Freedom Fighters #3

Freedom Fighters #3 (August 1976)
title: Skragg the Super Sniper! (Untitled)
writer: Martin Pasko
penciller: Ramona Fradon
inker: Juan Canale
letterer: uncredited

colorist: Liz Berube
plot/editor: Gerry Conway
letter column: Gerry Conway
cover: Dick Giordano

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

Guest Stars:  None

Supporting Characters:
NYC District Attorney David Pearson 

Opponents:
Skragg, Qwardian Boy Scouts, the New York City Police Department

Overall Summary: 
The Freedom Fighters try to stop a robbery and save lives while also coming to grips with the idea that they are fugitives.  

Plot Summary:
The police have surrounded the Van Zandt mansion and are ordering the Freedom Fighters to give themselves up. The Human Bomb creates a diversion, then the Ray blinds the spotlight so that the heroes can escape. Phantom Lady uses her black light ray to help blind the police, too. 

The next day, at the home of Arthur "Ted" Sommar, he suddenly goes homicidal and kills his wife, Midge, before heading off to work as usual.  

At the Freedom Fighters' hide-out, they decide to go after the Silver Ghost's goons. They believe that they can clear their name by backing up their claim that they had been blackmailed into helping the Silver Ghost. Doll Man returns from the post office with copies of WANTED posters of the Fighters. In order to help escape detection by the police, Doll Man decides to try to make an "invisibility field" using the Ray's and Phantom Lady's powers. 

After the procedure, the team goes out to stop a burglary at a sporting goods store on and are successfully invisible to them. As they battle, however, two passing Qwardian Boy Scouts fly by and want to assist the thieves. They attempt to mutate one of the thieves but hit Arthur Sommar my mistake. Satisfied with their evil deed and not taking the time to check out the results of their intervention, they return to their anti-matter dimension. 

Ted transforms into a living straser (strafing laser unit) known as Skragg, the Super Sniper. Skragg immediately blasts the whole building around the thieves and the Freedom Fighters, burying them in rubble. 

Eventually the Freedom Fighters dig themselves out of the rubble. They receive a distress signal, so chase after it, finding Doll Man trailing Skragg. The Ray, Human Bomb, and Doll Man knock Skragg off of his sky-sled, and then Uncle Sam knocks him out. 

Later, after the Freedom Fighters have brought the unconscious Skragg back to their apartment, they realize that they are still missing Phantom Lady. Just as they are about to head out looking for her, Skragg wakes up, but with the consciousness of Ted Summar. He attempts to call one of his fellow lawyers, but the annoying voice of the New York City telephone operator transforms him back into Skragg again. He promptly becomes homicidal and destructive. 

When the Human Bomb is blasted point-blank by Skragg, he has to use his own explosive powers on himself to calm his own heart-rate. Uncle Sam, Black Condor, and Doll Man attempt to stop Skragg, but their efforts fail. Finally, the Human Bomb destroys Skragg's sky-sled, "grounding" him. However, Skragg cannot hold on to the edge of the building because he has no hands; when the Ray tries to grab on to him, the Ray's hand "phases" out, and Skragg falls to his death. 

Doll Man figures that the earlier power transfusion which allowed them to be invisible also caused the Ray to become intangible. Later, Black Condor investigates and finds that every building that Skragg blasted housed offices of corporations where Ted Sommar worked. They think possibly he was targeting his offices. 

Phantom Lady returns to their apartment hide-out after having had trouble digging herself free from under the debris. Doll Man theorizes that after the power transfusion, she was unable to "phase" out, accidentally trapping her. He then realizes that they have to move out of their apartment, as he signed the lease with his real name, which is known to the police. Phantom Lady suggests turning themselves in. The Ray just wants to go home to Earth-X. Uncle Sam ponders where they could possibly belong. 

Review: 

I'm going to be brutally honest here and admit right up front that this is my least favorite issue of Freedom Fighters. In fact, I'm hard pressed to find anything about this issue to praise! 

Let's start with the art, which is by one of my favorites, Ramona Fradon. She will be the penciller for the next few issues, but in her introductory story she is paired with somebody named Juan Canale on inks. Let me just say, their styles do NOT mesh well. I don't see any other art credits for Mr. Canale on Mike's Amazing World of Comics, so I'm wondering if this is a pseudonym? The art resembles Vince Colletta in certain places, and I don't mean that as a compliment. 

