Comic recommendations: Nazi Smashing

Here's a list I've cobbled together of great comic stories where Nazis get smashed. Mind you this is not going to be a list of things like the silly America blindly throws herself into a time portal to go back and change her own history, ends up in World War II and randomly punches Hitler, who is on the battlefield for completely unknown and unexplained reasons. Nope, this is unadulterated Nazi smashing and destroying. Some are just fun and some are more thought provoking. So now.. onto the list!

Time Bomb by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Paul Gulacy - Time Bomb is a sci-fi fun adventure where a group of modern day military men and women are sent back in time to Nazi Germany to stop a fail safe weapon created to destroy the world if the Nazis lose. It's insane fun. Don't expect too much depth or anything in this story. Just run with the fun of smashing Nazis and blowing them up. It's seriously Inglorious Basterds type fun, only with sci-fi elements and modern technology. I love this book so much.

Crisis on Multiple Earths vol 6 by Gerry Conway, George Perez and others - I include this because it has Crisis on Earth-X where the Justice League and Justice Society of America are transported to Earth-X, a world where the Nazis won WWII and now rule America. A small team of heroes, the Freedom Fighters, resist the Nazi invasion. The Freedom Fighters eventually get their own short lived series, but it hasn't been collected in trade. They're also appearing soon in a CW Seed Animated series Ray and the Freedom Fighters.

JSA: The Golden Age by James Robinson and Paul Smith - This is an alternate reality telling of the end of the Justice Society of America, DC's first superhero team and the team that has consistently fought in World War II. It shows the history of the team, them facing disbandment under McCarthyism and how their lives have changed and grown. Now as the retired team must deal with a new threat as their former colleague, Tex Thompson aka Mr. America/Americommando, has become a Senator and begun to shape the world along with the former Dan the Dyna-Mite as Dynaman. The JSA must uncover their secret and become heroes again before the world is doomed. This is an amazing series and Robinson is one of the best writers with weaving history of comics into his stories.


Invaders Classic Complete Collections Volume 1 and 2 by Roy Thomas, Frank Robbins, and Dan Glut - Marvel's first heroes, Captain America, Human Torch (Jim Hammond, not Johnny Storm), and Namor the Sub-Mariner along with Bucky Barnes and Toro, Human Torch's sidekick, team up as one of Marvel's first teams during World War II. Together this powerhouse of heroes, two of which have faced each other in battle numerous times (Human Torch and Namor had a long rivalry), must band together to stop the threat of the Nazis. They add new members as things progress, but mostly it's a lot of foiling Hitler's plots and fighting Nazis. These 2 volumes are all of the original run set in WWII and it's a solid comic.

This one is not in trade except for one out of print black and white Showcase Presents, but I highly recommend you pointing anyone who wants great comics set in WWII era.. All-Star Squadron and Young All-Stars written by Roy Thomas (and Dann Thomas helped on a few issues) - Roy Thomas is obviously a fan of Golden Age comics and WWII. He took actual speeches from FDR and Churchill and weaved them into the stories and fixed some of the issues with heroes existing and the war going on as long as it did. The JSA at this time disbanded and each member went off to war in their civilian identity. This lead to Roosevelt to ask a new team of heroes to stay home and protect the homeland from Axis spies. And yes, the entire Axis plays a role in this series, not just the Nazis. Thomas also eventually introduced a new villain-turned-hero, Tsunami (Miya Shimada) a second generation Japanese-American character whose story predominately deals with the treatment of Japanese-American people during World War II and Roosevelt's Interment Camps. It's an amazing series on a lot of levels.


Of course any Golden Age comic will have Nazis as villains eventually, though the writing may not be up to standards for modern audiences. Also there are a ton of Captain America stories where he fights Red Skull, but I really don't know what some of the best are and given Cap's recent Nazi status, I'm not sure it's the best push.