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You could become a comic-book hero

Ever want to be a hero in a comic book? Here’s your shot.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is featuring a sweepstakes in conjunction with its newest free, military-only “New Avengers” comic book, set to be available in July and August, depending on where you are.

The comic

See a preview here

Two service members — active duty, Reserve, Guard or retirees — will be photographed and professionally drawn into the next comic.

Details will be included inside the new comic “Fireline,” which will be available in AAFES stores in the continental U.S. as early as the week of July 7. It will be available overseas, to include 85 exchanges in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, as early as the week of August 4. Complete rules and entry forms will be available at www.aafes.com and at local AAFES stores once “Fireline” starts hitting the stores. A million copies have been published.

“Fireline,” the sixth in the AAFES/Marvel Comics series, finds the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Human Torch teaming up with troops to battle a forest fire in Southern California. In case you’re wondering, the Human Torch creates a temporary fireline to contain the fire until the cavalry arrives.

The two winners in the upcoming sweepstakes will be able to strap on Stark Enterprises’ “Personal Armor System” — Iron Man’s suit of power armor — in an upcoming adventure, figuratively speaking. “It’s going to be a terrific salute to a couple of real life Super Heroes,” said AAFES’ Chief of Staff Army Col. Maxx Baker, in an announcement about the sweepstakes.

Baker and his dog Copek happen to be in a couple of frames in “Fireline,” as a test of the concept. “People recognize me,” he said. “I think I’m better looking, but everybody else says I look better in the comic,” he joked. “My dog looks exactly as she does in real life,” he said. His character is small, depicted on the screen of a TV monitor. “A soldier is talking to me, asking me to send better imaging. It doesn’t work. I ask him if Iron Man will give him a hand,” Baker said.

Baker, whose father was an Army sergeant major, became interested in comic books in the early 1970s, when he lived in Ankara, Turkey. “There was no TV or radio. Everybody read comic books. I got so interest in comic books I started collecting them,” he said. The folks at Marvel Comics knew he was interested in comics, and wanted to test the concept, so he was their test subject.

“I anticipate a lot of people will enter this contest,” he said.

“This is a top quality product Marvel has teamed with us to provide to the troops,” he said. “When this is published, they print more of this comic than any other comic in the world,” he said. Even so, copies of the comic, available on in AAFES stores, appear on e-Bay for auction. Ë