The characters sometimes appear too cartoony (pages 4, 8, and 13 for example). Then in the group shots, the choreography is just not very good (we don't see Black Condor drop his friends on page 10 and we don't understand why Uncle Sam grabbed a billboard on page 15). 

But the big complaint I have is the story itself. The Freedom Fighters come across as totally incompetent during the entire thing! From the very first scene, when the police come to arrest them on charges of terrorism and vandalism, instead of trying to talk things over with the police and the District Attorney, our heroes resist arrest, compounding their criminality. No discussion about whether they should give up, or what their other options are; they just break out and begin to worry about the repercussions later (on page five, it turns out.) Later, Doll Man tries to turn them all invisible (which, news flash, isn't in their power sets!) but ends up mucking around with several of their power levels. Oops! (Thankfully this plot device is promptly forgotten at the end of this story and never mentioned again.) Black Condor later drops his friends while carrying them over skyscrapers in New York City. The Ray later drops the hand of Skragg, causing him to fall to his death. The entire group overlooks the absence of Phantom Lady for the last half of the book! 

In short, these characters are not presented as being very good super-heroes! 

And on a different subject, the whole homicidal maniac personality of Arthur T. Sommar ("Ted" to his friends) is just disturbing. I have no idea what Martin Pasko and/or Gerry Conway was trying to do with this character, but he just doesn't work. The murder of his wife, even though she seems to be painted as an unpleasant character herself, is thoroughly disturbing. The scene where Ted changes back into Skragg because he has to talk to a New York City operator is...supposed to be funny, I guess, but is just jarring and... I keep using the word, "unpleasant." 

Lastly, on page 17 (reprinted above) Uncle Sam says that he is afraid that Skragg might come back. Uh... did he or did he not fall from the top of a skyscraper? Didn't anyone notice whether he was smashed when he landed, or not? Not very likely he walked away from that, Uncle Sam. And I for one am very, very glad that he did not come back. 

Next issue will feature Wonder Woman, so it will have to be better.....right? 

Black Condor and Uncle Sam Moment

Black Condor and Uncle Sam team-up to take down the alien living laser.    

Doll Man Moment

Doll Man proves again that he's the team's resident scientist, 

and that he dresses smartly, too!   

Human Bomb Moment

The Human Bomb uses his own powers to become his own make-shift defibrillator.   

Phantom Lady Moment 

Phantom Lady is in the thick of things, blinding thieves in downtown NYC.  

The Ray Moment

The Ray absorbs the light from the police lights, then hands it 

back to them, blinding them. That's pretty cool. 

Best Moment

I don't know about you, but in my opinion the cover is the best part of this issue. 

It really makes me want to dig into the story.

Great job by Dick Giordano. 

Worst Moment

Your mileage may vary, but to me this page is one of the most horrific 

pages I've ever seen in a comic. This is nothing but cold-blooded murder, 

by a psychopath, presented to us as... social commentary? farce? entertainment? Yuck.  

Moment They Could Have Been Cleared

This is a new heading making its debut with this issue, as the Freedom Fighters are now officially WANTED criminals. As such, I will offer my advice as to how this particular plot device could have been cleared up, when warranted. (LoL, see what I did there?)   

This time out, the pivotal scene is the very first one, where the Freedom Fighters are surrounded by the New York City police. In my opinion, they should have given themselves up to the police instead of escaping from them. If the Fighters had come clean from the first, I'm sure Bruce Wayne would have paid to repair all of the damage they had caused while working for the Silver Ghost, and this whole "fugitive" story-line would have been cleared up as a one-and-done misunderstanding.  

Freedom Fanmail
This issue's letter column touched on the bickering between the Ray and Uncle Sam in FF #2, as well as the editorial decision to bring the heroes to Earth-1 rather than have them stay on Earth-X. In my opinion both are interesting points, and both were basically glossed over by the response (by, I assume, Gerry Conway himself).  Click to enlarge it for an easier-to-read version. 

Freedom of Information

• There is no title to this story. 
• This is the first time that all members do not appear on the cover. Eventually, Uncle Sam will end up on EVERY issue. Any guess as to who will appear the least often?  
• The WANTED posters feature a photo of The Ray without his mask on, which does not seem like something the DA would have. 
• The Qwardian Boy Scouts are named Kylor and Nimak. 
• Rockefeller Plaza is blasted and appears to fall on only the Freedom Figthers, as the thieves and pedestrians are not shown in or around the rubble. 
• The letter column references a cliffhanger ending to this issue's story when there isn't one.  

The Freedom Fighters

assembled by Len Wein