Commando (Comic Book)
Commando For Action and Adventure, formerly known as Commando War Stories in Pictures, and colloquially known as Commando Comics, are a series of British comic books that primarily draw their themes and backdrops from the various incidents of the World Wars I and II. The comic, still in print today, was a Spiritual Successor to the earlier Battle Picture Library and War Picture Library series, which have since been discontinued. The comic is noted for its distinctive 7 × 5½ inch, 68 page format that became a standard for these kinds of stories.
The general tone is more The Guns of Navarone than Saving Private Ryan; the horrors of war are still there, but they don't overpower the stories. Over the years, the "Boy's Own Adventures" attitude has been toned down a bit, but it's still a mostly optimistic view of war, viewing it more as a necessary evil than a fun time for the boys.
Tropes used in Commando (Comic Book) include:
- Aussies With Artillery: Stories about Anzacs have long been a favourite for Commando readers; kind of an Ensemble Darkhorse, but for an entire armed force.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: In Charlie's Tank, a group of plucky British soldiers trapped in occupied France liberate a World War I tank from a museum and use it to escape the Nazis.
- Non Sequitur Episode: At least two issues have involved Time Travel. No, really.
- #3888 Time Of Fear is one example. Though to be fair, the device that caused it was supposed to have a completely different function.
- And at one point, His Majesty's Armed Forces fought ninjas.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Quite a few mavericks and lone wolves appear in Commando, and more often than not they're left to get on with things because they're that good at what they do, any eccentricities are overlooked.
- Depending on the Writer: Can often mean the difference between, for example, US troops being a bunch of okay guys who want to help others live as free as they do or stupid Yanks who think they can whatever they want, whether The Big Guy is a Gentle Giant or a Boisterous Bruiser, or whether or not All Germans Are Nazis.
- General Failure: One of these usually turns up - often on the British side. The reason they're allowed to be a Bad Boss is because he's got a relative who's high-up in the ranks.
- One issue decided to play it Up to Eleven, and have a stupid Italian officer whose uncle was Benito Mussolini.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Usually made by the aforementioned General Failure to make up for being such a Jerkass.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: Averted... kind of. Not only has D.C. Thomson & Co. started putting out oversized trade paperbacks of some of classic stories, but every month they usually have at least four stories that are reprints of stories that are at least a few decades old.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: There has never been a Karma Houdini in any issue of Commando. Ever.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The standard reaction to anything which possibly affect fate, such as good-luck charms.
- The Neidermeyer: Officers who aren't well liked by the enlisted men often show up. If they're seen from the perspective of the troops, they're usually of the aforementioned General Failure type, but when they're an important character themselves, their story is typically about them winning the respect of their troops. A relatively popular example is to team up a unit of rough and ready ANZACs with a by-the-book Englishman.
- It's not too uncommon to have a Sergeant Rock mistaken for a Neidermeyer.
- Pin-Pulling Teeth: Not featured as much as you'd think, but they're certainly there.
- Recurring Character: Usually averted, owing to the fact that that there's too many to keep track of. However, Commando has been sneaking in a few recurring characters over the years, mostly by writers who are so established within the company that they can more or less get away with it.
- The most notorious example is the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Ramsey's Raiders, who've made it through an astonishing 17 issues. That's a lot.
- Shown Their Work: Commando staff pride themselves on knowing the ins and outs of the armies they depict.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Started going closer and closer to cynicism throughout The Eighties and The Nineties, but since the Turn of the Millennium its taken a few steps back to a happy medium.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Given this comic's long life, every example given on this trope's page has come up at least once.
- Though it's far from unusual to see at least some Nazis depicted as honest, dutiful and brave, albeit on the wrong side.
- Whole-Episode Flashback / How We Got Here: It'd be quicker to list the issues of Commando that don't use these tropes.
- World War Two: For the most part; due to both writers and readers getting a little bored with nothing but stories about six years of human history, writers will branch out with stories set as far back as Ancient Rome, and other eras relevant to Britain's history, such as The English Civil War, The Second Boer War and World War I.
- Interestingly, although not too surprisingly, The Holocaust has only been mentioned in a few issues.
- The most recently-set issues were about a cell of Western Terrorists taking over an oil rig in 1990 and 2008's #4123: Nightmare Holiday; set in the same year, it deals with a Japanese civilian fleeing North Korean troops after 30 years of imprisonment.
- There's another contender - #4404, Misfit Squad, a story that partly takes place in 2011.
- Yellow Peril: With the success of The Bridge on the River Kwai, this became more popular during The Seventies, and considerably less so afterwards, thanks to a healthy dose of Values Dissonance. in fact, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy seem to have disappeared altogether from modern Commando issues.