Writer: Steve Darnall
Artist: Alex Ross
Price: $9.95
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 1-56389-482-3

"Do you believe in magic? Do you believe that two men could be wounded seven times by two bullets? Do you believe that eighteen witnesses could just magically up and die over the next three years? Ask not what your country's done for you. Ask what your country's done to you."

Loaded with insight, filled with everyday horrors, populated with deft recreations of notorious historical events such as the Kennedy assassination and enough cultural icons to fill a year of political cartoons, UNCLE SAM is perhaps the bravest, most radical and thought-provoking work of social commentary to come out of a major American comics publisher in the last decade.

Published by DC/Vertigo, with a furious, challenging script by Steve Darnall and some of Alex Ross's most expressive and dazzling work, UNCLE SAM burst on the unsuspecting comics scene in 1997. It came riding on the wave of Ross's post-KINGDOM COME popularity, and was heralded by a series of ads featuring the mad, antediluvian hero that must have scared off as many viewers as it surprised.

Hailed by critics, the work re-imagines not one but two versions of the timeless icon and one-time superhero and places them in a direct confrontation with each other that both eviscerates the grand American myth and offers a hopeful study of how that myth can be reclaimed.

'This work both eviscerates the American myth and offers hope.' Taking a page from such satiric novelists as Joseph Heller, Darnall sets his protagonist in a 'real' world that proves to be only an inconsistent, undependable front for the mad, time-jumping universe beneath. Sam exists in the surface world as a derelict, eating out of a dumpster and getting thrown out of social service wards. His delusions of the subterranean realm take him from the bloody fields of post-Revolution civil uprising to the post-abolition lynchings of the South. Also like the tortured antiheroes of Heller's fiction, Uncle Sam walks the line between helpless victim and active participant in the horror.

Along the way, Sam meets many of his iconic contemporaries: Lincoln, Dancing Sambo, Liberty, and the enigmatic Bea, most of whom are as lost and forgotten as he is, their relevance stolen by a world of fast food and Must-See-Thursdays. On one level, Darnall is dissecting these archetypes and their place in American history, while on a deeper, more personal level, he is defining the ills of modern America through the eyes of what were once its greatest hope.

Of course, you can skip all of that if you choose, and read UNCLE SAM as a simple plea for the return of personal responsibility.

Considering the reactionary, status-quo-oriented direction of American comics (as well as American fiction and politics) as a whole, it's gratifying to see a writer unapologetically stepping up to say, 'This is unacceptable'. Prejudice, poverty, censorship, sexism, pollution, hypocrisy, greed - Darnall sees the true face of America, and in UNCLE SAM he makes sure you see it too. Rarely is the visual format of comics used in such a way, which is odd since that's exactly the way it should be used.

Considering all the lip service given to the potential of comics to surpass other media in their use of visual symbolism, it's also invigorating to see that potential being realised in the treatment of Sam's wardrobe. Befouled by his own filth, bespattered by errant bird droppings, Sam is as distasteful a leading man as his shiny, pristine doppelganger is a walking symbol of 'beauty'. This perfectly suits the story's theme about the bitter taste of reality versus the candy-flavoured poison of wilful ignorance. It also highlights the faithful rendition of the American past and the men who lived it: the real Sam has seen the true history, and he hasn't washed the blood off his hands.

There's more. Early in the story, Sam is incapable of dealing with the world and the visions of his surreal past that plague him. His mutterings - "Top of the world, Ma!" and "I should welcome any war, for I think the country needs one" - resemble catchphrases of old, and he is as unconcerned by the violent, disordered environment around him as he is uncomprehending of his momentary visions of modern societal disaster. At this point, his boots are stolen. And he is already without his hat.

Following his second such episode, however, Sam re-discovers his boots. His catchphrases no longer applaud the way things are but decry them. He is on his path. And when he meets his evil other self, and sees the creature wearing his hat, the motif becomes complete. Have there been other instances where such subtle, effective symbolism has been used with such results? I can't think of many.

Ross's contribution cannot be ignored. Those who have only seen his statuesque treatment of the world's finest in BATMAN: WAR ON CRIME and SUPERMAN: PEACE ON EARTH might be shocked by his rendition of Sam, who carries the world's pain on his face one moment and delights in spirited bliss the next. These are not visuals to thrill adolescent males. They are carefully crafted, genuinely moving portraits of a truly larger-than-life character facing an enormous crisis, witnessing some of history's most terrifying moments.

By all accounts this is a brilliant book, and an important addition to Vertigo's library. Reviewers tend to keep track of the most recent books in order to stay 'relevant', while pompous critics spend much time applauding favoured books and little time actually making an effort to convince their readers to buy them. I have no interest in covering flavours of the month; some stories are always relevant, and UNCLE SAM is one of them. I want to stress how vital it is that this book does not fade from the scene.

Find this book. Read it. Read it even if you have no interest in modern American culture (and, honestly, who doesn't?), and read it especially if you think you know all there is to know about it.

Read it, then weep that there aren't more comics like it.

Mike Hendricks is a journalist and a tutor for disadvantaged children in Texas, USA.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution by private individuals on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.