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.
