I forgot I had blogged the last issue of this series, but this looks like the last story for G.I. Robot, who I thought had been the series lead, or co-lead, for longer. From 1983,
Weird War Tales #122, featuring "Robots Don't Dream!" Created and written by Robert Kanigher, pencils by George Tuska, inks by Ernie Colón; "The Hand of Glory" Written by Jack C. Harris, pencils by Topper Helmers, inks by Gary Martin; and "Showing the Flag" Written by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, pencils by Don Newton, inks by Sal Trapani.
Sgt. Coker probably wasn't raised with stories and toys about robots, so getting paired up with G.I. Robot J.A.K.E. II (Jungle Automatic Killer Experimental) maybe wasn't as attractive a prospect as it would be for some. Coker was having nightmares: he felt the robot was "one short--one malfunction" away from turning on him, but the brass isn't hearing it. After a mission goes south, the pair are trapped in a minefield, then faces with a sumo robot; the latest Japanese attempt to match J.A.K.E. (The samurai and geisha versions had come up short!) J.A.K.E. gets torn up, but Coker rallies him to fight like a marine, and he turns it around. Coker may still not be on the same page as his largely silent partner, though.
In "The Hand of Glory," a pilot in 1933 regrets missing the Great War, and the glory that his older brother racked up, that hung over him his whole life. He waits for "the hand of glory to catch (him) in its grasp," but as usual, be careful what you wish for. Still, who attacked New York City in 1933?
An unlicensed crossover, that's who!
I thought there was another crossover in "Showing the Flag," as the submarine resembles the
Nautilus, but the banner doesn't match Nemo's. An old sailor tells of a battle in 1911, the
HMS Relentless versus a mysterious black sub, who may have intended to claim ports by showing the flag...and who may return.
Also this issue: Robert Kanigher put together a checklist of "War That Time Forgot" stories, and the next issue was a leftover from the cancelled
Mystery in Space, with a Joe Kubert cover. The cover makes it look good, anyway!
3 comments:
Yeah, Weird War Tales didn't really have recurring characters until the last few years (when sales were struggling). Most of them were revivals of 60's concepts. GI Robot was one of those- an earlier model or two showed up in Star-Spangled Comics for a few issues.
The version of the sumo robot on the cover looks a lot cooler (or at least more menacing) than the version in the story.
My dad was a pretty big DC war comics guy, but I don't remember ever seeing any Weird War Tales in his collection. Don't know if it was after he stopped buying comics, or just wasn't his bag compared to Sgt. Rock or the Unknown Soldier.
Instead of a "Great War" he flew right into the hands of a Great Gorilla. Nice.
It really is disappointing that we'll probably never get an official DC GI Robot figure, or SGT. Rock for that matter.
Post a Comment