Johnny Cloud, Navajo Ace was and is one of most enduring Native American heroes in comic book history.

The creation of Robert Kanigher–a longtime writer and editor for DC Comics–and Irv Novick, Johnny Cloud first appeared in All American Men of War #82 in a comic book cover dated December 1960. It actually appeared for sale several weeks earlier. On that first cover we see the earnest fighter pilot Lt. John Cloud in mortal danger. His ethnicity is incidental, only apparent if at all for a mild reddish tint to his skin. And inside, Novick does an admirable job of creating a character who looks identifiably like a Native American without any reliance on stereotypical facial features. And, as written by Kanigher, Cloud was a pilot and American patriot first, though his Navajo heritage remained an essential aspect of who he was.

As such, Johnny Cloud broke new ground, the most notable original Indian hero in comic books since DC Comics’ Pow-Wow Smith. But there remains woefully little written about him on the internet.

How Johnny Cloud Became a Pilot

Johnny Cloud’s origin story unfolds in that first story in All-American Men of War #82 (12/60). The hero’s story begins with his father naming him as an infant. In a cloud configuration, his father perceived a man riding a horse. As such, he resolved to name his son Flying Cloud. But as soon as he saw the sign from the Great Spirit, the sky turned dark and lightning surrounded the cloud, which remained discernable amidst the sudden storm.

“The flying cloud does not shrink from combat,” his father exclaimed.

And when Flying Cloud grew older he too say himself “riding a winged horse in the sky.” It led him to enlist in the Air Force where he was assigned to fly the P-51 aircraft, otherwise known as the Mustang. A flying horse, indeed. His name is anglicized for the service as John Cloud.

Cloud did his best to ignore the slights, saying nothing. But even then the evidence of prejudice was clear. “Did you see his dead pan?” he overheard one of the pilots say.

“His face is like a mask,” said another.

“What do you expect,” said the third. “He’s an Indian.”

In his dealings with white people from an early age, people called him “Chief” and jokingly wondered where his hatchet and war bonnet were. And his fellow airmen painted just such an image on his first plane with the words “Flying Chief” rendered beneath it.

This troubled Cloud, of course, but while he flew he would be comforted by the sight of his “brother in the sky,” the image of the man atop the winged horse in the clouds.

The flight leader of the patrol even decides to use the codename “war party” for the winged patrol.

Cloud performs exceptionally well, spotting incoming German planes before any of the others and being a key to the victory, but at a cost. The “war leader” sustained critical injuries in the battle. Once back at the base, Cloud holds his commanding officer in his arms as he dies. As he feels the man’s life spirit leave his body, Cloud begins to cry, upending the other men’s stereotype of him.

The other pilots choose “Chief” as their new Patrol leader, now referring to themselves in the air by the codename “Happy Braves.”

In the first person narrative, Johnny Cloud declares: “It’s not what you’re called, but what is meant.”

Native American Themes and Characters

As a writer, Robert Kanigher relied more heavily on recurrent thematic motifs than any other in the medium. Kanigher would expand on several he established in that first story.

Not long after that first story the character of a Navajo shaman named the Cloudmaker was introduced. He would interpret cloud formations for Johnny and his father, the chief of their people. A deadly threat was almost always suggested, the presence of Johnny’s “brother in the sky” always a mixed message of danger and the power of perseverance in the face of it.

The theme of Indians supposedly not showing emotions was also repeated, sometimes with Johnny seemingly giving credence to stoicism as a cultural imperative, all in the face of powerfully felt emotion. Kanigher’s take seemed to be that Johnny felt just as many emotions as anyone but was less inclined to show them outwardly.

This theme was amplified when Running Deer, Johnny’s childhood sweetheart, joined the Air Force as a nurse. Featured in several stories, Running Dear was there to reassure Johnny that it was all right for him to have the shakes after a particularly troubling period of combat. It was an early portryal of PTSD in American comic books.

As his hands shook, in typically dramatic Kanagher dialog Johnny exclaims, “I’m supposed to be a fighter pilot, an Indian without nerves, a w-wooden statue who never cries or laughs or…”

Running Deer, in her air force uniform, holds him and the two begin to kiss. “Don’t worry, Johnny,” she murmurs. I’ve never tell anyone you’re only human, too!” (All American Men of War #115, 6/66)

It was a scene of romance and sensuality rarely afforded Native American characters, let alone most heroes of the early sixties.

In other stories, the imagery of birds was utilized. An enemy pilot might be a hawk orbuzzard to Cloud’s eagle. Native American animal names of all sorts were also featured. Wolf Fang, for example, was a former Navajo rival turned Nazi pilot (!) who sought vengeance against Cloud because Johnny’s father had killed his father in a fight for control of their tribe. As told in All American Men of War #117 (10/66) there final confrontation was one of the hero’s most dramatic.

Introduced near the end of Johnny Cloud’s feature, one gets the sense that Wolf Fang might well have returned as the hero’s arch enemy.

