I’m kind of cheating with these
next two. When I originally envisioned this theme week I was going to use only
superheroes that have served in the US Military at some point in their lives. I
wanted this to be a week where I could cover both DC and Marvel heroes, as
Marvel will be getting a lot of focus in July and August, what with the Ant-Man
and Fantastic Four movies coming out. Unfortunately, I’ve already used the best
options for Veterans that are also DC heroes. Green Lantern’s Hal Jordan and John Stewart have
already been done, as has Deathstroke (if I really wanted to stretch my definition
of hero). The ones left, that I know of, are too obscure justifying talking about. So, I decided
to include a few characters that are simply patriotic in design. The next two,
The Star-Spangled Kid and Stargirl, are patriotic in design even though to my
knowledge neither have been involved with the US military. It’s a bit of a
cheat, I know, but I need something more to talk about than an obscure
characters comic book origin. That’d be boring. So, without further ado, I give
you the Star-Spangled Kid.
 |
| Dang, that costume hurts my eyes. |
Sylvester Pemberton began his
superhero career on July 4th 1941. He was an onlooker at a movie
sight along with a man named Pat Dugan. The two discovered a number of
protestors outside the film were in fact Nazi spies. What are the odds?
Sylvester and Pat disabled the Nazis, and decided to keep doing the superhero
thing. To show their support for the country that they love, they used the flag
for inspiration. They became the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. I have to
imagine that Pat lost some kind of bizarre bet to get stuck with that name. The
most notable difference from the standard “Hero/sidekick” set up was that
Sylvester was the hero while Pat was the sidekick. Again, not exactly sure why
that happened, but hey, roll with it. In the early days they combined their
skills, Sylvester’s agility with Pat’s above average strength, to disorientate
and incapacitate their foes. They battle Nazis for most of WWII, and eventually
formed the Seven Soldiers of Victory. This was like a Defenders to the
Avengers, a lesser hero team that was still important but handled…smaller
issues. The team consisted of the aforementioned flag themed heroes, the
Crimson Avenger, Vigilante, Green Arrow and Speedy, and Shining Knight. If you
only recognize two characters on that list, I’m sure you’re not alone. Green
Arrow and Speedy were pretty much the Justin Timberlake of this group. They
stopped a few Nazi plots, and even saved the world a time or two.
The Seven Soldiers were lost in
time back in the 1950s. Each hero was thrown into different parts of time and
left to rot. Which they would have if the Justice League and Justice Society
not gone looking for them years later. The Kid was knocked back about 50,000
years. He hid out in a cave so that the flu he was suffering from didn’t wipe
out humanity. Good call Sylvester. He and the rest of the Soldiers were brought
to the modern day. Sylvester then joined the Justice Society, and was given the
cosmic rod, one of the signature weapons of another hero, Starman. He took the
rod, upgraded it and replicated the technology into a belt to give him an added
power boost. He retired for a short time, to do things like reclaim his father’s
business from his corrupt nephew and repair his relationship with Pat before
returning to his stars and stripes costume. He retired the Star-Spangled Kid
moniker, I think he was in his twenties by this point, and changed his name to
Skyman. He formed a group called Infinity Inc., a team comprised of the
sidekicks, children and or successors of the Justice Society. They were like a
lesser Teen Titians. Sylvester’s time as a superhero came to an end when he was
killed by the zombie Solomon Grundy. He was being manipulated by an enemy of
Infinity Inc., Harlequin, whom Grundy beat up after learning of the deception. Sylvester’s
legacy would eventually live on with Stargirl, but that’s tomorrow’s story.
Sylvester had no superpowers for
much of his superhero career. He was a superb athlete and gymnast, and excelled
in hand to hand combat, which made up for that fact. Later he was given the
cosmic rod, one of the signature weapons on Starman. The rod, and later the
belt that Sylvester created from the tech, enhanced his strength and agility,
and gave him the power to fire beams of energy.
Sylvester has been barely used at
all, like many characters from the golden age of comics. It’s a little counter
intuitive, I know. Some heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain
America bounced back in later eras, but guy’s like Sylvester kind of just fell
to the wayside.
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| Not a huge role, but it's still better than the attention given to Starman. Just saying. |
The one and only instance that Sylvester
Pemberton appeared outside of the comics was on the CW series Smallville. He appeared in the two hour
TV movie, Absolute Justice. He was a
former superhero from the fifties. He and the original Justice Society of
America were all arrested or forced underground by the US Government, who didn’t
approve of their… activities. Sylvester was the only member of the Society that
was looking into the deaths of their former teammates, and attempted to recruit
young heroes like Clark Kent and Oliver Queen to help him save the day. He
tried to reach out to them through Chloe Sullivan, a friend of Clark and Ollie
that served as the tech advisor for their unofficial proto-Justice League. They
were both attacked by Icicle, said murderer of the former Justice Society.
Sylvester threw Chloe in a dumpster before fighting Icicle. He was killed in
the battle. His staff was taken into police custody, and his death spurred
Chloe into looking into the JSA deaths. It’s a small bit, but hey, it’s better
than all of the TV shows that have ignored him in the past.
Here’s another character I don’t
know well enough to judge. Hey, I’m a nerd but that doesn’t mean I’ve read,
watched or otherwise looked into every hero ever made. Just based on the Smallville portrayal, which looks to be
worlds different from his original comic incarnation, he is interesting. I kind
of like the overcoat and staff look, and I got to love a character that doesn’t
quit even when everyone else he knows does. I’m a sucker for an underdog. What
started out as a weird alternate form of Captain America or Union Jack (Britain’s
Captain America) became more unique when the cosmic rod was added to his
inventory. So not a bad character, just not the most memorable. He’s still a
proud supporter of the USA, and honestly, we could use a few more guys like
him. The Star-Spangled Kid, gone but not completely forgotten.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7a/StarSpangledKid.jpg
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100816124914/marvel_dc/images/4/47/Sylvester_Pemberton_Smallville.jpg
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