OZ SQUAD #1-3 Brave New Words, 1992

I can’t decide whether I love or hate Oz Squad.

I have issues 1-3 in this indy black and white series published by Rhode Island’s own Brave New Words; I’m not sure how many issues there were in the series total. Created by Steven Ahlquist, Oz Squad is a violent action comic set in Frank L Baum’s Land of Oz.

You heard me.

Most of the characters we’re familiar with through the books or Wizard of Oz movie have been upgraded into lethal superheroes. The Lion, is a surfer shapeshifter dude who morphs into a big ass super-lion with a healing factor. The Tin Woodsman is a robotic killing machine with a buzzsaw and blasters and shit. The Scarecrow is a tactical genius who stabs people. And Dorothy Gale, the character immortalized by the bat-shit crazy Judy Garland? She's a bad-ass spy and mistress of the martial arts with a "wish belt" that allows her to teleport between Oz and The Real World (the planet, not the MTV show - although that would be funny). Together, our heroes work for an elite CIA unit called... wait for it... Gale Force.

Again, I'm torn. The inner-D&D geek inside of me likes the idea, but it seems gratuitously irreverent. Ahlquist is obviously familiar enough with Baum's Oz to riff on some of the concepts and characters, but I don't sense any respect or even affection for Baum's work. After the initial shock/novelty of seeing the Oz characters swearing and killing people wears off, one realizes that Oz Squad is all style with little substance. Wow, I say that like it's a bad thing. I am talking about a comic book, aren't I?

Here's a panel that kind of distills the essence of the series, where Dorothy confronts the Wicked Witch of the East, aka Rebecca Eastwitch:



In the first issue, Tik-Tok the clockwork man's "morality spring" runs down and he goes on a killing spree in Kansas. Gale Force is dispatched to take him down, but before they do, Tik-Tok kills a lot of people, including most of a hospital. The big showdown takes place on the roof of the hospital, where Tik-Tok is throwing babies from the maternity ward to their death. Fun!

Here's a panel where the Tin Woodsman confronts Tik-Tok. Notice the baby:



I'll bet Frank Baum would have loved the baby-throwing scene, it perfectly captures the wide-eyed sense of wonder that have made his Oz books such enduring classics. {irony} But hey, fuck Baum, right? It's public domain, we can do whatever we want with his characters.

To be fair, rampaging Tik-Tok is kind of creepy, and the baby-throwing scene makes sense within the context of the story. It establishes how truly ape-shit homicidal Tik-Tok has become and how little he thinks of "flesh peo-ple." And that would be fine, I could buy that, if they hadn't thrown THIS little joke into the mix, where the crowd outside the hospital tries to catch one of the babies. Behold:



Man, there is nothing like a dead baby joke to punch up a comic book. This sequence gets Dave Campbell's What-The-Fuck?! Award for April 2005.

Issues 2 and 3 of Oz Squad involve the Wicked Witch of the East trying to sell the plans for Tik-Tok to the highest bidder in Baron Munchausen's castle. Gale Force infiltrates the auction and chaos ensues. Tin Man and Scarecrow fight a bunch of flying monkeys, some of whom have rocket launchers, while Lion and his buddy Tiger battle a Kalidah, one of my favorite creatures from the Oz books. Lots of carnage, lots of tough guy dialogue.

I don't know, I think I've talked myself out of liking Oz Squad. I wonder who the publisher's target audience was for this book? People who love The Wizard of Oz and the film Commando equally, I guess. That would be me.