288 HISTORY IN COMICS
world in order to reconcile a potential contradiction in multiple versions of the same
character.
Frank Miller’s Th e Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’s
Watchmen off er dystopic visions of the future world. Miller’s middle-aged Batman
fakes his own death following a battle with Superman and concludes the story
without his usual costume, carrying out an underground campaign of guerilla
warfare, literally in a cave with an army of youth. In Wa t c h m e n , Moore creates an
alternate reality, set in 1980s United States, in which superheroes feel powerless to
intervene in social confl icts and the threat of nuclear war. Th e heroes of the world
fail to believe in their own heroism or, when they do, are often mistaken. One such
“hero,” Th e Comedian, reacts violently to both personal and political issues, while
another, Rorschach, channels his thirst for justice into a vengeful vendetta against
criminality in general. Th ese two works are credited with introducing to the super-
hero genre serious consideration of the eff ects that super-powered beings would have
on society and history.
Other comics engage with fantastic or mythical versions of history through
personifi cations of fate and the cosmic order. Neil Gaiman’s Th e Sandman (1989–96)
series chronicles the lives of Dream/Morpheus and his siblings Destruction, Delirium,
Destiny, Death, Despair, and Desire—all iconic embodiments of major universal traits
in the realm of “the Endless.” Th e 10-volume series traces Morpheus’s personal quest
for revenge and redemption, as his personal story of loss and renewal becomes the
history of his world, whose ability to dream and create needs to be rediscovered in
order to move into the future.
Th e title character of Moore’s Promethea (1999–2005) is an avatar of mythic
storytelling whose forms and functions change with shifts in the history of society and
the creative arts. Th rough multiple incarnations across decades of the 20th century,
Promethea represents the quest for artistic expression as well as humane living. Th e
heart of Promethea’s story is a mythic journey she takes through the stages of the tarot,
as representative of the mystical stages of life that human beings must experience to
become fully human.
Conclusion
History remains a central thematic and structural device of comics. Th e artistic
and social evolution of comics has followed a particular historical trajectory, produc-
ing a series of distinct stages and narrative conventions to which subsequent authors
continue to add. DC and Marvel, the two dominant comics companies in the United
States, continue to revise their worlds with, respectively, their “Crisis” and “War” series.
Authors throughout the fi eld have exploited the potential historical awareness to
expand, subvert, and otherwise revise both real and imaginary histories. Th ese possi-
bilities for creative adaptability occur within superhero universes or in reference to the
real world; both suggest that comics serve an important political function by off ering
commentary on contemporary events and social conditions.
