Boy Commandos #1 (1942)
by Don C. Cameron & Chuck Winter
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon
Despite the cover we’re not here for the Boy Commandos, who debuted a few months earlier on Detective Comics.
In fact we’re not here for the boys, but for the only story in the book focusing on a woman.
For the record, since I’ve been jumping around a bit for the 1942 stories, this one has a cover date of “winter 1942” so America has been in the war for a while. And the story actually begins with the start of World War II.
This is the second origin story, after Blackhawks, where the invasion of Poland is a crucial plot point.
Our protagonist is going to be Libby “Belle” Lawrence, and I can’t tell if Belle is supposed to be her middle name or a nickname. Good thing it was later dropped, because A) it makes her superhero name really on the nose B) it ruins a perfect alliteration.
Libby is as patriotic as you can be, ready to enlist anyone with testicles into the Army.
The comic isn’t pulling many punches in depicting the invasion. I also just learned that Cracow IS indeed a valid spelling for the city of Kraków, something I didn’t know.
I don’t believe Kraków was bombed during the initial invasion, although Łódź really was bombed.
Her father is soon exploded during the invasion.
Dude, her father JUST EXPLODED, can you maybe give her five freaking minutes???
Hmmm, given the subtlety of the Golden Age, I wouldn’t bet too much on him having a legitimate reason.
I suppose this would technically be considered propaganda, but it’s anti-Nazi propaganda so no complains from me.
Even protagonists aren’t safe now!
Yeah I knew the comic wouldn’t be subtle about this. Also, how good of a military attaché was her father, really, if he didn’t pick on his advisor being a Nazi spy?
Remember that this section of the story is set in 1939, so Libby is sent back to America and not to a concentration campo. Or to a grave.
Adding to the ever-growing list of things I never thought I’d see in a comic book: a superhero origin story that requires commuting with Nazis.
On a plane.
Libby then tries to warn the military leaders of the Amsterdam, who for some reason accept to meet the daughter of an exploded American officer, but they don’t believe her warnings.
The country of the Netherlands WOULD be called Holland by an American in the 40s, instead of today when… basically every other country on the planet has a different way to name it.
So of course she hangs around for months, until the Nazis invade. We’re not told she’s still in Amsterdam in this scene; the city was not heavily bombed in the initial invasion, but she might be elsewhere in the country right now.
Until the same spy from before shows up again, offering her safe passage to a different country.
That means she’s going back to America, right? It’s not like Libby can show up in France while the country falls to the country IN THE SAME PAGE?
OH COME ON!!!
How long can this comic stretch the premise????
But mercifully Libby’s spread of invasions is stopped when her boat is sunk before it can reach the United Kingdom.
However Libby manages to SWIM HER WAY ACROSS THE CHANNEL.
This wouldn’t make her the first woman to do this, as the title goes to American swimmer Gertrude Ederle in 1926.
Although I understand while this is a much bigger deal, considering Libby just OUTSWAM NAZIS.
Now a celebrity, Libby finally gets to be sent back to America without a Nazi spy accompanying her.
Am I the only one getting some serious Miss America flashbacks here?
Is Libby being celebrated as a hero for the swim? Or because she tried to warn the Netherlands about the invasion? It’s a bit unclear if at this point of the story America has joined the war or not.
But the whole experience motivates Libby to REALLY get into activism.
From a modern perspective, it IS interesting to see that most stories in this period are specifically against Nazis and fascists instead of being against Germans and Italians… but then doesn’t make the same kind of distinction against the Japanese.
At this point you might be wondering: with all this talk about swimming, what does this have to do with bells?
Did you HAVE to describe this as “the old mand’s hand reverently strokes the bell”, comic???
I have read some bonkers pseudo-scientic nonsense in comic book stories, but this one is WAY up there in terms of craziness.
Because it turns out that by manually stroking the Liberty Bell you can make a tiny replica vibrate it to change someone’s destiny.
After that absolutely necessary nonsense, Libby spots THE SAME GUY AGAIN.
But she’s not entirely sure he’s actually a Nazi spy: even if HE TOLD HER RIGHT IN FRONT OF A NAZI SQUAD, he did save her life a couple of times.
It’s a time-honored tradition to make fun of Superman’s disguise, I know.
But Liberty Belle might just have THE DUMBEST IDEA EVER FOR A SUPERHERO DISGUISE.
Yes. Her diguise is having long hair.
Which is a shame because, without that baffling decision, this isn’t a bad superhero costume. It’s extremely recognizable with those pants!
Turns out that Libby really WAS right for trusting this guy, since he’s not a Nazi spy after all: he’s an American spy!
I will credit this Golden Age story for being deeper than I gave her credit for: this guy was actually an American spy pretending to be a German spy pretending to be a consultant for the American army.
