One of the best known and most popular fictional characters of the 1980s, Rambo was introduced in David Morrell's 1972 novel First Blood with the words, "His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky." Rambo's popularity was due especially to the series of films based on the Rambo character, especially the second film, Rambo: First Blood Part II, in which the hero, played by Sylvester Stallone, symbolically "wins" the Vietnam War. After the humiliation of Vietnam, the disgust over Watergate, and the four-year presidency of the somber, soul-searching Jimmy Carter, America in the 1980s was ready for a change. Throughout that decade, both President Ronald Reagan and Rambo proclaimed the same message: America is back!

Sylvester Stallone as Rambo.

In the novel, the character bears little resemblance to...