Off The Rack

One Man's Views: Freedom Fighters Issues 1 - 5 (DC Comics) — (November 1997) In keeping with my personal theme of Nostalgia, I'll be reviewing DC's Freedom Fighters. There were 15 issues in total, and my plan is to review 5 issues at a time. You may be wondering what's up with my title. Simple, really. Because of DC's attempts at CPR (Continuity Perception Repair) these great characters of Earth-X (where the Nazis won the war and ruled the earth) aren't viable any longer. Sure, the Team as they were are still the same, but we now have a new Ray, a new Phantom Lady, a new Black Condor, and soon, a new Uncle Sam in the DCU. Thus, no one's interested in the original group of Freedom Fighters (who fought alongside the Justice Society of America and All-Star Society). Oh well, at least I still have my memories.

By the way, as always, these aren't real reviews. And, considering they're 20 years old now, I won't worry about spoilers. Let it be known, I'll be spilling the beans on all the storylines!! :)

In case you're not familiar with them, they are: Uncle Sam- the Spirit of Liberty; as strong as people's beliefs in America, Roy Lincoln- who swallowed a special formula rather than hand it over to the Nazis and it concentrated in his hands and changed him into The Human Bomb, Sandra Knight- who crusades as The Phantom Lady with her special blackout ray, Darrell Dare- a six footer who can shrink to 6 inches through sheer willpower alone and fight as the Doll Man, Happy Terril- a newspaper reporter who got caught in a cosmic storm and came out of it with the power to travel on beams of light who fights by the name of The Ray, and The Black Condor- a mutant, a biological oddity with the natural power of flight who was a senator on Earth-X by the name of Tom Wright. With the help of the Justice League (in JLA 107-108), they defeated the nazis and brought freedom to their world. However, with that threat defeated, "...democracy began to turn once more. But they hummed right along without us. With Liberty restored, we had nothing to fight for any more. And frankly, we were bored... so with the help of a Teleporter developed by a scientist-friend, we arrived in Times Square..."

For those of you who love the behind-the-scenes story, here's some minor comments lifted from the Freedom Fanmail letters page of issue 1:

"The six stars of this mag began their careers with the QUALITY COMICS GROUP in the early forties. They prospered during World War Two, but as the forties ended, so did their success. QUALITY folded and sold most of their titles and characters to DC, including Blackhawk, Plastic Man and G.I. Combat. But DC's own superstars weren't selling too well at the time, so the QUALITY team was relegated to the back of the filing cabinet for seventeen years.

"Then came the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA... and when their annual team-ups with the Justice Society began to require guest-stars for variation, the QUALITY sextet was recast as The Freedom Fighters and brought back to life.

"The legend was recast also. Now the six were the surviving super-heroes of an alternate world called Earth-X, where the Nazi hordes had won World War Two and slaughtered all the other American heroes. Surely this was the nicest and most ironic touch --for it was the end of World War Two that really had killed the QUALITY characters, and here World War Two was being extended to keep them alive.

"When a combined JLA-JSA team was accidentally catapulted into the Earth-X universe, the Nazi mind-controlling devices were quickly smashed, and Earth-X freed. The JLA and JSA members returned to their own worlds, and the Freedom Fighters sat down to get used to living in a free world again..."

This pretty much sounds like the same kind of thing that happened to all those Fawcett characters DC acquired and then set up on Earth-S, doesn't it? :) Well, anyhow, on to the reviews!