Storm while the escape continues. But the Mountain Storm has one card left to play, as his name is apparently also the name of a particularly powerful judo throw, but when attempts it Judomaster is ready and swings the giant onto his knee for a painful backbreaker. Judomaster then leads the remaining prisoners in an attack on the Japanese overtaking a machine gun tower and mowing down some of the enemy. He then overtakes the Commander and defeats him. The battle over Judomaster disappears and Rip Jagger returns to lead the former prisoners to safety. General Hawkins congratulates Jagger on a job well done and mentions Judomaster's role, and it is unclear how much he knows about Jagger's dual identity. The last scene shifts abruptly to the island where Judomaster was trained and a conversaiton between Bushiri and Sensei about how sad Suzikawa (Sensei's daughter) is that Jagger is gone.

 

The second story is titled "Self Defense" and is really a tutorial featuring Judomaster and he gives step by step instructions on breaking choke holds and doing leg sweeps and a hip toss that looks much the "Mountain Storm" move from the first story. Both story and art are again attributed to Frank McLaughlin. 

The text story in this issue is titled "The Finger of Fate" and offers up speculation about a moviemaker seeing the perfect performer in a dream and then taking steps to find that specific individual. That is compared to a Chinese Emperor from ancient times who also followed up on a dream to locate and put into place the ideal man to lead as prime minister. 

This is a solid issue, giving Judomaster plenty to do and also taking a few moments in the action-packed story to do a tiny bit of characterization with the potential love interest. The relationship between Hawkins and Jagger is also one that seems at this point ripe with potential. Mountain Storm will show up again in the series, and despite not having a single line of dialogue proved to be a most memorable opponent for Judomaster. 

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

More Judomaster to come.

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Beware The Creeper!

Beware The Creeper the title says and it's no small warning. The Creeper was one of Steve Ditko's remarkable and memorable additions to the DC universe when along with other Charlton talents such as Dick Giordano, Pat Boyette, Sergius O'Shaugnessy, Steve Skeates, and Jim Aparo landed on those halcyon "House of Krypton" shores. The cover above is my favorite image of the Creeper, his posture all bent and the water oozing and dripping, a deadly "Menace" looming behind him. Ditko did his heroes proud with this one especially Will Eisner. 

But before that debut issue, we were first told to Beware the Creeper in Showcase #73. In this issue WHAM tv reporter Jack Ryder runs afoul of a bunch of thugs led by Angel Devlin and in the course of his adventures gathers the odd bits of his bizarre costume and meets Professor Yatz who is the man who uses his new inventions to give the Creeper his new powers. A fluid is injected into the wounded Ryder to save his life and a device is implanted beneath his skin which allows him to alter his appearance with the press of a button. 

I'd seen the Creeper in other comics drawn by Neal Adams and Dick Dillin, but the first time I was able to read this debut story plotted and drawn by Ditko and written by Don Segall was when it was reprinted in on of those juicy giant 100-Page Detective Comics issues which made DC so alluring at the time. 

It would many a few decades before I got my mitts on the Showcase issue itself as well as the original Beware the Creeper run. 

The Creeper's main enemy in most of the issues of the original series was Proteus. Proteus was a man who could be anyone, could alter his features and sneak up behind you at a moment's notice. Proteus seems to have been killed after their first encounter but that doesn't prove to be the case and in stories written by Sergius O'Shaugnessy (Denny O'Neil).

"The Isle of Fear" finds the Creeper on a long-lost island remarkably close on which an old society has been put upon on modern criminals eager for a safe haven from the law. 

As Creeper's fight against Proteus continues he gets new cast members such Rip Cord who join regulars his boss Bill Brane and self-absorbed weathergirl Vera Sweet, who sometimes afflicts Jack and at other times gives him a hand in his investigations. 

It's notable that Denny O'Neil seems to take on more of the plotting and scripting control as he sheds his "Sergius O'Shaugnessy" identity. Inkers join up such as Mike Peppe and give Ditko's pencils a different and frankly less effect look. For the most part, this era of Ditko always looks better when he inks himself.

