Cover art by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers
In addition to traditional comic book supervillains, the Marvel Comics of the early 1960s often depicted communists as their main antagonist. This intersplicing of the real world with the fictional even witnessed Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev making an occasional appearance in issues of Fantastic Four, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish.
In the opening pages of Tales of Suspense #46, for instance, Khrushchev visits a secret laboratory on the outskirts of Moscow for a demonstration of Professor Vanko’s latest creation, a red suit of armor that is capable of controlling electricity. Impressed by what he sees, the Soviet Premier asks Vanko if he has ever heard of Tony Stark, the successful American weapons manufacturer with close ties to the military.
“By stopping Stark’s operations, the U.S. would lag behind us in the arms race,” Khrushchev then continues. “However, none of our agents have been able to sabotage Stark because he is always guarded by Iron Man.” Vanko immediately accepts the challenge. “This is what I’ve been slaving for, Comrade Leader,” he replies. “A chance to prove I’m the most powerful man on Earth! You shall soon have Iron Man’s head!”
When Josef Stalin died from a stroke on March 5, 1953, no one knew what to expect from his successor. On the one hand, a change in leadership could result in better communication and a thaw in the Cold War. On the other hand, anyone who had survived Stalin’s tyranny was most probably a megalomaniac themselves. It turned out the answer was somewhere in between.
Although Georgy Malenkov, Lavrenty Beria, and Vyacheslav Molotov initially filled the power void, it was the underestimated Nikita Khrushchev who ultimately emerged victorious. As William Taubman explains in his 2003 biography, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, Khrushchev first orchestrated the arrest and subsequent execution of Beria. He then used his influence within the Communist Party apparatus to push aside both Malenkov and Molotov. By the time it was over, Khrushchev had taken over the Kremlin.
At the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party in February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev shocked the world with his “Secret Speech” attacking Joseph Stalin. Khrushchev accused the former Soviet leader of “a grave abuse of power” that included “mass arrests and deportation of thousands and thousands of people, and executions without trial or normal investigation.” Stalin’s actions had been “monstrous,” he displayed a “mania for greatness,” and ruled not as a man of the people but through a cult of personality that bestowed upon him “supernatural characteristics akin to those of a god.”
Transcripts of the speech were widely leaked, and it was eventually published in the New York Times.
“The Leader was right!” the Crimson Dynamo realizes after his first attack against Tony Stark is unsuccessful. “Iron Man hovers around and protects Stark’s inventions like a one-man army. He just frustrated a perfect job of sabotage. But he can’t be at all of Stark’s plants at once.” Over the next few weeks, the Crimson Dynamo attacks ten additional Stark Industry facilities, destroying rockets, tanks, and anything else that he finds.
“I’m still not satisfied,” the villain muses afterwards. “Not once, at any of the other factories, did Iron Man come forth to protect Stark’s property. And it’s Iron Man I want to destroy even more than Stark’s industrial empire!” He thus short-circuits the electric fence surrounding Stark’s main facility and heads inside for the inevitable showdown.
Although praised by many, Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech” was denounced by those Soviets who still clung to the past. It also led to tragic repercussions in the Eastern bloc nation of Hungary, where resentment against Russian influence and the brutal realities of Stalinism were prominent. Emboldened by Khrushchev’s words, a massive protest erupted in Budapest on October 23, 1956, with rampaging students tearing down a statue of Stalin and marching through the streets to the Parliament. Hungarian security forces opened fire on the protesters, but their military counterparts sided with the rebellion and the state police was quickly overpowered.
“There are two paths,” Nikita Khrushchev told his Kremlin colleagues at that point. “A military path, one of occupation, and a peaceful path – the withdrawal of troops, negotiations.”
The Soviet leaders unanimously chose the peaceful path. It didn’t take long, however, before Khrushchev started to waiver. “What is there left for us to do?” he mused. “If we let things take their course, the West would say we are either stupid or weak, and that’s one and the same thing. We cannot possibly permit it, either as Communists or internationalists, or as the Soviet state. We would have capitalists on the frontier of the Soviet Union.” The initial decision was quickly reversed and the Hungarian Revolution was brutally crushed by the Soviet military.
When the electricity begins to short-circuit in his office, Tony Stark quickly dons his Iron Man armor and goes to investigate. It doesn’t take long before he spots the Crimson Dynamo, who immediately sends an electrical blast to disrupt the power in Iron Man’s suit. The American superhero instinctively uses his transistors to create an electric forcefield to protect himself. The Crimson Dynamo then tries a different approach by electrifying the ground where Iron Man stands, but Iron Man activates the thrusters in his boots and flies into the air. Frustrated, the Crimson Dynamo verbally lashes out and admits that he is a Soviet agent sent to destroy Iron Man.
“That gives me an idea,” Tony Stark thinks to himself. “All commies are chronically suspicious of each other.” He quickly chops down some trees and constructs a prison around the Crimson Dynamo. Having shown what his nemesis’ fate will be for failure, Iron Man next lifts the Crimson Dynamo and flies him to a nearby lake. After noting that if he drops the saboteur into the water, the electricity from his suit would quickly kill him, Iron Man gives the Crimson Dynamo an earbud to eavesdrop on Soviet communications.
“Remember, comrades, seize Vanko the instant he returns and machine-gun him,” a voice says. “I cannot take any chances of the Crimson Dynamo being more popular than I! So Vanko must be liquidated!”
Although it’s not really Nikita Khrushchev speaking, the Crimson Dynamo falls for the ruse nonetheless. “Thank you, Iron Man,” he says once they are back on dry land. “You have saved my life. I realize now that my scientific genius has been at the service of a double-dealing system!” Instead of prison, Iron Man suggests that Professor Vanko defect to the United States and work for Stark Industries, an offer that the Crimson Dynamo readily accepts.
Half a world away, the real Premier Khrushchev is not pleased by the turn of events. “It is all Iron Man’s fault!” he shouts. “Once again the hated American defender has foiled my plans! But next time shall be different. Next time I shall bury Iron Man!”
On September 15, 1959, Nikita Khrushchev embarked on a thirteen-day visit to the United States. At the National Press Club in Washington D.C., he was asked about a remark he made during a Polish Embassy reception in November 1956 – “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!” There were different ways to interpret the statement, from a belief that communism would outlast capitalism and thus preside over its figurative funeral, to the more literal threat of nuclear annihilation.
When asked to clarify his meaning at the National Press Club, the Soviet Premier merely replied, “My life would be too short to bury every one of you if this were to occur to me.” At a reception a few days later in Los Angeles, meanwhile, Mayor Norris Poulson defiantly told the guest-of-honor, “You can’t bury us, Mr. Khrushchev, so don’t try. If challenged we shall fight to the death.” This time the Russian was not amused and threatened to end his visit prematurely.
“If Stalin had represented the worst of Soviet Communism, then Khrushchev to many Americans was even more threatening, for he seemed to reflect the peasant vigor of this new state,” journalist David Halberstam wrote in his 1993 book, The Fifties. “Crude, unpredictable, occasionally violent, Khrushchev seemed to be the embodiment of the sheer animal force of the Soviet Union” – as well as the perfect villain within the pages of Marvel Comics.
Anthony Letizia