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over hyperbolic adventures and attempted to recapture both the antiwar stance and the
quality of Kurtzman’s work for EC. Th e result was a series of excellent stories, so with
a grim inevitability the title was short-lived, largely due to the controversy surrounding
the story “Landscape,” which appeared in the second issue. Th is story, told from the
point of view of an old Vietnamese peasant, makes the American intervention in Viet-
nam seem particularly unheroic. Mainstream popular opinion was still divided on the
war at this point, and there was not yet the widespread condemnation of the war that
would emerge by the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s. Th e military objected to the
story and military bases refused to stock the off ending issue, as did a campaign against
the title by the American Legion, ultimately contributing in its cancellation.
In 1974, as the Vietnam war was ending, the most violent and cynical character in
Marvel Comics at the time made his appearance, Th e Punisher. A former U.S. Marine
turned vigilante, the Punisher became hugely popular. Unlike most superheroes, the
Punisher used extensive weaponry and tended to kill his enemies. He eventually gained
his own series in 1986, the same year that Marvel published Th e ‘ Nam by Doug Murray,
who was himself a Vietnam veteran. Based on real events, and told in “real time,” with
each issue advancing the characters lives by one month, Th e ‘ Nam aimed to capture the
view of the war from a rookie’s point of view in the same way as Oliver Stone’s fi lm Pla-
toon (also 1986). Th e success of Th e ‘ Nam , though modest, was greater than expected,
prompting Marvel to release Semper Fi’: Tales of the Marine Corps in 1988. Th e ‘ Nam
lasted until the early 1990s and the fi nal issues co-starred the Punisher in order to
boost sales. Th roughout this time, Marvel was also publishing G.I. Joe comics based
on the popular toy, which was quite diff erent in tone from any of its other war related
comics.
In 2001, British writer Garth Ennis started his revival of war comics with Wa r S t o -
ries , his homage to, or attack on, British war comics such as Commando , published by
DC Th omson since 1961. Th ese were brutal and violent stories that punctured the
rather restrained nature of many war comics, especially Commando comics, showing in
graphic detail the carnage and bloodshed that war comics often elide. Ennis also wrote
an Enemy Ace miniseries, War in Heaven , in 2001.
Several examples of military and war themes in comics move the action to a science
fi ction setting, creating a sub-genre of “future war” stories. Examples include Rogue
Trooper , from the British weekly 2000 AD , and the 1988 adaptation of Joe Haldeman’s
novel Th e Forever War (1974) by Mark van Oppen (also known as Marvano).
Since the events of September 11, 2001, military themes have become increasingly
prevalent in comics, with advertisements for the Marine Corps in many mainstream
comics, and the comics themselves acting as a kind of propaganda mechanism for the
War on Terror. Mark Millar’s Th e Ultimates , which began in 2002, is very much Th e
Avengers for the post-9/11 world, which is to say, Th e Ultimates are a much more
violent, ruthless paramilitary organization than Th e Avengers have ever been. How-
ever, following the unpopular and costly occupation of Iraq, the military themes evident
in some comics turned to an anti-war sentiment, or are at least moved beyond the
