Читать книгу Super Soldiers - Jason Inman - Страница 11
ОглавлениеFrom Shovel to Rifle
“A man soon to become legend.” This quote sits on the text box of the very first story starring Ulysses Hazard, better known to comic book fans as “Gravedigger.” Personally, I think any man with a name like Ulysses Hazard is an instant legend. Ulysses is the name of one of the greatest adventurers of all time, who overcame several mythological obstacles in a journey to return to his family. A hazard is an agent that causes damage to humans. It is implicit in his name that Ulysses Hazard was going to defeat burdens and foes far beyond his fellow soldiers.
We meet Ulysses hunkered down with his squad, enduring bombardment from Nazi forces, clutching their pickaxes and shovels. The first thing any eagle-eyed reader should notice is that his squad is made up entirely of African American soldiers.
I forgot to mention the other important quote from Gravedigger’s introductory caption box: “Just ask Ulysses Hazard, a man who had to fight not only the enemy—but his own country.” This is an important distinction I’m going to examine throughout this chapter; at every turn, Ulysses is a comic book character told not to fight, and in every case, he does so anyway.
During World War II, segregation laws infiltrated every aspect of American society. In the American armed forces, African Americans who were drafted or volunteered were assigned to segregated units as cooks, quartermasters, and gravediggers—just like the unit that Ulysses Hazard is a part of.
Thankfully, my time in the Army was nothing like this. I didn’t enjoy many privileges as an enlisted man, but as a Caucasian soldier, I spotted the differences. One of my best friends in the service was an African American sergeant by the name of Linus Thuston. He was without a doubt one of the smartest men in my unit, and one of the coolest non-commissioned officers in charge of us. Linus understood what it took to lead men. He morphed many of his commands into concepts we could understand. Plus, he was always good for a laugh. If Linus was around, we would make fun of many of the base commanders. Without Linus, our unit would have been worse off. We needed Linus like the DC Comics Army units needed Ulysses Hazard.
Before his grave-digging days, Ulysses grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. As a young boy, he had to overcome polio, which left him half-crippled. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to overcome his illness, pushed himself to walk, run, and do “everything a normal person could do or die trying,” as he says in his first appearance. Ulysses trained hard, working after hours, building up his strength and stamina to be the best soldier the US Army had ever seen. However, all of his accomplishments meant nothing. In the end, he still had to suffer the indignities of his time. As a result of his skin color, he was assigned to latrine duty.
Many other men would have folded in light of this setback, but not our hero Ulysses Hazard! He took his duties seriously. Ulysses endeavored to do every job so well that someone would take notice. After scrubbing toilets for years, he was promoted to sergeant and put in charge of a grave-digging detail. Ulysses remarked that he only hated the blind attitude behind his unfair treatment. Ulysses knew he was the best soldier out there—and soon he would get the chance to prove it.
In his first issue, deep in the European front of World War II, Ulysses and his unit heard the screams of a woman. Shells were flying left and right, pinning his grave-digging unit down. Even though his group was supposed to be non-combatant, Ulysses flew toward the farmhouse, the source of the screams. Next, when one of his fellow soldiers bellowed, “Let the real soldiers do the work,” Ulysses charged toward danger. He charged toward his destiny. In spite of the Army at the time classifying him as a gravedigger, at that moment, Ulysses was a real soldier. Then he launched himself through a window, shovel first, to take down several Nazi soldiers and save the woman. It is a powerful moment. A Black man with only a basic tool in hand was able to defeat soldiers of an empire dedicated to destroying anyone outside the scope of their perfect Aryan ideal.
He was a hero, certainly, but Ulysses did not achieve victory all by his lonesome. Behind his back, a luger was raised, ready to take the kill shot on the astounding Ulysses Hazard. Thankfully, Andy, a fellow gravedigger soldier, followed him into the farmhouse and walloped that Nazi with his own shovel. Andy saved Ulysses’ life.
These two American heroes would get little chance to celebrate their victory, sadly. This was their first chance in the war to make a real difference and fight like real soldiers. No, their moment was interrupted by bigotry personified, their commanding officer, Lt. Gage. Gage strutted into the room, bellowed that the civilians must have saved themselves from the Nazis. He was utterly unwilling to listen to Andy, who attempted to correct Gage about who actually saved the day. Lt. Gage’s feeble mind was incapable of accepting two Black men as heroes, so he put Andy and Ulysses on report.
