The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1868: Fighting American:Rules of the Game #2, January 1998

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I'm not sure exactly who a battle between a septuagenarian and an adolescent girl is appealing to, but it ain't this guy. I'm not exactly a fan of superhero vs. superhero battles at the best of times (the Civil War series being an obvious exception, though not the mediocre film of the same name) - it's trite and cliched and moves the story along in ways that could have easily been accomplished without resorting to violence. So at the end of yesterday's comic, when S.P.I.C.E. turns on Fighting American, I rolled my eyes and got ready for an annoying read today.

It was still kind of an annoying read, thanks to S.P.I.C.E.'s hackneyed dialogue (what 90s teen calls someone "Pops"?), but was mitigated somewhat with the reveal that she had been taken over by another of FA's old foes, Invisible Irving. I still don't like her character, but at least she wasn't taking on Fighting American out of some misplaced need to boost her superheroic ego.

This issue manages to make Fighting American distinct from his patriotic forebear in one very important way: he is totally fine with killing his opponents. Hotsky Trotsky gets a shield-spike through the chest, and Irving is fried by a joint attack by FA and S.P.I.C.E. It's probably for the best, as they were Russian stereotypes perhaps most wisely left in the 50s with the original run.

There was a flip comic in today's issue, a 5-page preview for a series called SWAT!. From what I can tell, it's two normal teens with lots of hardware store equipment who are hoping to take on supervillains in their town. Or something. And it seems to have never materialized as a series, if the GCD is to be believed. Again, it's probably for the best, as the lead male character, Lee, espouses some attitudes toward women that would be more at home with FA's enemies in the 50s than they would be in the more progressive (somewhat) 90s.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Posts

Rob Liefeld's business practices have made his movement through publishing companies something of an industry joke. He starts out with Extreme Studios, as part of Image Comics.

After this, he founds Maximum Press, the direct precursor to Awesome Entertainment.