Comic Books Have Always Been Political

Image Credit:
Marvel Comics/SyFy.com

There is a common misconception that people have had recently that comic books have "started getting political". I'm here to dispel that myth and to tell you that comic books have ALWAYS been political. 

For example, in March of 1940, an iconic character was created, a beloved staple for Marvel comic fans. That month writer Joe Simonson and artist Jack Kirby created Captain America #1, which featured the star-spangled man punching Hitler in the face. 

Comic books have always told stories that heavily reference social or political societal issues. It is no secret that Marvel's X-Men were created as an allegory for marginalized communities that are discriminated against just for being who they are. They are murdered for things they can't change. 

Outside of superhero comics, we see these same issues addressed all over the comic book space. From issues as old as the early 1900s to the modern day, comics have told the stories of the people around us. Not every comic is political, of course, but the notion that comic books have "started getting political" is simply false. Comic books have always been political. 

Below I'm going to list a few different kinds of comics that cover topics that would be considered social or political commentary. Check them out, I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't think they were worth it!

Social/Political Commentary 

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - Persepolis is an autobiographical series of bandes dessinées (French comics) by Marjane Satrapi that depict her childhood up to her early adult years in Iran and Austria during and after the Islamic Revolution. (Image and Cover Art by Marjane Satrapi & Penguin Random House)

X-Men: God Loves Man Kills by Chris Claremont - The Uncanny X-Men. Magneto, master of magnetism. The bitterest of enemies for years. But now they must join forces against a new adversary who threatens not only mutantkind but all of humanity beside it…in the name of God. The members of the Stryker Crusade are poised to cleanse the earth, no matter how much blood stains their hands. (Image and Cover Art by Brent Anderson & Marvel Comics)

The Silence of Our Friends by Mark Long - This semi-autobiographical tale is set in 1967. A white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood in the suburbs and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston's color line, overcoming humiliation, degradation, and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman. (Image and Cover Art by Nate Powell & Macmillan Publishers)

Eight Billion Genies

by Charles Soule & Ryan Browne - If you had one wish...what would you wish for? Now, what if everyone else had one wish too? At exactly the same moment, everyone on earth gets a genie and one wish. All hell breaks loose, in a very entertaining way...and that's just the beginning. (Image and Cover Art by Ryan Browne & Image Comics)

Survival Street by James Asmus - After an unbridled wave of corporations take over America, the country is left completely deregulated and effectively carved up into feudal states where billionaires and businesses make their own laws. Among the wreckage, mass privatization shuts down public broadcasting, forcing all the beloved edutainers out on the down and dirty streets. One group of them stick together, determined to keep helping kids across the country and do it by becoming an A-Team-esque band of mercenaries fighting for (And educating!) kids in the crumbling, corporate war zone of New Best America. (Image and Cover Art by Benjamin Dewey & Dark Horse Comics)