Freedom Fighters #1

Freedom Fighters #1 (April 1976)

title: The Freedom Fighters (Untitled)
script: Martin Pasko
layouts: Ric Estrada
finished art & letterer: Mike Royer
colorist: uncredited
plot/editor: Gerry Conway
letter column: Gerry Conway
cover: Ernie Chua (Chan)

Order of Appearance: All appear in one group scene on page one: (clockwise from top) The Ray, The Human Bomb, Doll Man, Phantom Lady, Uncle Sam, and Black Condor

Guest Stars:  None

Supporting Characters:
NYC District Attorney David Pearson (debut)

Opponents:
Silver Ghost, King Samson, and their gang

Overall Summary: 
The Freedom Fighters come to Earth-1 from their native Earth-X, but the move doesn't start off well! 

Plot Summary:
The six members of the Freedom Fighters appear out of thin air in Times Square, New York on what they quickly realize is Earth-1 (home of the Justice League). They enjoy a fleeting moment of happiness chatting with local New Yorkers before an explosion nearby catches their attention and they rush off to investigate. 

At the nearby Con Edison power plant, the six heroes meet the Silver Ghost and King Samson and their goons, who are attempting to destroy the place. Black Condor and Doll Man take down a few of the non-powered henchmen. When the Ray tries to interrupt the terrorism inside, however, he is stopped by King Samson. The Human Bomb, Uncle Sam, and Phantom Lady then join the fray. The Silver Ghost tries to grab Phantom Lady to turn her into silver, but they are both surprised to find that he goes right through her! He ends up turning one of his lackies into silver instead. Human Bomb blows up a street sign in his attempt to stop the Silver Ghost. While Uncle Sam is busy fusing a broken steam pipe back together, the bad guys decide to retreat, Phantom Lady uses her black-light ray to try to stop the gang from escaping, but they manage to fight off the heroes and get away. 

Later, the Freedom Fighters are brought in to see District Attorney David Pearson. They explain to him who they are and that they are from "Earth-X," where the Nazis were only recently defeated. They explain that they were bored in their post-war world, so they decided to come to our Earth. 

In Washington Heights, the descendant of Leuwen Van Zandt talks to his goons about taking over all of Manhattan as the Silver Ghost. The Silver Ghost tells his lackies that he is a descendant of the original Dutch settlers, and that his motive in unleashing "Operation: Fear City" is to eventually reclaim Manhattan for himself. 

The next day, DA Pearson offers the Freedom Fighters an abandoned armory on the east-side of New York City as their headquarters/home. We learn that the Ray is in love with Phantom Lady, and that she apparently reciprocates. However, we learn that the Human Bomb also has feelings for Phantom Lady. 

Later that day, King Samson and the Silver Ghost attack the Bell Telephone Switching Station in mid-town Manhattan in an attempt to destroy it, hoping to cripple the phone service and bring the city to its knees. Darrel Dane (Doll-Man) is trying to register at NYU for graduate classes, but rushes off when he hears the explosions. Black Condor and Phantom Lady are shopping nearby so they rush off, too. 

Black Condor and Doll-Man manage to knock down King Samson while Silver Ghost manages to turn Phantom Lady into silver. He then manages to turn the men into silver, too. 

Silver Ghost takes the silver statues of the three Freedom Fighters to their armory head-quarters and challenges the Ray, the Human Bomb, and Uncle Sam to become his slaves or he will never revive their friends. 

Review: 

I have to admit upfront, as a kid I read and re-read the hell out of this comic. As a kid, it was one of my favorite stories, period. I loved each of the characters. I loved the idea that they were starting fresh. I loved the idea of the Silver Ghost. I loved the art. 

It also helped that I wasn't able to find a copy of Freedom Fighters #2 when it initially came out (the second week of February, 1976?). The next issue I found was #3, so I then spent years trying to fill in my missing gap. I think that made this story even more precious to me. 

That being said, with the eyes of an adult I read this story now and I can see that there are a *few* problems with it, LoL. First and foremost, I don't know if I agree with the idea that the Fighters should have left Earth X. This particular story really COULD have been set on Earth-X, as Silver Ghost and King Samson are brand new characters. Now, I understand that DC wanted these heroes to be able to interact with other characters in their shared universe (such as Wonder Woman, coming up soon) but I think these characters lose a little bit of something when you stop and think of them as having abandoned their Earth in a very important rebuilding phase. I think it might have been better to play on that idea more; did each of the members agree with the decision to relocate? Did none of them have any ties to their old world? Was it really as cut-and-dry as Gerry Conway makes it out to be here? Without any of their back-stories, the fact that they come from another dimension is watered down as a personality trait to even less that the equivalent of me being from St. Louis but now living in Columbus. It's an uber-simplified handling of an uber-important decision. 

Now, I get that spending too much time on that type of moral dilemna would take away from the action and drama. But it's a fine line that DC should have tried harder to balance. 

What personalities we do get here seem semi-stereotypical: the brash and bright Ray, the bubbly Phantom Lady, the stoic Uncle Sam, the lonely Human Bomb, etcetera. Their characterizations improve in the future, but what's on the paper in this specific issue, whoo boy, pretty simple. 

The one thing I don't see any problems with, even 40 plus years later, is the art. Ric Estrada and Mike Royer knocked this issue out of the park! Every member looks fantastic on every page. Can you blame me for wanting to track down a copy of #2 after reading the cliff-hanger ending like this? 

You won't have to wait until February, though. Be back here next week to see how Our Heroes get out of their predicament! 

Black Condor Moment 

Black Condor flies right into danger and uses his flying and acrobatic 

techniques to knock out two of the Silver Ghost's men.   

Doll Man Moment

Doll Man rides a pigeon to get to the telephone switching station, 

then dives rights into King Samson's face. Pretty impressive!  

Human Bomb Moment

The Human Bomb shows the Silver Ghost (and us) just what he can do. 

Scenes like this one quickly made HB my favorite Fighter.  

Phantom Lady Moment 

Phantom Lady learns she has a new power in this very dramatic scene. 

The Ray Moment

The Ray dives right into the action, just as Black Condor had, but 

unfortunately, his results are not quite as good. 

Uncle Sam Moment

Uncle Sam gets nearly a whole page to show off his super-human strength

in a very well-done sequence. 

Best Moment

The Freedom Fighters long for adventure, so decide to leave their free 

world and head to another dimension. Pretty brave of them.  

Worst Moment

Obviously, three members of the group NOT being able to play "tag" 

with the Silver Ghost HAS to rate as the Worst Moment of the story. 

Freedom Fanmail
This issue's letter column was all about the history of the Freedom Fighters, and the enthusiasm writer/editor Gerry Conway had about this series. It's hard to read this knowing what is coming for this book. On the other hand, it's fascinating as a time capsule of what DC and Gerry Conway were up to in the Winter of 1975. Click to enlarge it for an easier-to-read version. 

Freedom of Information

• There is no title to this story. 
• Each of the members appear on the cover. 
• The ribbon on the top of the cover clearly features a face of Uncle Sam taken from the pages of JLA #107, with art by Dick Dillin & Dick Giordano. 
• King Samson wears a hard-hat in his first scene, but not in his second. 
• The real-life District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan) at this time was Robert Morgenthau (D). He served from January 1975 thru December 2009. 
• The letter column group shot is from the splash page of JLA #108. 

The Freedom Fighters

assembled by Len Wein