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!
