Table Of ContentSecret Identity Crisis
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Secret Identity Crisis
Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America
MATTHEW J. COSTELLO
2009
The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038
The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
www.continuumbooks.com
Copyright © 200 9 by Matthew J. Costello
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Costello, Matthew J. (Matthew John), 1963–
Secret identity crisis : comic books and the unmasking of Cold War America / by
Matthew J. Costello.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8264-2997-1 (hbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8264-2997-1 (hbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8264-2998-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8264-2998-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Comic books, strips, etc.— Social
aspects — United States. 2. Comic books, strips, etc.—Political aspects —United
States. 3. Cold War—Influence. I. Marvel Comics Group. II. Title.
PN6725.C69 2009
741.5'30973 — dc22
2008030564
Printed in the United States of America
9780826429407
Contents
1 I
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
The Cold War and the Forging
of the Liberal Consensus 31
2 I The Enemy Without: 1961–1968 58
3 I The Enemy Within: 1969 –1976 85
4 I Retreat into Privacy: 1977–1985 126
5 I Betrayal in the Mirror: 1986 –1996 162
6 I The New World Order: 1996 –2007 195
7 I Civil War and the Death of Captain America 229
Notes 243
Bibliography 267
Index 285
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Acknowledgments
IT IS COMMONPLACE TO NOTE that any academic work is a collaborative
effort, and this is no exception. One of the joys of finishing
such a project is finally thanking everyone who helped make
it possible, and I have many thanks to offer. At Continuum,
David Barker and his fellow editors were supportive and critical. Carol Pinkus of Marvel Comics helped secure permissions
for the artwork that Marvel has graciously allowed me to reproduce in this book. Portions of chapter 6 were presented at
the American Studies Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta,
November, 2004.
At Saint Xavier University, a semester sabbatical and financial support from the Center for Educational Practice helped
secure materials necessary for research (and yes, I bought
comic books with your money). Conversations with colleagues,
including Judy Hiltner, Michael Bathgate, and Karen Benjamin,
and with several classes of students helped refine my thinking on
several of the issues treated in this book. Nelson Hathcock has
been particularly helpful, listening to me often, reading through
several drafts, and offering insightful and graceful criticism. Carl
Bonasera of All American Comics in Evergreen Park, Illinois, was
a font of information and ideas, a knowledgeable analyst of the
comic industry and the books. These colleagues gave their time
and expertise to improve this project; any flaws are the product
of my own limitations.
Finally, three generations of Costellos have helped make this
book possible. My parents indulged my early fascination with
superhero comics, although my father always wondered about
the attraction of the “goddamned funny books.” My wife, Cathy,
has been a constant source of support, inspiration, and criticism;
she has read several portions of the manuscript, offered astute
criticism, and has graciously suppressed her embarrassment
vii
viii Acknowledgments
at the boxes of “research materials” in our basement. My sons,
Ethan and Dylan, have been both a major inspiration and at
times a welcome distraction. They are my true superheroes. I
dedicate this book to my family, without whom it never would
have come to be.
Introduction
HYSICIST BRUCE BANNER, caught in the nuclear explosion of his
gamma bomb, is transformed into the rampaging green monster the Hulk. High school student Peter
PParker,experimental bitten by an irradiated spider, gains the powers of the
spider and becomes Spider-Man. Reed Richards and his friends
are caught in a belt of cosmic radiation while orbiting Earth in a
spacecraft and are transformed into the Fantastic Four. Human
teenagers develop superpowers through genetic mutations as a
result of increased radiation in the atmosphere and are organized as the X-Men. Matt Murdock, blinded by an accident
with radioactive waste as a child, develops superhuman senses
and becomes Daredevil. While Stan Lee suggests he clung to
the hackneyed idea of radioactivity in creating Marvel’s stable
of superheroes because of his limited imagination,1 radiation
and the bomb are nonetheless the big bang that spawned the
“Marvel universe.”
The Marvel superhero comic that came to dominate the
comic book industry for most of the last five decades was born
under the mushroom cloud of potential nuclear war that was
a cornerstone of the four-decade bipolar division of the world
between the United States and the USSR. These stories were consciously set in this world and reflected the changing culture of
Cold War (and post-Cold War) America; they thus provide a very
useful avenue through which to explore the political culture of
the period.
Like other forms of popular entertainment, comic books tend
to be very receptive to cultural trends, to reflect them, comment
on them, and sometimes inaugurate them. The Marvel comics
of the 1960s and 1970s were seen at the time by their readers as
engaged with the contemporary political and social cultures and,
as such, were widely read not only by adolescents, but by college
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