1966 saw the airing of The Batman, starring Adam West. Since then, we’ve seen more comic adaptations to capture the population’s magic and imagination. During that televised era of Batman, many of his rogues poked at the cultural events of the era. The ’60s saw The Vietnam War, Civil Rights Protests, the Assassinations of US President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Cuban Missile Crisis, The first man to land on the moon, and the first man to orbit the earth. While not all of this is reflected in Batman, we see much of it reflected. Mr. Freeze’s costume looks like an astronaut’s suit. A black woman portrayed cat woman after season two — the late great Eartha Kitt. The villains represented change and a shift from the old way to a new age. Captain America fought a fictional Richard Nixon and a corrupt government. Following this, he took on the role of Nomad. The villain was a corrupt leader of America. A new idea of what is evil and who is terrible emerged in the minds of Americans, and the villain reflected it. It wasn’t the most popular run, but it displayed a desire by writers to keep up with the times and adjust their stories accordingly. Even the Death Of Superman, which occurred in the 90s, reflected the cultural shift. Grunge became popular, and environmentalism exploded. Readers saw Superman die at Doomsday’s hands. A threat who first appears in a hazmat-like suit, destroying his environment. Superman returns in the iconically drippy black suit with the assistance of solar power. In hindsight, it’s not subtle. So, of course, this trend has continued, which has led us to one of the most popular series in the superhero genre currently: The Boys.
As of 2024, The Boy’s, one of the first titles to deconstruct Superheroes in the early 2000s, has become one of the biggest hits on Amazon Prime. When it was initially published, the United States was fighting the war on terror. Garth Ennis took the ideal male American hero and his team. He turned them into wicked icons of their world, displaying all the human traits we attributed to villains. At the time, it was new and raw. These weren’t anti-heroes like the 90s. They were heroes and villains at the same time. Just like America was the hero and villain during its war on terror. A vision of American power and influence marching forward, espousing the glories of democracy as it destroyed lives and got drunk on the powers of war. So, when you are going adapt a title like this, it will reflect the modern political landscape. In this case, Trump and the MAGA movement.
Many will say that comics are too political now or woke. The truth is that comics have been political from the start.