Or – “Quality Comics Group, Represent!”

DC’s history in the comic book industry is a long and storied one, but the most interesting facet of their current catalog of characters is the sheer number of them that USED to belong to competing publishing firms. The Ted Kord Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Nightshade, The Question, Judomaster, Peacemaker and other ancillary characters (including Sarge Steel) came from the late, lamented Charlton Comics. Captain and Mary Marvel and Doctor Sivana (along with their assorted hangers-on) originated with Fawcett Comics until DC forced them out of business, and The Freedom Fighters (as well as JLA stalwart Plastic Man, Birds of Prey’s Lady Blackhawk and others) started their careers at Quality Comics. Regardless of their origins, though, the last US&FF miniseries was thought-provoking, infuriating, and entertainingly weird, and we seem to be setting sail for that territory again.

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Or – “If They’re All From Earth-X, What Happened To A Through W?”

One of the problems with alternate Earths (after the obvious trying to remember which character resides on which Earth) is the name designations. Marvel’s current numbering system makes sense, but is also ridiculously obscure and complicated. The designation “Earth 616″ (invented by Alan Moore, who says it’s arbitrary, though some claim it’s derived from the shipping date of Fantastic Four #1, the year 1961, and 6 standing for the month of June) making it clear that their world is one of many, but the overwhelming evidence that only 616 continuity really matters can be found in any issue of Exiles. As for DC, the use of Earth-1 to designate the SECOND Earth that was discovered again shows a bias towards “the home team” in terms of naming. The joke behind Earth X is that writer (I think it was Cary Bates) wanted to identify it as Earth-(swastika symbol), but Julie Schwartz refused to represent that image in any comic he edited. Julie erased the bars on the swastika, and voila! We have Earth-X! What does this have to do with the climactic issue of this miniseries? Not a thing! On we go!

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Or – “Stand By For Matthew ‘Mark-Out’ Moment In Three… Two… One…”

I realized something during this issue of USFF that I hadn’t realized before… The structure of this story is very much a classical “rags to riches” tale, with the characters starting at their lowest points (or in some cases, being INTRODUCED at an intentionally low point) and building towards heroism. The thing that masked it from me was, ironically, the one piece of the puzzle that stuck in my craw: Not all the old Fighters were dead. In fact, as I intimated last time, one of them was alive and still using the same name as one of the NEW guys. Usually, in comics, when a new guy gets your name, you’ll end up depowered, dead, or renamed to something stupid, and it galled me that a character with potential was being thrown aside for a new character who, frankly, had none. How could DC do this in good conscience?

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Or – “Crisis On Earth-Whichever-One-Is-Left-Now!”

As a fan of old-school superheroics, it’s always interesting to me which characters get chosen for revamps and which do not. The return of the Freedom Fighters in 1973 probably didn’t make a lot of sense to the readers of the time, as their original incarnations from Quality Comics hadn’t been seen in 25 years. When their own series tanked, they were pretty much used only as background characters, until the newest incarnation of the team was brutally killed in Infinite Crisis. I chalked up their appearance there as doing two things: killing off a name team, (however small that name may be), and reminding those old enough to remember about the multiverse. I was surprised to find out that the team would be getting their own book, but is the surprise a pleasant one?

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