Alright, enough with the introduction, let’s get into the action already!
I can’t believe covering half of her face with her hair ACTUALLY WORKED… but in the spy’s defense, he WAS knocked really really hard in the head before this.
We’re not allowed to make fun of Lois Lane for not figuring out the glasses anymore, right?
Historical significance: 7 / 
It takes her QUITE a while to get there, but Liberty Belle will eventually be significant.
Silver Age-ness: 10 /
The Liberty Bell CAN CHANGE YOUR DESTINY if you manually stroke it next to a tiny replica.
Does it stand the test of time? 6 /
The beginning is definitely the strongest part, at it does its job at selling you the invasion and Libby’s reaction to it. But then it gets REALLY formulaic, the mystery about the spy isn’t particularly compelling, and while the action is nice it comes a bit late.
How close is this to the modern character? What modern character?
Liberty Belle stays on Boys Commandos just for two issues, before being move to Star Spangled Comics. She stays there from #20 to #68, which with 1947 ends her Golden Age career.
She wasn’t exactly a huge success, never making it to the cover and never receiving a crossover with a different hero.
She would be little more than a historical footnote if it wasn’t for, of course, Roy Thomas.
Who brings her back in 1981 on the pages of All-Star Squadron, and mercifully adds a mask to her costume.
The All-Star Squadron is a BIG team, so to make her stand out the series gives her actual powers… kind of. At first, she’s just “recharged” whenever the Liberty Bell rings.
But much later on, on issue #46, she gets actual superpowers after the Liberty Bell is struck by lightning. Which, as you might have guessed, gives her sound powers.
I’m not a HUGE fan of the All-Star Squadron series… it’s a little too busy and retcon-heavy for my tastes… but Liberty Belle is a great character there! In fact, given the sheer amount of screen time she gets, you might consider her one of the main protagonists of the enormous cast.
She marries fellow superhero Johnny Quick in issue #50, with Johnny Thunder being the best man and Hawkgirl the maid of honor!
Fun fact: since this happens right during Crisis AND a dimension-hopping adventure, their honeymoon (and possibly the wedding night!) is spent on the bedroom of Captain Marvel.
In 1992, we discover that Liberty Belle retired from superheroing after the war… and that Johnny Quick retaining his youth put a strain to their relationship, leading to a divorce.
The couple has a superhero daughter who goes by the codename Jesse Quick, and as such she ended up teaming up more frequently with her father than with her mother.
The two have had a rather rocky relationship, especially after Johnny Quick dies.
Despite having soured on superheroes, Liberty Belle does get into costume a couple of times… until 2006, when in JSA #81 she tries to power-up with the Liberty Bell again and goes really wrong.
Jesse Quick picks up the Liberty Belle identity for a while.
Jesse will eventually get her own review.
The original Liberty Belle MIGHT be dead today… we see her dead in “Dark Nights: Death Metal #2” from 2020, but that story also has reality warping shenanigans I couldn’t manage to follow AND she’s later resurrected as zombie by Batman (just go with it), so who knows at this point.
She’s an interesting character: she’s quintessentially Golden Age, but since her most important stories are from later eras Roy Thomas was really able to develop her into a more complex woman.
I hope they still have her around, since Jesse Quick having a retired superhero mother is quite unique.
What else was in Boys Commandos #1?
Unsurprisingly, lots of Boy Commandos.
The story “Satan wears a swastika”, in addition to having an AWESOME title, is also notable for having Joe Simon and Jack Kirby appear in-character within the story.
And it’s not just a sight gag: at this point in the story the Boy Commandos are believed dead, so Simon and Kirby contact Sandman since they’re the ones creating his comic.
Other than Liberty Belle and some one-page gag comics, ALL stories are from the Boy Commandos. Including the last one…
…which features them painting their faces to avoid being spot during the night as they get into France.
Which is framed IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE.
And no, I’m not currently planning to cover the Boy Commandos.
I find them a more boring version of the Newsboy Legion, which I barely tolerate to begin with.
You make an interesting point about the Japanese being referred to as “Japanese” while the German and Italian members of the Axis are referred to as Nazis and Fascists…but it actually makes sense. Germany and Italy were ruled by said political parties, but not all of the nation subscribed to those parties’ ideologies. Japan, though, was run by a hereditary Emperor, who was considered divine by all Japanese. (If there were any who were heretical about it, they certainly weren’t organized or vocal.) What would you call them, “Imperialists”? There weren’t any anti-Imperialists in Japan. Even after their defeat, the hereditary office of the Emperor still exists, though by way of treaty, it’s no longer military and expansionist.
That said, if you’re OK with anti-Nazi propaganda, then there’s no reason to have a problem with anti-WWII-era-Japanese propaganda. They were every bit as cruel as the Nazis, if not necessarily as organized or thorough.