Russia or the Russian federation is a nation located between Europe and Asia. The country is bordered by many nations in both continents. In Europe, Russia is bordered by Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine. In Asia, Russia is bordered by Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The capital of Russia is Moscow and it has several large cities such as St. Petersburg. Russia has a federation style government and has gone through several government re-organizations through the centuries. The population of Russia is 141,377,752 and has several minor ethnic groups such as Tatars,Ukrainians and many more.
For the last 100 years, Russia has played a significant role in the world. The 20 th century brought the downfall of the Russian monarchy and the institution of communism. Russia played a significant role in World War II as one of the members of the allies and as the nation to take Berlin from the Germans. The end of World War II led Russia and The United States into the infamous Cold War.
The Cold War culminated eventually and the final traces of the USSR disappeared. Of course this is a brief history of Russia, but this article is about the super heroes and villains that have been created due to Russia.
Here is a list of some significant Russian heroes and villains portrayed in mainstream American comics.
heroes list:
The Black Widow(Natasha Romanoff)
first appearance: Tales of Suspense # 52 (April 1964)
affiliation(s):S.H.I.E.L.D.,Avengers,Champions
KGB,Marvel Knights and Lady Liberators.
Colossus(Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin)
First appearance:Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975)
team affiliations:X-Men, Defenders,Excalibur and Acolytes.
Omega Red
First appearance:X-Men #4 (vol. 2, January 1992)
team affiliations: USSR, the hand and the mafia.
Crimson Dynamo
first appearance:Tales of Suspense #46
(Oct 1963) (there has been several crimson dynamos however.)
Red Star
first appearance:Teen Titans #18 (1968)
team affiliation: Teen Titans
Pozhar
first appearance:fury of firestorm # 62(august 1987)
team affiliation: red shadow, rocket red brigade.
Rocket Red Brigade(a team of Russian super heroes from the DC universe)
first appearance: Green Lantern Corps #208, (January 1987)
Aleksander Lukin
first appearance:Captain America volume 5 #1
team affiliations: Kronas Corporation, Roxxon Oil and KGB.
KGBeast(Anatoli Knyazev)
first appearance:Batman #417 (March 1988)
team affiliations:KGB, Penguin's gang.
That is a list of the more commonly known popular comic book characters that are Russian. However, there is several more that have appeared. Among them there is Cossack(found in the pages of Kingdom Come),Black Widow II, Blind Faith, Hammer, Firebird, Fireball and many more.
Russia has typically been portrayed as an enemy of America in the comics. The cold war allowed for comic book writers to look at true life events and feed off them and include them into their comics. Just the way America was competing against the Russians in real life, it was very clear that it was the same way in the comic book world. For example, Omega Red was revealed to be an experiment by the Russian government to counter Captain America. In the modern age, Russia has been portrayed as a country of high corruption were military officials have access to a lot of man power. Villains tend to attempt to recruit the forces of corrupt individuals in order to feed their dreams of world power.
Possibly the most prominent Russia inspired comic book storyline is Superman: Red Son written by Mark Millar and released in 2003. The comic book follows an alternate scenario of the life of Superman. Superman having landed in the Soviet Union instead of the United States. Today Russia is a top player in the world stage and that can still be seen in comic books. Comics with high levels of espionage and military style action such as Captain America feature Russia quite frequently.
That wraps up the first installment of the world in comics. Articles will constantly be updated to add new heroes and villains.