Boy Commandos is a fictional organization from

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

first appearing in ''Detective Comics'' #64 (June 1942) by

Joe Simon Joseph Henry Simon (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the ...

and

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gr ...

. They are a combination of "kid gang" characters, an international cast of young boys fighting Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies".

Creation

Simon & Kirby were hired away from

Timely Comics Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...

by DC towards the end of 1941, primarily due to their success on '' Captain America'', but without there being a clear purpose to the decision, nor title to work on.Ro, Ronin. ''Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution'' (Bloomsbury, 2004) Finding themselves initially embroiled in the '' Captain Marvel'' lawsuit,

Jack Liebowitz Jacob S. Liebowitz (; born Yacov Lebovitz October 10, 1900 – December 11, 2000)The Sandman'', and Manhunter (both of whom bore strong resemblance to their Captain America work), before deciding that "kid gangs seemed to be the way to go". Teenage sidekicks (

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

's Robin, Captain America's Bucky, etc.) were fast becoming a comics staple, intended to provide young characters with whom youthful readers could identify. Simon & Kirby's own ''Sentinels of Liberty'' (later the ''

Young Allies Young Allies, in comics, may refer to one of the following superhero teams: * Young Allies (DC Comics), a team made up of young heroes from the Allies and featured in a story arc in ''Young All-Stars'' published by DC Comics. * Young Allies (Marvel ...

'') had already succeeded in this mold, and had an influence on their subsequent creation. Having already created the "Sentinels of Liberty" for Timely, they now created for DC the

Newsboy Legion The Newsboy Legion is a teenage vigilante group in the DC Comics Universe. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, they appeared in their own self-titled feature which ran from ''Star-Spangled Comics'' #7 (April 1942) to #64 (January 1947). In 1970, ...

("a

Dead End Kids The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York City who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play '' Dead End'' in 1935. In 1937, producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film. They prov ...

-style group led by a police officer in a Captain America-like blue-and-yellow costume, toting a shield"). Although America had not yet entered the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, headlines and news stories highlighted the role of British commandos, so Simon and Kirby fused the kid gang with the commando, and created The Boy Commandos. The international group included the French Andre Chavard, the English Alfie Twidgett, the Dutch Jan Haasan and an American only known as "Brooklyn". Debuting in the pages of ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is best known for introducing the superhero Batman i ...

'' #64 (the issue #65's cover (left) shows

presenting the gang but they appeared first in the issue before) cover-dated June 1942, the team became extremely popular, also appearing in ''

World's Finest Comics ''World's Finest Comics'' was an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled ''World's Best Comics'' for its first issue; issue #2 (Summer 1941) switched to the more familiar name. Michael ...

'' (#8-41, 1942-1949) and were then soon spun off into their own title, launching with a 'Winter 1942' date. The title sold "over a million copies each month", and was one of DC's "three biggest hits" alongside ''

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

'' and ''

''. Kirby drew around five pages a day of the title, but Liebowitz requested an even faster turn-around - fearing (as happened) that the two would be drafted, as had many other industry professionals. Simon & Kirby hired "inkers, etterers colorists, and writers, striving to create a year's worth of tales" (''Boy Commandos'' was also a quarterly title until Winter, 1945). Among those hired was a young

Gil Kane Gil Kane (; born Eli Katz ; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character. Kane co-created the modern-day versio ...

, who recalls being: :"hired to do as many ''Boy Commandos'', ''Newsboy Legion'', and ''Sandman'' stories as I could... they gave me scripts and they would do the splashes and they would have it inked". According to ''Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes'', "most of their criminals are ordinary, either Germans and Japanese or merely human criminals, but there are also exotics like Crazy Quilt, Diamond Hand, and Mr. Bleak, he of the devilish shadow". ''Boy Commandos'' ran until issue #36 (Nov/Dec 1949), and was edited throughout by

Jack Schiff Jack Schiff (1909 – April 30, 1999) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for his work editing various Batman comic book series for DC Comics from 1942 to 1964. He was the co-creator of Starman, Tommy Tomorrow, and the Wyo ...