In the sixth and final issue of the original run under this handsome Gil Kane cover we have only a part of a Ditko issue with journeyman Jack Sparling finishing up this final Beware the Creeper tale, at least for the time being. I an only imagine that Ditko has once again sought greener pastures as he leaves Hawk and Dove too, in the capable hands of Gil Kane it's to be noted. 

But Steve Ditko will return to DC and to the Creeper, but more than a few years will pass. 

In 1975 the mavens at DC Comics decided to give The Creeper another try-out on the newsstands and to that end the seventh issue of 1st Issue Special was pressed into service. This featured a story drawn by the Creeper's creator Steve Ditko. One curious detail about the cover above is the tiny detail of the dog and fire hydrant. (You can almost see them.) This cover was designed by Carmine Infantino and handed to Ditko to finish and to show his displeasure with such an arrangement he has that pup show its disrepect to that hydrant in the natural and time proven fashion. 

In this singular issue Creeper finds himself battling the Human Firefly, a hood just busted out of prison and aching to remake his reputation. The Firefly was a vintage Batman villain first and last seen in Detective Comics #184 from 1952, about the time Ditko was first breaking into comics. The script for the story was by Michael Fleisher, and Mike Royer inked Dikto's pencils. But Ditko wasn't done with his creation, he had more Creeper stories to tell. 

The try-out sparked a revival in the back pages of World's Finest beginning with issue #249. 

The Creeper was rarely featured on the covers, though his smiling yellow mug and lustrous green motop was nestled alongside the logo with the other back-up features face in this densely packed dollar comic. All the stories were written and drawn by his creator Ditko. 

The stories in these issues have a much broader comic feel than the original series had shown nearly a decade before. The Creeper is working for Cosmic Broadcasting as part of a security team. 

Joining his cast are his boss Sam Hagen along with spry blonde dame named Fran Daye and a galoot named Dump. One odd detail is that a fly always seems to be hovering around Dump's head. 

The Creeper comes up against new baddies like The Disruptor and a lug called simply the Monster. He also has to deal with the return of Angel Devlin who was instrumental in the origin of The Creeper in his very first story. 

Apparently there was some thought to busting the Creeper out into his own comic again, but the infamous DC Implosion put the skids to that idea. The issue of Showcase #107 would have allowed The Creeper to return to his place of birth but it was only seen in the Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 for many years. Creeper does rate an appearance on both of the CCC covers though. 

This is a wild wild issue with two double-page splashes and a cameo by Ditko's Odd Man. (The Odd Man was touted to have a back-up feature, but the implosion ended that aspiration.) 

And that's a wrap on The Creeper, at least as produced by his maker Steve Ditko. The Creeper did prove somewhat popular and did get around for some time by dint of other talents. 

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Judomaster - Special War Series!

Judomaster is a character near and dear to my heart (as you can tell from my nom de electron "Rip Jagger"). Let's begin at the beginning. There is no Judomaster #1. That would be far too simple a start for a Charlton hero. To find the debut of Judomaster you must look at a couple of books. Charlton's Special War Series was a quarterly comic which featured sundry war stories. After three fairly typical issues the final installment, issue #4 bearing a November 1965 date is quite a bit different. On that cover is a vivid red and yellow figure and around is arrayed four images of that same figure displaying various martial arts skills. He is dubbed "America's Newest and Greatest Action-Hero!". 

