About the Author
There’s a surprisingly high amount of crossover when it comes to camouflage and spandex. It’s quite shocking, actually. Both are machine-washable, they are staples of ’90s hip-hop fashion, and, probably most importantly, both are worn by heroes. In all seriousness, the pages of comic books are littered with men and women who have signed on the dotted line and put on the uniform of the United States military.
But why? Why are comic books filled with so many service members? The mental fortitude required to pull off wearing your underwear on the outside of your costume is at least comparable to the courage President Teddy Roosevelt displayed when he charged up San Juan Hill. Both service members and comic book characters pull off amazing feats that seemed nigh impossible. One could make the easy comparison that both sides are filled with heroes. Superheroes put on their capes and boots and dive off rooftops in a never-ending quest to save everyday citizens in the service of justice. Military soldiers do the same (without the capes, of course). Whether it is duty, responsibility, or classic patriotism, these men and women have laced up their boots and sacrificed their lives to protect civilians they have never met.
However, there are many differences as well. Most comic book heroes are vigilantes. They can’t be tied down by any law or institution because the actions they need to take (for the good of their community) have to be done “outside the law.” Superman can’t join the military—what if he needed to stop a flood in a country that wasn’t an ally of the US? This allegiance would tie his hands. Superman is going to fix a dam in whatever country he pleases. And he should. He’s Superman.
Service members have to follow a different code. One must raise their right hand, swear an oath of enlistment to the values of the United States, and obey the orders of the officers appointed over them—this oath leaves very little wiggle room. A soldier cannot do as they please. A soldier cannot save whomever they want.
How could anyone uncover this commonality between soldiers and comic book characters, you might ask? Well, as an Operation Iraqi Freedom Army veteran, comic books were one of my small pleasures in a very harrowing time.
The year was 2005, and I was stationed in Tallil Air Base, which is located near Nasiriyah, Iraq. I didn’t stay at the air base long, as many missions had our rear ends constantly parked inside a fully-armed Humvee. I had fallen away from the comic book world in the years leading up to 2005. Occasionally, when the big comic events hit, I would poke my head back into the world of capes and tights, but mostly I stayed away. Comic books were just a nostalgic thing harking back to my childhood at that time. During my mom’s shopping trips when I was a kid, I would demand she inspect the grocery store’s comic rack to pick up the latest issue of Iron Man. In 2005, that was no longer the case. She had refused to make these trips for me long before.
One of the biggest enemies you have to fight, as a soldier deployed overseas to a combat zone, is boredom. You’re far from home, living in a strange place, and driving down to the local bar to hang out is impossible. Internet access was very limited at that time, and smartphones were still to come. At the forward operating bases where missions were assigned, recreation time was (and is) very limited. Here we were, over 150,000 members of the US armed forces, parked on a stretch of Iraqi desert no one had occupied for years. Not exactly a prime location, but the camels seemed to like it.
When we drove “outside the wire” (our term for leaving the safety of our forward operating base), we had nothing except what we could carry with us. Passing time was an eternal struggle between reading the same paperback novel for the fifth time and staring into the sky for hours. Our cloud-naming contests were epic. In the end, comic books changed all that for me.
Inside a care package from one of the many charitable groups in support of troops, I found an issue of Ultimate X-Men. This new take on the classic mutant team intrigued me. Why did they all have black costumes? Why did the X-Men finally act like cool teenagers? And—most importantly—why did Wolverine have a goatee? I needed to know how the story ended, so I immediately penned a letter to my parents asking for subscriptions to all the Marvel Ultimate Universe titles…and to have the issues shipped to me in Iraq.
Ever since then, comic books and soldiers have been tied together in my life. It’s the same link that led me to create my annual Comic Drive for Service Members with Operation Gratitude—four successful years so far! This link has led me to write the book you now hold in your hands. My arrogance and passion have combined to decide the world must know about the secret link between comics and the military! There’s no better way to illustrate this than to examine the comic book superheroes who have served. Why did they put it all on the line for their country? What does their wartime experience tell us about them? How does it inform their comic book adventures?
All that led me to the simple truth: I would have to create an epic list worthy of the US armed forces. (Sadly, I had to limit my list to the United States. While there are many comic characters who served in foreign armies, I only have expertise in my home country.) How does one compile a list of sixteen comic-book service members to write about? It was not a simple task, although the first choice for this list is one that I hope all comic book fans can agree on. It’s not Superman; he never served. That Kansas farm boy decided writing newspaper articles was more important.
The most obvious choice for this book is Captain America. He is not only a comic book character, but such a true-blue soldier, he dyed all his clothes in the colors of the American flag and earned himself the prestigious honor of being the subject of my first chapter.
I compiled the rest of the list by pulling everything from the clear choices to the unknowns who had served in alternate or previous versions of their origins. All of these characters have harnessed the principles and fortitude learned in service to this great country of ours to better protect the people as costumed heroes. Yet not all comic book soldiers are honorable people. Sometimes they fall. Sometimes their missions overseas never end, and can affect their mental well-being for their entire life. I want to dive into these men and women too—these characters are some of the best, just as some are examples of the worst.
This book will strive to examine the ways in which comic books portray soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors. It strives to shine a light on how some comic book readers may see soldiers through the lens of their funny book pages. It will illuminate how their service can be used in a positive light, a way to enforce and increase a character’s heroic nature. It will prove that these two professions create a kind of simpatico.
Please enjoy this mix-tape of comic book characters who began their heroic or villainous careers as service members. I sincerely hope this examination will affect you and bring clarity to the great sacrifice many service members take on when they enlist in the armed forces. Those men and women are the true heroes, and I find it fascinating that their traits have been used to propel the fictional superheroes on many panels throughout numerous comic pages.
The Perfect Soldier
We know Captain America like we know the American flag. We may not personally know all his stories or his ideals, but we can all see the design of his costume clearly in our minds. The tiny wings that stick out on the side of his mask, the red and white stripes across his perfect abs, and his daring red pirate boots that marched up the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. It’s impossible to forget the