Finally, racism and Johnny Cloud’s efforts at persevering in the face of it was always good for story every once and a while. When he is captured by Nazis in issue #109, their officer gloats, “This proves what we Nazis have always claimed! Indians are an inferior race.”

In his excellent book on Native Americans in Comic Books, Michael A. Sheyahshe declares Johnny Cloud as generally worthy of consideration as a non-racist portrayal of an American Indian character. Cloud was consistently portrayed as being of exceptional courage and character. Irv Novick also drew his facial features as both handsome and those of an indigenous male. That being said, Johnny Cloud stories relied on a healthy dose of a white author’s sense of Native American mysticism and presumed Indian personality traits. As some comic book critics complain, most Native American heroes rely on traditional cultural tropes. Indian millionaires or heroes with powers unrelated to their ethnicity are rare.

That said, the stories of Johnny Cloud clearly struck a positive chord with some Indian readers.

One Cherokee girl wrote to Kanigher, declaring that “his very obvious love for Running Deer warms my heart–for it shows the Indian in a true light. Too long by people have been shown in comics, in the movies, and TV as brutal, heartless savage killers with no emotion but hate towards our non-Indian brothers. But Capt. Cloud changes this image, and for that I must give you my deepest gratitude.”

Clearly touched, Kanigher responded, writing: “It might interest you to know that the fictitious Johnny Cloud has already received a proposal of marriage from an Indian lass in Chicago. Both Irv Novick who usually illustrates him and I, the Old Smoke Maker, who fashioned him out of typewriter dust, have a very special fondness for Cloud.” (All American Men of War #117, letters page, 10/66)

The Navajo Ace in a Shared DC Universe

Robert Kanigher clearly possessed a genuine affection for and even loyalty to his creations. He found ways to keep them “alive” even after their series were cancelled due to faltering sales. This was largely possible because Kanigher was both the writer of all of these war heroes but also the editor of the comic books they appeared in.

A brief digression. A whole raft of continuing war hero features debuted in DC comic books beginning in 1959. Among them Sgt. Rock in Our Army at War and Gunner and Sarge in Our Fighting Forces. Johnny Cloud debuted a year later, the Haunted Tank feature following in 1961. The first of these World War II heroes to be dropped due to poor sales was the riskiest of Kanigher’s creations, a feature devoted to a female French freedom fighter known only as Mademoiselle Marie.

But after her feature was dropped, by Kanigher himself, the writer saw to it that she made a series of guest appearances. She appeared with Sgt. Rock in an issue of Our Army at War. But Kanigher’s commitment to the idea that all of his war heroes operated in the same World War II theater was confirmed in The Brave and the Bold #52 (3/64).

In an unusual (for its time) book length saga, Johnny Cloud, Sgt. Rock, and Jeb Stuart of the Haunted Tank team-up to rescue a Frenchman in an iron mask who turns out to be Mademoiselle Marie. Their rescue leads to a promotion for Cloud, from lieutenant to captain.

Shortly thereafter, Mlle. Marie returns the favor, saving Johnny in All American Men of War #102 (4/64). Johnny Cloud also enjoyed a couple of subsequent team-ups with Jeb Stuart in G.I. Combat. In retrospect it seems likely this was an effort to bolster sales of a character who was faltering in popularity.

Stories of of the Navajo Ace in All American Men of War began to alternate with those a new World War I character called the Balloon Buster. It was clear that the Johnny Cloud feature was in trouble. And All American Men of War itself was cancelled with its 117th issue, cover dated October 1966.

As was the case with Mlle. Marie, Robert Kanigher was not willing to see Johnny Cloud entirely disappear from the comic books he edited. Johnny Cloud reprised his earlier team-ups with Jeb Stuart and the Haunted Tank in G.I. Combat #120 (11/66) and #124 (7/67). And in the year after that he guest starred in Sgt. Rock #191 (3/68).

These, of course, were only half measures. Kanigher was surely pleased when he figured out a way to team Johnny Cloud up with three other of his characters who had also lost their features. The theme for the new series was a natural. The Losers proved to be Kanigher’s most successful in years.

Johnny Cloud and the Losers

Kanigher’s new brain child was launched in the Haunted Tank series in G.I. Combat #138 (11/69). For different reasons,, Captain Storm, Gunner and Sarge, and Johnny Cloud all considered themselves “losers” with nothing left to lose. Cloud’s reason for this was that a novice pilot under his command is shot down when flying as his wingman for the first time.

Three months later, The Losers became the cover feature of Our Fighting Force with issue #123 (123 (2/70). It would remain so for over eight years! Occasional stories would feature different members of the team. In Our Fighting Forces #128, Johnny Cloud recalls his battle with Sharp Claw, a Navajo fighter who flew for the Nazis because of bitterness over the death of Singing Bird, the woman they both loved. This was Kanigher recycyling (or misremembering) the saga of Wolf Claw, the Navajo Nazi described earlier.

