That Was An Abrupt Resolution

I was reading Fighting Forces #129 (I'm guessing written by Joe Kubert, drawn by Russ Heath?), yet another survivor from my father's collection. The primary story* involves The Losers, and their ongoing saga of. . . well, losing. In this one, Captain Cloud is having some sort of stress reaction from the pressure he feels to not bring shame to his people. Which incidentally, he already feels because all of his wingmen were shot down but he survived. This doesn't bode well for their mission to be airdropped into Germany and rescue a scientist who created a 'Terror Weapon' for the Germans.

Cloud behaves erratically throughout the story, having nightmares, abruptly splashing around in fountains, then tackling M.P.s who have an insensitive joke at his expense. On the mission he hops out of cover and tells some enemy soldiers 'Peace - White Brother - Peace'. It's perhaps mildly amusing that immediately after this, Gunner, Sarge, and Captain Cloud jump out and shoot the Germans, then steal their truck. It's Grand Theft Auto: Dusseldorf! During the escape, they stumble across a rocket launch site, the scientist jumps on a potato masher for them, Cloud completely loses it, charges in and wipes out the soldiers and their rocket**. And that's that. Apparently, something about that whole sequence snaps Cloud out of whatever combat fatigue state of mind he was in, and it's over and done with. According to the caption anyway, which says 'Stumbling back from the grip of his nightmare -', and shows Cloud picking up the scientist*** and leaving the scene with the rest of the cast.

I'm left wondering 'Is that it?' Cloud was in this state of mind partially because he feels tremendous pressure to represent his tribe, and that he's let everyone down by not protecting pilots under his command. Well now another guy he was supposed to protect died, so shouldn't he be even worse off? Maybe it carried over to the next issue. Hang on let me see if I've read Fighting Forces #130.

*Checking Grand Comics Database gallery. Oh, by the way, that would be where I got the image for last night and tonight's post. Probably ought to be giving proper credit where it's due.*

Nope, didn't have that one. I know there wasn't any sign of it in Fighting Forces #132, but that was a flashback to Gunner and Sarge's days in the Pacific with Pooch. We'll talk more about Pooch some time. I have no comics with Rex, the Wonder Dog, so Pooch is about as close as I come to canine badassery. Well, there was that one Uncanny X-Men about Dazzler's friend the bounty hunter and his large dog. . .

You know, I had a point in there somewhere, and it's gotten completly lost. I believe it was I feel they wrapped up the mental stress Cloud was under too neatly. Maybe it is that easy, but I would be surprised. It feels like a way to add more conflict to the story, without perhaps thinking about how well it fits. It's strange because in the story the commanding officer even says that if anyone of them isn't up for this, say so. The Losers had already been talking amongst themselves about how Cloud had become a "time bomb", but nobody speaks up. Maybe they didn't want to break up the unit, though they usually seem eager to keep people away from their horrible luck. Or they were worried that keeping him out of the mission would only increase his feelings of shame and make things worse. Or they just didn't want to call out their friend. I've been there, though the circumstances were not as dire. There's simply no explanation given for why they wouldn't voice their concerns. Heck, they never even really try and discuss it with Cloud himself. I guess we file it under M, for "Men don't talk about their feelings".

* The backup story show two teenagers on opposite sides of the Civil War. One in a Confederate ironclad trying to break through a Union blockade, the other a member of one of the cannon batteries trying to to stop said ironclad. Each boy hoping to earn glory and a medal from their respective presidentes. No, I don't know why I referred to them as presidentes. It's a story about humanity, bravery, compassion, and ignoring artificial barriers that we as imperfect beings erect between each other.

** This should probably serve as a lesson to people with rocket weapons: Don't leave mortars sitting around near your rockets, lest someone use them against you.

*** In a fortunate circumstance for the Allies, the Germans had a tattoo artist put the plans for the weapon on the scientist's back****. In ink that can't be photographed, no less. And the scientist fell face first on the Stiehlgrenate, so I guess his back - and the tattoo - is OK. So now the Allies could make the 'terror weapon'! Hooray? Yeah, that's probably not what the writer's going for. The Losers will probably give Professor Polanski a nice burial somewhere along the way.

**** Oh, and they learned about this whole thing because the tattoo artist escaped from a concentration camp by hiding among dead bodies. Lots of wild stuff happening for a 14-page story.