Well, for me this book is pretty dreadful. This is #1 but I am unfamiliar with these characters so I don't know if the Target story is an origin story. Somehow, I suspect not. First question. Don't these guys have girlfriends? This is one of the laziest pieces of writing I have ever seen. In my opinion, the writer goes out of his way to show that he just doesn't care. I think Sid Greene went on to do much better than this, but when art is so bad that I know I could do better, its really bad! Almost all of the anatomy is wrong and way out of proportion in almost all panels. As soon as someone says, 'Good King Wombat' I know the writer is not taking this seriously. I could go on with criticisms of this, but why put that much effort into it?
A couple of random comments.
I played computer games back in the early 90's that had similar plots and artwork.
This type of book is what Alan Moore used for a template with his 'Americas Best' imprint.
'Reggie'? Visually, he reminds me of Dr Sivana. Casting that type of a character as a villain would be seen as negative typecasting today, and you probably wouldn't get away with it.
No, actually Reggie is pretty scary for a comic book villain. He's a bit more realistic than most, since this is a pretty accurate portrayal of a psychopath.
[Definition. A person suffering from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.]
With this story featuring students at a military academy who are usually in school uniform, this type of story is more what you would expect in a British Comic paper than in an american comic.
I'm not in a hurry to read any more of these.
Misappear , yes the writing can be dreadful in Golden Age comics,( see my review above) but not universally.
You can't go wrong applying Theodore Sturgeon's Law, '
90 PERCENT OF EVERYTHING IS CRAP'
My interpretation of what he meant by that was that in terms of creative work,less than 10% is excellent.
Or Rudyard Kiplings'
Four-fifths of everybody's work must be bad. But the remnant is worth the trouble for its own sake."[1]
Both quoted here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law The writing was also dreadful in a lot of the pulps, and 'B' movies of that generation are often so bad that they have a cult audience all their own. But going through this stuff is like looking for diamonds in mud, you have to keep looking and you find them when you least expect to. There is some quite good stuff out there. Also, some of the artists were excellent and for some of us tracing the growth and development of people like Kubert, Ditko, Kirby and Wood is very rewarding. Not to mention coming across creators you have never heard of before and then following them up to find out more.
