Only my second SARGE STEEL read and while not as good as issue #1, I still enjoyed the hell out of it. I skipped from the very first issue to this one because it’s kind of a sequel and features the same bad guy. Very entertaining story with typical mid-60’s elements as the series continues to embrace the era’s blossoming spy craze over its initial attempts to mimic hard boiled detective fiction. None of this stuff is very original, but who cares? I loved that they gave Steel a softer side in this story and consistently showed him thwarting good judgment because of it. The big lug falls in love! Art may not be greatly detailed at times and some panels are just wasted generalizations, but others are beautifully cinematic and filled with intriguing angles and particulars that, yes, are covered by expository dialog, but not as sloppily obvious as DC used to do back in the day. Fair warning to those not familiar with history or past eras of pop culture, there are Asian representations here which might give the vapors to more sensitive readers. Should this be you, my advice is to simply NOT READ IT. I’m looking forward to the rest of these SARGE titles, but will space them out for anticipatory pleasure since there aren’t a lot of them. A big thanks to all the donors of this great series on CB+!
Link to the book:
Sarge Steel 5
