World Famous Comics: The Shield - America's 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero
The Shield - America's 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero
By: Various Publisher: Archie Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Archie Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 96 Publication Date: October 16, 2002
Product Description: Relive the Golden Age of comics with America's first super patriot. A hero with great power, strength and courage who donned the colors of the American flag. A hero who lived for democracy and protected the world from the foes of freedom! No, it's not who you think... it's THE SHIELD, who predated his well known counterpart by over a year. This historic full color trade paperback reprints his first 8 stories from PEP and SHIELD/WIZARD Comics. It includes his first appearance and origin, along with the covers of the comics they originally appeared in. This high quality book features a foreword by Golden Age comics historian Robert M. Overstreet and a cover by Stephanie & Mark Heike of AC Comics.
A CLASSIC FROM THE GOLDEN AGE! A new superhero hit the newsstands in January,1940. A hero that would wear a costume featuring the red, white, and blue of old glory. A patriotic superhero who defended America from its enemies...Nope, if you guessed Captain America you were wrong. It was The Shield, who would make his debut a full year before Captain America, in the pages of Pep Comics #1 from MLJ. This trade paperback, billed as America's First Patriotic Comic Book Hero, collects eight classic stories from the Golden Age of comics.
While the Shield certainly influenced the creation of Captain America, The Shield was influenced no doubt by Superman. With the creation of a special chemical formula and a suit that allowed him to absorb those chemicals, the Shield had enormous powers, allowing him to withstand temperatures of 2000 degrees, bend steel walls, leap great distances and travel as swiftly as a bullet. In his secret identity, he was Joe Higgins, a G-Man working directly for J. Edgar Hoover. This volume collects the Shield stories from Pep Comics #1 - 5, and the three stories from Shield-Wizard #1.
In the opening story, the Shield is sent on a mission by Hoover to break up a "Stokian" spy ring operating in the U.S. and creating great havoc. In those days the villains were fictional such as the "Stokians" or the "Mosconians" but it isn't too hard to tell who they are supposed to be. In the second story, American oil tankers are disappearing near Puerto Rico and The Shield is sent to investigate. He finds the "Nordics" are pirating the ships of their precious oil and the Shield metes out some serious justice.
From Pep Comics #3 comes a tale with a very futuristic slant as mysterious enemy planes are dropping mines into the N.Y. Harbor. The enemy planes are too fast to be caught by our planes and the Shield takes on the case. He finds the planes can transform from aircraft to watercraft and follows them to a great, undersea lair.
Story four is a two-part epic. In a tale that pre-dates the attack on Pearl Harbor by over a year, the Shield travels to Pearl to foil a plan of the Mosconians to cause a volcanic eruption that will wipe out the island. The story concludes in Pep Comics #5 as the Shield tracks the Mosconians back to their Washington D.C. hideout for the climactic battle. The final three stories are actually prequels to the above as we see the Shield's origin told in detail for the first time and we follow him on his first few cases as a G-Man as he battles saboteurs and a crime syndicate.
Also included on the back cover is reprint from Pep Comics #66 from 1948, where the Shield says his goodbye to the members of his fan club as he turns the club over to Archie Andrews. By the late 1940's, superhero titles had fallen out of fashion with kids and the Shield was no different. But like so many Golden Age heroes he would be re-born in the Silver Age, but that's a story for another time.
The Shield was created by writer Harry Shorten and artist Irv Novick, one of the greats of the Golden Age. These stories bring back such a sense of wonder and awe that is lacking in many superhero books today. Novick's style was simple, but clean and very representative of the era. The Shield's stories were eerily prophetic, especially those stories about Pearl Harbor, written well before December 7, 1941.
So many classic Golden Age heroes have been lost over the decades and faded to obscurity. What a credit it is to the people at Archie Comics to put these classic stories into a great collection like this and to preserve such an important piece of Americana.
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