Stupid Heroes: 10-4, Good Fanboy! The Ballad of U.S. 1

I grew up in the rural farmlands in the Ohio River Valley in a nurturing environment that resembled the folkiness of Mayberry....if inhabited by rejects from a casting call for extras for THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.

It was during a period of the late 1970s in which a trend of, what I've come to call,  "hillbilly"  or "redneck chic" seemed to be the theme making waves in popular culture.  In music, it was a generation of "Outlaw Country" performers (comprised of artists such as Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr., etc.,...) and a wave of "Southern Rock " and Graham Parsons- driven progressive Alt Country flooding the radio waves.  On television, shows like THE WALTONS, the aforementioned DUKES, B.J. & THE BEAR, and HEE-HAW in syndication proving that stories and songs about good natured yokels had struck a nerve with the public's fickle interests.  Theater screens were full of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and as many possible variations of structuring a plot around the lyrics of C.W. McCall's "Convoy" one can imagine.

So, it's no great stretch of the imagination that I'd dig the comic book exploits of superhero trucker....

One of the vintage U.S.1 racetracks I own.  I am obsessive about the things I'm passionate about, if anything.

U.S. 1 was a 1982 Marvel Comics series which lasted 12 issues,  and featured just exactly that: a truck driver, who after a tragic trucking accident that seemingly leaves his brother dead and himself hospitalized,  who is then put under the knife for lifesaving cybernetic surgery involving putting a remote control for his high tech rig in his head, as well as a C.B. receiver.

No, really.   This shit is priceless, and I cannot make it up.

The result of Marvel licensing the then new Tyco trucking themed racetrack, U.S. 1 didn't exactly set sales figures on fire, nor was a sleeper success, but it has attained an odd little cult following amongst comics fandom, generally because of how ridiculously stupid the premise is....

From Wikipedia:

 "In 1981 Tyco Toys began selling HO scale, or 1/87 scale slot trucks. Similar to HO Scale racing sets, it had two lane track with various lengths and shapes available, and, unlike its racing counterparts, the vehicles traveled in the normal fashion employed on American roads. As to suit the driving style, the controllers were not hand-held, but were intended to resemble the dashboard of a truck, with a steering wheel (to control the speed) and a shifter mounted to the side (to control the direction). Some trucks pulled trailers, some (like the dump truck) did not. The line was unique because of the ability to pick up and deliver the loads, doing so with help from various accessories including a pipe loader, and a gravel loader, all without intervention from the operator.

There were various loading and unloading docks and a range of three plastic construction kits: a gas station, diner and freight depot.

The track was the same type as the Tyco Quick Clik series, but moulded in gray. There were two types of junctions made for the range. All sets came with 9" radius 90 degree curves. The least common track pieces are the Railroad Grade Crossing and the 12" radius curves.

The US-1 Trucking series was produced until 1986.

Despite having a short life, the range is avidly collected and replacement tires and pick up shoes are available from traders online."

I'm also a sucker for cheap knock offs in popular culture.   Sure, as a kid I loved Hasbro's G.I.JOE or THE TRANSFORMERS, but also found hours of joy from Remco's THE CORPS (anybody remember seeing those pegwarmers hanging out in K-Mart toy aisles for what seemed like decades?) and generic "Truck-O-Bots"....so, anything connected merchandising-wise to an also-ran toy line is of interest to me.

It seems this taste for the second, third, and forty-fifth tier on the popular culture ladder is cross platform for me....I love B movies, short lived cult TV, oddball novelty music....and bad comic books.  The nuttier or goofier the premise.... and that can reach amazingly weird places in a genre that caters to characters that are basically Jesus from outer space (Superman) and obsessive millionaires that dress up like nocturnal animals (Batman)....the more I seem to love it.  Plus, It doesn't seem to help matters much that my tastes seem to always lay left of center from the mainstream when choosing funnybooks to collect and follow on a monthly basis. For example: in the early 1980s, fans seemed to divide and fall into two separate camps when deciding what angst driven teenage superheroes they wanted to read...you either went the Marvel route and were a fan of Claremont's UNCANNY X-MEN, or you were a D.C. Comics devotee and read Wolfman and Perez's NEW TEEN TITANS.

