There's something really interesting going on in this comic with regard to its vision of America. I get the same feeling from the comic, and character, as I do with the best of Mark Gruenwald's run on Captain America in the 80s. In that run, Cap drives a motorcycle across America, trying to figure out just what "America" means anymore. There's this drive to grab onto the utopic, idealistic America in both comics - the trouble is that it's not something we can ever really achieve. It's the movement towards that utopia that's important. Both Cap and Steelgrip are icons of the idea that America is a place where anyone should be able to come and be helped onto their feet so they can make something of their lives. Sadly, these days, only certain people will be helped, and achieving the "American Dream" means climbing on the backs of others. Part of the utopic ideal was that everyone was equal, right? It's in that Declaration thingy, right?
While Starkey is the strapping "all-American" white guy, the rest of the cast is kind of nicely diverse. Flyin' Ryan is a nutty Vietnam vet, a casualty of that war, rather than a hero. Shari is a Filipino lady with mad computer skills. Dr. Sartorius is a ginormous black man and one of the mysterious benefactors of Star Key Industries (see what they did there?). And then there's Dr. Pilgrim, the little old man who invents the technalchemic All Purpose Power Tool. I have my suspicions that he's an immortal Ben Franklin, but we'll see.
I'm not saying the comic is perfect by any means. But it's interesting to see two comics coming out at around the same time that are really questioning what the hell America really means. Alan Weiss, who writes and draws the series, has obviously been thinking about America's policies on war, it's racist and sexist attitudes, and the underlying promise of what America was supposed to be.
"He's give 'im the old steelgrip...and the Doc don't even notice!"
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