Our Army at War #81 (1959)
written by Bob Haney*
pencils by Ross Andru
cover by Jerry Grandenetti
Bob Haney is officially credited as writing the story, but there’s a consensus that Sgt Rock’s character was created by Robert Kanigher (who was editor at the time).
That’s also due to the fact that just 3 months earlier, Kanigher (with Joe Kubert at pencils) created a very similar character on G.I. Combat #68.
That was a one-off story about The Rock, a former boxer…
…who becomes a war hero through absurd levels of determination.
That issue of G.I. Combat is sometimes inacurately referenced as the first appearance of Sgt Rock, but that was a completely different character.
We know the one from “Our Army At War” is not the same because Sgt Rock used to work at a steel mill instead of being a boxer.
We already see one of Sgt Rock’s core aspects: it’s INCREDIBLY rare to see him lose his cool.
Another key thing to understand Sgt Rock: HE’S COMPLETELY INSANE, but you can’t argue with his results!
If I were to do a Sgt Rock retrospective… which ain’t gonna happen, there’s way too much stuff and it’s not my genre… I would definitely do a counter of how many times the comic mentions he used to work at a steel mill. That counter would probably in the millions.
I don’t know why you would even need the rest of the army if you have Sgt Rock.
And that’s already it!
Historical significance: 6/10
Despite a limited impact on the DC Universe, Sgt Rock IS war comics.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not a trace in sight.
Does it stand the test of time? 
/ 10
How do I even classify this one? It’s just a generic intro to a new protagonist… it’s not really a story. It does is job well and it has fantastic artwork, though.
How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Okay maybe there wasn’t a lot to talk about from the first Sgt Rock story, but his character history is fascinating.
His name is basically synonymous with Robert Kanigher, who wrote A TON of his stories and who definitely had a close attachment to the character.
Rock’s dog-tag number of 409966 has been claimed to have been Kanigher’s own number when he served in the army, but I haven’t been able to find an official source for this.
Beginning in 1952, Kanigher was the writer and editor of FIVE anthology war titles: G.I. Combat, Our Army at War, Our Fighting Forces, All-American Men of War, and Star Spangled War Stories.
And that’s in addition to his other DC books! The man was prolific to say the least.
Kanigher was truly passionate about war stories, as he says in the letters page of Sgt Rock #374.
“Our Army At War” was a juggernaut of a series: beginning in 1952, it would last 301 issues all the way up to 1977.
And that’s just based on the technicality that the series was retitled Sgt Rock with #302: it lasted all the way up to 1988 with #422.
Which not only means that Sgt Rock was the main character for 381 issues, but also keep in mind that both Our Army At War #1 in 1952 and Sgt Rock #422 in 1988 were BOTH written by Robert Kanigher!
Well, only ONE out of 4 stories in #1 was by Kanigher, but still impressive.
As a bonus, #422 was also penciled by Joe Kubert (in his first collaboration with his sons Adam and Andy).
I couldn’t possibly cover his entire career even if I read all these issues, but I have to mention something that will come up later.
His love interest Mademoiselle Marie, a French resistance fighter first introduced in Star-Spangled War Stories #84 in 1959 as the star of her own story.
Their relationship wasn’t exactly stable given, you know, the whole war world thing.
But it lasted until 1986, with Sgt Rock #412 being her last appearance in the series.
She was no damsel in distress, by the way, but ALMOST as insane as Rock.
In his stories, Sgt Rock stayed far away from other DC characters.Kanig
her only went so far as making him meet other WWII heroes such as Haunted Tank and Lt. Cloud on The Brave And The Bold #52 in 1964.
Keep in mind these are all Kanigher creations.
But beyond the Kanigher stories, that’s when things get contradictory.
Because in 1969, on Brave And The Bold #84 written by Bob Haney he meets Batman.
In typical Bob Haney fashion, this story makes no sense if it’s in the same universe of other Batman stories.
Because here… in 1969, Batman is old enough to remember having met Sgt Rock in the war… as an adult.
And not as just Bruce Wayne: he was active in WWII as Batman.
Keep in mind that this is explicitly the Earth-One Batman, which like I said makes no sense.
Most baffling is the fact that Batman meets an older Sgt Rock in the present, despite the fact that Bruce Wayne looks exactly the same.
Yep, that’s a Bob Haney story alright.
Haney has Batman (again, the Earth-One Batman) meet the elderly Rock in Brave And The Bold #108, #117 and #124.
More on how that contradicts Kanigher’s vision of the character later.
