Origin

On September 11, 2001, four United Airlines planes were hijacked. Two of the planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing thousands. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon, albeit with much less casualties, while the last plane's passengers had cellphones and learned of the earlier attacks, so they decided to revolt against the hijackers, and the plane ended up crash-landing in a field in Pennsylvania and averting a final terrorist attack directed at the White House.

On September 14, President Bush declared a national emergency. Him and other Western leaders used this moment to rally public support to wage war in Afghanistan and more controversially in Iraq. Congress had authorized the use of force to fight whoever attacked the U.S.

Since then, airport securities everywhere were tightened, intelligence organizations became more aggressive in their operations, prejudice against Muslims in the West heightened, while Libertarianism bloomed as a result.

In conclusion, the 9/11 struck American citizens deeply after a decade of peace and hope during the 1990's. After decades of fighting fascism and communism, the world now has to face a new, flourishing extremist ideology.

Cultural impact

A period of both grief and distrust followed the 9/11 attacks. Americans were traumatized. They donated food, money, supplies, and time for the recovery effort. They protested together to demonstrate their unity and resolve. Most of the population became wary of more attacks, and artists responded with many of their works depicting attacks which compromised national security and American standing as the world's most influential superpower.

Portrayal in comics

In the aftermath of 9/11, many comics dealt with the attacks in various ways. There were benefit anthologies, comics that used it as a theme in the story or non-fiction books.

Benefit Books

Every major comics company published an anthology that donated its money to a 9/11 fund.

• 9-11 (Dark Horse, Image, Chaos!)
• Heroes (Marvel)
• Moment of Silence (Marvel)

9/11 in Stories

• The Amazing Spider-Man #477 (The so-called "Black Issue" that shows how the Marvel heroes react to 9/11)
• The Boys #18-21 (story arc "The Seven" that shows an alternate history of the attacks)
• Ex Machina (dealing with the hero Great Machine who becomes mayor of New York after preventing the attacks)
• Green Lantern #0 (Simon Baz is shown seeing 9/11 on TV)
• Human Target #2-3 (Peter Milligan deals with 9/11 through the character of Christopher Chance)
• Captain America (Most of the volume deals with Cap fighting terrorism in the wake of 9/11)
• The Big Lie (a one-shot by Rick Veitch that deals with conspiracy theories about 9/11)
• Frank Miller's Holy Terror (Frank Miller's controversial take on terrorism in the wake of 9/11)
• Far Sector #05 (Sojourner Mullein is near ground zero and tragedy inspired her to enlist in the military)

Non-Fiction Comics

• In the Shadow of No Towers (by Art Spiegelman)
• I Love New York (by Joseph Michael Lisner)