The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1489: Steelgrip Starkey #6, May 1987

Sad to say, but I feel like this series fizzles a bit at the end. If we have a look at the publication dates, there's gaps between the second and third issues, and the fifth and sixth. These gaps coincide with shifts in the art team, and I get the sense that this was a terribly delayed book, perhaps owing to the fact that it was a single creator doing much of the work. I wonder what the series would have looked like if there hadn't been the pressure to conform to the monthly schedule.

Steelgrip's final mission involves saving the planet from a very nebulous threat from the magnetic field. And then he has to stop a nuclear meltdown that results from the magnetic field shenanigans. All this after finding out that "Mr. Pilgrim," who created the APPT was actually...someone else in disguise all along. I don't want to ruin it for you.

All in all, Steelgrip Starkey was a pretty good series, and not nearly as porny as the title suggests! Open-minded and forward-thinking, rare for a comic of this era, and it definitely has an original premise. It unfortunately falls prey to the problem of art on a schedule, one that the comics industry really has to have a good hard look at one of these days. It always irked me that Marvel would never wait for Frank Quitely's New X-Men, and substituted fill-in artists for him (especially because the execrable Ethan Van Sciver was one of them). Imagine what that series would have looked like if the schedule had even been bi-monthly. You can't rush good art.

Well, maybe sometimes.

"Well! That lit up my ganglia!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1488: Steelgrip Starkey #5, January 1987

I'm a little confused by the character of Flyin' Ryan in this series. He's Steelgrip's faithful sidekick, a Vietnam veteran, and a bit of a bruiser. He also uses some racially-insensitive language that I find to be an interesting contrast to some of the other characters in the comic. Where you've got "bad" characters, who are dismissive of people based on race or sex, Ryan's sexism and racism is more of the casual kind, where he's using language that, to him, is not insulting, but definitely is to others. Even in the first issue, as the two meet Shari, Steelgrip admonishes Ryan for using terms that are racially-insensitive.

So what confuses me is how we're to take this character. Is the casual racism meant to be contrasted to the worse stuff, so that we can see the relative lack of harm that comes from Ryan's more playful or innocent racism (an ugly sentence to write, for sure), or is he there to demonstrate that even kind-hearted people can use racist language, and that it's just as bad? In an attempt to be optimistic, I'm going with the latter - the commentary on American culture that's happening in the series focusses on the damage that the culture itself does to people. The rival in today's issue (and, honestly, this story really reminded me of the set-up for a wacky anime) ends up going mad because he can't beat the Star Key team in a round the world construction race. Ryan sums him up as a "glory hog...just [in it for] the reward," to which Steelgrip replies that he "was a man...a hard working man...who lost his sense of perspective." Steelgrip is unfailingly forgiving of people who have been corrupted by a system that tells them they're worthless if they're not the best.

Sounds familiar.

I think what we've got here is a comic attempting to deal with social justice issues in a time when the language around such issues was just getting started. I'm finding it fascinating, in much the same way I do with Steve Gerber's writing, to see how relevant this comic, 33 years old this year, continues to be for our present day and age.

"An' the Star Key experiment ain't over yet!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1487: Steelgrip Starkey #4, December 1986

I have to admit, I was pretty stoked to see what the APPT would do in space, but I was a bit disappointed. The possibilities of an infinitely expandable machine in a zero gravity environment...I was thinking we'd get some Yog-Sothoth looking stuff:

Sadly, much more conventional. And the story was a bit much, in that an African dictator and a Middle Eastern terrorist team up and bury landmines on the Moon.

Yep.

This one was a bit racist. I can see what Weiss is aiming for, but the comic falls short of the target. I think he wanted to show how stupid these kinds of regimes are, fundamentally, but there was a bit much stereotype on display for my comfort level. Gotta remember, though, that in 1986, stuff from 1956 didn't age very well. It's just weird to see it within my own lifetime.

"Some general----I think he wet his bed!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1486: Steelgrip Starkey #3, November 1986

Ooooo...this one was pretty touch and go. I think I have to give it a pass because the story is very much on the side of the Indigenous people who are being ousted by a corrupt company. But the series is from the 80s, and the language around the conversation with Indigenous communities was simply unevolved. I'm finding very much the same things with the conversations going on in the series about race and sex. Creator Alan Weiss is using the only language he has at his disposal, but the conversations are quite positive, I think. Today's comic definitely questions who has the right to be on particular land, and outright calls attention to the way that the U.S. government blatantly ignored (and continues to ignore) the treaties signed with the Indigenous nations.

I think this aligns nicely with what I was saying about Steelgrip yesterday, in that he's meant, as Cap is, to represent what the dream of American is supposed to have been. What one still ought to be working toward - humanitarian, egalitarian.

"Steelgrip, why does Ryan have a plaster kit in his backpack?"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1485: Steelgrip Starkey #2, August 1986

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!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1484: Steelgrip Starkey #1, July 1986

Steelgrip Starkey and the All-Purpose Power Tool is the best name for a gay porn that I have ever, in all my life, heard.

And with such a strapping lead character, how could it not be fabulous?

Of course, the reality is much more mundane. Sort of. This comic really is about a guy who has a tool that can, almost magically, become anything he needs. Through the mysterious force of "technalchemy," Starkey and his pals are called upon to help when all else fails.

I was fully prepared to not like this comic. The name is almost too much for the series to live up to. But the story within is actually pretty good. Steelgrip is a genuinely nice guy who just wants to help, but he's not the throw caution to the wind superhero type. At one point, when the possibility of being shot arises during an important mission, Starkey freezes, terrified and unable to complete his task. He overcomes this, of course, but it's a nice reminder that this is a character who doesn't have unbreakable skin, and can't outrun a bullet. He's a construction worker, albeit one with a very generous and giving nature.

One thing that stood out in today's issue was the introduction of Shari Barrett, programmer of the All Purpose Power Tool. She's Filipino, and endures some awful racist behaviour from a site foreman as she tries to track down Starkey. Given the era of the comic, I was prepared for this racism to be casually ignored, but instead Shari beats gown on the guy and shoves him into a muddy pit on the construction site. She's a badass computer scientist ready to kick booty and take names. Surprising for a comic from the 80s, but a welcome surprise.

"The tool is good for more than just 'muscle' jobs?"