[professor echo]

This is truly a terrific read. I was actually surprised how much I ended up liking it after rolling my eyes during the Mickey Spillane wannabe opening. But the story boils fast and never really pauses much from that pitch. The character of Steel begins as Mike Hammer lite and then starts expanding in a few directions, all pretty interesting. I also really appreciated that the beautiful female lead character was an Asian, but she was the heroine and not a stereotyped dragon lady villain. Of course, the bad guys here are Communist Chinese and Vietcong, but that’s the era and historical context of when it was written (so don't read it if such stuff is a hinderance to you).

Some origin stories get bogged down trying to tell too much, but this one uses a clipped flashback mode that cruises right along and keeps the pace red lined. The story and characters aren't all that original, but who cares? The read doesn't suffer from it and if so, the fantastic art by Dick Giordano and the really vibrantly expressive coloring can always be relied upon to do the heavy lifting.

Link to the book: Sarge Steel 1

[Captain Audio]

Of course, the bad guys here are Communist Chinese and Vietcong, but that?s the era and historical context of when it was written (so don't read it if such stuff is a hinderance to you).

Its common in today's world for people to be discouraged from acknowledging that Red China is still an adversarial nation with designs on other countries territories and a very poor human rights record.
Vietnam on the other hand despite past troubles is more likely to cooperate with western interests, up to a point at least . Vietnam actually defeated a large Red Chinese invading army not long after hostilities with the west ended.
A few years back surveys showed that 78% of Vietnamese citizens had a high opinion of the USA .
BTW the Viet Cong ceased to be a significant fighting force long before the US pulled out and had no hand in the destruction of South Vietnam as a separate country. That was NVA all the way. In fact the NVA purged most remaining Viet Cong as soon as possible. One was Marxist (like Red China), the VC, and the other Stalinist, the NVA. A communist hates any other communist that differs even slightly in ideology much more than they hate any brand of non communist.

[professor echo]

Really great supplemental information for enjoying the comic, Cap. Thanks for posting that. I was not bothered at all by the villainy or the ethnicity of it in the story. Those were the times and as you say, it is too easy now to dismiss what was an actual threat at the time. I only added the lukewarm warning to my review because it seems like nowadays you have to do that with just about everything. Thanks again for your background info.