Encyclopedia of Super

A Review of Jason Inman’s Super Soldiers

I suppose I should be proud to be the writer of ‘The Nerd Corps’ first book review on this site as I offer up my opinions on Jason Inman’s ‘Super Soldiers’ in this post.  As an adult it has grown quite difficult to find time to read as my attention has turned from only school and books to a life full of dog walks, significant other dates, podcast recordings, movie watches and full-blown attention deficit disorder at times.  I did my best to read this as quickly as I could and unfortunately that was over the span of a few months.  So, to Jason and everyone else, I apologize in the time it took to write this review.

Starting off, let me introduce Jason Inman who you may have heard on the podcast twice as he graciously agreed to talk with myself and Raul for around an hour each time (Episodes 85 and 237 if you want to take a listen).  Jason is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, an author of books (duh) and comics (Jupiter Jet, Science!, etc.), and quoting from his website jasoninman.com “a former host of DC All Access and a regular guest on Collider Movie Talk, Geek & Sundry, Collider Heroes, Screen Junkies, SourceFed, and Film HQ…Besides uploading weekly videos on his youtube channel, Jawiin, Jason has hosted his own podcast Geek History Lesson for over five years which was nominated for a Podcast Award”.  These two aspects of Jason, that of a veteran and that of the encyclopedia of all things nerd, come into play with his book Super Soldiers which focuses on the comic book heroes and villains who served the United States military. 

First, I must comment on the ease of reading I found with this book.  Jason has the ability to condense a lot of history of these super powered figures into four to eight pages each. His inclusion of many of the lesser known heroes and villains such as Gravedigger, Isaiah Bradley, and Nuke along with various unfamiliar (to me at least) details of the more popular figures (Captain America, Punisher, etc.) helped keep my attention piqued as each chapter I was exploring the details of someone I didn’t know or finding out more about the heroes I had grown up with.  Jason does not shy away from the controversial aspects of each character’s history either but delves right into their history, be it Batwoman’s sexuality during the peak of “don’t ask, don’t tell” or the mistreatment of Gravedigger and Isaiah Bradley due to being black men in a WWII America.  Any comic book fan will want to run out and pick up the back issues of many of these character’s comics (I’m personally going to buy up as much of Gravedigger’s “Men of War” as I can find).

On top of all this, Jason includes his own military experiences helping to bridge that gap between comic book lore and reality.  From speaking on the difficulty of transitioning back to civilian life, just like War Machine, to pranking his sergeant ala Beetle Bailey, he is able to compare and contrast the life of an enlisted soldier with these fictional stories of super powered (and sometimes not so superpowered aka Sgt. Rock) heroes.

This, in my humble opinion, is a must read for all fans of comics and comic book heroes.  The amount of information contained within these 218 pages is astounding, so be sure to keep this close at hand when researching who came before Captain America or how Flash Thompson went from bully to hero.  As Sir Francis Bacon coined once upon a time, “Knowledge is power” and as Super Soldiers goes, “Knowledge is Super Power”. YoungYoda out.

P.S. be sure to pick up Super Soldiers on Amazon and give a follow to Jason at the following: Twitter & Instagram- @Jawiin; Go listen to his podcast “Geek History Lesson” (@GHLPodcast) wherever you listen to podcasts.