From Introduction:
Why a book about supers in the late Cold War?
Well… because.
Because the Golden Age of comics birthed fistfuls of flag heroes – but hasn’t really given them much to do since 1945. While movies such as Red Dawn, the lamentable Iron Eagle franchise, and Rocky IV (heck – Dolph Lungren’s entire filmography) used the Cold War as an interesting backdrop for dramatic stories, comics (not always, but too often) were strangely removed from it. Rather than capitalize on such rich material, they were content to let Captain America type characters continue to confront an endless cycle of generic villains of the week or recycled WW2 threats such as the Red Skull and Baron Zemo.
To be clear, this is not a thought exercise about how the Cold War would have “really” been different if superheroes existed. Not at all.
This is what I wish the 80s and 90s had been like for flag heroes in superhero comics. This is the Iron Age that never was. This was a time in comics when Captain America, Union Jack and Captain Britain were side-by-side facing down their spandex-clad Soviet opposite numbers across the Berlin Wall and engaging in a shadow war of a super-powered covert adventures.
Why a book about supers in the late Cold War?
Because it’s a niche that hasn’t been done before.
There are supplements that do a great job of covering the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age of comics.
But one that tackles an alternate Iron Age where the focus was on battles between the flag heroes of the NATO Alliance and Warsaw Pact? That I have not seen.
Why a book about supers in the late Cold War?
Well...
Because, when you really think about it, wouldn’t Red Dawn have been a whole lot cooler if Captain America had been in it?
If you answered that question in the affirmative, then this book is for you.