Comics in the USSR (Part III)
Democratization had brought a new sort of cultural renaissance for the Soviet Union. In the world of comics, the most popular genre was actually science fiction adaptations, mostly from Russian or Eastern European science fiction. Adaptations of Solaryis, Andromeda, Hard to be a God, and even the film Stalker were released through the 80's. Some exceptions to science fiction adaptations included The Last Question by Isaac Asimov and The Million Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke. Many of these adaptations appeared in the science fiction comic series We (named in homage to the dystopian science fiction novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin), and in MarvIntern. MarvIntern had become a major recruiting tool for Soviet artists to come to the UASR, and publish work there. With the work that some British writers were also doing in the American Union, the "International Crusade" era, as it was nicknamed, began in American comics, helping revitalize the industry.
With the influence of American comics continuing to trickle in, superheroes began to somewhat make their name. "The October Guard" was an example of a mid-80's Superhero team. A somewhat pale American imitation, they are scientifically enhanced superhumans who gathered to fight an external alien invasion. Notably, they are each from one of the SSR's. The "Mighty Human" was revived in the form of "Mighty Man!" in 1989. The new writer, however, took the character, and made him a parody and deconstruction of the original. In some ways, Mighty Man reflected the attitude of the pre-Leap Soviet society. A conservative communist man in a world that was changing around him with libertarianism, libertarian communism, anarcho-syndicalism, and especially multi-party politics becoming the norm. In one seminal scene, he breaks up a perfectly legal democratic meeting, and finds that he had failed to move on with the times.
Other genres also became very popular. In yet another American imitation, Arseniy the spy was an homage to Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, as written and drawn by Jim Steranko. Like Fury, and earlier Soviet spy Stierlitz, he fights mostly bureaucratic and military villains, some internal, some external. Like Fury, the story were punctuated by intense sexuality and occasional psychedelia. The war genre was represented by Ivan, a 1991 series revolving around Ivan, who had adopted the name from his mentor, Ivan the Terrible. Ivan was a soldier in the Moscovy army, when he comes across a mysterious pedant. The pedant stops his aging at 25, perpetually making him army ready. Soon, he serves the early Tsarist regime, under Ivan and his successors. He fights to rebel Napoleon's invasion, and later the Crimean conflict. He serves in the Russo-Japanese war, where his immortality causes some confusion, when he emerges from a direct artillery hit. The October Revolution occurs off-screen while Ivan was serving in World War I. Ivan later serves in seminal Soviet events like the Polish-Soviet War, the Russian Civil War, and World War II, where he witnesses the death of Stalin as a member of his personal guard. He later serves in Erithea, the Kongo, and other Cold War era conflicts. Throughout, he comments on how war had the same elements, despite the weapons used, or the personalities involved. The character is, to some extent, an extension of the Traveler. His immortality had lead him to both detatchment and alcoholism, which is prolonged through his many centuries of living. At the end of the series in 1999, the character, now in modern day Leningrad, contemplates destroying the pendant and committing suicide.