World War III!

At the same time that Atomic War! was being published 1952 and 1953, the Ace Comics brand knocked out a second nearly identical comic book title World War III. The two books had pretty much the same premise, the United States undergoes a devastating sneak attack by the Soviets and atomic power is used repeatedly. I don't get the sense the books were part of the same continuity, but it would be really easy to make them so. If anything World War III had a more sci-fi feel than its companion. The cover to the first issue is one of the most iconic in all the lore of the comic field. Alas the stories beneath are more pedestrian in nature than the wild chaotic  cover.

Aside from the first story which does deliver this feel, the rest of the stories are about counter attacks and are more in the traditional war comics mode save with more futuristic weapons and gear. There are a couple of full-page images which really communicate the sense of destruction an atomic attack could wreak.

The second and final issue of World War III, the series is even more like a sci-fi comic and that's evident by the front cover which reminds me less of a war comic and more of the classic cover of Amazing Stories which debuted Buck Rogers. There are three stories here on land, sea, and air and the plot to all of them deal with men who get little respect from their peers due to age or limitation but who prove themselves more than worthy.

These stories though it must be remembered hail from a time when atomic attack was believed to be imminent and so the images carried more weight. These are delivered as cautionary tales, meant to enlighten and warn as much as to entertain.

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