Even superheroes need friends! And, just like friendships in real life, some of those relationships last a lifetime and others fade away as you pursue your own destinies. In this series, I’ll be spotlighting some of the side characters who have been left by the wayside.

Trigger warnings for WAY more discussion of the Holocaust, Nazism, and antisemitism than I anticipated.

Anna Kapplebaum (sometimes spelled Kappelbaum) grew up in a very happy German Jewish family until she was about 12. That’s when the Nazis took power and imprisoned her family in a concentration camp, where everyone but Anna was killed. Anna herself only survived thanks to a timely rescue by Captain America.

We know all this because Anna infodumps her life story on new neighbor Steve Rogers after inviting him over for dinner. That’s, uh, quite the way to introduce yourself. In her defense, Steve set her off by staring at her tattoo. And he was staring because he recognized her from when he liberated Diebenwald, the (fictional) camp where she was imprisoned.

Steve had just moved to Brooklyn Heights, hoping for a fresh start after his girlfriend’s death. Anna, whom we later find out is the building’s landlord (so you’d think she’d recognize him rather than needing to be introduced as in the panels above), always put effort into making all the tenants feel at home. A later issue describes her as a “self-appointed ‘house-mother'” to the other tenants.

Anna’s big character moment came in Captain America #245, when she encountered the “Butcher of Diebenwald,” the man who killed her family and tormented her in the camp. Obviously, she is extremely angry and even tries to shoot him. Captain America tries to stop her in the most un-Caplike way possible: by saying that killing Nazis is bad.

If he was making this argument based on what he knows of Anna personally — say, that she isn’t a killer and that she’ll be haunted by her actions, however justified — it could make sense. But for Captain America, who spent the war years punching every Nazi he came across and not taking particular care to make sure they lived through the experience, to make a blanket statement that murdering Nazis “will not solve anything” is weird. To put it mildly.

In the end, Anna can’t do it — not because of Cap’s pleading, but because the Butcher remembers her name after claiming he didn’t. It’s implied throughout the issue that he deeply regrets his actions during the war (which doesn’t make it better, obviously), but he is still murdered by a Nazi hunter’s daughter. Whether Cap arrests her or tries to give her a fancy speech, we don’t know.

Another notable moment came in Issue 269, when Anna gets upset over the rise of Neo-Nazis and Steve…scolds her about it?

First, the idea that the Holocaust was a learning experience that should have made the victims better people is abhorrent. It wasn’t homework or a therapy session. It was genocide. It was antisemitism enacted on a wide and violent scale, and quite frankly, anyone who survived it should be allowed to feel however they want about it without some self-righteous gentile getting in their face.

(For a much better, though less explicit, portrayal of this concept, please read Art Spiegelman’s Maus, particularly Part II: And Here My Troubles Began.)

Second, again, that’s a real funny position from a soldier who spent the entire war violently confronting Nazis — and who, in 2021’s Captain America: Infinity Comic #1, told a man in a bar to keep his racist mouth shut or else Captain America would come for him. I’m glad he got over the idea that we should “be unafraid of ideas — however noxious,” at least.

Third, we later learn that Mike (that’s Mr. Mustache in the green jacket) is a member of the Watchdogs, a group of right-wing bigots dedicated to defending America’s “morals.” Clearly, Anna has more reason to be concerned than anyone in that room currently realizes.

We get more Nazi stuff in Captain America #275, when a synagogue is vandalized. Steve is so ignorant he doesn’t know what a Torah is and tries to claim the vandalism is the work of street gangs, not actual Nazis. This doesn’t go down well with Anna. And when Steve’s girlfriend Bernie (also Jewish) announces she’s going to an anti-Nazi rally, Steve begs off, claiming he’s too busy.

This is a man who personally liberated concentration camps and saw the Nazi menace up close, yet he continually dismisses Jewish people’s anger and fear as irrational and overblown. It’s not until his boss makes a bigoted remark that he realizes, oh yeah, antisemitism still exists and he should maybe do something about that.

Aaaand then he quickly decides they shouldn’t have held the rally at all because it gives “free publicity” to “only a handful” of Neo-Nazis. When the rally devolves into violence, he lectures both sides as if they’re equally to blame, even calling the Nazi speaker and a Jewish rock-thrower “two of a kind.”

I know I’m supposed to be talking about Anna Kapplebaum here, but good grief, Cap’s behavior is baffling. He brings up his personal experiences at Diebenwald to try to shame the Nazi speaker, but he somehow can’t understand why Jewish people, including actual Holocaust survivors, would be so upset about the popularity of Neo-Nazis and want to do something about it.

I can see how Cap’s ignorance would make a decent story. No one understands antisemitism and the Holocaust better than Jewish people. This could have been an opportunity for Cap to realize the limits of his experiences and learn how to be a better ally to Anna and Bernie as they cope with and fight back against the antisemitism that has affected and continues to influence their lives.

This is not that story. Also, if you need a refresher on why comparing Jewish people to Nazis is bad, here’s what the World Jewish Congress has to say on that.

Steve moved out of Anna’s building in Captain America #317, but she’d basically already disappeared by then.

Beyond the Holocaust discussions, Anna doesn’t have much to do aside from serving meals and engaging in some light matchmaking between Steve and Bernie. It’s sad, because Anna did manage to move on after the Holocaust: she married, relocated to New York, and even made a kind of peace with her experiences. But the comic takes no interest in any of that. All we learn about her life post-Holocaust is that she got married (but we never learn anything about her husband — is he dead?) and that she is a terrible singer (but we never see her sing).

The more of Anna’s appearances I read, the more I became convinced that she was introduced solely so the creators could talk about Nazi stuff. That’s why I went off on so many tangents about Steve: Anna exists as a receptacle for Captain America’s insensitive speeches, not as a person. And that stinks.

To sum up this very long rant:

1. Marvel should bring back Anna Kapplebaum and let her be a real character this time.
2. Cap and his fluffy ’80s hair can get wrecked.

Come meet our previous absent friends: Eddie “Iron Man” March, Terry Berg, Harris Hobbs, Bridget Clancy, Willie Lincoln, Ed Indelicato, Roger Willis, Chanda Madan, Glenda Sandoval, and Mason Trollbridge!

Spoiler: This is a list of the 23 most influential comics of all time. NOT the best. NOT the most popular. In fact, there will be some you have never heard of. But I guarantee you have felt the influence later on.

