Several years ago, while deployed to Iraq, we received a box of comic books at the chapel, from our friend in the US that has sent us several boxes during that year.
In one stack of comics, there was a Superman Comic from 1976. Number 300.
The cover caught my eye because of the date on the cover and the age of the comic book. I looked closer and realized that the book was written in 1976 about the future year of 2001.
I was only six in 1976 and remember the historical setting of the Cold War. It is amazing the difference between our speculation about the future and the reality. In the story, Superman (Skyboy–really lame concept) stops a thermonuclear war between the USSR and the US in 1990 and there is peace. Interestingly enough, 1990 marked the end of the Cold War with the fall of the “Iron Curtain” and the end to the USSR. In addition, the next time the world needs Superman is in 2001 when a group of Third World Terrorists send a robot into Times Square. Coincidence or conspiracy, you decide.
I found the book an interesting look at what we perceive to be the future, and then what it looks like from the past. It is amazing to me how strangely accurate the fictitious rendering of the future the book described. To me, it is also a testament to understanding the context of the world around us and seeing what could happen through our current events.
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Image from “Yet Another Comics Blog“