Aggressors - The new hero pulp

The Aggressor is a crusader for moral order. This comes from a sudden realisation, typically an act of violence, that society is not doing its job and protecting people. The aggressor will determine the greatest threat against society and attack that threat. After 38 books of battling the Mafia, the Execution began to battle terrorists in The Executioner #39: The New War. Don Pendleton explains this in the introduction to the listing of terrorist organisations in The Executioner #63: The New War Book (1984):
“The Mafia is not nearly as strong now as when Bolan first began his one man vigilante war; but I would have reshaped the series even if this was not true because I believe that the hard challenge of today is not organised crime but the organised savagery that we see today as international terrorism.” (p 143)

There are many things that most of the Aggressors have in common aside from the threat against society. Their attacks against these threats are quite aggressive and violent. Turner (1977) quotes Andy Ettinger, editor for Pinnacle books, the publisher of many of aggressor heroes, as saying “without violence these books wouldn’t sell.” For The Destroyer handbook Inside Sinanju, Will Murray (1985) interviewed Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, creators of The Destroyer series who confirm this:
“MURPHY: …we had a little fight with the publisher, who wanted us to do more of an Executioner….
QUESTION: So they wanted another war against the Mafia series?
SAPIR: No, what they wanted was bodies. Like the Roman arenas. They wanted more blood and more blood.” (p146)

However, Sapir and Murphy did not increase the level of blood but rather created their own type of Aggressor laced with humour and satire.

The typical Aggressor character has served in Vietnam and learnt the violence used in the crusade this can be seen in the history of many of these characters, The Executioner, The Destroyer, The Penetrator, Able Team, The Hitman, Knight Rider, The A-Team to name a few. Others gained this training in other ways, The Butcher was a high ranking member of the Mafia who turned against the Mafia to redeem himself of the evil he had committed, Dagger was a war correspondent, Carl Lyons of Able Team was a Police officer. Others like The Death Merchant offer no explanation as to how they gained their skills.

Kettredge and Krause (1978) point out that the Aggressor’s crusade is sparked by an incident, which alters their perception of society. It may be an incident happening to loved ones: The Executioner’s father killed his family after discovering that his daughter was prostituting herself to help pay off his debt to Mafia loansharks; The Satan Sleuth’s wife was killed by Devil worshipers; Robert Briganti became The Assassin after his family was killed after he refused to help the Mafia; Dagger’s fiance was killed after he exposed a conspiracy.

Others will have the incident happen to them: The Penetrator was bashed and left for dead after tracking down some black marketeers; Knight Rider was shot and left for dead; The Destroyer was framed and went through a fake execution.

This incident does not need to physical, both the A-Team and Nile Barrabas, leader of The Soldiers of Barrabas, were court marshalled and dishonourably discharged for crimes they did not commit.

Nearly all the Aggressors are male, though The Sexecutioner, The Baroness and Su-Lin Kelly of The Girl Factory are exceptions to this. Females are common in teams. S-Com, Z-Comm, The Soldiers of Barrabas, and Black Ops all have one female member, Warhawks Inc has two and Codename has three.

Generally, lone Agressors are racially Caucasian, though The Penetrator is part Cheyanne, the Expeditor is part Apache, Su-Lin Kelly, Mace and Chong Fei K’ing are half Chinese. A few such as The Assassin (Robert Briganti) and The Sharpshooter are ethnically Italian.

True racial diversity can be seen in the series featuring teams. The 11 members of the Soldiers of Barrabas include a Hispanic, an Afro-American, an Osage Indian, a Chinese, an Italian, a Greek, a Jew and an Irishman. Phoenix Force was devised as an international force and is made up originally of an Israeli, an Englishman, a Canadian, a Cuban and Japanese. After the death of the Japanese member part way through the series, an Afro-American replaced him. S-Com has and Australian, a Cuban and an Israeli, Warhawks Inc have an Australian, a German, a Frenchman and an Israeli.

