ROLAND "ACE" HAMILTON

Real Name: Private Roland Hamilton

Identity/Class: Human (World War II era)

Occupation: Soldier, former gambler and playboy

Group Membership: Deadly Dozen

Affiliations: Sister Angelique, Sam Sawyer

Enemies: Nazis, Dr. Lola Steimle, Dr. Steinem, Dr. Sweikert

Known Relatives: R.O. Hamilton (father)

Aliases: "Ace"

Base of Operations: Able Company base, England
formerly, New York City

First Appearance: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos#98 (May, 1972)

Powers/Abilities: Ace Hamilton was a sadistic fighter and killer, and was armed with a knife, machine gun and grenades.

History: (Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos#98 (fb) - BTS) - Roland Hamilton was the son of R.O. Hamilton, a banker in New York City. He became a playboy and gambler until joining the armed forces during World War II. He was arrested for manslaughter after shooting another enlisted man following a poker game. Captain Sam Sawyer later determined to use him in the Deadly Dozen squadron.

(Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos#98) - Ace was placed under Timothy "Dum-Dum" Dugan, who was to be the squad leader. As Dugan began to train the Deadly Dozen, Ace proved difficult, sleeping through exercises. When Dugan attempted to discipline him, Jake Jensen stood up for Ace, claiming that Ace's father would send Dugan to the "cotton fields." Later, when Dugan wrestled with Ralph Cosgrove, Ace took bets from the other members of the Deadly Dozen.

Ace joined the Deadly Dozen in their first field mission, which was to capture Nazi spies who were landing on English soil, and to take them all alive. Ace approached one of the Nazis with his deck of cards, asking that they settle their differences with cards. When the German drew the ace of hearts, Ace decked him.

(Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen#1 (fb)) - Hamilton was introduced to Combat Kelly, newly assigned as Dugan's replacement as leader of the Deadly Dozen. He joined the Deadly Dozen on a mission to Germany to destroy a new German jet plane created by Dr. Steinem. The Deadly Dozen successfully raided the Luftwaffe complex where the jet was stored.

(Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen#1) - Hamilton found Dr. Steinem, and Steinem surrendered, offering to aid the Americans with their jet plane development, but Ace shot him for the fun of it. He then told Jay Little Bear that he had done it in self-defense. The Deadly Dozen destroyed the jet plane using grenades, and the destruction of the jet threatened to set off all of the jet fuel in the complex, and the Dozen escaped before the explosion destroyed the entire complex. They then met up with their rendezvous plane, and returned to England.

(Combat Kelly and his Deadly Dozen#6 (fb)) - When the Deadly Dozen were allowed time off to take part in a USO dance, Ace found a craps game and cleaned up. When they were interrupted with news of another mission, Ace was happy to leave the game, since he enjoyed killing Nazis even more than collecting money. The Deadly Dozen were assigned Jack "Mad-Dog" Martin as their pilot for their next mission, and Hamilton attacked Martin when he met him, having heard of Martin's cowardly reputation. Martin flew the Deadly Dozen in a B-17 to the site of a Nazi fortress. Ace used the guns on the B-17 to shoot down German planes, and was struck in the face by Jay Little Bear for enjoying it too much. After Martin landed the Deadly Dozen on the ground, they joined the ground forces in attacking the fortress.

(Combat Kelly and his Deadly Dozen#6) - Martin returned and crashed his plane into the fortress, allowing the Deadly Dozen a chance to take the fortress. He won the respect of the Deadly Dozen with his actions.

(Combat Kelly and his Deadly Dozen#7) - As the fortress was mopped up by the Allies, the Deadly Dozen had to walk to their rendezvous point. They found a farmhouse in France near the German border where Sister Angelique lived, and found that she had German soldiers as guests. Hamilton opened fire on the Germans, wounding their ranking officer, but Erika, one of Sister Angelique's young charges, shot Ace in the arm to make him stop. The Germans agreed to turn themselves over to the Deadly Dozen, but during the night, Ace decided to murder all of the Germans in their sleep. When he found one of the Germans attempting to rape Erika, he attacked him with a knife, and teampers flared between the two groups, but Sister Angelique halted them by taking up a gun and threatening to shoot them. The Deadly Dozen finally departed with the Germans as their prisoners.

(Combat Kelly and his Deadly Dozen#8) - The Deadly Dozen performed an underwater obstacle course run in preparation of their next mission, to confront Dr. Sweikert, a sadistic Nazi surgeon. The Deadly Dozen captured Dr. Lola Steimle, and Laurie Livingston impersonated her in order to enter Sweikert's facility, with Kelly disguised as her driver.

(Combat Kelly and his Deadly Dozen#9) - After 24 hours had passed, the Deadly Dozen moved in save Laurie and Kelly. Doc Watson was to create a diversion by drawing out one of the guards for Ace to kill, but Ace wanted to kill the guard with his knife, and took so long that the guard had time to kill Watson. The Deadly Dozen fought their way into the facility, swiftly losing Jake Jensen, Donald Sample and Howard Shigeta. Little Bear was again disgusted with Ace when he killed everyone he saw in the facility, including nurses. Little Bear promised to settle matters with Ace when the mission was over, and they split up to find Laurie and Kelly. Ace found the operating room where the two were, but while attacking the guard at the door, he was shot and fatally wounded. As he lay dying, he called out to Little Bear, telling him that "You ain't gonna have ol' Ace-- to bail you out-- anymore--"

Comments: Created by Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers and Mike Esposito.

Argh! Hate-- this-- character-- so-- much--! He died about 9 issues too late.

Ace started life in Sgt. Fury#98 as a lazy gambler, but suddenly became a ruthless Nazi killer in Combat Kelly#1, which seemed to be the role of Emory "Snakeye" Simpson, who didn't appear after issue #1 (and did very little in that issue at that). I suspect that the creators got the characters confused...it was a big cast.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Roland "Ace" Hamilton should not be confused with:

• Ace, Spencer, former gang member, @ Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#5
• Ace, Dorothy McShane, companion of the Doctor, @ Dr. Who#173
• Ace Corporation, creators of MOPED, @ Motormouth and Killpower#5
• Ace Diamond, 1920's card shark, killed by Night Raven, @ Hulk Comic#5
• "Aces" Wilde, owner of a casino in Long Island, @ Captain America I#123
• Hamilton, U.S. Coast Guard, encountered Sabretooth, Sasquatch and Wendigo, @ Sabretooth V#1
• Jerome Hamilton, of the Enclave, @ Fantastic Four I#65
• General Mark Hamilton, investigated Middletown gamma bomb explosion, @ Incredible Hulk I#339
• Micky Hamilton, Chicago spectator, @ Cage I#1
• Patricia Hamilton, "the Amazing Merwoman, @ District X#1

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