The influence of comic books can be felt across many aspects of society. It can be groundbreaking, showing us something fresh and new. It can be disruptive, pushing the boundaries on what we think we can manage in visual literature. It can also be reflective, forging the commentary on where we are now and where we hope to be in the future. From political influence to sex education and cultural identity, there’s a whole lot of thanks owing to comic books and their creators. As revelatory as this might be, the struggle continues to be very real in convincing others of the power of comic books. Which leads to the question of where to start. There are so many great comics to read, you may need a little help discerning the best ones to start with. That’s where this list comes into play. 

Again, you may not like every book on the list, and that’s okay. This is a list of the 23 most influential comics of all time. It is an opportunity to see the path they forged into future reading. Without these comic books, our reading lives may have been very different today.

Today, it’s near-impossible to get your hands on the original Action Comics #1. You can still read it digitally and see where it all began. However, when we’re talking about the influence of comic books, take a look at The Men Behind Superman by Thomas Campi and Julian Voloj. It is a graphic novel about the back story behind the creation of Superman. Voloj and Campi dive into the friendship between Siegel and Shuster, as well as the micro-culture of the American comic book industry at the time. Of course, Superman was only the beginning. Check out Eileen’s 14 Most Influential Superhero Comics here.

First Female Heroine

Still on the superheroes, the introduction of female heroines made a huge impact on the comic book industry. Our first female superhero with superhuman powers was Fantomah, featured in Jungle Comics #2 (February 1940), created by Fletcher Hanks (as Barclay Flagg). She was followed closely by the first masked and costumed female superhero, The Woman in Red from Thrilling Comics #2 (March 1940), created by Richard E. Hughes and George Mandel. 

Both Fantomah and The Woman in Red are seen as the first female heroines, but the real influence on women in comics came from Miss Fury No.1 (1942) by June Tarpé Mills (writing as Tarpé Mills). Miss Fury debuted in newspapers on 6 April 1941, donning a skin-tight black panther skin suit imbued with enhanced strength. She was also the first antihero, resenting the need for a secret identity and not exactly thrilled with her work – but someone has to do it. Despite the violence, the love triangle, and the blatant racism, critics were mostly upset with her ‘revealing outfits’. Her bikini in 1947 scared away 37 newspapers. And this was before Wonder Woman and Phantom Lady!

First Black Superhero

All-Negro Comics, edited by Orrin C. Evans, was created in 1947 and was the first comic book created entirely by Black writers, artists, and editors. It was also the birth of the first Black superhero: Lion-Man, created by George Evans (Orrin’s younger brother). The elder Evans was the first Black American reporter to be on staff at a white-run newspaper. When that business closed, Evans saw an opportunity to move into comics, particularly to improve the characterisation of African Americans in comics. Unfortunately, Evans never had the chance to develop his vision further — the paper company for the first issue refused to sell to him again, and neither would any other paper company. It would be almost 20 years before comic books would feature Black characters in lead heroic roles. 

Each of the stories in All-Negro Comics, including that featuring Lion-Man, aspired to portray Black characters with honesty and integrity. Today, we can see that same quality in other Black comic book characters. For example, ‘Killmonger’s Rage’ in Black Panther #18 (1998) by Christopher Priest, Kyle Hotz, and Sal Velluto. It is considered the best of the Black Panther comics, building on Killmonger’s complexities and never shying away from the bigger issues surrounding the character. The story also explores how these same influences could affect T’Challa, showcasing the duality of characterisation. We would never have had the support to publish stories like this if we didn’t have the bravery of All-Negro Comics first.

The First Graphic Novel

A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner The first ‘Graphic Novel’ may not seem like a big deal in comic books but there is a distinction between the two. A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner was first published in 1978 and contains four stories centred around the residents of one tenement in the Bronx around the 1930s. It’s grim and semi-autobiographical, balancing between real human experience (including the death of Eisner’s daughter) and his determination to re-examine his own portrayal of race and religion in his previous work. A Contract with God was also an exploration in how comic book creators could share their stories. No longer were they confined to the set format and layouts of traditional comic books. The idea of graphic novels gave more opportunities to play with expression, layouts, and the relationship between the reader and the printed page.

Elfquest by Wendy Pini and Richard Pini Elfquest is the longest-running independent fantasy graphic novel in the USA. It is also one of the most significant romance comics of modern times, being the precursor for some of our favourite contemporary comics, such as Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. And similar to Saga, Elfquest is definitely NOT safe for work/kids/public spaces. Two words: Elf orgies. Elfquest’s influence went beyond the fantasy and romance genres. The creators, Wendy and Richard Pini were also integral to the growth of independent comics and the importance of printing quality. After their disappointment in the publication of the first issue, the Pinis founded their own company WaRP Graphics, printing Elfquest #2 at magazine-size with glossy full-colour covers and character portrait prints by Wendy Pini on the back cover. Richard Pini took it even further, abandoning the exclusive sales at comic book shops and selling Elfquest through mainstream stores such as Barnes & Noble. These two factors moved Elfquest out of the realm of Underground Comix and into mainstream popularity.

Smile by Raina Telgemeier Smile is the most contemporary book on this list of influential comic books. Published in 2010, it rode high on the wave of YA novels at a time when many books were focused more on escapism rather than ‘slice of life’. Telgemeier wasn’t the only graphic/YA novel writer out there. She did it so well, she legitimised comics for YA literature. Smile, as a book, takes YA readers seriously. It sits perfectly in that gap between young, ‘easy readers’ and more mature YA storylines. And while it identifies predominantly with girls, the comics that followed were able to push the boundaries between target demographics. Thanks to Smile, comic books like Lumberjanes and The Unstoppable Squirrel Girl were given more attention in the market too.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Persepolis is one of the most banned comics since 2000 for its graphic images and ‘inappropriate’ language. It is also one of the most detailed depictions of the Islamic Revolution in Iran during the 1980s. Satrapi’s story is split into two books featuring a series of BDs: her childhood in Iran during the revolution and her coming-of-age return after living in Austria. There are many autobiographical graphic novels out there; what makes Persepolis stand out is the simplicity of her art and the use of her own story to paint the larger picture of her family and Iran itself. This is not a story of hate or judgement. It is clear Satrapi has a great love for Iran’s rich culture and vibrant people. The influence of this comic is more than the subject material. It is in the way Satrapi has made Iran and the Middle East accessible to a wider audience. Her style of visual literacy has inspired other creators to explore how we can vary the impact of the story through visual cues.

Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, Translated by Yoko Umezawa, Linda M. York, and Jo Duffy In the world of manga, there is pre-Akira and post-Akira. It was the anime that smashed its way into the US market and brokered a whole new audience for manga around the world. With punk-ass Tokyo, gang warfare, and the coolest motorcycle scenes ever illustrated, Akira was the birth of Cyberpunk. Again, others dabbled in this sub-genre pre-Akira, but nothing was ever quite the same afterwards. Akira set the benchmark. Cowboy Bebop, The Matrix, and Ghost in the Shell: all of these were influenced by Akira.

Changing How We Write Comics

Marvel Mystery Comics No. 8 (1940) by Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Joe Simon (Editor) and Alex Schomberg (Cover Artist) Whether you love a good crossover or hate them with the passion of a thousand suns, we can officially blame Marvel Comics. The first ever superhero crossover pitted The Human Torch against Namor, forcing readers everywhere to spend more money on back issues and cross-referencing. And this was WAY before the internet. This comic was probably more of an influence on the marketing-and-accounts department than the readership, but it still counts in the grand scheme of things.

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley The Dark Knight Returns has long been held by many critics as being the gold standard to which all Batman stories will be forever compared. Miller’s goal was to shake up the superhero genre, completely revising one of the most iconic characters in comic book history and forcing readers to question everything.  Where to start? Okay: we have an aged Caped Crusader who really does want to retire. Wayne is clearly identifying as a trauma victim, opening the gates to far more psychological analysis than in previous storylines. The story itself was set outside the established DC continuity, giving Miller a bit more room to play with both heroes and villains.

With almost 200 years of history and an ever-growing range of genres, comic books have spread their influence over every genre of literature (and created some of their own). While this list shares 23 of the most influential comic books of all time, it is nowhere near comprehensive. What’s on top of your list?

Revenge. It’s one of the oldest literary themes in the book. From Shakespeare to Stephen King, The Count of Monte Cristo to Gone Girl, readers have always been drawn to revenge stories. What can I say? Sometimes we just love dark shit and seeing people get what’s coming for them. Manga readers are no exception, so I’ve gathered together a selection of some of the best revenge manga out there for you to enjoy and redirect your IRL stresses.

Due to its very definition, manga is a wonderful medium for revenge stories. You literally get to see all the action and outrage right there on the page, immersing you into the story even more. The art can envelop readers in the dark, grisly atmospheres of these tales, while also leaving a little more room for the imagination than something like a movie or television show. Here are some of the best revenge manga that do just that, with plenty of options whether you’re a long-time manga fan or just getting started.

A quick note before getting into the picks themselves. When checking out the best revenge manga, please be aware that many come with a whole slew of content warnings. All will contain some level of violence, with some including depictions of such subjects as torture, sexual assault, and harm to children, among others.

Best Revenge Manga

The Count of Monte Cristo by Ena Moriyama Speaking of The Count of Monte Cristo, let’s start with this manga adaptation of the 19th century novel by Alexandre Dumas. Though the manga is just a single volume, it remains quite faithful, if condensed, to the original story of Edmond Dantès’s dogged pursuit for vengeance against those who wronged him. If you’re newer to manga, a revisit of this classic, this time accompanied by gorgeous artwork, could be a great stepping stone into the format.

Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama A hundred years ago, giant creatures known as Titans destroyed much of the human population, and those who were left now live all together in a walled civilization. It was always believed that there was safety behind these walls, but one day a Colossal Titan breaks through. Teenager Eren Yeager loses his mother in the deadly incident, and resolves to exact revenge on the Titans. The hit manga follows Eren and his friends as they go through military training and attempt to make their way into the Survey Corps, an exclusive group that journeys outside the walls to fight the Titans in hopes of eventually reclaiming the world. If you’re already a fan of Attack on Titan, check out these manga like it to get even more similar stories to enjoy.

Basara by Yumi Tamura In a post-apocalyptic Japan controlled by an oppressive ruler, a prophecy states that a child born in Byakko Village will become the leader of a revolution to free the country from tyranny. When the twins Tatara and Sarasa are born, the prophet determines that one of the two will be this child of destiny, and everyone assumes it will be the boy Tatara. However, when the village is destroyed by the Red King, Tatara is beheaded, so Sarasa takes on his identity in order to lead the rebellion and avenge his death.

Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima Ogami Ittō, the shōgun’s former executioner, has lost his family in a brutal massacre and has been falsely deemed a traitor due to fabricated evidence planted by the Yagyū clan. Having fallen into disgrace, Ogami wanders the country with his infant son, the only survivor of the murders. The pair embark on an epic journey to destroy the Yagyū clan in order to avenge the death of their family and Ittō’s fall from favor.

Black Butler by Yana Toboso Ciel is a young boy in Victorian London who holds the position of Earl of Phantomhive, following the death of his parents at his 10th birthday. Sebastian Michaelis, a demon bound to Ciel in a contract to help the boy get revenge on the people responsible for his parents’ deaths, acts as his butler and works with Ciel to investigate crimes for the Queen.

Berserk by Kentaro Miura Armed with a monstrous sword and a prosthetic arm with built-in cannon, Guts is a fearsome lone warrior, known as the Black Swordsman. Due to being marked with the Brand of Sacrifice, Guts is doomed to be the target of dark forces and spirits looking to claim his life. But he is on a quest for vengeance against the one responsible for giving him this mark, viciously cutting down anyone and anything in his way in order to survive long enough to see his quest through.

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa This best-selling manga series earns a spot on this list for the story of one of its primary characters, Scar. Introduced in the series as a villain, Scar is a serial killer who targets State Alchemists like our protagonist Edward. A survivor of the Ishvalan Civil War, Scar wants revenge against alchemists, holding them accountable for their role in the mass slaughter of his people. Arakawa took inspiration from the complex history of her homeland of Hokkaido, originally home of the Ainu, but conquered by the Japanese. The progression of Scar’s revenge plot and his character development are anything but simple, and have been specifically praised by critics.

My Dearest Self with Malice Aforethought by Hajime Inoryu and Shota Ito At first glance, Eiji seems to be a typical college student who just wants to hang out with his friends and meet girls, but he has quite a humdinger of a secret: he’s the son of an infamous serial killer, who died when he was a little boy. Because of this, Eiji tries to live a lowkey life, but one day he wakes up to discover he has lost three days of his memory, eventually finding out that he has dissociative identity disorder. To make matters worse, a copycat killer of his father has emerged, and evidence points to Eiji’s second identity as the culprit! What’s exciting about this manga, though, is that it doesn’t resort to the mental illness boogeyman trope, instead turning it on its head. This intense, fast-paced manga is filled with twists and turns, with revenge playing a large role as more and more is revealed.

