Lately I’ve been reading through X-Men comics from the 1970s. As a whole, it’s pretty rough reading, with Chris Claremont’s dense and obtuse dialogue and semi-absurd plots, but it’s been rewarding all the same. One of my favorite finds is the cover for Uncanny X-Men #124. Behold!

To anyone who claims that the X-Men can be an analogy for Cold War paranoia, with the X-Men representing American communists targeted by the Red Scare, I say BULLCRAP!Just look at that commie menace! Not only is Colossus wearing red overalls and work hat, but he’s got a mess of soviet symbols adorning his chest: A portrait of Lenin, a hammer and sickle and the acronym CCCP (the Russian version of “USSR”). He’s a working killing machine!!!

And his new codename is the (Power-Mad) Proletarian!!! It doesn’t get much more perfect than that.