Panel Vision - Human Defense Corp

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As I write this it’s Veterans Day, the day the US has set aside to honor the men, women, and non-binary individuals who’ve served in the nation’s armed forces.  It’s also kind of an odd holiday to try and make topical content around when you’re a comic reviewer as a lot of the military-oriented comic book content is from the ‘40s and ‘60s.  Previously I’ve looked at stuff like the incomparable Enemy Ace as well as the DC military heroes who served during World War 2 but this time around I wanted to dig into something a bit more modern.  

As such, I’ll be taking a look at a peculiar oddity offered by that bizarre time in comics that was the early 2000s.  It’s part of the great DC Comics tradition of sporadically reviving their military comics in hopes of recapturing their massive popularity of past decades, each attempt a unique and curiously compelling attempt in its own right and this one is a real doozy: The Human Defense Corps. 

Comics Rainbow: War Heroes

Happy Veterans/Armistice Day everyone, may this day of remembrance for the end of the Great War as well as a general appreciation for all those who serve find you well.  With that pleasantry both stated and in mind I’m going to be talking about war comics today on Comics Rainbow, specifically the war comics of DC but first; a bit of comic book history.  After the end of World War 2 superhero comic books seriously tapered off in popularity with a handful of exceptions like Batman and Superman powering through.  It’s not exactly clear why this happened but the best bet would be the major shift in the tastes of comic readership heralded by the end of the war.  Prior to World War 2 the comic reading public actually skewed older, hence the emphases on pulpy violence like The Shadow, but when World War 2 came most of the comic reading public shipped off overseas and the new readership was much younger. 

However, by the time the war ended that new readership had aged and suddenly had new heroes: their fathers and brothers returned from World War 2.  So, at the dawn of the ’50s there was an explosion of war comic books, the 5 big ones being produced by DC comics and written by inventor of Flash and Lady Cop Robert Kanigher.  As the ‘50s dragged on the 5 major comics (G.I. Combat, Our Army At War, Our Fighting Forces, and Star Spangled War Stories) began to develop a roster of reoccurring characters that ended up permanent fixtures of the DC Universe as the superhero craze reemerged in the ‘60s.  Those are the characters I’ll be giving the full spectrum look at today; shades, shames, successes and all.