Claw The Unconquered

In an age of derivative Barbarians, I think it's fair to say that Claw The Unconquered was probably the most derivative sword and sorcery hero out there. When your first issue is illustrated by Ernie Chan, the man only just behind John Buscema & Alfredo Alcala as artist with most Conan stories under his belt, you're really inviting kids to pick the book up by mistake, thinking they're getting the Cimmerian.

Claw is the rightful king of yadda yadda and instead of a right hand is cursed with a Demon blah blah, is being hunted by a sorcerer because of something something and spends his first 11 issues stealing magic jewels, fighting slimy monsters, rescuing wenches and generally doing everything that Conan does every month.
It's all perfectly acceptable stuff, and everyone involved does a solid, professional job ( scribe David Michelinie, for instance, admirably coping with what must've been a difficult premise ) but there's no energy to any of it, and you sort of sense no one's hearts are really in it. Until the last issue.

Don't get me wrong, Claw #12 is no lost masterpiece, but here Michelinie takes the gloves ( and gauntlet ) off and goes for broke.
Sure, the honourable bad guy is an old cliche, but it's one that I always like, and there is a genuine, brooding sense of futility about the world depicted in this story.
Claw is a doomed man, fighting an irrelevant war, basically because he has nothing else to do with his time, and for the first time, you feel it.
Keith Giffen also takes the opportunity with both hands, and the art fair drips with blood red passion, matching the script stroke for sword stroke...

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The Unknown Soldier In: 8,000 To One

In yet another in a long, long line of:
a) Why oh why didn't I buy this great comic at the time and
b) That's funny, I could've sworn I'd done a post about this character already.
So we arrive, and not before time, at the bivouac of The Unknown Soldier, possibly THE most pulpish of comic characters not actually taken from the pulps.
Here's the deal if you were as dumb as I was at the time, and never checked him out:
In the early days of World War II, a young GI is caught in a grenade blast that destroys his face, and kills his older brother.
Refusing to let this slow him down for a second, our unnamed hero becomes both a master of disguise AND the deadliest killer in the US army, taking on the dirty, impossible missions no on else would dare.
But then he is, as he describes himself: 'The man with "suicide" for a middle name.'
Is that genius or what?
The early issues were by Joe Kubert, Bob Haney, Doug Wildey and, slightly less impressively, Jack Sparling, but I want to jump ahead to the real golden era for this strip, when The Soldier had his adventures related by David Michelinie & Gerry Talaoc, a perfect team if ever there was one.
This is their first issue together, and is kind of a reboot, being the first time we ever saw the actual damage our hero sustained to his face, and it's an absolute belter of a mission statement.
The Man No One Knows, But Is Known By Everyone. Here he is:

Jarvis Kicks Ass ( Actually it's arse but a gentleman never swears )

You gotta love Jarvis, don't' cha? Just like you gotta love Alfred.
I mean it can't be easy butlering for The Avengers, can it? Catering around Jan's constant diets as she struggles to fit into whatever costume she's wearing that week, ensuring there's enough fresh boar for both Thor AND Herc, putting up with Vizh's constant reminders that his 'synthezoid body does not require sustenance' then turning a blind eye as he nabs the last chocolate Hob-Nob.
And don't get me started on keeping Hawkeye in beer, whisky and hookers.
Still, our man bravely soldiers through it all with nary a sigh ( though he did once betray the team as The Crimson Cowl, but it would be shockingly bad form to bring that up again. )
The Jarv wasn't best served by the Marvel movies, I think, but he has had his dues on TV in Agent Carter at least, with Hayley Atwell & James D'Arcy's wonderful double act:

But there weren't that many opportunities for The Jarvmeister to shine in the Bronze Age, this little filler being a nice exception. It's as cheesy as a mature Stilton from Fortnum & Mason, but is still kind of irresistible for all that. Good show, Jarvis!

Swamp Thing ( after Wrightson )

A forgotten part of Swamp Thing's history are the issues that followed Len Wein and Berni Wrightson's original groundbreaking run. After Wrightson left the strip, feeling it was turning into a 'monster of the week' book, Wein stuck around for a few more issues, until David Michelinie stepped in to join replacement artist Nestor Redondo.

This run is well worth checking out, and not only for Redondo's exceptional illustrative art. There's some great stories here, the tone well in keeping with what came before. In this 15 issue run for instance, Wein, Michelinie and stand-in Gerry Conway give us:

Time travelling morality tale The Eternity Man:

Telepathic mutant kids in The Tomorrow Children:

A toy town full of creepy octogenarians in Village Of The Damned:

And er, this guy...

Ok, forget him. But really, there's some cracking stuff to be found here, like this issue: Where Swampy gets himself possessed by a demon, and Redondo pulls out all the stops and then some. Check out that fight scene splash page!