Me?   I was the weird kid in the corner reading Levitz and Giffen's run on LEGION OF SUPERHEROES.  Oh, I read those two other books (I've always been bipartisan in my reading, neither a Marvel Zombie nor a devout supporter of the "Distinct Competition "), but....c'mon.    "The Great Darkness Saga" is pretty fuckin' epic.

But, needless to say, even though U.S. 1 contains nowhere near the 30th century cosmic grandeur that was the battle against the Apokalipian God of Evil Darkseid, the Marvel Comics promotional tie-in with a Tyco tractor trailer racing set is not without it's own charms....

1.)  It's dumb as shit, and the writing immediately dates itself.   Terribly,  I might add.  You got a head full wiring that allows you to telepathically remote control your big rig and receive citizens band signals, Big Daddy....plus you got a truck that's basically "Goliath" from KNIGHT RIDER...and the thing you're impressed about is the cassette player?  

I shouldn't tease....I had one, too, in the first car I ever owned for about six months when I was 16....a 1979 Ford Fairmont that was about 10 years old at the time.   But, I got laid in the back seat and the tape player was about the only fucking thing that worked.

Hey, Bo Duke...why dontcha say hello to the Fonz while yer hanging out in 1978....

My '79 Fairmont, circa 1991ish.  Or, as I liked to call it, "The Green Spanish Fly".

2.)  The premise and plots were batshit insane.  I had a few relatives and friends who went into the interstate trucking trade, but none of them ever told me tales of brothers who were secretly evil vampires who got their rocks off causing traffic accidents, megalomaniacal wannabe dictators riding in zeppelins, or motorcycle riding chicks in leather cosplay gear hassling them. 

Which, by the way, sounds awesome. ..

Trimpe's cover for the first appearance of Wolverine

3.) While the writing and ongoing plotlines were laughable at best, and the central characters the most goofy cliched examples of such, the majority of the interior artwork was provided by Herb Trimpe, who was responsible for a celebrated run in the 1970s on Marvel's THE INCREDIBLE HULK (Trimpe is the artist of note on the first comic book appearance of a little cottage industry Marvel likes to call "Wolverine"...you may have heard of him) and will always have a soft spot in my heart for providing the artwork on the 70s Marvel GODZILLA title.

But, the real selling point on this book is a series of absolutely gorgeous painted covers by a favorite artist of mine, Michael Golden (MICRONAUTS, THE 'NAM, BUCKY O'HARE). I've always found it ironic that some of my favorite work by Golden graced the front of what might quite possibly be the worst of Marvel's ideas published during the 1980s.  But, nevertheless,  I still covet these books because of the covers, and would literally give my eyeteeth for the original pieces.

The main characters of U.S. 1 have turned up from time to time in the contemporary Marvel Universe, most notably in a story arc in John Byrne's SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK in the late 1980s and another in a GHOST RIDER storyline in the 90s.  The character was used for comedic effect in last decade's CIVIL WAR storyline, attempting to register as a superhero with the government.

It's kinda comforting to know that somewhere out there in a universe full of Asgardian gods,  megalomaniacs from outer space,  Gamma powered rage beasts,  and evil Latverian tyrants....there's still just a trucker trying to get Eastbound and down.....

Pop Culture Nonsense: Sweet Christmas! A Look at LUKE CAGE

There was a good intentioned effort within the mainstream comics industry at some point in the 1970s to create ethnically, culturally,  and gender diverse heroes in their books that came off like a contradictory cross between a genuine movement towards change and,....well, grindhouse exploitation filmmaking.

The most popular of these characters, it seems, turned out to be Marvel's LUKE CAGE a.k.a. POWER MAN. The product of a fairly decent funnybook anti-hero origin story and the best antics of a Blaxploitation movie, Luke Cage pretty much was the superheroic equivalent of John Shaft.

Cage's debut issue from 1972

 Over course of the character's publication history, he's had his peaks and lows in popularity.   He starred in his own solo title for a little over 6 years, whose fiftieth issue was rebranded as POWER MAN AND IRON FIST in 1978, when he began sharing his book with another product of Marvel's attempts at cashing in on a 70s B-movie craze, this time in the form of Bruceploitation/ the chop-socky kung fu martial arts film fad, Danny Rand's alter ego Iron Fist.  This pairing lasted another 75 issues until cancellation in 1985.

