 | The Double Life of Private StrongOriginal Medium: Comic Books Published by: Archie Comics First Appeared: 1959 Creators: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby image: © Archie Comics. |
In 1959, the year DC Comics revived Green Lantern, Archie Comics became the second publisher to do an updated version of one of its 1940s superheroes. The Double Life of Private Strong #1, dated June of that year, introduced a new character with the same name and motif as one of their earliest long-underwear guys — The Shield.
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby got the assignment to create a new
Shield character — appropriately enough, since they were
responsible for both the original Shield's biggest competitor,
Captain America, and Cap's most
prominent 1950s knock-off, Fighting
American. Their version of the character is Lancelot Strong, a
scientist's son, orphaned at an early age, who grows up to find his
father's experiments have resulted in his developing super powers.
He appears to be an ordinary draftee in the pre-Vietnam U.S. Army
— but as The Shield, wearing a superhero suit with a U.S.
flag motif, he secretly battles America's enemies in a more direct
way.
The Double Life of Private Strong was the first comic published under the "Archie Adventure Series" imprint. The second, The Fly, also a Simon & Kirby creation, followed two months later. The latter was, by far, the more successful; in fact, the Private Strong title lasted only two issues. It was shut down by a letter from DC's lawyers, claiming the character was too similar to their Superman.
The Shield made a couple of appearances in The Fly's comic over the next year or two, then languished until, in the mid-1960s, practically every costumed character the publisher ever did was revived for at least a walk-on. In 1983, many of them, including Lancelot Strong, were briefly revived again — in fact, the name Lancelot Strong was actually used as the title of a comic book that year, albeit for only one issue. Since then, he's been glimpsed from time to time, but hasn't been what you'd call a major player.
His main claim to fame is that, when the superhero genre started showing signs of renewed interest, he was the first character to jump on the bandwagon. That and, of course, the fact that he was one of the last creations of the legendary team of Simon & Kirby.
