Six moments structure this journey: the founding stories of 1941 ; the return of February 11, 1965 followed by the origin of March 11, 1965 ; the cosmic sequence of April to June 1966 ; the clashes of 1968-1969; the complete biography of June 12, 1984 signed J.M. DeMatteis and Paul Neary; and the historical series of July 6, 2011 of Greg Pak and Mirko Colak. A series from 2015 closes the whole.
Here is probably the medium's only major antagonist whose significance depends not on editorial continuity, but on actual history.
Created to embody a specific regime, it survived this regime for more than eighty years. Each generation of authors has therefore had to answer a question that other files never ask:what does this character still represent now? The successive responses form the best reading thread.
1941: he represents the enemy
The origin stories are spread over the first seven issues of the series, between December 1940 and August 1941.
Their function is explicit and assumed: to give a face to a political threat that the United States was not yet officially confronting. These are propaganda texts, written as such, with the means of the genre – sabotage, conspiracy, heroic outcome.
They must be approached for what they are. Characterization is non-existent, psychology absent, and caricature systematic. The character is not someone: he is a function, that of making an abstract adversary visible.
Their interest today is documentary. These pages show how a popular medium took a stand before political establishment, and what illustrated persuasion looked like in 1941. It's educational, it's not pleasant, and it doesn't read like an adventure story.
The identification questions on these fascicles - in particular the distinction between the two wearers of the mask - are dealt with in ourarticle about his beginnings.
1965: it represents an anachronism
Twenty years later, the problem is complete: the regime has disappeared, and its incarnation no longer has a cause to serve.
Two consecutive fascicles respond to this difficulty. The first, on newsstands February 11, 1965 at 12 cents, announces in its summary that the character strikes again. The second, arrived on March 11, 1965, gives it an origin announced as such.
The solution adopted is of a material nature: to explain by what means man has gone through the decades without aging. It's a mechanical response to a timing problem, and it works.
But the main thing is played out in the second episode. By giving the character a childhood, misery, an initial humiliation, the authors transform him into individual. He ceases to be the symbol of a regime to become a man that this regime has recruited. The displacement is considerable, and everything else follows from it.
These two numbers are accessible and easy to find. They are our recommended entry point for a reader today.
1966: he represents an ageless threat
The three-part sequence from April to June 1966 constitutes the decisive turning point, and it comes from a remarkable intuition.
The three booklets arrived on newsstands on April 12 , May 10 and June 9, 1966. Their titles describe an unambiguous progression: the character survives, then he holds an object of power, then he reigns.
The find consists of giving him an artifact capable of reshaping reality. In doing so, the authors detach it from its historical anchoring: it ceases to be the representative of a dated ideology to become a general threat, usable in any context.
The process solves the longevity problem in a lasting way — it's what allowed the character to remain employable for sixty years. It also has a cost, which must be named: by making it cosmic, we make it less precise, and therefore less disturbing.
This movement has an unexpected commercial consequence, developed in ourrating analysis: the central section of this sequence is today the most requested in the file, for a reason that does not concern the character.
1968-1969: he represents the official opponent
The post-1968 series places the character in the role of permanent rival, and three booklets deserve to be cited.
That of February 1, 1968, whose title announces the awakening of a sleeper. That of April 2, 1968, which talks about the weakest link. And that of April 3, 1969, which opens into a nightmare.
These stories do not have the ambition of the previous ones, and they do not seek to redefine anything. Their interest lies in their regularity: they install a long-term rivalry, where each confrontation presupposes the previous ones.
It is this accumulation, more than any isolated episode, which made the character the reference adversary of his hero. A lasting relationship of antagonism cannot be decreed in an ambitious story: it is built through repetition.
These numbers remain very affordable and are easily found in lots.
1984: it represents a trajectory
The most important story in the file arrives in stores on June 12, 1984, in a double issue sold for 60 cents.
In the scenario,J.M. DeMatteis ; in drawing, Paul Neary. The summary clearly announces a life and an era.
The exercise is the most delicate of the entire journey: telling how a child becomes that. It exposes us to two symmetrical pitfalls — explaining to the point of excusing, or refusing to explain and falling back into the caricature of 1941.
DeMatteis avoids both. He constructs a coherent trajectory, made up of abandonment, resentment and successive choices, without ever suggesting that it made what happened next inevitable.The story explains a journey without granting it any extenuating circumstances, which is precisely the difficult balance.
Since then, this booklet has served as a basis: anyone who writes this character composes with him, by quoting him or by circumventing him. It also remains accessible for a pittance, in generally impeccable condition.
Just one reading to remember from this entire journey? This one.
2011: he represents History, without heroes
A limited series arriving on July 6, 2011 , written by Greg Pak and drawn by Mirko Colak under blankets David Aja, proposes the most radical approach of the course.
