Sarge Steel #2 is dated February 1966. Pat Masulli is credited as creator, Joe Gill as scripter and the art is by Dick Giordano. The is a particularly good one by Giordano.
File #102 "Case of the Man Who Blackmailed the World" begins with a symbolic splash page with Sarge shooting it out with Lisa Monelli a beautiful and rich vamp of no small reputation. The story itself starts with Bessie, Sarge's secretary interrupting his fencing practice to show him a picture of Monelli and he indicates they've met already the previous night along with a notorious U-Boat captain named Werner Von Hess. Sarge arranges a second meeting with the two and discovers they plan to blackmail the governments of the world with a stolen nuclear submarine armed with polaris missiles. They indicate they have already detonated two of these nuclear missiles in Greenland and Melville Island, blasts the big powers currently blame on one another. Sarge is to be the go-between for the negotiations because of his quasi-official status with the U.S. government. Von Hess then detonates a dummy missile over the city to further make his point which convinces Steel who punches out the guard before he takes his leave and the message to officials in the government. He meets with an Admiral and is told to continue negotiations. He hooks back up with Monelli and discovers that the stolen sub is in the local area so a race begins back to the sub, Sarge using a hired helicopter. The helicopter is shot down and Sarge is taken aboard the submarine ending Part I.
"The Guardians" is a three-page story by Bill Fracchio and Tony Tallarico which tells of a man named Jake Roland who must drive off killer man-eating sharks as well as an octopus to get to sunken treasure. He succeeds and even kills enought sharks with dynamite that the fishing in the area can return to normal.
"Raney's Rangers" is a two-page text piece which tells of a military unit which goes on a virtual suicide mission to destroy a Japanese ammunition depot deep behind enemy lines. The all-volunteer force succeeds in the mission with many casualties but most are able to stay safe until help arrives by hiding in the tunnels beneath an ancient temple shown them by locals.
Part II of the Sarge Steel story is titled "The Millionaire Trap" and begins with Sarge and Lisa Monelli in the Mediterranean resort of Luxaco where Von Hess and Monelli plan to extort more money from the fabulously rich people at the resort. Monelli goes from rich man to rich man using her charms to first entice them and then deliver the ultimatum. Sarge observes but takes advantage of a chance to escape by driving an elbow into the stomach of Paul her skull-faced bodyguard and steals a motor boat which is intercepted by a submarine and Sarge is given a tour of the workings of the polaris missles system. (The script says this is Von Hess's sub, but the images contradict that. More on this below.) Sarge returns to shore and Monelli but turns on her deflecting a bullet fired by Paul back at him using his steel mitt.
"It Takes a Man" is a two-page feature by Fracchio and Tallarico again I think about how despite the advance of war technology certain things can only be achieved by men and that war is waged by men who love their country.
Part III of the Sarge Steel story is titled "The Atomic Challenge" and begins with Sarge and Monelli boating out to Von Hess's captured sub and going aboard. Monelli is shocked to learn that Von Hess really means to use the nuclear missles and not merely use them as blackmail gambits as she intended. Sarge uses this distraction to attack the villains but Von Hess gets the drop on him and takes both Sarge and Lisa to a room and locks them in. Sarge uses his steel fist to break in the lock and they escape and Sarge with Monelli's help destroys the mechanisms that work the missles. He and Monelli then get into one of the missile silos which operate by pressure and use them to shoot themselves out of the submarine and to the surface where they are picked up by a U.S. Navy ship. Monelli regrets her role but accepts she must go to prison and Sarge regrets they couldn't have met under different circumstances.
This is a ranging adventure with a real Bond-like feel as it swoops across the globe. The noir feel of the detective story is given over to the broader spy adventure story this time. The first-person narration used in all Sarge stories keeps it lively. There does to seem to be a real problem with the storytelling in one section, specifically where Sarge is presumably captured by the sub in Luxaco. This seems obviously to be a friendly sub where Sarge gets the information he will need later to disable Von Hess's stolen sub, but the script suggest he's on Von Hess's sub all the time. A man clearly not Von Hess is said to be him. It's pretty confusing, but once you figure out what must've happened it can be worked out.
More to come.
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