Commander Steel / Steel: The Indestructible Man (WWII-era) Appreciation Thread

[DrNewGod]

Steel was also an unfortunate victim of the DC Implosion.

That too. However, beyond All-Star Squadron, he never really came back. I loved him, but I think he missed a window.

cover art for what would have been Steel, The Indestructible Man #6.

Pretty sure that got used as an All-Star Squadron interior.

[DrNewGod]

One of the things I most love about Steel is his simple concept: metal endoskeleton w/extra joint leverage + puncture-proof suit. I know he had some artificial organs and enhanced metabolism too, but those were really the main features.

[Robotman]

I think the guy they got to play Commander Steel on LoT was great. He had a good look for a WWII era leading man.

[Raijin]

They should bring him back. It's about time DC did books set in other time periods. They could always have his stories take place in the past.

[Robotman]

Would love to see a team up with Commander Steel and Sgt. Rock.

[MajorHoy]

Would love to see a team up with Commander Steel and Sgt. Rock.

I just wonder when DC is going to finally get around to fully acknowledging/incorporating all its past history, like comic book stories set during the 1930s/1940s era.
(Don't have the patience any more for the "hints" that occasionally get dropped maybe every two-to-three months.)

[The Odd Man]

For the record, the character was created by Gerry Conway and Don Heck.

Oh yeah! Didn't mean to imply otherwise. I just meant I first became aware of him thanks to ALL-STAR SQUADRON.

[DrNewGod]

They should bring him back. It's about time DC did books set in other time periods. They could always have his stories take place in the past.

That would be brilliant. A cool miniseries would be looking at DC's history by following Steel's career from the 1930's-the 1950's.

[MajorHoy]

They could do a great maxi-series set just in the 1930s and 1940s once they finally get around to bringing back the original JSA and other Golden Age-era greats . . .

[DrNewGod]

They could do a great maxi-series set just in the 1930s and 1940s once they finally get around to bringing back the original JSA and other Golden Age-era greats . . .

An "All-Star Squadron for our times" kind of thing that's about more than WW2? I like it.

[MajorHoy]

An "All-Star Squadron for our times" kind of thing that's about more than WW2? I like it.

Well, don't forget, All-Star Squadron was a series set during the early part of World War II, but wasn't just about World War II. (Though that period of time was heavily influenced by world events.)

[Kaled]

I can remember by the first issue of Steel as a child but I did not see any of the other four issues. I was glad when he showed up in All-Star Squadron and #50 explaining how he came to Earth-1. I remember his grandson in Justice League and I preferred his first uniform rather than the one he started wearing around or after CoIE. I hated that he died at the end of Justice League of America. I did like that Citizen Steel became a member of the JSA.

[MajorHoy]

Steel was also an unfortunate victim of the DC Implosion.


cover art for what would have been Steel, The Indestructible Man #6.

Pretty sure that got used as an All-Star Squadron interior.

And before parts of that story were incorporated into All-Star Squadron, it was included in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2.



I don't own this, but you can see http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/254/ for more info if you're unfamiliar with how DC "printed" many of the stories that had already been prepared before the "Implosion" struck.

[Stingo]

Like a lot of other readers of this thread, I also love the character of Commander Steel and have since I caught Roy Thomas' take in All-Star Squadron. Unfortunately, after All-Star Squadron issue 50 - and with the departure of Roy from D.C. in late 1989 - Hank Heywood has fallen off the map. Yes, I was happy to see a legacy character for him in Johns' JSA, but I've always been somewhat resentful of Eclipso issue 13 in which the original Steel was dispatched rather unceremoniously (along with two more fave's from Roy Thomas' tenure: Dr. Beth Chapel and Yolanda Montez, A.K.A. Doctor Midnight and Wildcat). Here was a character that had a lot more potential to tap into, I felt, and instead I felt his death was treated as a shock value sort of enterprise.

[MajorHoy]

. . . but I've always been somewhat resentful of Eclipso issue 13 in which the original Steel was dispatched rather unceremoniously (along with two more fave's from Roy Thomas' tenure: Dr. Beth Chapel and Yolanda Montez, A.K.A. Doctor Midnight and Wildcat). Here was a character that had a lot more potential to tap into, I felt, and instead I felt his death was treated as a shock value sort of enterprise.

Yeah, the 1990s was rough on many of DC's characters (like the Justice Society of America in Zero Hour).