In our current time, it can sometimes be very hard to read scenes like this—particularly for an old Army soldier, like myself. All of Lt. Gage’s treatment of Ulysses violates the value of loyalty and flies squarely in the face of Army values, which proclaim that you must stand up for your fellow man and fellow soldiers. The blind hatred and fear of Ulysses and his abilities is bewildering. Ulysses took the oath and he defended it. His honor is valid and true—just like every other soldier. Simply because of the color of his skin, Ulysses was pre-judged by the white men in the Army and found to be lacking.
In many cases, Ulysses is a better soldier than Captain America. In the previous chapter, I explained how Captain America was almost more of an ideal than a man. Ulysses, on the other hand, represents the man: a man’s drive to push through and be accepted because he knows he is the equal, if not the better, of every other soldier in the Army. He believes he is the best, and he proves it by winning a battle with only a shovel. I’d like to see Lt. Gage try this same gambit. Gravedigger is the perfect representation of adversity versus privilege. As in every superhero’s origin story, it’s Ulysses’ original obstacles that mold him into a powerful soldier.
His legend only grew when, during another mission, the grave-digging unit discovered another opportunity to stand up. A Nazi buzzard (plane) flew a sneak attack on their unit. In a split-second leap of heroics, Ulysses’ pal Andy pushed their commanding officer, Lt. Gage (remember him?), out of harm’s way. Simultaneously, Ulysses scooped up a bazooka and fired off an extremely difficult shot at the evading plane. If you remember, Ulysses had trained himself to be the best soldier. A shot that should have been difficult for a normal man was child’s play to him. Of course, he made the shot and took down the Nazi plane. However, Ulysses discovered his fellow gravedigger, Andy, did not survive the attack. His fallen comrade’s sacrifice, and the amazing one-in-a-million shot he had made, boosted Ulysses’ confidence enough that he demanded the Army move him to a combat unit. With his help and skills, the war would be over sooner, he boasted—and with a soldier as talented as Ulysses, this was no exaggeration.
His request was denied, of course, because the 1940s could not be as progressive as we would like to rewrite them to be. It’s at this moment in his story that Ulysses takes another step toward his destiny as Gravedigger, the ultimate comics soldier.
He invades the Pentagon! I did not miswrite that sentence. Ulysses Hazard became so fed up with the bureaucratic and bigoted responses to his service that he decided to seize his destiny by the horns and force the bigwigs in the Pentagon to give him his due. Can you imagine the guts it would take to make this choice? You would have to be so convinced you were right that invading the headquarters of the most advanced and powerful military in human history would seem like a logical decision. Like the powerful heroes of myth and many superheroes before him, Ulysses proved that he was not going to wait for his destiny. He would take it by any means necessary.
In a move that could be considered patriotism or madness, Ulysses, like a bull in a china shop, fought through every level of security at the Pentagon. No one could stop him. He had a purpose. No man could stand in his way. Though my prose may make it seem like Ulysses carried out this act with the drive of a madman, his actual attack was far from uncontrolled. It was crafted with the intelligence of a smart Army commander. Throughout his assault, Ulysses had several opportunities to kill his fellow soldiers—and. in every instance, he did not. This was his intention. How could he convince the armed forces leaders that he was to be trusted to lead the fight in this war if he so casually assaulted his brothers in arms? The decision to respect and preserve the lives of his fellow soldiers would turn out to be the linchpin of his destiny.
Then Ulysses blasted through the door of the war council and came face-to-face with the Secretary of War! He threw a live grenade on the table in front of the secretary and asked, if he could do lethal damage to the security of the Pentagon, what might he be able to do to the enemies of the Pentagon? Needless to say, the Secretary of War was intrigued. He could imagine.
You may be asking yourself: Could something like this happen in real life? Could a human being who felt discriminated against as a result of their race, sex, or sexual orientation break into the Pentagon and force the Joint Chiefs of Staff to implement change by recruiting them into the current war based on a display of the havoc they caused? The answer is—unequivocally—no. That insane patriot would be locked up in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth faster than you could say “Hurrah.” But this is not the real world we’re examining; this is a comic book: a medium of determined men and women destined to seize opportunities in grand ways—ways that make us cheer them on.
Now, my struggles to join the Army were nowhere close to the hardships Ulysses had to endure, and I respect his character so much for never stopping, never giving up, and making it through, even if he had to make his desires happen with a grenade and a grand gesture. With the loud thud of an explosive device on a table, Ulysses changed his destiny. (It would not be responsible of me if, at this point in the book, I did not mention that grenades cannot solve problems. Sure, they may seem flashy and all the rage, but these small explosive devices do more harm than good. Grenades should not be used as problem-solving implements. Safety rant is now over.)
