Comics and Conflict by Scott Cord A;

Author:Scott, Cord A; [Scott, Cord A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Violence in War Comics

Not only did 1990s comics feature struggles about the country’s response to new and barely defined enemies, they also contained brutally realistic depictions of combat. This was not entirely new; as has been shown, comics began to depict the violent nature of combat as early as the 1950s. Following the commercial and critical success of Steven Spielberg’s 1998 movie Saving Private Ryan, however, comics took brutality to a completely new level.

The influence of contemporary films had started with another war movie, Oliver Stone’s Platoon. As mentioned in chapter 4, it had partly inspired the more graphic depiction of Vietnam in comic books written by Don Lomax. Lomax worked on Marvel’s The ’Nam and by the early 1990s had produced the sixteen-issue series Vietnam Journal.55 The last two issues described the severe torture of American POWs by the North Vietnamese Army. Nevertheless, Lomax makes a point of showing neither side in black-and-white terms, instead putting the reader into the mind-set of the combatant, who often cannot clearly distinguish right from wrong in the heat of battle. His work entertains shades of gray, just like the morally complex issues of the war.

As the 1990s continued, the role of the United States in a world without serious threat of large-scale conventional or nuclear wars continued to spur comic book creators to reenvision many of the characters who had populated their childhoods. With the end of the Cold War, many thought the world would enjoy increased tolerance and peace. Not all comic book writers agreed, however. One dissenter was Garth Ennis. Originally from Northern Ireland, Ennis grew up on American and British comic books, specifically war comics.56 In fact, he often noted that he had never liked the superhero genre. Unknown Soldier, an Ennis title from the mid-1990s, looked at battlefield morality and how it might reflect the tensions created when people believed in the values of American society but had to kill to preserve it.57

In this version, the Unknown Soldier is without his assistant Chat Noir, nor does he show much mental stability. Manipulated by the OSS and its successor the CIA, he has seen too many killings and too many people corrupted by power. The premise is that William Clyde, a former Special Forces officer who has become the CIA’s main operative, is seen within the agency as a “boy scout,” unwilling to implement a dirty war against America’s enemies.58 Lured into looking for a person code-named “the Unknown Soldier,” he encounters several witnesses to this enigma’s furious retributions around the world. At the end of the story, the Unknown Soldier—while seeking a successor to do what is right for the nation—confronts Clyde.59 It is hinted that the old Unknown Soldier (and the United States, the initials of which he shares) “sold his [its] soul” when the United States was willing to overlook Auschwitz and other Nazi atrocities to obtain German weapon technology for the struggle against the Soviet Union. This betrayal causes a psychotic break in the Unknown Soldier, leaving him riddled with guilt.

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