The story begins in Part I titled "Introducing Rip Jagger...Judomaster". The script is by the ubiquitous Joe Gill, Charlton's workhorse writer, but the artwork and concept are from the skilled hand of Frank McLaughlin. The story begins in June 1943 on a small island in the Pacific where a bunch of U.S. soldiers are fighting a "horde" of Japanese soldiers led by Major Yoku. We meet Sgt. Rip Jagger and PFC Al Cole as they stand watch. A figure appears in the night and Cole fires despite Jagger's warning. They hear sounds and Jagger goes out to check the victim and lift the body to his shoulder, but as attempts to return he comes under sniper attack by the Japanese who swarm the position. Suddenly when all seems lost a bunch of mysterious warriors appear from the jungle with swords and dispatch the Japanese. Jagger is stunned and finds himself under attack and despite his considerable fighting ability is knocked out. He awakes in a cave among a group of fighting men led by Bushiri who takes Jagger to his leader the Sensei an ancient master warrior. He discovers that the "body" he rescued was in fact the still-living daughter of the Sensei and he is among a group of dedicated island natives who want to drive away the Japanese. He learns his comrades from the U.S. are dead and so he throws in with the islanders. As Major Yoku continues to spread his tyranny Rip Jagger undergoes training under the guidance of Bushiri. 

In Part II titled "The Dojo!" Rip Jagger continues his training and learns much about the discipline of Judo including its emphasis on Renshindo (physical development), Shouibhuo (combat technique) and Shushinho (mental development). He proves a worthy and talented student, and even surprises Bushiri with his skill and speed. Eventually Jagger joins the islanders in an attack on the Japanese and is most effective, so much so that Sensei tells him that he has become a symbol for the islanders and so must wear a special costume to fully realize that role. 

In Part III titled "Judomaster Is Born" Rip Jagger puts on his distinctive red and yellow costume for the first time and carrying only a bamboo stick heads off into battle against Major Yoku, attacking his very headquarters. He then puts out a warning to Yoku that he will destroy three targets in succession. He attacks and destroys the Japanese oil depot, then the naval ammunition depot. During these two attacks he proves resistant to electrical shock. For the last target Judomaster has called in an American airstrike on the Japanese barracks and defies bullets to at last defeat Yoku. It seems his costume offers the skilled warrior near-superhuman protection against both bullets and electrical shock. With Yoku defeated, Judomaster stands tall waiting the next challenge. 

There two other features in this comic. One is title "Sport of Judo" and is both written and drawn by Frank McLaughlin and in this three-page feature he describes judo, aikido, and karate with special emphasis on the mental requirement of all three. The other feature is a text piece titled "Fight for Freedom" and tells the secret story of a heroic pilot named John Howard Mellon who went behind the Iron Curtain and rescued a defecting scientist. And that is Judomaster's debut. It's a really exciting and action-filled issue. McLaughlin is a skilled martial artist himself and his moves are drawn with precision and accuracy.

Also available in November 1965 from Charlton was Sarge Steel #6. It's of note to Judomaster fans because Judomaster makes a cameo appearance (a talking head) in the back-up feature title "What Is Karate?" written and drawn by McLaughlin. It's a classic bit of cross promotion as the three-page feature offers up details about the martial art as if Judomaster were telling it to you. He only appears on the first page though there is a mention that his debut is on sale at that very moment. 

To read this complete comic book go to this link. 

More Judomaster to come. 

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Sarge Steel And The Sentinels

Above is a delicious pin-up shot of Sarge Steel by co-creator Dick Giordano, from the 1974 CPL Gang's Charlton Portfolio which also sported a wraparound Don Newton cover. Just wanted to share this nugget before we dive into our main course today. 

Thunderbolt #57 is dated May 1967. The Sensational Sentinels appear again in a story titled "If This Be Triumph!". The story is plotted by D.C.Glanzman and the script and the art are by Sam Grainger. Lettering is by A.Machine. The story begins soon after the battle from the previous issue where we find Brute, Mentalia, and Helio in their apartment recovering. Brute apparently survived the fall from the roller coaster by landing in some water. Rick still has amnesia. The android Titan breaks into the apartment to continue the battle and he and Brute exchange blows, with Titan eventually flinging Brute toward a window. But Mentalia exerts her thoughts and is able to stop Brute in mid-air revealing for the first time not only an ability for telepathy but telekinesis as well. The Titan captures Mentalia and climbs down the building with her in tow. Brute follows using his great hand strength to grip the bricks on the side of the building. He and Titan again mix it up until Brute realizes that he was granted great strength over other men and not androids, so he changes tactics and uses a light pole to attack Titan to great effect. Then Brute leaps to attack Titan and Mentalia adds her telekinetic might to the thrust and they severely damage the android who ultimately collapses. 