Burn the House Down by Moyashi Fujisawa Though more on the psychological side than the action-focused titles that make up most of this list, Burn the House Down is definitely an equally thrilling revenge tale. A young woman becomes a housekeeper to get close to a snobbish socialite in order to uncover the truth behind a crime her mother was wrongfully blamed for. Both women are holding onto secrets, and neither is likely to come out unscathed. For even more to look forward to, a drama adaptation of the manga will be coming to Netflix later this year.

Itching for even more manga? We’ve got you covered! Check out some of our other lists below!

• 50 Must-Read Manga
• The Best Completed Manga Series
• 14 of the Best Action Manga
• 15 Psychological Horror Manga

There are only so many names out there, even for superheroes. And when you’ve been around as long as DC and Marvel have, and when you’ve spawned the kind of endlessly sprawling multiverses that DC and Marvel have, you’re inevitably going to get a few characters who sport the same moniker. (How embarrassing!)

This can lead to fun trivia, like when the makers of The Karate Kid and The Incredibles had to get DC’s permission to use the names Karate Kid and Elastigirl, respectively. Usually, though, the characters involved are so minor (or so in the public domain) that DC and Marvel seem willing to share the benefits of having characters with “same-name syndrome.” It helps that many of those characters are so dissimilar that they are unlikely to be confused by fans. Only rarely are actual court cases filed over characters with the same name: there is only one example of such an event in this article.

So if you want to impress and/or irritate your friends with your incredibly granular knowledge of superhero lore, read on, my fellow nerds, and bask in your ability to respond to questions about who this or that character is with the dreaded phrase, “Well, actually…”

Gods and Demigods, Various and Sundry

Both DC and Marvel have brought ancient Norse and Greco-Roman characters into the present day as heroes, villains, and everything in between. This was perhaps most notable in JLA/Avengers, when Wonder Woman mistook Marvel’s Hercules for the DC version who once assaulted her mother. It didn’t end well for Marvel’s much more innocuous Herc.

Enchantress

Both DC and Marvel have magic-based, evil (ish) characters named Enchantress who are obsessed with green. But while Marvel’s is an Asgardian sorceress bent on dominating the Nine Realms, DC’s is more sympathetic: she’s a perfectly nice woman named June Moone who was possessed and occasionally controlled by the malign Enchantress. Sometimes, June is able to control her just enough to do something heroic.

So if DC and Marvel ever have another crossover, it’s anyone’s guess if the two Enchantresses (Enchantri?) will be on the same side.

Tuatara

As I discussed recently, Marvel’s Tuatara is an obscure, one-shot villain who tangled with Iron Man and, though technically defeated, still managed to escape. DC’s original Tuatara is in many ways her opposite: he is a hero with the Global Guardians (and has a pretty silly costume, it must be said — he’s got a yellow fin on his head!). His successor, however, was a bad guy serving with the Silicon Syndicate.

No one seems to particularly care about any of them, though. That’s a shame — who doesn’t like reptiles?!

Captain Marvel

This is probably the most notorious example of same-name syndrome in all of comics. The first character to use this name was Billy Batson, created in 1940. Marvel’s version (the first of several Marvel characters to bear the name) came significantly later, with Mar-Vell debuting in 1967. In between, in 1966, we got another Captain Marvel, published by M.F. Enterprises.

Having so many Captains Marvel around has confused readers since at least the ’60s. While you’d think that Billy would have the most right to the name, he has since been forced to rename himself Shazam in deference to Marvel’s newer Marvels. And no one cares about M.F.’s version anymore, even though they once sued Marvel for stealing their name, which they in turn stole from the defunct Fawcett Publications. That’s the circle of litigation, baby!

Goliath

The biblical version has, like the gods mentioned earlier, appeared in comics by both companies. But Goliath is also the name of several size-changing heroes at Marvel, including Bill Foster, Hank Pym, and Clint Barton. Yes, Hawkeye once stole some Pym particles and gained the ability to grow to giant size. It was a time.

DC has had several Goliaths too, but the most epic version has to be a dragon-bat (yes, a DRAGON-BAT) befriended by Damian Wayne after he…murdered Goliath’s entire family? Maybe that’s just how Damian makes friends…

Darkstar

In DC Comics, Darkstar is a name mired in confusion. The Darkstars are an intergalactic peacekeeping organization similar to the Green Lanterns. Their most famous member is Donna Troy, also known as Wonder Girl and Troia, who at the time was embroiled in some aggravating attempts to sort out her notoriously gnarled backstory.

Meanwhile, over at Marvel, Darkstar is the name of a Soviet-born heroine who has fought crime in both the USSR and the United States. Last I checked, she was never revealed to be a magic clone of an Amazon princess, so points to her for not having a completely messed-up origin.

Yo-Yo

Finally, we have Yo-Yo, who is a hero in both the DC and Marvel multiverses. But while DC’s version is a relatively obscure member of the Suicide Squad who can alter his density, Marvel’s version, also called Slingshot, is a Puerto Rican speedster who had a recurring role on the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (where she was a Colombian played by a Mexican — close enough!).

Want more superhero goodness? Check out our superheroes tag!

Superhero comics have many well-worn motifs which have been popularized, subverted, and scoffed at over the decades, like secret identities, reporter girlfriends, and radioactive everything. In Tropes in Capes, I’ll look at the history of these elements, including how they got started, when and if they fell out of favor, and where they are now. Today: evil clowns!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Surely there can’t be that many clown-themed villains in comics, right? Just the Joker, Harley Quinn, and maybe some knockoffs?

Alas, I am sorry to tell you that I was able to come up with a list of over two dozen evil clowns or clown-adjacent villains, and I suspect I haven’t gotten them all, given the obscurity of some of these bozos. (Get it?) This trope has legs. And really big shoes on the ends of them.

