In an America without hope, conquered by a great darkness, there seems to be no light. When the heroes of the past have been defeated, who will stand up and take on the fight for freedom when even the embodiment of the American spirit has been forgotten? Find out in Freedom Fighters #1 from DC Comics, on shelves today!

FREEDOM FIGHTERS #1

Writer: Robert Venditti
Penciller: Eddy Barrows
Inker: Eber Ferreira
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Deron Bennett
Cover: Eddy Barrows, Adriano Lucas
Publisher:  DC Comics
Release Date: December 19th, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99

Previously in FREEDOM FIGHTERS:  The Freedom Fighters are comprised traditionally, of heroes DC Comics purchased from the defunct Quality Comics. While never brought together as a team by Quality, the Freedom Fighters became one in the original run of Justice League of America issues number 107-108. In that version, the characters forming the Freedom Fighters were heroes of Earth-X which had been conquered by Germany during World War II. They received their own series for fifteen issues during the seventies and have been brought back multiple times over the years by various creators with varying degrees of success.

THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR EVIL TO TRIUMPH…

In 1963 Dallas, Texas, a clandestine meeting is taking place to strike a blow against Nazi presence in what was the United States. Four men meet with the Resistance, ready to do what is ready. The superheroes known as Doll Man, Human Bomb, and Black Condor arrive with the number three most wanted man of the Reich, Olympic athlete Jesse Owens. This is an America much different from ours. In our 1963, racial tensions and war took the foreground and but none of that is on display here. The Resistance is comprised of men and women of all races, ages and creeds, none showing intolerance for the other. They stand before a ragged and stained American flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then hold a moment of silence for their fallen comrades, which include The Ray and Phantom Lady.  Then it is time for plans to be made. The Nazi factory in Garland, Texas is building some kind of weapon, a mechanical robot, which needs to be stopped. The Resistance leaders include the heroes in their plans; none noticing the flag they are fighting so hard to restore is morphing into something with a vaguely human appearance. The Plazztic Men have infiltrated the meeting, and no one is safe. Shapeshifting soldiers of the Reich, the Plazztic Men capture or kill every one of the Resistance members with little effort, including the heroes in which so much hope is held.  In minutes, it is over and the Resistance have been captured.

What does this mean to Uncle Sam, the living spirit of America? Can he survive when the American people have all but given up hope? Will; new heroes arise, or will evil live on in perpetuity? By the end of this issue new but familiar heroes will arrive to awaken the American spirit and take liberty back from those who have silenced it. Will they be the clarion call of a new age for this conquered country or will they meet the same fate as their predecessors?

…IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.

As mentioned earlier, the Freedom Fighters have a publication history that goes back to the early 1970’s.  They have had multiple appearances and mini-series, been used in Grant Morrison’s Multiversity, but always seem to come back regardless.

Writer Robert Venditti (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, The Flash) is the most recent one to bring them back from obscurity, and this opening issue of a twelve issue maxi-series looks to be an amalgamation of several of the previous versions. He stats our story in 1963, which was one of the most tumultuous years in American history with the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy being possibly the most lasting. His use of Jesse Owens, the man who embarrassed Hitler in the Reich in the Berlin 1936 Olympics by proving Hitler’s theory of racial superiority to be false. Including him as a member of the Resistance, a target of the Reich and a symbol of the fight for freedom, is wonderful. It makes sense on multiple levels and solidifies the state that world is in. We do not get many answers in this issue, and that is fine. What we are given is a wonderfully paced issue that sets up the historical state of the world and how that affect the events in the future.

The artwork by penciller Eddy Barrows (Detective Comics, Nightwing) and inker Eber Ferreira (Detective Comics, Earth 2 : World’s End) is dark and dirty with a touch of realism which at times makes the whole situation you find yourself reading a little uncomfortable, as it should. This is not a world of heroes. This is a world where the essence of America has been abandoned amid the pressure of a conquering power, and nearly all hope had been lost. The team works well together, and the page where the Resistance recites the Pledge of Allegiance is especially powerful.

BOTTOM LINE: A GOOD START TO WHAT HOPES TO BE A GREAT SERIES

I originally followed the Freedom Fighters due to my love of the patriotic hero archetype. Like many heroes, remembered and forgotten, the members of the Freedom Fighters started their careers during World War Two and on a hole they had an overtly optimistic view of the world. Seeing these heroes in this, a world where hope is lost, is moving. My biggest curiosity is the identity of the new Fuhrer. This world seems divergent of the original Earth-X and possibly even Earth-10. Will we see versions of other DC characters, such as Grant Morrison detailed in Multiveristy or will only characters from the old Quality Comics? There are more than forty characters in that stable and the only characters we have seen to this point have Quality origins. Remember, Plastic Man, basis for the Plazztic Men, was originally a Quality character. Personally, I would love to see just Quality characters or version of them used, but I’m still interested to see what goes.

FREEDOM FIGHTERS #1 moves toward its historical roots in this intriguing alternate history story. I look forward to discovering more of its present.