Fortunately, the Secretary of War was impressed by Ulysses’ gambit, noting that, during his attack, he could have easily killed many of his fellow soldiers, but he did not. The secretary offered Ulysses the position of a “doomsday commando”: a man who can handle the dirty jobs, the impossible assignments, and gives him the codename “Gravedigger.” Behind Gravedigger’s back, however, the Secretary boasts: “With the tasks I have planned for our brash young sergeant, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him very long.”
The racial implications and trickery which accompany the very moment Ulysses Hazard finally gets what he wants are not something I am even remotely qualified to write about, and I understand that. Needless to say, this is another instance of the story proving my point that Ulysses is a pure, good soldier. All of his assumptions about the leaders in his military are right. Due to their racial bias, they will never see him as equal. They will never see him as a soldier, in spite of knowing he is their better in every way.
Gravedigger’s first mission as a combat soldier led him back to France, and straight back to his old unit. Outside a small French village, Gravedigger’s unit was pinned down by sniper fire. Through a feat of extraordinary gymnastics (a proud DC Comics tradition, especially when you consider Dick Grayson, the first Robin), Ulysses was able to leap up to the enemy’s position through a physical feat he figured the Nazis would never dream of: leaping up over twenty feet to grab the ledge of an unguarded window by bouncing off walls and a tree! He sprang inside and made quick work of the enemy soldiers. Here the narrative stops for just a beat. The panel goes dark and the caption reads: “Gravedigger stands surveying the carnage he’s just wrought, trying to convince himself that the blood-puddling corpses aren’t men, but merely the enemy. He’s almost successful.”
This moment stands out to me. It’s something all service members have to face during their careers, unless they’re very lucky. For all of Ulysses’ bravado, his courage, and his pure gumption, he’s still a man. He still has morals, and he still feels the loss. This is powerful. It takes him beyond a caricature of the most badass soldier of all time and makes him real. How do these things change you once you make the decision to act on them? Can you live with it? Can the greater good of protecting your squad and your mission overcome the future guilt? One panel in a comic book can feel like an eternity. So can this decision for all service members. The brief second the story pauses for speaks volumes. This is a quandary all service members might have to face during the course of their duty. Can you take another’s life to save your own or the lives of your unit? Many times, when you are faced with that decision, you only have a second, a moment, to make a move that will change your life. Was this action good or bad? That’s up to you to decide. If your life or your fellow service members’ lives are in danger, you have to act. You have to do whatever it takes, within reason, to save lives. It was the move Ulysses made. Did it change him? Of course. It’s impossible to take a life and move forward as if nothing happened. However, Ulysses is a true soldier. He progressed past his feelings temporarily.
Soon afterward, Gravedigger encounters a character that we all know and love: his old commanding officer, Lt. Gage! When Gage sees Ulysses, he tries to arrest him for impersonating an officer! The ups and downs of storytelling really are on display during this scene. Only in a fictional story could you go AWOL (absent without leave) and come back to your unit with a promotion. Ulysses left his unit as a sergeant to return as a captain. Now, he was Lt. Gage’s commanding officer! How do you like them apples, Gage?
Several stories down the road, Gravedigger is traversing the Sahara on a very important mission and suffers an injury that leaves him with a cross-shaped scar on the bridge of his nose. This physical feature and his bravery would be his defining features for the rest of the comic. In the final issue of Men of War, DC Comics decided to team up its two most famous war characters, Gravedigger and Sgt. Rock. (We’ll get to the core of Rock in a future chapter.) These two famous comic book soldiers join forces to destroy an enemy artillery position. The mission was a grand success, not just because these two characters were good soldiers, but because DC Comics’ readers would have rioted if these two had failed in their final issue. In the last panel, Gravedigger remembers his military roots and begins to bury the fallen members of Sgt. Rock’s Easy Company.
Until recently, that was one of the final adventures of Ulysses Hazard. His post-World War II whereabouts remained a mystery until a mini-series called DC Universe Legacies (2010). In issue four of the series, called Snapshot: Remembrance, the readers are shown a reunion of DC Comics’ war characters which takes place on July 4, 1976. One of the warriors in attendance is none other than Ulysses Hazard. The story reveals that he did survive the war and excelled in the Army to achieve the rank of general. He was now a valued leader in an army that originally didn’t want him.
I can never know the struggles Ulysses Hazard faced in his military career, but I do know this: his bravery and will to never give up are to be admired. While sometimes he became a little overzealous (don’t use grenades to illustrate your point, kids!), the fact of his successes and leadership of many men to safety says so much. Like many superheroes, there were many times Ulysses could have given up. But he didn’t, he persevered, and he prospered. I would be proud to serve under a man such as the Gravedigger. He’s a hero who stands on the same platform as Superman.