Its principle: completely remove the superheroic register. No costume, no confrontation, no vigilante. A coming-of-age story set in 1930s Europe, which follows a child until he becomes what he will become.
The result is grueling, and that’s the goal. By removing the loophole of fantasy, the series forces the reader to consider a real historical mechanism: how a society produces this type of man, and how this man consents to it.
Colak's line, realistic and without emphasis, refuses any spectacle. Aja creates covers with remarkable graphic sobriety, going against the grain of the production of the time.
This series is not entertainment and does not claim to be. It constitutes, with the 1984 story, the qualitative summit of the file - and it can be found for a modest sum.
2015: it represents a hunted vestige
One last limited series, on shelves since July 1, 2015 at the price of $3.99, closes the course under the pen of Joshua Williamson with Luca Pizzari to the drawing.
The title of its first chapter speaks of hunters, and this is indeed the reversal proposed: the character is the prey, hunted in a world which no longer has room for him.
It is a logical conclusion of the thread that we have been following since 1941. After having represented the enemy, the anachronism, the universal threat, the appointed adversary then a human trajectory, all that remained was to represent a stay— something the age seeks to eliminate.
The series is effective without being essential. To be reserved for readers who will have appreciated the previous two.
What these stories will never do
A structural limit deserves to be posed, because it explains certain disappointments.
This character will never experience redemption, nor even a gray area. This is the unwritten rule that has governed his use for eighty years, and it is due to what he represents: a figure designed to embody a criminal regime cannot be rehabilitated without the operation becoming obscene.
The authors who came close to it learned it the hard way. Every attempt to make him sympathetic, complex, or simply understandable in a moral sense was poorly received, then quietly abandoned.
This constraint has a paradoxical effect on the quality of the stories. Deprived of the most convenient resource for writing antagonists – ambiguity – the best authors have had to look elsewhere: in historical explanation, in social mechanics, in individual trajectory. This is precisely what gives the stories of 1984 and 2011 their strength.
So don't look here for what other files readily offer. You will find no repentance, no final sacrifice, no revelation that would put everything into perspective. What you will find there is rarer: authors forced to be intelligent because they cannot resort to ease.
In what order to read
The short course: the 1984 story, then the 2011 series. Two readings, a few euros, and you will have the most interesting thing about the character.
The historical journey: 1965, then 1966, then 1984. You will then follow how a symbol of war was transformed into a usable character, step by step.
The complete journey: since 1941, in order. Reserved for readers who are interested in the history of publishing as much as the stories - the first issues are not to be read for pleasure.
To organize a coherent whole, see ourcollection guide.
What readers are wondering
By the double issue of June 12, 1984, due to J. M. DeMatteis and Paul Neary, which fully retraces the life of the character. It serves as a basis for all those who have written this character since, can be read without the slightest prerequisite, and today costs a pittance in impeccable condition.
For documentary interest only. These are propaganda texts, written as such: non-existent characterization, systematic caricature, the character is a function rather than someone. They show how a popular medium took a stand before the political institution. It's educational, it's not pleasant, and it doesn't read like an adventure.
Because she gives him an artifact capable of reshaping reality, which detaches him from his historical anchoring. He ceases to be the representative of a dated ideology to become a threat that can be used in any context. This is what allowed him to remain employable for sixty years — at the cost of being less precise, and therefore less disturbing.
This is the most radical step of the journey, and one of the two summits of the file. Greg Pak and Mirko Colak completely remove the superheroic register: no costume, no confrontation, no vigilante, only a training story in 1930s Europe. The result is grueling, and that's the goal. David Aja creates remarkably sober covers.
By a material explanation of its survival without aging, in the issue of February 11. But the main thing happened on the following March 11, with an origin that gave him a childhood, misery and initial humiliation. He then ceases to be the symbol of a regime to become a man that this regime has recruited. Everything else follows from this.
No, and that’s his success. The exercise exposed two symmetrical pitfalls: explaining to the point of excusing, or refusing to explain and falling back into caricature. DeMatteis constructs a coherent trajectory made of abandonment, resentment and successive choices, without ever suggesting that it made the sequel inevitable.
They don't have the ambition of others and don't redefine anything, but their consistency counts. They are the ones who set up a long-term rivalry where each confrontation presupposes the previous ones. A lasting relationship of antagonism is not decreed in an ambitious story, it is built through repetition. These numbers are easily found in batches.
No, but it logically closes the thread. Joshua Williamson reverses the character's position: he becomes the prey, hunted in a world that no longer has room for him. After having represented the enemy, the anachronism then a human trajectory, all that remained was to represent a vestige. To be reserved for readers won over by the previous two.
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