I have often read about how the heroes of Golden Age comics were absorbed into wartime propaganda efforts. I’d seen old illustrations of Captain America socking it to Hitler or Tojo, but I had never encountered a full story from that era. Recently, I’ve been listening to the original radio episodes of Superman and was amazed by a story called The Sleeping Beauty from February 1945.

In the multi-episode saga, Superman and Jimmy Olsen fly to the jungles of South America, seeking to help friends save the hidden city of Illyria from evil forces that have taken over. It turns out that the evil leader is actually a Japanese spy and he is using the town as a focal point to launch an invasion in the Americas. Paratroops are jumping into the jungle in small numbers and form up outside Illyria to make a larger force. Superman finds one lost in the brush and takes him prisoner, speaking to him as if the soldier is personally responsible for Pearl Harbor and Bataan.

Later in the story, the spy (named Saki) is revealed and the town saved. Superman intimidates Saki into radioing for all the troops to gather in an open field before the front gates of Illyria. When they do, Superman starts to throw down large rocks on them, crushing the soldiers to death in bunches. Once they begin to scatter, we’re told Superman swoops in and starts “to mix it up with them hand-to-hand.” It’s clear from the context that this means Superman is beating the Japs to death with his fists. When Jimmy asks him about them later, he says “It’s no more than they deserved.”

Obviously this was a different time, when the U.S. was pulled together in a war effort that was unimaginably massive by today’s standards. Every American thought of themselves as part of World War II whether they were actual combatants or not. Also obviously, the laws and moral codes of war are quite different from the laws and morals of vigilante justice. So there’s plenty to separate these killings from our reaction to superhero killings today.

I’m currently rediscovering comics after decades away, so I’m curious. Are there examples of heroes participating as a lethal combatant in more recent wars? If so, has there been anything remotely similar to this – a hero acting spontaneously as a combatant on their own initiative?