. Among the individuals who assisted Simon and Kirby on the title (and its covers) were future-Superman legend

Curt Swan Douglas Curtis Swan (February 17, 1920 – June 17, 1996) was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 195 ...

, as well as Steve Brodie,

Louis Cazeneuve Luis "Louis" Cazeneuve (August 18, 1908 – August 1977) was an Argentine-born American comic-book artist.Carmine Infantino.

Fictional team biography

The

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous characters were André Chavard from

Fra A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

nce; Alfie Twidgett from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Jan Haasan from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and "Brooklyn" from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. An elite commando squad of orphaned children, led by grown-up Captain Rip Carter, they fought on all fronts of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In September 1944, the Newsboy Legion teamed up with the Boy Commandos to stop armed and armored traitors based out of New York City. The team's adventures continued well past the war, even though there were many roster changes. Jan left first, having found relatives in his homeland to stay with. Alfie was replaced by a Texan named ''Tex''. Percy Clearweather, a glasses-wearing genius, replaced André. It was revealed years later that Brooklyn was

Dan Turpin Daniel "Terrible" Turpin is a character published by DC Comics. He first appeared as Brooklyn (due to him being born in New York City) in ''Detective Comics'' #64 (June 1942), and first appeared as Dan Turpin in ''New Gods'' #5 (November 1971). Pu ...

, that André Chavard had become the head of the French Intelligence '' Département Gamma'', and that Alfie Twidgett was now the head of the firm '' Statistical Occurrences Ltd.'' (SOL), with his daughter Twiggie. In addition to the aligning of Metropolis Special Crimes Unit's Detective

with "Brooklyn", the team have seen print in a couple of titles since the late 1940s. In the 1970s, during Kirby's involvement at DC, several of their stories were reprinted in various books, particularly those written and drawn by Kirby himself (e.g. ''

Mister Miracle Mister Miracle (Scott Free) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in ''Mister Miracle'' #1 (April 1971) and was created by Jack Kirby. Publication history Mister Miracle debuted in ...

'' #6 in February 1972). A reprint ''Boy Commandos'' title was published in Sep/Oct 1973 under editor E. Nelson Bridwell, but lasted only two issues before disappearing. The four original members, minus Brooklyn, reappeared late during the run of Len Wein's ''

Blue Beetle Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes who appear in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939. The most recent of the companies to own rights to Blue Beetle is DC Comics, which bought the ri ...

'', which reintroduced Alfie as the founder and president of Statistical Occurrences Ltd., an insurance company specializing in properties which may attract the activities of superhumans. Using his daughter "Twiggie" as a mediator, Alfie hires Murray Takamoto, an ex-

S.T.A.R. Labs Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories (S.T.A.R. Labs) is a fictional scientific research facility and organization appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It first appeared in ''Superman'' #246 (December 1 ...

administrator (and college roommate of

Ted Kord Theodore Stephen "Ted" Kord is the second Blue Beetle, a superhero who was originally published by Charlton Comics and later picked up by DC Comics. This version of the character was created by Steve Ditko and first appeared as a back-up feature i ...

) who'd worked on a "Star Wars" satellite program, which S.O.L. had received a contract concerning its protection. Joining Alfie in this venture are his old teammates Andre, now head of the fictional Department Gamma of the French Secret Service, Jan, now a professor working for th
Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
and their former mentor "Rip" Carter, now a general. It was implied that they would eventually come into conflict, along with the Blue Beetle, with corrupt European industrialist Klaus Cornelius, who had already used his influence to disband Europe's lead super-hero agency, the

Global Guardians The Global Guardians is a team of DC Comics superheroes whose members hail from countries around the world. The concept originated in the ''Super Friends'' Saturday morning cartoon, which aired after the comics stories in ''Super Friends'' #7- ...

, and was working to resurrect the Boy Commandos' old enemy

Agent Axis Agent Axis, in comics, may refer to: * Agent Axis (DC Comics), two DC Comics supervillains * Agent Axis (Marvel Comics), a Marvel Comics supervillain {{Short pages monitor