{"id":18682,"date":"2018-08-14T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T08:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=18682"},"modified":"2018-08-12T13:07:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T13:07:20","slug":"americas-1st-patriotic-comic-book-hero-the-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2018\/08\/14\/americas-1st-patriotic-comic-book-hero-the-shield\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s 1st<\/sup> Patriotic Comic Book Hero – The Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Irving Novick<\/strong>, Harry Shorten<\/strong> & various (Archie Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-87979-408-5<\/p>\n

In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman<\/strong> and Batman<\/strong> had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, remembered only as trivia by sad blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: Not forgotten, but certainly not household names either\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The Shield<\/em> was an FBI scientist named Joe Higgins<\/em> who wore a suit which gave him enhanced strength, speed and durability. These advantages he used to battle America’s enemies in the days before the USA entered World War II. Latterly he also devised a Shield Formula that increased his powers.<\/p>\n

Beginning with the first issue of Pep Comics<\/strong> (January 1940) he battled spies, saboteurs, subversive organisations and every threat to American security and well-being and was a minor sensation. He is credited with being the industry’s very first Patriotic Hero, predating Marvel’s iconic Captain America<\/strong> in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wearing the Flag\u00e2\u20ac\u009d field.<\/p>\n

Collected here in this Golden-Age fan-boy’s dream (available as a trade paperback and in digital formats) are the lead stories from monthly Pep Comics<\/strong> #1-5 (January – May 1940) plus the three solo adventures from the hastily assembled spin-off Shield-Wizard Comics<\/strong> #1 (Summer 1940).<\/p>\n

Following a Foreword<\/em> from Robert M. Overstreet and context-providing Introduction<\/em> from Paul Castiglia the wonderment opens with FBI agent and Joe Higgins<\/em> smashing a Stokonian spy and sabotage ring in his mystery man identity of The Shield <\/em>– ‘G-Man Extraordinary’<\/em>. Only his boss J. Edgar Hoover knows his dark secret and of the incredible scientific process that has made the young daredevil a veritable human powerhouse.<\/p>\n

In Pep<\/strong> #2, as American oil tankers begin vanishing at sea, The Shield hunts down the ray-gun-wielding villains responsible and delivers punishing justice whilst in #3 mini parachute mines cause devastating destruction in US waters until the patriotic paragon discovers the undersea base of brilliant science-maniac Count Zongarr<\/em> and deals out more all-American retribution\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

There’s a whiff of prescience or plain military\/authorial foresight to the blistering tale from Pep<\/strong> #4 (May 1940) when devious, diabolical Mosconians perpetrate a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Warned by a clairvoyant vision from new mystery man The Wizard<\/em> Higgins hurtles to Hawaii to scotch the plot, and when fists and fury aren’t quite enough the Shield turns an exploding volcano on the murdering backstabbers!<\/p>\n

With mission accomplished, Higgins takes an ocean liner home in issue #5 only to have the ship attacked by vengeful Mosconians. After thwarting the sinister ambushers and battling his way back, Joe arrives back in the USA just in time to thwart a tank column attack on Congress!<\/p>\n

The blistering pace and sheer bravura of the Patriotic Paragon’s adventures made him an early hit and he soon found a second venue for his crusade in Shield-Wizard Comics<\/strong>. The shared titled launched in June 1940 and opened with an expanded origin for the red, white and blue blockbuster. In 1916 his father was a scientist and officer in US Army Intelligence.<\/p>\n

Whilst working on a formula to make men superhuman, Tom Higgins<\/em> was attacked by enemy agents and he lost his life when they blew up a fleet of ammunition barges. To make matters worse, the agent was posthumously blamed for the disaster\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Joe grew up with the shame but swore to complete his father’s work and clear his name\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

By achieving the first – and gaining super-powers – Joe lured out spy master Hans Fritz<\/em> (who had framed his dad) and accomplished the most crucial component of his crusade: exonerating Tom Higgins. Then, with his dad’s old partner J. Edgar as part of the secret, the son joined the FBI and began his work on America’s behalf\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Shield-Wizard <\/strong>#1 contained three complete exploits of the Star-Spangled Centurion with the second introducing Joe to his new partner Ju Ju Watson<\/em>: a doughty veteran dedicated to completing the young operative’s training. Together they investigate a steel mill infiltrated by crooks holding the owner hostage and aiming to purloin the payroll\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Young Higgin’s next case involves grisly murder as corpses are found concealed in a floating garbage scow and the trail leads back to vice racketeer Lou Zefke<\/em> whose ongoing trial is stalling for lack of witnesses. With only the slimmest of leads but plenty of enthusiasm, The Shield steps in and cleans up the mess\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Raw, primitive and a little juvenile perhaps, these are still unadorned, glorious romps from the industry’s exuberant, uncomplicated dawning days: Plain-and-simple fun-packed thrills from the gravely under-appreciated Irving Novick, Harry Shorten and others whose names are now lost to history.<\/p>\n

Despite not being to everyone’s taste these guilty pleasures are worth a look for any dyed-in-the-woollen-tights superhero freak and comprise a rapturous tribute to a less complicated time with simpler solutions to complex problems.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1940, 2002 Archie Publications In. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Irving Novick, Harry Shorten & various (Archie Comics) ISBN: 978-1-87979-408-5 In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, remembered … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “America’s 1st<\/sup> Patriotic Comic Book Hero – The Shield”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[141,108,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archie-comics","category-miscellaneous-superhero","category-nostalgia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4Rk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}