Even with his series ending in 1986, Sgt Rock was STILL going strong: besides reprints, between 1991 and 1992 he had 14 double-sized specials under the “Sgt Rock Special” title.
After countless cameos, mostly during flashbacks, Sgt Rock… now General Rock… was part of the Luthor administration in 2000 when Lex became president.
Don’t think too hard about how old he was supposed to be at that point.
In the position, he got mixed up in the “Our Worlds At War” crossover… which is easily the farthest away he’ll ever be from what Kanigher had in mind for the character.
He was also the one running a new incarnation of the Suicide Squad… but in the very last issue of that volume, Amanda Waller revealed that the one running the show was an impostor and that the real Sgt Rock had died in 1945.
Kanigher was quite clear: in his vision, the character died in the last battle of WWII.
Kanigher died in 2002 never got the chance to tell Sgt Rock’s last adventure, but his idea of the character dying in 1945 was well known.
And it was honored in 2010 on DC Universe: Legacies #4 (with Joe Kubert pencils), which revealed that not only Sgt Rock died in the last day of the last battle of WWII…
…to save the life of a little girl…
…but he was specifically killed by the last shot fired in the war.
The story also has Mademoiselle Marie introducing her son. Presumably the one who will end up in Luthor’s cabinet? Sgt Rock never married so you’d have to do some mental gymnastics to give his son his last name, but that would be a nice touch.
From what I can tell, no further attempts to write Sgt Rock past 1945 have been made.
As recently as 2024 he’s showed up in the Creature Commandos animated series (based on another Kanigher creation), and there’s been talks about a Sgt Rock movie for so long that at one point Arnold Schwarzenegger was supposed to play him.
Leave him in War World II, guys. It’s not just where he was supposed to be… Kanigher was absolutely right, he is THE War World II soldier.
Hear hear. Kanigher was tough to work with they say, but give him credit where due. And let Rock, Bulldozer, Ice Cream Soldier, Long Round, Short Round, and the rest of Easy rest in peace.
Sgt. Rock was one of my favorite characters when I was a little kid way back in the early 70s, but I’d quit reading him by 1974 or so. I had no idea he’d had a final story, and I have to admit I got a little misty-eyed seeing his death scene here.
Sgt Rock also appears in The Brave and the Bold #162 which is set during wwII and takes place on Earth Two. The story references issue #84 retconning the earlier story as taking place on Earth Two.
Kanigher wrote some bats*** crazy super-hero stories but his war comics were fairly adult for the era.
I have to assume that Kanigher wasn’t particularly thinking about the Pacific warfront when the spoke of Rock dying with the last bullet shot during WW2. Far as I know, Rock consistently operated in the European warfront and was meant by Kanigher to die there as well.
The second volume of Suicide Squad was published in 2001 and 2002 and is something of a sequel to the “Our Worlds At War” event. Behind the scenes, it is also an attempt at catching the genie in the bottle again, after John Ostrander had so much success with the first volume a decade or two earlier. Apparently there is not much of a consensus on what made that remarkable series tick – and maybe that is a good thing – but I can’t blame DC for trying to find out, even if I would not have reached out for Keith Giffen for that task.
Be that as it may, and while I am not the greatest of Sgt. Rock fans, I don’t think he and the idea of the Suicide Squad play to each other’s strengths. He strikes me as a highly idealistic person that would probably cringe at the very idea of such a group. Canonically, the Earth-One Sgt. Rock was once promoted to Lieutenant (“The Brave and the Bold” #52) and he just could not accept being out of the front lines, thereby deciding to get a demotion back to Sargeant somehow (he succeeded at being demoted). That is not the sort of leader who humors Amanda Waller. If Rock had a single defining character trait, it was that he did not think of the soldiers that he commanded as expendable.
Maybe that was to be the point, and Giffen and his editors had plans to explain this odd situation beyond simply hinting in the final issue that this Rock was an impostor (possibly the Unknown Soldier). But I am skeptical about that. It would not be typical of Giffen’s writing; this is a series that heavily features Luthor as POTUS and therefore Rock working for him (indirectly through Amanda Waller at least in the final few issues); and apparently this 12-issue series simply did not try very hard to prepare such a situation.
Barring the revelation of some sort of record from Giffen or comment from his editors, we will probably never know for sure. Rock and the Suicide Squad have both been revisited often since, but I don’t think that this specific series or their association here have ever been commented further. Probably for the best.
Having not read anything about this awesome guy, yet i have the sensation that it was wrongful to keep him appearing beyond his time and beyond the WW2 legend. Unlike Nick Fury, Rock doesn’t seem to belong to any other context than WW2.