10 Figures Who Completely Reshaped Comic Book History

Didn't see that one coming did you? Now you can make a claim that Jack Kirby or All American Comics founder Max Gaine deserves more of a mention, but boy it sure is fun to just bring up Hitler out of nowhere, you automatically lose the Internet! But there is a real argument for Hitler's importance to the comic industry.

See, the Golden Age of comic books is considered to be between the 1930s and the early 1950s; this was the period of greatest expansion of popularity for comic books but the era was enveloped by the actions of Adolf Hitler and the events of World War 2.

Even before America formerly entered the war the first villain of Captain America was Adolf Hitler, with the cover of the red, white and blue hero's first issue adorned with a lovely little splash of Steve Rogers whaling Hitler in his fascist face. Hitler is the first crossover villain, battling the aforementioned Captain America as well as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman... Lord Snooty and his urchin friends... Cat Man... just a bunch of super heroes.

Comics at this time tended to cross the line into heavy-handed propaganda: in between beating on Hitler many heroes of the day pushed the selling of war bonds and the war effort became the first collective cause of the industry. It's propaganda, sure, but no one minds because, well, it's Hitler.

It has so far been the first and only time that the entire industry decided to hate on one man and created a villain that everyone wanted to see defeated.