In *129 (2/71), Cloud is suffering from battle fatique and attacks two American soldiers who make racist cracks, wondering “Where;s your feathers an’ war paint, chief?” and “Who’d you scalp last, Sitting Bull–Custer?”

In a flashback, the Navajo ace recalls a childhood episode in a setting resembling that of Lakota culture (teepees and war bonnets) far more than Navajo. A teen-aged Cloud asks his father “Why did the White man push us onto reservations?”

His father, the chief, replies, “We fought to remain freee… and we lost! That is our shame! But the White man’s shame is greater… for caging his red brother!” Even so, Cloud’s father tells himm, “You must forgive the White man! He doesn’t understand! One day nature will turn on him for poisoning the skies!”

And in the present, it is Cloud’s late father he sees in the sky, no longer his “brother in the sky.” His father’s spirit declares “You must be ready to lay down your life for your brother! No matter what the color of his skin! Or your shame will be mine… your tribe’s… your nation’s!” As the story unfolds, Cloud risks his life doing just that.

Kanigher’s well intentioned story, holds White people somewhat responsible for their wrongs, but puts the onus on Cloud to offer them forgiveness and to serve, at least in this instance, as their champion.

Not all editorial decisions were as understandable. The cover of the same story features a beserk Johnny Cloud shirtless and sporting war feathers in a symbolic, highly sensationalized version of the interior story in which no such outfit are dialogue actually occurs.

In Our Fighting Forces #137, Cloud poses as a Polynesian god named Tehuna after a Polynesian soldier dies on a mission. During the mission, his body is apparently possessed by the actual god. Of interest here, is Kanigher’s supposition that one brown-skinned Navaaho would be readily accepted by Polynesians as one of their own.

Jack Kirby briefly wrote and drew the Losers feature in Our Fighting Forces 151-162, beginning with the November 1974 issue. After his departure, Robert Kanigher resumed writing the characters he was so fond of. A new format was adopted, one longer story featuring all of the Losers and a short four-to-five page story featuring Captain Storm, Johnny Cloud or Gunner and Sarge. Short stories featuring Johnny Cloud appeared in 166, 168, 169, 179 and 180. Our Fighting Forces was cancelled one issue later, cover dated October 1978, spelling the Losers losing their home base.

Life and Death After the Losers

The end of the Losers feature also was connected to Robert Kanigher’s declining influence at DC and the waning popularity of war comic books in general.

But readers would have to wait The final fate of the Losers was detailed in a one-shot The Losers Special. In a touching finale, written by Kanigher, Johnny Cloud watches each of brothers in combat killed before he, too, falls to enemy fire. Recognizing his impending death, he calls for the Great Spirit to see the foursome together in death as they had been in life. Kanigher’s other Native American war hero, Little Sure Shot of Sgt Rock’s Easy Company, is left to explain just why their bodies disappeared without a trace.

Their final fate seemed pretty final and remained the official ending of Johnny Cloud and the Losers for over twenty years. But DC Comics as a publisher were increasingly fond of rebooting narratives and changing established narratives.

In a 2010 story by Len Wein in the fourth issue of a mini-series entitled DC Universe: Legacies #4, we learn that most of DC’s war heroes attended a reunion set during the nations bicentennial in 1976. We learn that far from being dead, Cloud was then a third-term congressman. Besides meeting up with his fellow Losers, he also is reunited with Jeb Stuart of the Haunted Tank and the lovely Mademoiselle Marie.

Consistent with the revised timeline, a descendent of Johnny Cloud’s appeared in still later issues of Robin.

The Legacy of Johnny Cloud, Navajo Ace

For the 1960s and 1970s, Johnny Cloud was the premiere Indian hero in comic books. Like DC’s first iteration of Pow-Wow Smith he was also the rare Indian character who wasn’t set in the Old West. His only rival in this arena was Jack Kirby’s creation of Wyatt Wingfoot in the Fantastic Four comic book. Yet Wingfoot never had his own feature.

Johnny Cloud was a sympathetic White creator’s ideal sense of a Native American hero. Steeped in his culture, his actions and identity were not entirely defined by it. Kanigher attempted to address the racism that Native Americans encountered in the real world. That said, as Kanigher wrote the character, it was left to Johnny Cloud to overcome his anger at White people’s ignorance and insensitive comments to calmly and quietly embrace a wider sense of brotherhood.

Comic Book Appearances of Johnny Cloud

All-American Men of War 82-111, 115, 117 (12/60-10/66).

The Brave and the Bold 52 (3/64).

Our Army at War 140 (3/64)

G.I. Combat 105, 112, 115, 116 (5/64 … 3/66); 120, 124, 139 (11/66 … 11/69);

Sgt. Rock 191 (3/68)

Our Fighting Forces 123-181 (2/70-10/78)

G.I. Combat 200, 208, 246 (3/77 to 10/82)

The Unknown Soldier 250 (4/81)

The Losers Special 1 (1985)

DC: The New Frontier 1 (2004)

DC Universe: Legacies 4 (10/2010)

Mark Carlson-Ghost