A new book of old comics holds the answers: What did Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman do in the war? - cleveland.com
I have the animated Superman cartoons from the early 40s. In the ones produced by Famous Studios, Superman engaged in some behind-the-scenes sabotage against the Axis powers. And the first season of the Wonder Woman TV series had her fighting the Nazis.
So Captain America and even Daffy Duck knocked the noggin of Hitler and Superman did not bother?
[Bugs Bunny]
What a Maroon!
[/BB]
Hey, not a single U-boat made it past the Fortress of Solitude.
What did Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, and Diana Prince do?
Wasn’t the Wonder Woman TV series originally set during WWII? There’s your Diana Prince answer.
John Byrne did a story where Bruce Wayne funded the Manhattan Project – to the point where it’s known as “The Gotham Project” – as well as personally protecting the bomb from enemy spies/saboteurs/thieves as Batman.
They got rid of that evil Hister guy.
According to the comics of the time, there was a magic ray surrounding axis controlled territory that prevented superheroes from operating their because of sciency stuff. The superheroes were busily punching Nazi saboteurs, foiling spies and fighting landing parties, but they couldn’t actually attack the enemy on territory the Axis controlled.
IIRC DC was asked to do this by the war propaganda department. The thinking was that having Superman fly in an single handedly demolish the enemy would trivialise the actions of the personell doing the real fighting and dying. Based on fuzzy memories “human” superheroes like Batman were “allowed” to fight the enemy.
I’m not sure if that was advanced during the 1940s, but a mystical version was offered as an explanation in the 1980s series All-Star Squadron (which starts at Pearl Harbor). The fourth issue (December 1981) depicts a superhero counter-attack on Japan as the protective spell takes effect and the most powerful of the characters (explained as anyone whose powerset is based on magic or who is particularly vulnerable to magic, i.e. Superman) would flip to the Axis side as long as they were in Axis-controlled territory.
I have a vague recollection that Hitler’s possession of the Spear of Destiny kept the allied capes out of the fight, as it caused them to join the axis if they entered its sphere of influence.
Wonder Woman? Straight-up Nazi fightin.’
Yup. The most powerful JSA members were Spectre, Supes, WW…etc…
That leaves the likes of Wildcat and The Red Bee to go head to head with the Nazis!
There was one story in which Clark Kent goes to take the physical exam for his draft board. During the eye exam, he accidentally uses his X-ray vision, and ends up reading letters from the wrong eye chart. He is declared 4F, and remains a civilian.
Hey, superman number 17 had Supie right on the cover shaking Tojo and Hitler by the scruff of their necks. I have a copy of that comic! I keep it in an airtight bag in my vault at the stately Mercotan dilatory domicile.
Wow! Where’d he take Adolf and Uncle Joe next?
*cough. Post #2.
The caption for this in Playboy was “I know! Let’s wreak vengeance on the forces of evil!”
To Geneva, where they were judged by a League of Nations tribunal. Note that this comic was from 1940, predating the USA’s entry into the war, and ran in Look magazine, not a regular comic book.