The Joker is, in fact, the earliest recurring clown villain superhero comics, debuting in April of 1940, and created by some combination of Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson. (As is so often the case with early Batman characters, accounts from the three men varied as to who contributed what.) Inspired by a deck of playing cards, the Joker was originally the sadistic murderer we know him as today, but was softened into a zany but essentially harmless adversary during the kid-friendly Silver Age, only to reemerge as a genuine threat as comics grew darker during the Bronze Age; that progression has only continued over the past few decades. Though there have been times when the Joker has vanished for a handful of years, his mostly steady presence over the past eight decades shows how flexible this trope is, which may account for its popularity. A clown villain can be a lighthearted nuisance or deeply disturbing, Cesar Romero or Heath Ledger.

Clown villains certainly leaned towards the lighter side of the spectrum in Superman’s early days. Once the Man of Steel graduated from thwarting nameless gangsters, he was quickly given a roster of recurring villains best collectively described as “impish.” The Prankster (debuted 1942) and Toyman (1943) aren’t exactly clowns, per se, but they’re similar, and their illegal — but rarely seriously dangerous — antics were a fun way to keep Superman busy. Even the Superboy comics, featuring a younger version of Clark, were frequently bedeviled by “Humpty Dumpty, the Hobby Robber” (debuted 1950), whose gimmick was stealing valuable collectibles, but who dressed like a clown for…reasons. And was named Humpty Dumpty. Look, they can’t all be winners.

Meanwhile, one of Green Arrow’s vanishingly rare recurring Golden Age villains was Bull’s-Eye (1946), not to be confused with the much later and better-known Daredevil villain. His day job? Leapo the Clown. Leapo! I don’t know why a dumb name like Humpty Dumpty fills me with rage but Leapo fills me with delight, but there you have it.

The interesting thing about the evil clown trope is that unlike previous tropes we’ve covered, Kid Sidekicks and Reporter Girlfriends, it’s not associated with a particular era. Evil clowns and their ilk continued to be just as popular in the Silver Age as the Golden Age, and at multiple publishers: at DC, the Flash fought the Trickster (debuted 1960), while over at Marvel, Daredevil fought the homicidal Jester (debuted 1968) and pretty much everyone fought the Circus of Crime. At Charlton, Captain Atom fought Punch and Jewelee (1967) and Blue Beetle fought the Madmen (1967). (And then all of them were eventually bought by DC anyway.) The Bronze Age kept up the trend, introducing the first distaff counterpart to the Joker with Duela Dent, the Joker’s Daughter (1976) — though of course Harley Quinn (1992) would eventually become the most famous of his female spinoff characters, and has now received a successor herself in the form of Punchline (2020).

As the decades went on and the Joker became more sadistic, so did the newer evil clowns. Marvel gave us Whiteface in 2005, Pagliacci in 2011, and the Clown in 2013, all of whom indulged in a level of gleeful violence the Golden and Silver Age clowns would never have considered. Except those older clowns were being revised to be darker too, either by retconning their personalities to be more murderous or replacing them with edgier versions — there are two Tricksters, three Jesters, and four Toymen. Today, it’s safe to say that an evil clown showing up in a comic means you’re about to encounter zero whoopee cushions and, like, a lot of dismemberment.

Why do evil clowns persist in comics? Is it because they speak to the inherent unsettling thought of something intended as harmless entertainment for children turned into a threat? Or is it just because the Joker is so damn popular, and the other clowns are echoing that? But then why is the Joker so popular? And we’re back to the primeval fear idea. (Alternately, a truly hilarious number of comics essentially imply that bats and clowns are natural enemies. It’s possible comic book writers don’t know anything about bats.)

I’ll be honest: I could do without this trope. I’m sick to death of the Joker and find most of his copycats annoying, from the Jester to Punchline. (I do like the Trickster, I’ll admit.) Every time a comic or movie (ahem) tries to make the Joker seem profound, I start longing for a good old-fashioned gleefully stupid gimmicky bank robber or super smart gorilla instead. Yeah, yeah, we live in a society, enough already.

But I’m not the only reader out there, and evil clowns have been going strong for so long that clearly I’m not in the majority here. So a round of applause for these murderous merrymakers, I guess! I shake your hands in respect.

Except not actually, because that’s how you get shocked to death by an electric joy buzzer. Nice try, evil clowns!

Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell in this sequel to Ninth House, the smash bestseller by Leigh Bardugo. Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.

There’s no denying that the term “dark academia” is everywhere these days. Not only is it an extremely popular sub-genre, but it’s also an aesthetic and subculture that has really taken off in recent years. No doubt you’ve seen all kinds of fashion and decor inspiration on social media, not to mention the bookish recommendations the term also sparks. So to get even more dark academia in your life while at the same time broadening your reading horizons, we’ll be talking about some dark academia manga and manhwa for you to peruse!

Before we get started, let’s talk about what dark academia is exactly. As a subculture, it often focuses on higher education, classical studies, Gothic art and architecture, and related topics. It has been criticized for being quite Eurocentric and lacking diversity, so dark academia manga and manhwa aren’t necessarily going to check every box of the sub-genre’s common tropes. At the same time, if we think of the concept a bit more broadly, it can certainly be very inclusive and varied. For the purposes of this list, I have taken the idea of dark academia to its most basic and fundamental pieces: an academic setting paired with dark or suspenseful themes. Let’s dive in!

Kakegurui by Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura Hyakkaou Private Academy is a school attended by the children of Japan’s most wealthy and influential figures. As with any school for society’s elite, where you stand in the social order is everything. But at Hyakkaou, the hierarchy is determined by the students’ ability to gamble. Those who are successful are able to contribute financially to the student council and keep their high rankings, while those who lose are treated as “pets” who must obey the commands of the rest of the student body as they attempt to pay off their debts. Upon first glance, transfer student Yumeko Jabami is a cheerful and unassuming girl, but she is actually a compulsive gambler whose habits completely disrupt the school’s hierarchy.

The Silent Reading Club by Im Sora After the mysterious death of his older brother Gaeul, Haneul becomes a student at the same boarding school Gaeul had attended. Once there, he decides to join the Reading Club, which his brother had also been a member of. Haneul meets and gets to know the club members, and tries to uncover the circumstances behind his brother’s death. Everyone, including Haneul himself, has secrets and hidden agendas, all of which intertwine to create a complex web of darkness and mystery.

The Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu Grace Field House is an orphanage where the children live in peace and comfort, where they want for nothing and dedicate themselves to academic excellence as they wait to get adopted. But this idyllic lifestyle is not as it seems. Emma, Norman, and Ray, three of the orphans at Grace Field House, one day find out the truth of their existence — that their seemingly perfect home is actually located in the demon world, and that they are being raised to be meat for the demons to feed on. This sets the children off on a mission to try to escape Grace Field House to save themselves from their deadly fate and find the human world.

