Steel Claw
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the comic book character. For the similarly named movie, see The Steel Claw.
| The Steel Claw | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Steel Claw was one of the most popular comic book heroes of British weekly adventure comics of the 1960s and 1970s. The character was revived in 2005 for Albion, a six issue mini-series published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics.
Contents |
[edit] Publishing history
The Steel Claw first appeared in the debut edition of Valiant dated 6 October 1962. The strip was one of several put together for the comic by Fleetway editors Ken Mennell, Jack Le Grand and Sid Bicknell, and was then refined by writer Ken Bulmer and artist Jesús Blasco. After the first three serials, Bulmer left the title, and was replaced by Tom Tully. The Steel Claw appeared throughout Valiant for much of the 1960s and was one of the most popular in the comic. Tully wrote the series for the remainder of its run. The story ended briefly in May 1970, but a year later was back, retitled Return of the Claw, which would run until 1973.
In 1967, Fleetway featured the character in a number of digest-size original stories in their Stupendous Series of Super Library comics. The Steel Claw would alternate with The Spider from Lion in these books, with the Claw featuring in the odd-numbered editions. Because of the pressures of deadlines, these monthly titles saw a variety of different writers and artists employed, usually various Italian artists, most notably future 2000 AD artist Massimo Belardinelli. These ran until January 1968.
However when Valiant merged with Battle Picture Weekly, the strip transferred to Vulcan from 1975 in a series of reprints. The strip by now had found popularity worldwide, including countries such as Germany, India and Sweden and remained in print in these countries long after the characters last strips in the UK.
The Steel Claw remained fondly remembered by its fans and future comic creators and during the Alan Moore and Alan Davis run of Captain Britain, The Steel Claw was renamed The Iron Tallon for a brief cameo appearance. This was followed by a four issue series o published by Quality Comics in 1986 which reprinted material from Valiant (in this, the character's name was edited to 'Louis Randell', and the stories were coloured), with new framing material drawn by Garry Leach.
The character remained in limbo for a number of years until Grant Morrison used The Steel Claw's superhero incarnation (as well as a number of British heroes from the 1960s) in his Zenith strip in 2000AD. This was followed by a one-off special featuring The Steel Claw among other 1960s characters, this was created by various 2000AD creators of the time. However this failed to spawn any continuing series and the character again entered limbo.
This was until it was announced in 2005 that DC Comics would be using the character along with a number of other IPC characters, in a six issue mini-series called Albion. This would be plotted by Alan Moore, and written by Leah Moore and John Reppion, with art by Shane Oakley and George Freeman. The series was complimented by a graphic novel reprinting the Ken Bulmer/Jesus Blasco serials from Valiant published by Titan Books.
[edit] Character biography
Louis Crandell was the assistant to the scientist Professor Barringer, until a laboratory accident in which he lost his right hand inches below the wrist. He then used a prosthetic metal hand to substitute his lost limb. In another laboratory accident with a new ray, if he received an electric shock he would become invisible for a limited period of time with the exception of his artificial hand.
Crandell used his new found gift initially to steal and become a psychotic criminal. So much so that in early strips he was clearly a villain, or anti-hero, but later decided to use it to crime fighting. (it was explained that the laboratory accident that made it possible for him to become invisible had temporary made him insane). He joined a British secret service and espionage agency known as the Shadow Squad. Armed with his steel claw, which by now was equipped with a variety of weapons and tools in each finger as well as his power of invisibility, Louis Crandell battled various criminal geniuses, aliens and the organisation known as F.E.A.R. (the Federation for Extortion, Assassination and Rebellion).
Louis Crandell briefly donned a superhero outfit for a time during his adventures, this was not to last long though and Crandell returned to his secret agent roots. By now his Claw was remote controlled and stacked full of gadgets. After retiring from the Shadow Squad, Louis Crandell became a detective and then a bounty hunter before distrust of his past eventually led him to go to South America, where he would continue to fight crime.
When The Steel Claw was reprinted by Quality Comics, a framing sequence featured Crandell (called Randell in this version) as an aging secret agent reflecting on his early criminal career. His appearance in Zenith saw him disabled during battle, eventually dying from blood loss. This was followed by his appearance in 2000AD Action where Crandell was portrayed as a burnt out government assassin.
In Paul Grist's comic Jack Staff, a character called Ben Kulmer appears as The Claw. This character is a thief who tries to steal the claw from a museum, only to have it attach itself to his left hand and then receive the same invisibility powers, as well as added strength and shock powers in the claw. He is now working as part of a group called "Q".
[edit] Steel Claw around the world
The Steel Claw enjoyed wide popularity in Europe and Asia, the adventures featuring the Shadow Squad is the most popular of the series
[edit] Steel Claw in France
Steel Claw is known as Main d’Acier in France, which literally means “Hand of Steel”. In France, several series of The Steel Claw appeared published by Gémini editions and MCL in France. The early Steel Claw series appeared with the Gémini editions which were published between 1962 and 1980. .
[edit] Steel Claw in Germany
In Germany in the 1970s the magazine Vulcan was published under the title Kobra which used most of IPC's adventure strips such as The Steel Claw, as well as Mytek the Mighty, Kelly's Eye, The Spider and Robot Archie. However, the stories which were published in Kobra were partly incomplete, apparently switching stories unpredictably. Finally, the magazine was discontinued leaving German fans in dismay.
[edit] Steel Claw in Finland
Steel Claw was published in Finland in the early 1970s first in a series of digest sized pocket books, and then part of the "Sarjakuvalehti" that had three or four different stories each month. The series were mostly about The Steel Claw's adventures as a Shadow Squad agent. The Steel Claw stories also appeared occasionally in "Mustanaamio" during the early 1980s.
[edit] Steel Claw in Sweden
Steel Claw was published in Sweden under the name Stålhanden (=Steel Hand) from the 1970s in the magazines Serie-Nytt, Seriemagasinet and later in the latter's spin-off SM Special. Steel Claw episodes appeared sporadically in Seriemagasinet until the late 1990s.
[edit] Steel Claw in South India
Steel Claw achieved cult status in India becoming one of India's most popular action heroes. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Irumbukkai Maayavi and Urukkukai Maayavi is still a popular character for many millions of fans. In Tamil Nadu, The Steel Claw was published by Muthu Comics in 1971 under the license of Fleetway Publications. Later Lion Comics, published the adventures of Steel Claw in South India. The series was brought to Kerala by Regal Comics and published from Kottayam in 1970s and 1980s.
In Kerala the tremendous popularity of the series triggered many rip-offs of Steel Claw. CID Michael, CID Moosa and CID Mahesh were the Kerala equivalents of Steel Claw, though their abilities differ. In some comics these characters would make themselves invisible with a wrist watch switch, supposedly an ultra modern device. There are comics where Mahesh is invisible except his iron helmet, a direct influence from Steel Claw series.
[edit] Steel Claw Names
| Country | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| France | Main d'Acier | Steel Hand |
| Spain | Zarpa de Acero | Steel Claw |
| Finland | Teräsnyrkki | Steel Fist |
| Sweden | Stålhanden | Steel Hand |
| Tamil Nadu (India) | Irumbukai Maayavi | Iron hand invisible man |
| Kerala (India) | Urukkukai Maayavi | Steel hand invisible man |
| Yugoslavia (Former) | Čelična Kandža | Steel Claw |
[edit] Steel Claw cover gallery
The Steel Claw was reprinted in digest form in the 1960s and 1970s by IPC and other companies around the world. This is a selection of covers of those reprint editions.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