The character then went into relative obscurity for about a half decade, popping up again in his own title, that not only was part of the early 1990s attempt by Marvel during the collectors speculation boom of that decade to oversaturate the market with product (a phenomenon similar to what had happened to the sports card collecting market a few years earlier....everyone became of the opinion that the product had inflated monetary value, which led to a spike in production numbers, and ultimately,  a ton of unsold merchandise) and, hilariously,  had spun out of one of the most fucked up PUNISHER storylines in the history of the character....

No....really.  The Punisher becomes a black guy.

Seriously.  It's one of those stories that needs to be read to be believed.

There was another attempt in the mid-to-late 90s to relaunch HEROES FOR HIRE in it's own title, which while met with critical praise, found itself a victim of the industry level bankruptcy of sales numbers that were the aftermath during  the following few years after the aforementioned speculation "boom" amongst collectors.   So, back into the limbo of obscurity Luke Cage went.

The 1997 attempted relaunch

That is, until about a decade later, when in the midway part of the first decade of this century, superstar comics writer (and self proclaimed massive Luke Cage fan) Brian Michael Bendis began utilizing Cage as a supporting character in his Marvel mature readers title ALIAS, featuring super powered private detective Jessica Jones.   You may have heard of her.... she was the focus of last year's Marvel Netflix critical darling TV show entitled (naturally) JESSICA JONES, in which we were first treated to Mike Colter as Luke Cage in a supporting role. 

Bendis' critically acclaimed ALIAS, starring Jessica Jones

 Around the time that ALIAS was popping big on comic store shelves, writer Bendis was also then handed the keys to Marvel's flagship superhero team title, THE AVENGERS,  and began featuring Cage as a member of their roster,  boosting the character's popularity into heights he hadn't seen since the heyday of his 1970s solo title.

Luke during his Avengers heyday

LUKE CAGE, the Netflix series, is good.  Allow me to repeat that:  it's really good.  Marvel seems to be knocking it out of the park with these Netflix efforts,  offering a grittier, slightly more mature themed alternative to the glitzy CGI filled big screen extravaganzas such as THE AVENGERS, THOR, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY,  while doing it in a way that feels as if they take place in the same universe (which they do....there's tons of references to the events of the New York alien invasion depicted in AVENGERS as well as other nice nods to Marvel properties).

What really shines is the superb casting, that presents us with an ensemble of well rounded characters that are incredibly touching and cringe inducing (in the case of the bad guys) that makes you want to continue watching their stories.

Mike Colter is great as Cage, the no nonsense, damaged yet noble, hero of the piece. He's exactly what you'd imagine and want Luke Cage to be.   Plus, the effortless fight scenes between a bulletproof man with incredible strength don't come off as boring, because you literally want to see how he lays waste to the next round of bad guys.

  Plus,  there are moments of subtle humor, such as his interaction with the character of Pop (portrayed by Frankie Faison) which is heart warming.  Be on the lookout for one moment,  in episode 4, for Cage's reaction his classic 1970 yellow shirt and tiara look that's a short but priceless nod to Marvel Comics canon and fanboys alike.

Alfre Woodard and Mahershala Ali are the villainous duo of Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes and his cousin, city councilwoman "Black Mariah" Dillard, who both as characters pleasantly possess more depth than expected, almost to the point where one sympathizes with their motivations.

Also, a shout out to two actors who I'm personally a fan of: Frank Whaley, who shows up as police detective Rafael Scarfe and Ron Cephas Jones as chess playing friend of Cage, Bobby Fish.  Those two dudes have matured into excellent character actors, IMO.

LUKE CAGE is yet another stellar television effort out of Marvel Studios,  on par in terms of quality with their past efforts (DAREDEVIL Seasons 1 & 2 and JESSICA JONES) which makes me excited to see their upcoming stuff (IRON FIST, apparently third and second seasons for DAREDEVIL and JONES, respectively. ...and the upcoming crossover miniseries,  THE DEFENDERS).  Highly recommended.