The period leading up to WWII saw the rise of monsters, supers, and aliens in cinema and literature.
Calling All Monsters[]
In the silent-film era Fritz Lang produced classics of cinema, including many films with elements of horror. The monsters of his pictures ranged from human criminals, through human beings created or transformed by bizarre experiments, to the centuries-old deformed vampire of Nosferatu. Having these beings actual exist will certainly shake things up[note 1]
- Golem: creature of Jewish legend.
- Mandrake: a soulless, amoral being with unnatural powers.
- Mesmerist: a specialist who controlled people via hypnotism which was thought to have some mystical capabilities.
- Nosferatu: The vampire that set the defacto standard for all other vampires.
- Somnabulist: A living sleeping person who in many ways is analogous to the zombie. Cesare of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the most famous example.
- Universal Horrors: the Universal Monsters - Dracula, Larry Talbot (werewolf), Frankenstein’s monster, and the Mummy.
Monsters of the Floating World[]
The East has is own types of creatures that could fight for (or against) the Emperor.
Titanomachia[]
Extraordinarily large creatures such as King Kong and dinosaurs. It also includes Godzilla and the monsters that he he fought or was friends with.
Towards the Superman[]
Until comics, characters with super abilities were either ambivalent or outright evil.[note 2]
Superpowers in WWII[]
While super heroes abounded in comics there was one awkward question: if they really existed why was the war still going on? For pulp inspired "mystery men" characters like Batman (proceeded by The Spider in 1933) and moderately powered characters like Captain America this wasn't that much of an issue but when you got to characters like Superman things started to fall apart.[note 3]
For a WWII with Supers there are many things that can keep them from dominating the war: they just aren't much more powerful then a single tank or battleship[note 4], the other side has supers of their own that can either fight them to a stalemate or somehow neutralize them[note 5], or both sides have some means to prevent the really powerful supers from functioning within the area they control.[note 6]
Destination Earth[]
Aliens can add a new dynamic to WWII.
A 1938 War of the Worlds would not only prevent the war form formally starting but it would create totally bizarre alliances. Aliens showing up in the middle of the War and attacking ala Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series would have much the same effect.
These "aliens" need not come just from outer space but inner space as well.
There is also a more frightening idea: Aliens are helping the Axis powers. In Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All Ming reveals that he has been giving Hitler advanced technology.
Notes[]
- ↑ DC's Creature Commandos resembled creatures of myth and fiction but had few or none any of the powers of their mythical counterparts.
- ↑ The protagonist of Siegel and Shuster's 1933 "The Reign of the Superman" was evil.
- ↑ The 27 February, 1940 issue of Look magazine had a two page "How Superman Would End the War" where Superman flies in, smashes some of Hitler's equipment, grabs Hitler and Stalin, and drops them off at the League of Nations where they are convicted of unprovoked aggression on defenseless countries.
- ↑ The moral blow of having a hero being killed or captured would limit how (or even if) they were used.
- ↑ On DC's Earth Thirty-Two the Axis powers had a super called Percival who had the ability to nullify the abilities of other Supers in the area.
- ↑ Earth-Two had the Axis powers in control of the Holy Grail and Spear of Destiny which allowed them to control any mystic powered (and Superman for some reason) supers that entered their territory.
References[]
- GURPS WWII: Weird War II 94-117