Normally the Pull of the Week comes on the Thursday version of the Pull List but this week we decided to keep you in suspense and make you wait until today. –John

Pull of the Week:

USA Comics #1 – Marvel – $3.99
Score: 8.5

When I was younger, I had never known much about Golden Age comics other than that’s where Batman, Superman, Captain America, Namor and the first Human Torch came from. But with Marvel’s 70th Anniversary, they have made it easier to get acquainted with tons of heroes from their past that seemed to be lost in the annuls of time only to be reprinted or re-imagined these decades later. This story follows German journalist Emil Hansen as he is on a supply train interviewing a Nazi colonel during the early days of World War II.

Their train is attacked and destroyed by the Mighty Destroyer who dives out of the train with Emil in tow seconds before a bomb detonates. Emil, though not a Nazi, fears he has become a captive of the Destoyer. He is used as bait and tries to warn the Nazi’s only to be confronted by the Destroyer for trying to save them. Emil talks about how he may not be a Nazi, but Germany is his home and he loves it still. The Destroyer speaks powerful two very powerful words about what a man should do and what he shouldn’t be afraid to. The Destroyer keeps Emil with him as he sets what should be a standard trap on a railway but instead of just watching his target train derail, the Destroyer takes Emil and the two board that train. After some great action sequences fighting around the train, the Destroyer’s plan is revealed with an emotional final few pages.

Issues like this were part of what brought me originally in to comics. I didn’t need long story arcs extending over six months. Back when I first started reading, younger than 10 years old, I had no attention span. If it didn’t wrap up in a single issue, I didn’t remember what had happened four weeks later. The issues that stood out most from my youth were the great one shot stories. USA Comics #1 focusing on the Destroyer is a great comic. Though lacking humor, every other aspect of great comic writing is in this book. There is drama, action, compelling characters with an unusual relationship between the two and of course, conflict.

For someone who only saw the Destroyer before as a WWII version of the Punisher, this anti-Nazi can evoke so much more emotion from a reader than any current rendition of Frank Castle. For example, the explanation of his costume reveals a fantastic “Oh wow” moment that the Punisher could never achieve. Being currently in an era of big events that don’t have much long term consequence like Final Crisis or the Secret Invasion, the story being set in an actual major event such as WWII gives it so much more believability and weight as the reader sees what these characters must go through.

Starting off as Timely Comics, Marvel has gone through tremendous change over the years but like any company to last that long like DC or Archie, they have produced compelling characters. It is great to see a company that honors its history instead of just blindly pushing forward. USA Comics #1 does so in a way that is both captivating and relevant. By keeping the characters accurate to the original themes surrounding them and losing the campy dialogue that was so dominant during the Golden Age of comics, the book instantly becomes so much more accessible to readers new to the character. It’s also great to see one of Stan Lee’s earliest creations still in action after all these years as well.

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