BHOC: SGT FURY #149

For some reason, possibly simple inertia, I had started regularly reading SGT FURY even though I wasn’t typically a fan of war comics. That was maybe all right, because SGT FURY was really only a war comic in its trappings, the way HOGAN’S HEROES was about the war. It was really a comedic super hero action feature, it’s just that none of the principles had legitimate super-powers. But their battles were just as realistic and true-to-life as their costume-wearing compatriots. Possibly I had fallen under the allure of Marvel, which put forward the understanding that the events in all of the different Marvel books mattered, that they “counted.” Whatever the reason, even though (and possibly because) it was now only a reprint series, I started picking up the title regularly.

One possible appeal of the book at this point that may have made a difference in my appreciation for it is the inking of John Severin. A longtime comics professional, Severin had been a member of the formidable EC team back in the 1950s and was about the best there was when it came to illustrating war or western or adventure series. He was also a bit of a heavy hand, which seems like it suited editor Stan Lee just fine on SGT FURY. While penciler Dick Ayers could be depended upon to tell the story in the approved action-oriented Marvel style, he was thereafter pretty much completely subsumed under Severin’s strong finish and superior drawing skill. Point being, it was a pretty good match all around.

This issue opens up with the Howlers’ commanding officer “Happy” Sam Sawyer effectively disbanding the unit for the next thirty days. During that time, each of the Howlers will be pursuing advanced training in their particular specialty at a High Specialty School set up for just that purpose. This includes Gabe Jones taking music lessons–I’m not sure how that’s meant to help win the war, but that assignment does tell us a little bit about him as an individual Howler. But the Commandos aren’t at all jubilant about these new assignments. On a recent mission, one of their own, Brooklyn-born Izzy Cohen was captured by the Japanese. The Howlers would like to undertake a mission to rescue Izzy, but that just isn’t in the cards, at least not at the moment.

But don’t feel too bad for Izzy, as he’s going to be the subject of our narrative this issue. Accordingly, we cut to a Japanese-held island far away from the Howlers’ base, where we find Izzy working on a forced labor chain gang to build transport roads for his Japanese captors. Cohen has already proven himself to be a problem and earned the ire of the overseeing Sergeant, who’d like to simply off the American captive. At an opportune moment, Izzy clocks the Sergeant and attempts to steal his rifle and make a bid for freedom. But there are simply too many guards around for this to work, and he’s swiftly recaptured. The Commandant of the labor force arrives, having heard reports of the prisoners rioting, and he orders Izzy taken out into the woods and shot for his defiance. But this is just what Izzy has been waiting for, and why he staged his earlier attack in the first place.

This being an issue of SGT FURY, any one Howler is more than a match for three Japanese guards, even if they have weapon, and so it is that Izzy makes his break, clobbers the men who were dispatched to execute him, and makes a break into the dense jungle underbrush. He’s got no idea where he’s going, but he knows he owes it to his buddies to do everything he can to escape. In response, the Commandant sends an entire company into the jungle to hunt Cohen down, so he’s up against a whole lot of pursuers, most of whom he’s able to stay ahead of, at least at the outset. But eventually, exhausted, he stops for a quick catnap, and winds up being awakened by a Burmese local who helps Cohen to elude an approaching patrol. Izzy isn’t sure that he can trust the man, but he really has no choice, and so he falls in beside him, and together they work to elude their pursuers.

The guy leads Izzy back towards his village, where they will be safe. But to get there, they need to cross a river–and while they do, they’re attacked, first by a passing enemy plane and thereafter, once they’re in the water, but a convenient alligator. The nameless Burmese man is injured, so it’s up to Izzy to fight off the gator Tarzan-style with his knife, despite the fact that he comes from Brooklyn and the water isn’t his natural environment. But needs must, and Cohen is successful. But the man is too wounded to go on, despite Izzy urging him to, and so he simply directs Cohen as to where to go and the Howler leaves him behind to fight a delaying action should the Japanese soldiers track them this far. Now, this hardly seems heroic at this point after the guy has aided Cohen so much, but it’s presented as necessary, even though to my eye it’s anything but.

As Cohen pushes his way onward through the foliage, he sees what appears to be an America outpost in the distance, and heads towards it full steam. Voices speaking perfect English welcome him. But it’s all a trap, and Cohen walks directly into a ring of enemy soldiers commanded by the enemy General. He tells Cohen that the Burmese man attempted to mislead them, but that he was clever enough to figure out where he would have sent Cohen and thus maneuvered to catch the escaped G.I. And so he has. As you’d expect, Izzy puts up a perfunctory one-page fight so that we can all see that he isn’t a pushover. But he’s recaptured all the same. Back in Britain, Fury pulls the Howlers out of their special training because he’s received word that Happy Sam has an urgent new mission for them, one that can’t wait for the completion of their courses. And that’s where this issue closes–not exactly on a To Be Continued, but as close to it as you might come without one.