Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels

(vip2019) #1
ESPIONAGE 181

genres of comics including detective, crime fi g h t e r , war, and superhero. Specifi cally,
war and superhero comics in the late 1930s often included some type of espionage.
American comics of the late 1930s saw mystery men battling spies and saboteurs on
a regular basis. Given the spy genre’s links to detective and military fi ction, espionage
was common in existing comic stories. Th e inclusion of espionage themes arises with
the growth of the mass-market comic book in the mid 1930s, continues with the
resurgence of the superhero genre in the 1960s, and becomes a standard storytelling
convention by the modern era.
Golden Age espionage emerges with the pre-war and World War II–era mystery
men/superhero comic genre. In these tales, espionage was used as a standard plot device
given the political realities of the time. Pre-war books lumped spies and fi fth columnists
in with petty crooks, or simply had these very same crooks unknowingly work for some
underground society sympathetic to the thinly veiled Axis powers. Typically, heroes of
the time were either working for the government in securing the home front, lying low
and waiting for fi fth-columnist plots to be uncovered, or else on a search-and-destroy
mission against America’s enemies.
During the war, aside from selling war bonds, the superheroes mainly stayed stateside
to combat domestic sabotage since it was inadvisable from a narrative point of view for
them to fi ght on the front, which would have made the Allied victory too easy. As these
costumed mystery heroes were relegated to fi ght fi fth columnists and spies stateside,
their adventures continued very much as before. Th ese spies and saboteurs were out
to either steal state secrets and/or interfere with war production. Japanese or German
“Ratzi” spies were easy targets for heroes with such extraordinary abilities, who may have
been more than able to defeat the Axis on their own. Nevertheless, beyond supporting
the war eff ort, many costumed heroes kept fi ghting stateside on the home front.
Initial Golden Age comics featured self-contained stories, so little time was devoted to
detailed plots. Radio and movie serials were more popular than comics for the presentation
of lengthy, complex spy stories. Such movie serials as Batman, Green Hornet, and the
Masked Marvel could do more with their plot lines than a single issue of a comic, as their
characters battled secret underground domestic organizations sympathetic to the Axis
powers (mainly Japan). Still, very few storylines in either the comics or the serials went
beyond stopping the thugs or the spies they worked for from blowing a storage depot or
munitions works.
Fawcett Comics produced two noteworthy war-era heroes who made it a mission
to stop sabotage at home: Spy Smasher and Bulletman. Both characters would fi ght
enemies of America, usually in the form of Nazi fi fth columnists. Captain Midnight,
a comics character that gained popularity in radio (originally published by Dell
Comics and later by Fawcett) would also work to defeat Nazi masterminds, with the
limitation that he had to be back by midnight of course. With the end of the war and
without an immediate threat to fi ght, these espionage fi ghters languished into rela-
tive obscurity. Spy Smasher briefl y became Crime Smasher, but the character did not
take off.
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