Akuma no Riddle by Yun Kouga and Sunao Minakata At Myojo Private School, there is a special class known as Class Black, only created under special circumstances. Thirteen girls are placed in Class Black, 12 of whom are assassins. Their target is Class Black’s 13th student, Haru Ichinose. The assassins are promised anything they wish if they successfully assassinate Haru, but anyone whose assassination attempt fails will be expelled. Tokaku Azuma, one of the assassins of Class Black, finds herself unable to kill Haru, and instead makes it her mission to protect Haru from the rest of their classmates.

Seasons in Bloom by Anla and Gori At the start of this webtoon, an alleged double suicide at a renowned girls school shakes the local community. What was the relationship between these two girls? Are their teachers and classmates hiding something? What really happened, and more importantly, why? We are transported back in time to meet Ahn Mok-ran and Han Do-hee, examine their complicated love-hate relationship, and to see how the events unfold in this thriller set against the bleak backdrop of Seoul during the Japanese occupation of Korea.

Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato Teenager Rin Okumura one day discovers that he is the son of Satan, and that he has inherited demonic powers! When Satan kills his guardian, who was a famous Exorcist, Rin vows to become an Exorcist himself in order to defeat Satan. In order to achieve this goal, Rin enrolls at True Cross Academy, where he and his fellow classmates train to become Exorcists who protect Assiah, the human realm, from Gehenna, the demon realm.

BEASTARS by Paru Itagaki Tensions are high at Cherryton Academy, an elite boarding school, after the murder of one of the students. BEASTARS takes place in a society of anthropomorphic animals, where carnivores and herbivores live and work side by side in harmony. The carnivorous animals have all become vegetarians in order to maintain this peace, but of course things are not that simple. The murdered student is Tem, an alpaca who was ostensibly eaten by one of his carnivorous classmates. Legoshi, a gray wolf with an intimidating appearance but a kind heart, tries to get to the bottom of the incident and finds himself face to face with the seedy underbelly of this seemingly peaceful society. There’s a black market for meat, a mafia of lions, not to mention the fact that Legoshi is also trying to navigate school, extracurriculars, and first love!

Savage Garden by Hyeon-Sook Lee (Ablaze, March 28) Gabriel, an orphan girl living in 18th century England, finds herself in the position of impersonating her friend Jeremy at a prestigious all-boys school after his untimely death. Jeremy had been rumored to be the illegitimate son of a nobleman, and he had been given the opportunity to attend this school in order to promote his social status. Though she was initially blackmailed into assuming Jeremy’s identity, Gabriel takes the chance, knowing it will benefit her as well. At school, Gabriel finds herself tangled up in the lives of brothers Euan and Raymond Kensington, the noble sons of a duke, and discovers the harsh realities hidden beneath the surface of this esteemed world she has entered.

Once you’ve satisfied your dark academia craving, make sure to check out even more excellent manga to read with our recommendations for best manga, as well as our entire manga archive!

Before I started reading manhwa and webtoons, I was watching Korean dramas. Korean dramas give me things that no other shows give me. Nowadays, streaming services create TV shows with 8–10 episodes. And to be honest, that’s not enough for me. Sometimes questions are left unanswered in the plot line of the show, and that’s so annoying. When it comes to K-Dramas, you know you’re getting a plot, good development, an intriguing storyline, and characters that can easily become favorites. But did you know that there are K-Dramas that were originally manhwa and webtoons? Check out eight of the best K-Dramas that are based on manhwa and webtoons that you might have read already.

As soon as I started reading manhwa, I wanted to see these stories come to life on screen. Be it as a TV show, a movie, or even an animated show, I craved more content from these stories because the writers and illustrators managed to make me care so much about the characters and their lives, I just wanted more. It’s the same with romance books for me; if you tell me it’ll have an adaptation, I’m definitely going to be there on release day, ready to watch it from start to finish. Adaptations can be a sore topic of conversation, or maybe a difficult one, because fans want them to be a perfect copy of the source. And that’s impossible, let me tell you the truth. Whether you like them or not, I think it’s a good thing we have a selection of adaptations to choose from.

A Business Proposal by Guava Farm, Perilla, NARAK, Haehwa Where can I watch it? Netflix. When I think about the K-Dramas of 2022, A Business Proposal comes up immediately. This is the drama of the year! A fascinating, entertaining rom-com about a woman who, to help her friend, goes on a blind date with her friend’s date and ends up meeting her company’s CEO.

Semantic Error by J. Soori and Angy Where can I watch it? Viki. This popular webcomic just debuted the third season, so it’s the perfect time to catch up. Or if you want to start this story by watching the TV show, you can also do that! So many options, not enough time, right? In Semantic Error, two college students, Sangwoo and Jaeyong, couldn’t be more different. This causes them to constantly butt heads while working on school projects together. But their intense dislike for each other also hints at mutual respect and, as they grow closer, their relationship grows dramatically.

Once Upon a Small Town by Park Ha-min Where can I watch it? Netflix. Another recent release is Once Upon a Small Town which came out on Netflix in September. If you’re a fan of small towns, this story is quite perfect for you. Once Upon a Small Town follows a veterinarian from the big city who has to move to the countryside after being tricked by his grandfather. Nothing seems to be working out for him until he reunites with his childhood crush.

Itaewon Class by Kwang jin Where can I watch it? Netflix. This show kept us company when the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic was happening. And it sure brought a smile to our faces when we needed it the most. Itaewon Class tells the story of an ex-con who opens up a bar in Itaewon while also seeking revenge on the family responsible for his father’s death. There’s found family, a little bit of romance, and moments that will stab you in the heart!

Yumi’s Cells by Lee Dong Geon Where can I watch it? Viki. This story is so very unique in the way that you get to see the main character’s feelings and inner thoughts whenever she’s interacting with someone close to her. Yumi is an ordinary office worker who, after suffering a horrible recent breakup, has her love-cells fall into a coma. The sudden arrival of Goo Woong might help revive them though. This live animation drama is one of a kind! I also recommend the webtoon, which is super fun as well.

What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim by Jung Kyung Yoon Where can I watch it? Viki and Hulu. One of the best romcoms out there, hands down, this drama is a ball of sunshine filled with sprinkles and chaos. Probably, one of the main reasons this show works is because of the main leads: Park Seo-joon and Park Min-young. They have the best chemistry that many couldn’t replicate. But before it was a hit drama, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim started as a webtoon. Yeong Joon is a stoic CEO who always gets what he wants. But when his secretary tells him she’s going to quit, he’ll try his hardest to make her stay. I just wanted to let the big TV companies out there know…let Park Seo-joon keep doing these incredible webtoon adaptations. We will keep watching!

