The Golden Age has no shortage of war-driven stories, featuring the likes of our favourite
iconic heroes – who were around during those times – fighting off the evil that was the
Nazi threat.
The trend of superheroes punching Nazis even got a boost recently after white nationalist
rallies plagued certain parts of North America.
Which is pretty unfortunate that they’re still relevant.
Depressing facts aside, superheroes played a huge part in the war effort with their inclusion
in the media, helping rally hope, faith and courage in the hearts of those who were fighting
to make the world a safe place.
So today, we’re taking a look at those heroes with our list of the top 10 superheroes who
fought in WW2.
10 The Flash Jay Garrick While Barry Allen is considered by many to
be the most iconic Flash, Jay Garrick is the one who started the character’s legacy.
After the Flash was rejuvenated into Barry Allen during the Silver Age, Jay has made
several notable appearances since the introduction of DC’s multiverse, including one that took
place during a flashback in 2010’s Justice Society of America, where he and Green Lantern
Alan Scott went on covert missions during world war 2.
He wore an army version of his suit, and punched some Nazis.
9 Über – Kieron Gillen For a different take on super powered individuals
during WW2, Kieron Gillen’s Uber tells the story of superheroes who were developed by
the Nazis in an alternate WW2 timeline.
Told from the perspective of these superhuman soldiers, the Allies are forced to defend
themselves by creating their own superheroes, and thus begins an arms race in which nations
are trying to create the strongest ubers, with the superhumans left pondering their
own morality.
While the 60 issue series received favourable reviews, some critics felt it glorified Nazism
and white supremacy.
8 The Fighting Yank The Fighting Yank was created in 1941 as a
patriotic hero, in a similar vein to Captain America and the Shield.
First appearing in publisher Nedor Comic’s Startling Comics #10, the Fighting Yank was
a man named Bruce Carter the third, who gained his powers when the ghost of his ancestor
– Bruce Carter the first, who just so happened to be a war hero from the American War of
Independence – appeared to him, and showed him the location of a magical cloak that gave
you super strength and invulnerability.
Carter wasn’t the only fighting Yank though –Timely Comics aka the future Marvel had
their own character of the same name who appeared in Captain America Comics #17 in 1942, and
was a spy who fought Japanese agents in China.
7 The Black Terror Racial insensitivity was common in many early
comics when it came to portraying people of non-white ethnicities, but became incredibly
prominent during World War 2.
Offensive caricatures of people from Asian countries, primarily Japan, were front and
center, depicted as enemies for the patriotic heroes seen on the pages of early main stream
comics.
The Black Terror, another hero published by Nedor Comics in 1941, was no stranger to this.
Terror was a pharmacist named Bob Benton who created a chemical called formic ethers than
transformed him and his young sidekick, Tim Roland, into the Terror Twins.
Much of their heroics involved punching Nazis, Japanese soldiers and the occasional firing
of machine guns.
6 Human Torch The Human Torch wasn’t always the character
we now know from the Fantastic Four.
Back in 1939 when the character was first conceived, the Human Torch was an android,
portrayed as a sci fi monster who became a hero and led a secret identity as a police
officer in NY.
He would team up with his previous nemesis, Namor the Sub Mariner, and his buddy Captain
America to fight Axis powers.
The character eventually fell into obscurity in the 50’s, but was reintroduced after
Timely Comics became Marvel, and was re-branded as Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four.
5 Captain Marvel aka Shazam DC’s Captain Marvel, otherwise known as
Shazam, first appeared in 1940, and managed to outsell the likes of Superman at the time.
As per other heroes at the time, Shazam fought off the Axis forces, with covers that read
the likes of Forward American!
and Capt Marvel Swats the Japs!
Captain Marvel Jr, one of the members of the Marvel family, also got in on the wartime
effort, being a hero in his own right by fighting off the Nazi threat.
But unfortunately for the Captain, his sales steadily declined after WW2,
4 Wonder Woman While the recent Wonder Woman feature film
stars Gal Gadot kicking ass in WW1, the iconic heroine is no stranger to the WW2 effort.
Wonder Woman was introduced in October of 1941, in All Star Comics #8, and originally
was the Amazon champion who won the right to return Steve Trevor back to the US after
his plane crashed on their island, and goes to the ‘mans world’ helping Steve and
the USA fight Nazis.
Many have compared her to the superhero version of Roise the Riveter at this time, despite
still dealing with quite a solid amount of sexism in her narratives for years to come.
Additionally, there was a storyline in her comics that took place during WW2 during Phil
Jimenez’s Wonder Woman run on issues 184-185 that was released in 2002 in which Diana comes
face to face with her war time self, and involves fighting Nazis together, called U-Boats and
Dinosaurs.
Classic.
3 Batman DC was very much on the forefront of rallying
the American people in the war time effort, despite steering pretty clear from featuring
war-driven covers, with their most iconic heroes being involved in war stories of their
own.
So of course, Batman was a huge part of this effort, and was depicted often partaking in
acts that involved helping on the home front, from donating paper, selling war bonds and
stamps, growing victory gardens, and partaking in other patriotic but retrospectively slightly
ridiculous acts – like riding giant eagles, throwing baseballs at Axis leaders to promote
bonds and stamps, shooting machine guns, and of course, sitting on top of a canon in all
it’s phallic glory.
Much of this was done alongside Robin and Superman in World’s Finest.
Batman was even used as propaganda AFTER the war to continue selling war bonds, too.
2 Captain America Captain America was introduced by literally
punching Hitler.
He made his debut a year prior to the US even joining the war.
Since he was one of the patriotic characters that were in influx at the time, he got his
own solo title as opposed to being introduced in an anthology first.
Cap built a reputation of fighting Axis powers, and soon became a fan favourite, and one of
the only patriotic heroes who actually had any longevity post-war, despite being cancelled
in 1954 before being revamped in the silver age.
1 Superman During WW2 Superman was a major propaganda
figure.
Which, depending on what side of the political spectrum you sit on - is kind of ironic if
you consider the fact that Clark Kent is actually an illegal alien – literal alien – or
really wonderful, and shows how powerful and welcoming the American identity can be.
All that aside, Superman very much stood for a lot of ideals that have been dissected years
afterwards concerning patriotism, nationalism and masculinity during World War 2, mainly
because of his prominence in north American pop culture at the time.
This is also fascinating, since as we mentioned before, DC also tried to reduce the number
of war stories in their comics prior to the US becoming involved in the war after Pearl
Harbour.
Clark Kent purposely failed his eye exam after he was drafted so he could work as Superman
more covertly in the war.
Despite this, more war-driven stories appeared in the Superman cartoons and radio shows than
the comics themselves.
And when DC did start using certain war narratives in his comic strips, sometimes the fictional
bombs were too similarly written to things going on in real life, and printing his comic
strips were seen as security threats and were pulled by the Defense Department, fearing
they would be intelligence leaks.
Superman also went beyond just kicking nazi butt in the comics though – the character
was used to promote literacy in the army, helping provide soldiers an engaging learning
avenue that would help foster skills after the war had ended.
Which is pretty damn cool.
Alright there we have it!
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Ive been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 nerd.
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