Entertaining and a bit surreal, but I did enjoy issue #3 of “Freedom Fighters”!
TITLE: Freedom Fighters issue #3
YEAR: August 1976
COMPANY: DC Comics
WRITER: Martin Pasko
ART: Ramona Fradon and Juan Canale
COLORING: Liz Berube
EDITING: Gerry Conway
Back in the late ’70s, DC Comics was going through changes. For one, they went up from 25 cents to 30 cents (with no change to page count) and they went on a bi-monthly schedule for some series. And they brought back several series in hopes of countering Marvel such as “All Star Comics”, “Metal Men” and as both comic book publishers celebrated the Bicentennial, DC Comics were trying to find ways to keep readers interested in this new superhero group displaced from Earth-X and are now in Earth-One.
I discussed awhile ago about how back in October-December 1973, “Justice League of America” issues #107-108 featured a Justice League of America/Justice Society of America team-up and introduced the Freedom Fighters which consisted of Uncle Sam, Black Condor, The Human Bomb, Doll Man, Phantom Lady and the Ray.
These heroes are from Earth-X, where unlike the Earth we know, this alternate universe unfortunately suffered with the Nazi’s winning the war and the Freedom Fighters taking them on.
In the last two issues, a villain known as The Silver Ghost turns the majority of the groups to silver, he blackmails Uncle Sam, the Human Bomb and Ray of helping them commit evil acts or else they lose the friends.
By doing so, the Freedom Fighters go from heroes to villains and are now wanted by authorities.
In issue #3, we have aliens trying to cause problems on Earth. We are introduced to Arthur T. Sommar, an older man who murders his wife and the aliens decide to turn this individual to SKRAGG to fight the Freedom Fighters.
It’s a corny concept to think an old guy becomes a killer and he is transformed by aliens to become this menace known as SKRAGG but yeah, the bold Martin Pasko went there and for the most part, it doesn’t disappoint.
But I think what I was surprised is that while murders do happen in comic books, once in a blue moon do you find housewives being murdered on the pages of a comic book. And in this issue, a homicidal maniac murders his wife. That was unexpected.
I actually enjoyed this series because you pull for these displaced heroes because they are in a different world but a world that is not corrupted by the Nazi’s. They are superheroes but circumstances have made them the enemies and they are wanted by authorities.
But while authorities want this group captured, they know there are bad guys doing bad things and as superheroes, they need to stop these criminals, despite the world thinking they are the criminals. So, it’s a different type of comic book series and that made me appreciate it more.
In some ways, it was like “what if the Justice Society was forced to come to modern USA?”.
Of course, we have seen the JSA come and assist the JLA in modern times before but not in this kind of situation as the Freedom Fighters.
And while I do enjoy the series, this is for those who enjoy DC Comics from the ’70s and it’s important to note that the storyline would never be resolved because the series was canceled and the story to complete the storyline in “Secret Society of Super Villains”, the storyline was shelved. So, The Freedom Fighters were pretty much screwed.
They did receive a resurrection in 2006 and have been featured in The New 52 but nevertheless, while I will still feature “The Freedom Fighters” (of the ’70s) on this blob, it’s a shame that DC Comics never gave closure to fans of the series, considering fans stuck around for 15 issues.