Cherry Blossoms After Winter by Bamwoo Where can I watch it? Viki. This high-school drama is ready to pull at your heartstrings. Cherry Blossoms After Winter is based on the webtoon of the same name and is a story about a boy who, after his parents’ death, moves in with an adoptive family who has a son of the same age. Things are running smoothly until he ends up in the same class as Jo Tae Seong. Suddenly, they’re spending a lot of time together, both at home and at school!

Touch Your Heart by Jäger Where can I watch it? Netflix and Viki. Touch Your Heart is a drama and manhwa about a star actress whose whole career implodes after a horrifying scandal. To move on from it, she needs a new role in this legal drama everyone is auditioning for. The thing is, Oh Jinshim is more famous because of her looks than her actual acting. So, she decides to work as a real-life legal secretary to learn more about the role. But her boss, Kwon Jungrok, doesn’t understand her situation! He’s so grumpy and cold-hearted, but why is she starting to feel things for him?

If you have no idea what manhwa or webtoons are, start reading them as soon as possible. It’s a wonderful world you need to be part of immediately. You won’t be able to stop when you begin, I can assure you of this. If you’re a big fan of Korean dramas, you’ll find out that maybe half of them are adaptations of well-known works.

As Wizards of the Coast prepares to phase out the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons in 2024 in favor of One D&D, the game has reached a level of popularity unimaginable for most of its nearly 50-year-long history. Whether you’re new to D&D or just rolling a new character, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the eight D&D name generators on the list below for all your future role-playing needs.

Nobody can tell you the “right way” to play D&D, because there is no single correct method of play. Newcomers will be surprised by just how quickly they pick up the myriad rules that govern combat. For most people, however, the pressure of making meaningful contributions — whether that means writing your character’s backstory or building a new city from scratch — is the most difficult aspect of the game to master. That’s true no matter what side of the screen you happen to be on.

Thankfully, D&D’s recent surge in popularity means that the internet is full of resources to help dungeon masters and players improve their games. I’ve rounded up some of my favorite D&D name generators for all your tabletop roleplaying game needs. Whether you’re looking to name a player character, NPC, location, or magic item, the eight tools on the list below are here to help.

D&D Beyond

This is a little bit of a cheat, given that D&D Beyond‘s built-in name generator pulls its suggestions from Fantasy Name Generators, which is also featured on this list. But if you’re already using D&D Beyond and don’t want to pull up another website, this is a viable option for character naming.

Perchance

DMs and players looking for a customized naming experience will want to check out Perchance. You can view others’ creations here, sure, but the real allure lies in making your own D&D name generators for future use.

Want more great Dungeons & Dragons content? We’ve handpicked the best D&D accessories and fantasy maps you can find on the Internet right now — plus all the D&D books you crave.

Have you ever read something where a character behaves so abominably or ridiculously that you want to throw the book across the room and hop onto your social media of choice to excoriate that character in front of everyone? If you read superhero comics, you almost certainly have.

Sometimes, a character’s bad behavior is written in purposely: it’s not much of a story if someone doesn’t do something wrong and have to face the consequences. But in other cases, the problem goes deeper. Maybe the comic was written decades ago when racism and sexism were normalized. Or maybe a specific creative team doesn’t understand or respect the characters, or the editors have a particular vision for the series and force the writers and artists to comply.

If the hero you love was around in the ’40s, they probably said nasty things about the Japanese. In the ’50s, ’60s, or ’70s, I can 1000% guarantee they either treated women like garbage or shamelessly manipulated the person they claimed to love (or both). Since the ’80s, comics have gotten increasingly violent and morally ambivalent, causing characters to start killing people and betraying friends in a deliberate ploy to provoke the reader.

This can be upsetting and intimidating for newer fans. If you stick around in this fandom long enough, you’re going to have to eventually confront the question: how can I continue to love someone who has done such offensive and terrible things?

As a fandom veteran, I offer you this advice: forget about it, don’t make excuses, and definitely don’t be a jerk to other fans.

Forget It…

Let me introduce you to a couple of words you may or may not know: canon and headcanon. “Canon” refers to things that actually happen in comic, while “headcanon” is what you personally believe should have happened.

Canon and headcanon do not have to match. It is perfectly acceptable to sweep bits you hate under the rug and ignore them from now on. You can even make up stuff that you like better!

Me, I love Iron Man, but only because I ignore most of what’s happened in canon since Civil War, in which he got into bed with a government organization he’d long distrusted in order to screw over everyone he ever cared about. As you may imagine, this makes things difficult for me, given Marvel’s ongoing love affair with all things Civil War. But hey, that’s what back issues and fan fiction are for. When I see something about Civil War, I gently whisper “not today, Satan” and reread a comic from the ’80s or something.

Civil War may be canon, but in my headcanon? It doesn’t exist.

Sometimes, though, you get lucky and the publisher is just as eager to forget about a character’s problematic phase as you are. Did you hate All-Star Batman and Robin? So did DC, so don’t worry, you’ll never hear about it again.

…Don’t Make Excuses…

When you really love or identify with a character, it can be tempting to try to justify their actions, even if what they’re doing is bad. But becoming so enamored of a person (real or fake) that you praise everything they do and attack those who point out their genuine faults is dangerous: it blunts your critical thinking skills and allows either the character’s creators or the real-life awful person to get away with depicting/doing some pretty horrendous things.

Going back to my own experience, I really like the Wasp, especially the version of her from the cartoon Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But she spent most of the 1960s emotionally and verbally abusing her boyfriend, Ant-Man. Theoretically, I could make excuses for her behavior or even claim that what she did wasn’t abuse, but that would be dishonest and disrespectful to real abuse survivors. It’s less painful to just say, “Yes, the Wasp was written as an indefensibly terrible person for years,” and then get on with my forgetting.

Like with Civil War, I realize that the canon exists, but I ignore it when it suits me.

It may sound weird, but you can even find a kind of happiness in a character’s former awfulness. Today’s Lois Lane is a tough-as-nails reporter, but in the ’50s she was an utter looney tune who went to disturbing lengths to get Superman’s attention. It’s not how the Lois Lane in my headcanon behaves, but it’s funny as heck to read.

