COLD WAR 109
In the late 1960s and 1970s, as the Cold War became increasingly complicated,
with the Soviet Union moving from purges of dissidents, to more liberal policies, and
openness towards the West, then back toward oppressive neo-Stalinism, the politi-
cal relationship between superpowers became murkier. Following the violence of the
civil rights movement and anti-war protests, the defeat in Vietnam and the Watergate
scandal, comics, like much American popular culture, became darker and more cynical,
turning against the innocence of earlier comics. Th e result was a number of slick spy
comics, such as Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., by Jim Steranko, which responded to
a darkening political situation. After a generation of the Cold War, few could see an end
to the stalemate, and those who did foresee an end often predicted that it would come
through a confl ict of apocalyptic proportions. However, with the space race all but over
and economic strains on both superpowers it was slowly becoming clear to the politi-
cians that the Cold War was becoming a burden neither superpower could aff ord to
sustain indefi nitely. In the 1980s the sense of angst and fear that surrounded the Cold
War was signaled in comics such as Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Th e
Dark Knight Returns (both 1986); deconstructions of the superhero genre that placed
Cold War anxieties at the heart of a sickness in society that could only be cured by
revolutionary violence (although each text takes very diff erent moral positions on this).
By the 1990s the Cold War had run its course, and with the fall of the Berlin Wall in
1989, was eff ectively over. In the end the Soviet Union was economically and politically
exhausted, worn down by war in Afghanistan, a downturn in oil prices that had called
for extensive economic reform, and by increasing internal pressures. When the Soviet
Union chose to deal with these problems rather than continue with the arms race, the
competition that had maintained the Cold War for decades was suddenly gone. Th e
Cold War was over. Since the end of the Cold War comics have continued to revisit
it, with the themes of atomic energy, paranoia, and nuclear war becoming touchstones
for superhero comics. Th ere is almost a sense of nostalgia surrounding the Cold War
period, which, like comics from World War II, engendered extremes of ideological cer-
tainty and patriotism that have become emblematic of an age gone by. In 2003 Mark
Millar wrote the acclaimed Superman: Red Son, with art by Dave Johnson, which
postulated an alternative history for Superman had the infant Kal-El landed and then
been brought up in the Soviet Union. Th is story ironically comments on how superhero
comics have represented the Cold War, off ering a revised vision of Superman with
inverted political sympathies.
Selected Bibliography: Barker, Martin. A Haunt of Fears. London: Pluto Press, 1984;
Barson, Michael and Steven Heller. Red Scared. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001;
Sabin, Roger. Adult Comics: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1993; Wright, Brad-
ford. Comic Book Nation: Th e Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003; Wright, Nicky. Th e Classic Era of American
Comics. London: Prion Books Ltd, 2000.
Chris Murray
