Never
failing to capitalize on a pop culture trend, several 1960s comics publishers, noticing the
popularity of the hit single Ballad of the Green Berets (by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler & Robin Moore) quickly launched comics series featuring the elite Army unit.Most were standard war comics, just set in VietNam instead of WWII Europe or Asia, but one stood out from the rest for sheer weirdness...
What do you get when you combine...
1) Green Berets and the VietNam War with...
2) Teenagers...
and 3) SuperHeroes?
Why, SUPER GREEN BERET, of course!
Green Beret Roger Wilson saves a Vietnamese monk from a wild boar, and in return the grateful priest attaches a pin to his beret which makes it glow.
Home on leave, Roger gives the glowing beret to his teenage nephew Tod Holton, who discovers that, when he dons the headgear and salutes, he's transformed into a super-powered adult dressed in a soldier's uniform!
(There's a long tradition in comics of teens turning into adult superheroes, going all the way back to the original Captain Marvel and The Fly.)
Using his new-found powers of teleportation, telepathy, telekinesis, transmutation, time travel, invulnerability, and super-strength, Tod decides to fight Enemies of Our Country, mostly Communists in then-present-day Asia, but also the British in the American Revolution and Nazis in World War II!
Yes, it's as hokey as it sounds!
And, to think it only ran two issues! (But they were 64 pages each, so it was like getting two regular-sized issues of mind-bending military madness at a time!)
We at Atomic Kommie Comics™ felt that we couldn't let such an outrageous character and concept be forgotten, so, as part of our War: Past, Present, & Future™ line, we incorporated Super Green Beret as a light-hearted example of 1960s funkiness to contrast with the seriousness of the World War II and Korean Police Action material (plus we wanted an excuse to make some kool SGB collectibles for ourselves)!
So, why not give a Super Green Beret collectible to the VietNam vet or gonzo comic collector in your life?
It'd make a great Flag Day or 4th of July gift!
FREE BONUS: A link to an online re-presentation of the origin of Super Green Beret!
You gotta see it to believe it!
