Ah, the ice lair! From Superman’s Fortress of Solitude to Ozymandias’s Antarctic headquarters in Watchmen to the Rebel Alliance’s Echo Base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, nothing quite exudes sophistication, rugged determination, or - pun intended - sheer cool than a hideout carved out of cold, hard snow and ice. But while certainly stylish and awesome, such sub-zero digs are surely the exclusive preserve of comic book heroes and villains, being too impractical to build in real life, right? Well, actually no! In the late 1950s, the United States Army actually attempted to build a supervillain ice lair of its own, carving an elaborate nuclear-powered base directly into the Greenland ice cap. While sold to the public as a peaceful research outpost, the facility actually had a far more sinister, secret purpose, which had it been completed would have further ratcheted up already high Cold War tensions. This is the forgotten and fascinating story of Project Iceworm.

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