Returning to their apartment the find Rick still confused but just they are dealing with what that means for the team Sarge Steel appears and announces that the Mind-Bender and Titan were creations of the C.I.A. and that Dr.Kolotov who gave them their powers was a Soviet spy. As the story ends, he is taking the team into custody in order for them to make statements.

 

Thunderbolt #58 is dated July 1967. The Sensational Sentinels return in a story titled "Into the Lair of the...Mind-Bender!". The story features artwork by Sam Grainger, but writing this time is by Sergius O'Shaughnessy a pseudonym for Denny O'Neil. The story picks up with Sarge Steel arresting the trio for spying, saying that Dr. Kolotov who gave them their powers was a Soviet agent. But Steel's aggressive nature and his attempt to shoot the trio in an alley convince them he is being controlled and Mentalia uses her ESP powers to overcome him. 

Then Brute and Mentalia are attacked by a hotdog vendor who they realize must be the Mind-Bender. They repel the attack, but he escapes. They then take both Sarge Steel and Rick Strong, also known as Helio to the hospital where the reports are good for both that they will recover. Then Crunch Wilson and Cindy Carson resume their roles as two-thirds of the Protesters, a singing group and try to perform. But they are attacked by a very hostile crowd clearly under the sway of the Mind-Bender. Helio returns just in time to save them using his flying belt and the trio escape. Later that evening Helio gets a call from Crunch and goes to the location only to find that he and Mentalia are taken prisoner by Brute who is under the power of the Mind-Bender. As the story closes, Helio and Mentalia are strapped to tables while Brute pushes a button which will kill them. 

This saga has a third chapter, but we never see Sarge Steel again. Read these stories here and here. 

More Sarge Steel to come...eventually. 

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Sarge Steel - The Warmaker!

Secret Agent (formerly Sarge Steel) Vol.2 #9 is dated October 1966. The cover is by Dick Giordano and is a variation of the splash page by Montes & Bache with Sarge in a more active role. The credits list Pat Masulli again as creator, Joe Gill as storyteller, with pencils by Bill Montes, inks by Ernie Bache, and letters by Jon D'Agostino.

Part I of File #109 "The Warmaker" begins with that splash featuring four returning Sarge Steel baddies and one new one. Back for another taste of the steel fist are The Lynx, Ivan Chung (his third appearance), The Smiling Skull (his second Steel appearance but his third Charlton appearance), and Werner Von Hess (who only appears on the cover and the splash). The new bad guy is named Mister Ize, the guy with the wonky glasses. The story begins in a dojo where Sarge is sparring with another karate devotee when that guy suddenly attacks Sarge for real trying to kill him. Sarge defeats him with the steel fist, but when he tries to take a shower hot steam erupts from the nozzle and he is just able to save himself again. In the background of one panel is The Smiling Skull who as Sarge leaves the dojo reports to Mr.Ize. As Sarge is driving away Ivan Chung shows up alongside in another car and tries to wreck Sarge's car, but Sarge is able to wreck Chung's by firing a .357 Magnum slug at him. As Sarge enters his apartment building, Mr. Ize and The Lynx sit outside in a car and follow him in, but after Ize calls Kapitan Werner Von Hess and tells him to keep his forces available for back up (this is the only reference to Von Hess in the story and we never see him). Mr. Ize uses his glasses to hypnotize the doorman and later he uses the specs to burn open the lock on Sarge's door. When Sarge arrives, he knows something is up but before he can do much Mr. Ize hypnotizes him, and the gang of villains leaves with Sarge in their control.