What separates the Aggressor from other sub-genres is the notion of sanctioning. The Aggressor operates in two different ways. Either their crusade is totally personal operating without the support or influence of any government agency or they are unofficially sanctioned receiving support from various government agencies.

In the personal crusade we see the aggressor operating solely on his own agenda, he may have a support network but they have no connection to any official agency. The Hitman, The Penetrator, The Expeditor, The Assassin (Robert Briganti) and Darkman are all examples of this type of Aggressor.

In the case of unofficial sanctioning the Aggressor is supported by a government agency that cannot admit to supporting the Aggressor or the Government Agency itself is covert. The Hard Corps is often hired by the CIA to take on missions that the agency may wish deny any involvement with. Similar arrangements operate for The Death Merchant, The Equaliser and The Soldiers of Barrabas. These Aggressors are able to take on other missions and in the event of trouble may be able to have assistance. The Destroyer on the other hand works for a covert agency known as CURE, which officially does not exist and is able to operate outside the limitations of the American Constitution. The Butcher, The Sexecutioner, Phoenix Force and Able Team operate under similar conditions.



Some Aggressors can operate in both fashions throughout their series, The Executioner starts out on a personal crusade but after 38 books is pardoned and is unofficially sanctioned to fight international terrorism. The M.I.A. Hunter seeks to find prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict and is so effective that by the seventh book the CIA uses him to rescue operatives who have gone missing in action. In the tenth book he returns to a private crusade to rescue an army buddy who went to work for the Drug Enforcement Agency and was kidnapped by a drug kingpin. The A Team spent six seasons on the run from military police and helping people, in their final season they are offered a pardon if they perform a number of missions, unofficially, for General Hunt Stockwell.

Due this unofficial status conveyed upon the Aggressor, he is often seen to achieve more than conventional agencies are able to. Every book in The Destroyer series points out that the agency he works for, CURE, was founded because America “can’t handle crime…If we live within the Constitution, we’re losing all hope of parity with the criminals, or at least the organised ones. The laws don’t work. The thugs are winning…We [CURE] are going to stop the thugs. The only other options are a police state or a complete breakdown…We [CURE] are going to operate outside the law to break up organised crime.” (Sapir and Murphy, 1971: p 35-36)
Similarly, The Black Ops commandos were “created by an elite cadre of red-tape-cutting government officials, to avenge acts of terror” (ad for Black Op series). In MIA Hunter #10: Miami War Zone, the MIA Hunter and his team do more damage to the drug trade in a week than the D.E.A. had done in many years, one of the drug barons acknowledges it is because they “are not playing by the rules” (Buchanan, 1988; p 107)

The Aggressor’s adventures are contemporary, although there have been occasional flashback tales.

So as can be seen the Aggressor has many of the following characteristics: After gaining skills in the Vietnam conflict, some event usually of a violent nature happens to the hero causing them to become aware of a threat to society. A violent crusade against this threat is launched, which is either unsanctioned or partially authorised by various government agencies. Because the Aggressor doesn’t follow established rules he is often quite successful in his crusade. In most cases the Aggressor works alone but teams of Aggressors do exist. The lone Aggressor is predominantly Caucasian, with teams tending to be more multicultural. The events of the Aggressor’s crusade are contemporary.

OTHER GENRES

With any successful formula other genres will borrow the format for their own use. Three genres that did borrow the formula are the Western, War and Science Fiction.

Western series like the Six Gun Samurai, Edge and Steele all adopt the Aggressor and place him in the old West, though they may have been just as inspired by “spaghetti” Westerns like A Fistful of Dollars (1964).

World War Two Aggressors include Jeff Rovin’s Force: Five series and Klaus Netzen’s The Killers Series.

But it is the science fiction aggressor who is the most prolific. This aggressor wanders a post apocalyptic world these include James Axler’s Deathlands and Outlanders series (Outlanders is a sequel series to the Deathlands series) Richard Harding’s Outrider series, Jerry Ahern’s Survivalist and The Defender series, and D.B Drumm’s Traveler. But it appears that the film Mad Max (1979) may equally inspire this type of novel.