World Comic Book Review

25th March 2024

Allies #1 (Review)

Allies #1
Bubble Comics, March 2017
Writer: Natalia Devova

“Allies” is a new comic book series from Russian comic book publisher Bubble Comics. The new series focuses on the character Nika Chaikina, who used to be a master thief-cum-secret agent working under the code name Red Fury (the character featured in our article on Russians in Comic Books), tasked with finding the Holy Grail, an important relic from Arthurian legend.

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Russians in Comic Books

As tensions between the West and Russia have dramatically increased in the past year, so too has the characterisation of Russia in Western comic books.

As we discuss below, most of Western comics’ attention this century has been directed towards the menace of the Soviet Union and its state-sponsored spread of communism as an ideology and a system of government antithetical to Western democracy and capitalism. But in the past five years, particularly, there is a new orientation towards perceptions of Russia in comic books.

In addition, we also take a quick look at the contemporary Russian comic book industry, and its penchant for copying American concepts.

1. Vladimir Putin and Post-Soviet Russia

A brief rundown of the geopolitical sequence of events leading to where we are now is worthwhile:

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