G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES

G-8 is a spy for the American Secret Service.

When we first encounter him, he is very much a spy because he is being held by German forces behind German lines awaiting a German firing squad, much to the relief of that country's Imperial army. As a general for that organization would say, "We must capture and kill this verdammt young man, G-8, at all costs. I would give willingly ten thousand of my bravest for his head. He is too clever to live. He knows more about our business than we do ourselves."

The codename of G-8 is all that the enemy knows of his identity, which is not surprising since as the readers of his more than 100 incredible adventures, that is all we will ever know him by. There will be no first or last name, no nickname, no pet name, no initials of any sort except the callsign of G-8. It is hypothesized that the 'G' stood for 'Government' and that the '8' meant he was the eighth operative for the intelligence organization he answers to but that is not substantiated.

While his identity is an enigma, his reputation and his actions speak volumes. He is young, as mentioned, but he is highly experienced and capable. These two factors, coupled with his incredible audacity, make him the nemesis of all of the Kaiser's sizeable forces. By the time we first meet him as he allows himself to be captured so he can find a way into a prison to get close to a key enemy leader, he has been around quite a while to already be such an accursed thorn in the enemy's side.

[Interesting to know when this all actually takes place. The U.S. did not enter WWI, the conflict in which all these missions take place, until April of 1917 and the Great War came to an end in November of 1918, 19 months, 84 weeks. There are 110 mission from the time we start following him and we know by that famed renown that he was already well known.]

In addition to his great skill as a spy, though, his prowess as a pilot is even greater. His ability to handle his beloved Spad aircraft, a French biplane fighter, is even more spoken of with awe as his espionage work. When not on a secret mission, he could usually be found in a "newly-pressed uniform of a captain of the American Air Service. That was his own uniform. G-8 was a spy, but his proudest possession was that captain's uniform with the wings and bars he had earned." 

For description of G-8 we are given this: "He was not tall and not short either. A young man of medium build. Rather good-looking but no collar ad. He had broad shoulders and an easy rolling motion when he walked or moved that gave hint of having every muscle at his instant command. But those steel-gray eyes were the outstanding thing about this master spy. They held one by a sort of magnetism even while in casual conversation. They were commanding eyes."

Joining him in his exciting and dangerous life in the air are two other pilots who G-8 meets in the first recorded adventure. There is Bull Martin, a large and highly superstitious man, and one not known for being the brightest bulb in a marquee, who has numbered his airplane '7'. On the other extreme is a much shorter man named Nippy Weston, ever ready with a clever quip, who dubbed his plane '13'. Both men will become very close friends with each other and with G-8 and take pleasure in being known as his wingmen.

Also of considerable importance in G-8's life is his man servant named Battle. A British batsman who is a good deal older than G-8 but has a good deal of affection and admiration for the younger officer. In addition to keeping his kit in proper shape and helping tend to his many wounds and bruises, Battle is also a master makeup artist and helps G-8 adopt a wide variety of nearly undetectable disguises.

As impressive as G-8 and his exploits are, even more awe-and-fear inspiring is the large and dangerous line-up of adversaries that G-8 will come up against - many times repeatedly. Most of them are ridiculously intelligent and inventive able to come up with fantastic weapons and horrendous devices and gasses able to kill thousands at a time. They also tend to find outrageous creatures out of nightmarish fantasies.

By far the most troublesome and hard to put down permanently is Herr Doktor Krueger who G-8 meets in his first recorded escapade and will encounter over 20 times during his career.

"He was short, slim, almost emaciated in appearance. His face was that of a homely, half-starved school boy in his early teens. His lips did not quite meet, and between them showed large irregular teeth, the two upper tusks twice as long as the others, protruding downward in hideous fashion. His forehead was large. His whole head was oversized, with capacity for an enormous brain, and made more grotesque by being shaven clean. Fire seemed to dart from the tiny eyes, set close together, that peered through extraordinarily thick glasses. And when the man spoke his words came in a flat, high-pitched voice."

Krueger would be defeated over and over and yet always find a way to return to vex G-8 yet again. Even at the end of the G-8 missions when it seems that G-8 was finally able to kill Krueger for good, there remained a question of just how dead was he.

Next in line of repeat performances is the extremely diabolical Chu Lung, A Chinese scientist, insane and evil incarnate. He was particularly fond of gasses to incapacitate his victims, usually permanently. Complete with a Fu Manchu style long mustache and a mostly bald head, he delighted in causing mayhem and suffering.

Herr Stahlmaske, aka Steel Mask, will try his hand at killing G-8 while also trying to destroy the Allies armies. His name fits just like the literal steel mask he is always wearing. He will return over a half dozen times in G-8's career.

Grun the Primeval is a huge green-skinned creature who was as deadly as he was homicidal, and he was very homicidal! He was only on hand three times but each time was nearly G-8's last.

The list of other notables is long and varied, most of them being of German  origin but not all. The range of opponents also include occasionally zombies, monsters of this type or that, and even an alien or two from other worlds.

G-8 kept busy!

For quite a few years I held off adding G8 to the compendium because his adventures were, in my misguided belief, war stories and not spy stories. And even after finally admitting him to the collection, I freely acknowledge that they are first and foremost air combat tales. Exciting enough if you are into WWI-style aero-plane dog-fights.

I am not a fan of such things because they confuse me and because I have no love of heights at all and the thought of doing what G8 routinely does is ... ah, nope! not me!

But G8 is also both a spy and a spy-hunter. He thinks nothing of going into enemy territory to learn things his side needs to know and the other side wants kept secret or to plant a bomb or two in some factory. He also is constantly ready to go up against any and all foreign operatives who want to do the same.

The stories were, to me, mildly interesting (keeping in mind my predisposition against flying), if taken a little bit at a time. Would I have pursued them each and every month? Nope! But obviously a whole lot of other people felt differently.