Part II "The Looters" begins with a jet flying over a burning oil tank in the country of Kuwania. The jet lands and Mr. Ize explains to Sarge that the fire was set with weapons to make the leader of Kuwania think his neighbors attacked him from which Mr. Ize will profit. They next use gas to storm the capitol city and take control of the palace to rob it apparently. Sarge follows orders and helps in the attack but during the gunplay a bullet ricochets and grazes his head and they assume he is dead, so he is left behind. He awakes and the effects of Mr. Ize's gaze are gone. But Sarge is captured by Kuwanians and imprisoned, but he quickly escapes by using sleeping gas hidden in cigarettes. He gets to the airfield and uses his steel fist to block bullets while he steals a plane and pursues Mr.Ize and his cohorts. Mr. Ize uses his goggles to shoot Sarge down and he is recaptured but pretends to still be under their influence and control as the whole gang uses a cargo plane to leave the area.

Part III "The Warmaker's Stronghold" is set in the Atlas Mountains where the cargo plane touches down and unloads. Sarge still pretends to be in their thrall, but he is soon discovered by The Lynx as he tries to learn more, and she orders her big cat to attack him, but Sarge dispatches the cat with one steel punch. The Smiling Skull shoots at Sarge but a running tackle takes him out and likewise Ivan Chung is knocked out by a grenade which Sarge throws but doesn't have time to take the pin out of. He gets the drop on the gang and uses grenades to begin to blow up the facility but is confronted by Mr. Ize who again tries to hypnotize Sarge, as he does this he relates how his power was developed while he trying to develop special glasses for surgeons and chanced on the hypnotic goggles which he immediately used to gather up the thugs who told him that Sarge Steel was the one man they feared. Sarge though at the last minute uses the mirrored surface of his steel fist to reflect Mr. Ize's rays back to him and the villain has his own brain warped. Free of Ize's control the other villains immediately scatter and Sarge is sure in time he as a special agent will be able to gather them up so they can face justice.

"Sarge Steel's Scrapbook of Judo!" begins with a new splash page by Frank McLaughlin I suspect (though credit at GCD is given to Dick Giordano) with Sarge and a boy explaining talking how the lessons from previous issues have shown the true nature of judo. After this splash are two reprints of earlier "Sports of Judo" three-page features by Frank McLaughlin from previous Sarge Steel issues.

Clearly the title change was an attempt to spike the sales on the series. The cover advertises a really hair-raising adventure and there is lots of action for sure. But the cheat on Von Hess is strange and even stranger since he's on both the cover and the splash page when clearly he was never in the story to begin with. Both Ivan Chung and Smiling Skull are diminished by their appearances here, two masterminds reduced to henchman duty. The Lynx gets enough space to seem threatening, but the other two not so much. Mr.Ize is a neat and weird villain who reminded me more than a bit of Doc Ock. One thing of note is that the first-person narration dropped in the last two issues of Sarge Steel is back in this one and to good effect.

You can read the complete comic book at this link. 

More Sarge Steel to come.

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Sarge Steel - The Terrible Talon!

Sarge Steel #8 is dated March-April 1966. Pat Masull [sic] is listed as the creator, and clearly this is Pat Masulli's name misspelled which is stunning given he's the Executive Editor of Charlton at this time. Joe Gill is again scripting and Jon D'Agostino supplies the letters. Bill Montes and Ernie Bache return for the art chores. The cover for this issue is by Rocke Mastroserio.

File #108 "Case of the Terrible Talon" begins with Part I "The Talon Takes Sarge Steel". After a symbolic splash showing Sarge shooting at a mechanical talon, the story opens on a West German street where Professor Froelig is kidnapped. In Dusseldorf two men discuss the crime and attribute it to The Talon, a criminal mastermind terrorizing Germany. That evening a group of West German businessmen and other important types gather to plan a response and agree that they need Sarge Steel to take on the Talon. A waiter overhears this decision. We cut to Sarge as he heads out to take on this assignment and Bessie gives him a big kiss before he goes. In the taxi on the way to the airport he is met by a U.S. agent who tells him he's on his own. In the air on the way to West Germany Sarge finds a mysterious talon symbol in the bottom of his coffee cup, an ominous sign indeed. After landing he is met by Herr Wolffhundt who takes him to a cafe where the waitress pulls a gun and other men show up using a stun gun to knock out Steel and kidnap Wolffhundt. They leave a message on Steel's chest saying "Leave Germany or Die!". Sarge recovers and gets a car but as he leaves a beautiful redhead climbs into the passenger seat and presents herself as a West German agent. At that point a helicopter appears overhead.

