Future in the Comic Books
Best Post-Apocalyptic Comics Characters and Series of All Time
On this video I’ll list what I think are the greatest classic post-apocalyptic comic series and characters of all time. Naturally, most of them debuted in the 70’s when the post apocalyptic genre was at it’s biggest thanks to the Planet of the Apes.
Kamandi, one of my favorites, is a lot like the Planet of the Apes and was published by DC Comics originally between 1972 to 1978. It features a young hero who lives in post-apocalyptic world where humans are reduced to savages and the animals talk and rule everything. All this is due to what creator Jack Kirby called the “The Great Disaster”.
Kamandi is the last survivor of the human outpost in the Command D bunker near what was once New York City. The first book has it’s own Statue of Liberty scene like the Planet of the Apes only a lot more epic in scale.
Kamandi later befriends other intelligent mutant humans and sets out to explore and have adventure in this crazy brave new world.
There was also a Superman story in the 70’s that showed a human in the future wearing Superman’s costume. A later comic mini series Kamandi at Earth’s End in the 90’s, I believe, showed a elderly white bearded Superman teaming up with Kamandi. Then another Elseworld’s story, Superman: at Earth’s End, followed with that same Superman dying in Kamandi’s future world. Get the Kamandi Ominbus
Kamandi has teamed up with Batman in the comics at least a couple of times in the Brave and Bold comic series. On television Kamandi showed up a few times on the Batman cartoon the Brave and the Bold. Very good series by the way that is currently available on Blu-ray. https://amzn.to/3nyIqEX
Hex was an interesting take on post-apocalyptic comics it featured an already existing DC western hero named Jonah Hex who is sent to a post-apocalyptic future that I believe happens actually in the DC time-line before the Legion of Superheroes which exists in a more idealized future. You can correct me if I’m wrong in the comments below.
Hex was published by DC between 1985 and 87.
The big draw for Hex is Hex himself more than even the apocalyptic background. Hex is one of the most interesting western heroes ever. Typically, he resides in the old west and does the bounty hunter thing a lot like Clint Eastwood westerns. There was even talk about Clint Eastwood doing a Hex movie in the 80’s. That would have been a awesome movie and a perfect fit. It’s best we forget the Jonah Hex movie we actually got a few years ago that was sort of jumbled up mess much like most of the newer Jonah Hex comics series I’ve read over the years. After the 80’s it just seemed like nobody really got Jonah Hex at least in my humble opinion.
Later stories are too savage and seem to forget that Hex is a human, he’s a very tough human that has been through the wringer, but he’s still a hero that has to be more savage in his tactics to survive his brutal world. I never got the feeling like he enjoyed doing what he had to do to survive, at least in his original stories. He even managed to get married and settle down at least for a little while.
In the Marvel Universe Deathlok was first published in Astonishing Tales #25 1974 . Deathlok was a man named Luther Manning who became a cyborg and was brought back to life in the future world of 1990. This first Deathlok has always been the most interesting. I’ve never been able to get very excited about the newer Deathlok who had little if anything to do with a post-apocalyptic future. Taking away that aspect just made him a lot more hum drum for me, but the original was great.
The most enjoyable Deathlok stories to me were actually the ones where he runs into other Marvel characters such as Spider-man in Marvel Team-up 46. It’s one of those books I read as a kid that has remained one of my favorites to revisit over the years, but the best and perhaps the actual first time I read a Deathlok story was in the 80’s when Deathok showed up in a Captain America arc between 286-288. The original Astonishing Tales Deathlok stories are collected in one book at Amazon - https://amzn.to/33Hrxku
Planet of the Apes may have started as a awesome post apocalyptic movie series, but has been featured in comics many times. I guess, it could be argued that most of what we have read or seen on TV related to apocalyptic futures has been influenced by the Planet of the Apes. I doubt there would have been a Deathlok, Kilraven, and certainly not a Kamandi series without it’s existence.
Killraven was first published in Amazing Adventures 18 in 1973. Marvel designates this as an alternate Earth story. It features the Martians from H.G. Wells War of the Worlds as the cause of this apocalyptic future. Killraven story collection -
Science fiction stories, comic books, movies, and television often make attempts at telling us what the future may hold. Sometimes, they get it right other times not so much. Back in 1980 Cary Bates started a 8 page back up story for Superman issue 354 that imagined what the year 2020 would look like from the viewpoint of Superman’s grandson, Superman the third.
This eight-page backup story appeared in Superman #354, 355, 357, 361, 364, 368, and 372 and would eventually run into the year 2021.
Several predictions were made. Some were pretty close to today's reality such as video conferencing, but others not so much like floating cities, and flying cars.
Watch the video to find out all the futuristic sci-fi predictions made in 1980 for today's future world.
Now here's a message from the future from an upcoming comic book project that I'll be self-publishing on Amazon featuring Liberty Ace.
Liberty Ace comes from Planet USA. It's America, but from another galaxy. At some point in Earth's history a small group of Americans took off toward the stars and managed to find a planet capable of sustaining life in another galaxy. On this world, technology progressed to the point where flying cars are the norm, but socially and culturally things were more like the 1950's. The most popular form of entertainment was old Earth reruns and classic music such as old country, rock, and pop songs. Flying cars resembled 1950's cars with a futuristic design. Crime and violence were present, but not at the same rate as our America on planet Earth. Physical fitness was high on the list of importance to citizens of this world and their physical endurance, strength, and speed had increased well past what we on Earth have achieved. This is somewhat due to regular exercise and superior diet as fruit and vegetables grown on Planet USA are far superior to Earth's. Foods that originated here allowed for superior healing rates. In this environment Liberty Ace took full advantage and honed his body into better shape than most of his planet choosing to exercise several hours a day whenever possible.
While chasing the man who killed his lawman father, Ace goes through a time warp in space and winds up millions of miles away on Earth after the apocalypse has occurred. How did the apocalypse occur? Was Liberty Ace or the villains he has been chasing somehow responsible? Will Ace be stuck on our planet forever?
Comments
Post a Comment