…And Don’t Be a Jerk!

As much as you may hate a certain interpretation of a character, there’s another fan out there somewhere who loves it. Lots of people like Civil War, and I’m not about to storm into their DMs ranting about how WRONG they are or how they DO NOT UNDERSTAND the characters. I’ll criticize the comic itself till the cows come home, but I don’t attack the people who enjoy it. Or the people who worked on it, for that matter.

The internet is a vast, vast place. If you see someone posting opinions that upset you, feel free to click away and even block that person. They have a right to express themselves, but that doesn’t mean you have to look at it if you don’t want to! There are plenty of other fans who share your interpretations, so why not hang out with them instead of arguing with people you disagree with?

I know this sounds convoluted. Why even bother reading a genre when you have to twist your brain into a pretzel just to enjoy yourself?

It’s not for everyone, I’ll admit. But it’s also freeing, in its own way. Whether you love or hate how a character is currently depicted, this too shall pass. New creators will come in eventually, and there are always decades’ worth of older comics to explore. Maybe you’ll like them and maybe you won’t, but you have the freedom to pick up the parts you like and discard what you don’t. The power is yours, true believer — and with great power…

Some comics go down in history as masterful examples of the craft and are beloved by multiple generations. Others end up at the landfill. In this series, I’ll be looking back on some forgotten series to better understand what kind of comics our ancestral nerds were reading in the days of rotary phones and record players.

My first subject: Race for the Moon!

The Context

Race for the Moon ran for three issues in 1958. If you’re unfamiliar with history, the first page fills you in: the year prior, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first-ever artificial satellite. America was so shocked and horrified by this development that they rushed to launch their own satellite, Explorer, in January 1958. Thus the “space race” began: not because two nations were invested in scientific discovery, but because they were desperate to win ideological points in the ongoing Cold War.

Americans became obsessed with space. This comic represents a small part of that obsession. The in-magazine ads even bill it as “the first space magazine of the space age!”

Knowing all of that, and going by the cover of Issue 1, I expected this series would include relatively grounded (so to speak) stories about American ingenuity and heroism as they sought to conquer space.

It does not.

The Creators

With older comics, it’s often hard to identify the book’s creators, and I definitely ran into a lot of question marks. But there are some big names ahead of those question marks in this case: Bob Powell, Fred Kida, John Severin, and, biggest of all, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. All of them would go on to do important work for Marvel, and Simon and Kirby had already made their mark as the creators of Captain America.

Kirby’s influence was most obvious in Issue 3. Look at these panels and tell me that doesn’t look like Steve Rogers getting the super-soldier serum.

Kirby’s fingerprints are all over the storytelling, too. In “Garden of Eden” from that same issue, three explorers encounter a living planet, presaging his co-creation of Ego the Living Planet in Thor #132 eight years later.

According to Mark Evanier’s biography Kirby: King of Comics, Joe Simon was hired by publisher Harvey Comics first, as an editor. These being lean years for comics creators thanks to a growing anti-comics movement, Simon would sometimes try to secure work for Kirby, including in Race for the Moon.

Unfortunately, even these titanic talents couldn’t keep the title going for more than three issues.

The Comic

Most of the stories are hard sci-fi, taking place in a future where humanity (read: America) has already conquered the skies. A disturbing number of them involve using space as a prison, while others have ironic or twist endings meant to say something about human nature. In one very telling story (“Supreme Penalty,” Issue 1), a scientist goes rogue to try to convince his superstitious, earthbound superiors that “coloniz[ing] the universe” is the only way Earth’s “future” can be “saved.”

On the flip side, “Asylum,” also from Issue 1, has humanity sending its most dangerous criminals to another planet until that planet’s native population refuses to accept any more prisoners (derogatorily referred to as “madmen”). The twist reveals that this planet is Earth, which is just now reasserting itself after being nearly destroyed by their “war of missiles.” Clearly, Earth does not like being colonized, yet in the other stories, Earthlings have no compunction about running off to colonize others.

Another point of interest is the book’s claims that its stories are “based on scientific fact and theory.” Given that one story (“Disc Jockey,” Issue 1) has Martians come to Earth to silence an obnoxious DJ, Joe Rogan better hope that’s not the case.

But seriously, even making allowances for how far out of date their information is, the “facts” presented here are often flat-out wrong. In “Turmoil in the Heavens!” from Issue 2, the comic tries to tell us about a Totally Real Planet named Polis that once orbited between Mars and Jupiter. It had dinosaurs and maybe even people! Then, alas, it got sucked into Jupiter’s orbit, whereupon it was broken to pieces and now survives as Jupiter and Mars’s moons.

This is, if you’ll pardon the expression, bull cookies. While there was a theory stating that a planet once existed in that orbit, that planet was called Phaeton, not Polis; the idea of Earth-like dinosaurs evolving there in such a short time is ludicrous; and the theory stated that Phaeton’s debris became the asteroid belt, not moons.

Stretching the facts like this would have been fine in a fiction story, but this is a one-page informational piece that is supposed to educate the reader.

I guess the series wasn’t doing so well, because Issue 3 tried something new: introducing recurring characters, the Three Rocketeers, in an incredibly Kirby-esque story about three guys who go on space adventures. As Issue 3 was the last, we never got to see how this idea panned out.

The Legacy

This comic was meant to capture a very specific moment and attitude, and at that, it succeeds. Some of the stories work better than others, of course, but overall, it kept my attention, and the Kirby art was a big plus.

Few stories explicitly mention the Soviet Union, the Cold War, or the Space Race, and those that do end surprisingly amicably. Nonetheless, American anxieties about all three are clear. Several of these stories emphasize the importance of sending people out to “conquer” and “colonize” space at all costs — otherwise, someone else is going to come along to conquer and colonize us. This is a very Cold War mentality: destroy or be destroyed. In that sense, the title Race FOR the Moon, which implies ownership — as opposed to Race TO the Moon, which would imply satisfaction with simply getting there — is disturbingly appropriate.

(Obviously, it never occurs to anyone that maybe colonialism in general is bad, even though the creators and characters are clearly terrified of anyone colonizing them.)

This may seem dated now, but on the other hand, the issue of who owns space and who gets to exploit its resources is still a contentious one, so who knows? Maybe we’ll see another comic like Race for the Moon someday soon, with a new generation of creators trying to persuade us that Americans are not just entitled but obligated to take what they want from whoever they want in order to survive.