"Tank Trouble" is a one-page text story about two WWII veterans, one American and one German who meet at an agricultural show and realize they know one another. They led men into battle during the war against one another and after the German leader had the advantage a clever tactic by the American resulted in a defeat forcing the German officer to flee Nazi German or be killed. He made contact with American forces and surrendered.

Part II is titled "The Faceless Man" and begins with Sarge's car being picked up by a giant electric magnet suspended from a helicopter. The car and Sarge and the German agent Gerta are taken to the Talon's headquarters in the mountains of East Germany. There Sarge meets the masked Talon and is shown the scale of Talon's operation. After attacking an armored agent though Sarge is again hit with the stun gun. He awakes strapped into a high-tech device dubbed the "Hypno Chair" which is used to gather information from him and defeat his free will. Sarge seems to succumb but when he is released he attacks Talon and knocks out his savage dog with his steel fist. He uses a device called the "Wailing Wallet" which emits tear gas to help him free Gerta and the pair take their unconscious Talon out of the headquarters as his men follow. Sarge then takes one of his shoes and throws it, and since that shoe is actually a delayed time bomb it explodes and allows them to escape in Sarge's Mercedes-Benz. That car is rigged with cannons on the front which they use to escape the Talon's compound.

Part III is titled "Trial of a Terrorist" and begins with Sarge and Gerta in the Mercedes under fire from Talon's men. Sarge uses rear canons to stop pursuit. The helicopter appears overhead and begins firing radar-controlled rockets at Sarge's car, but then a Messerschmitt Rocket Fighter appears disabling the helicopter and allowing Gerta and Sarge and the prisoner to escape. They drive through the East German border and deliver Talon to stand trial. As the trial begins the Talon, still masked, faces witnesses. Then word comes that his forces are coming to free him and a counter attack is ordered. A man wearing a rocketpack is stopped by Sarge and then a great metal claw snags him and pulls him into the air but Sarge is able to use his own weapon to disable the helicopter that has captured him. Taking the rocketpack Sarge flies clear as the helicopter crashes. Then in a sudden turn of events, Sarge suggests they let Talon go free but spread the story that he betrayed his own men making him forever a fugitive from his own people. Talon is sent packing as Sarge taunts the now helpless terrorist.

"Blue Four Top Secret" is a three-page feature drawn by Rocke Mastroserio in which the gimmicks and devices featured in the main Sarge Steel story are described in further detail. Shown and described are the "Wail Wallet", "The Shoe", "The Stun Gun", "The Hypno Chair", and a full-page on the Talon-copter the enemy agents used.

This is issue is fully devoted to the high-tech environment of the Bond-like super-spy world. Gone utterly is the noir atmosphere of previous issues. This is reinforced as again the first-person narration is absent. Sarge is here completely dependent on gimmicks and gadgets to fight the enemy who likewise use a host of machines to wage battle. The helicopter is very like the helicopter in You Only Live Twice though even more high-tech. The hypno chair scene reminded me of Goldfinger and the Mercedes-Benz was just another version of Bond's Astin-Martin. Clearly the attempt is made, as is evident on the cover to play the super-spy angle to the hilt. It's a fun issue, but not quite as emotionally compelling as earlier installments of the series.

This is the last issue of the series to be titled "Sarge Steel" but that's not the end of Sarge yet.

You can read the complete comic book at this link. 

More Sarge Steel to come.

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