Freedom Fighters #15

Freedom Fighters #15 (August 1978)
title: "Carnival of Death!"
writer: Bob Rozakis
penciller: Dick Ayers
inker: Jack Abel
letterer: Milt Snapinn
colorist: Mario Sen
editor: Jack C. Harris
letter column: Jack C. Harris
cover: Alex Saviuk & Frank Giacoia

Order of Appearance: Phantom Lady appears first and foremost, then The Ray, Uncle Sam, Firebrand, Black Condor, Doll Man, and finally The Human Bomb.

Guest Stars:  Batgirl and Batwoman

Supporting Characters: None

Opponents:
Alien Invaders

Overall Summary: 
The Freedom Fighters stop an alien invasion! Hooray!  

Plot Summary:

Phantom Lady is on a spaceship flying away from Earth. She thinks to herself that she has come a LONG way from her humble origin, which she then remembers to try to calm herself down. 

She remembers when she saved the life of her father, a US Senator, by stepping out of, and then back into, the shadows. Her father tells her that his savior was some type of "phantom lady..." and she decided then and there to help people permanently. Now, reminded of why she does what she does, she faces her new challenge. 

Suddenly she is happy to see The Ray reform from the gelatinous glob that he and the Human Bomb had been transformed into. She had phantomed out when the aliens "vacuumed" up the roller coaster car into the spaceship, which allowed her to remain human. Now, working together, they have to come up with a plan to turn the spaceship around and defeat the invading aliens. 

Meanwhile back on Earth, Uncle Sam and Firebrand confront carnival owner Kathy Kane about the suspicious activities going on at the site. She and her guest, Barbara, switch to their Batwoman and Batgirl identities. Batgirl is suspicious of the Freedom Fighters, but Uncle Sam tells her that "her Daddy" Batman can vouch for them. They tell the women what is going on, about people being replaced by synthetic replicas. They meet up with Black Condor and Doll Man, who found a factory hidden underneath the roller coaster. They all charge off to investigate. 

Back in space, the spaceship actually arrives on a planet populated by little men (no women in sight) who seem to have no ears and no mouths. Phantom Lady and The Ray can "hear" and understand the aliens communicating telepathically about their plans to create a giant war-maker out of human jelly.

Phantom Lady thinks that feeding excess power to The Human Bomb in the war-maker's foot will destroy it. She tells The Ray to convert to pure energy and then to "spark" the war-maker's foot, where she believes The Human Bomb's essence is. 

It works, as The Human Bomb reacts to the Ray's excess energy and destroys the war-maker, causing it to revert back to all of the stolen Americans. Together they all fight against the invaders. (Yeah, it's weird.)

Back on Earth, the remaining Freedom Fighters, Batwoman, and Batgirl confront the little green men  who they find in the hidden factory. However, the aliens are able to use some type of mental force to stop the heroes from charging. When Doll Man grows to normal size, that counters the mental command against him not to fight, and he is able to knock out two of the aliens. 

That frees Batgirl, who knocks down the remaining aliens. As they are being restrained, one mentally commands their synthetic men to attack. The heroes make quick work of the synthetic men, who apparently were not created with fighting in their skill set. 

As the last of them are defeated, Phantom Lady and the others and the kidnapped humans return. As everyone is distracted by this, the aliens rush onto the spaceship and immediately take off, escaping. 

That night, Barbara Gordon heads back to Washington, DC but the Freedom Fighters decide to stay put. They will travel with Kathy's carnival, all the while searching for the Silver Ghost. 

However, according to the Next Issue box the Freedom Fighters will FIND the Silver Ghost...in the pages of Secret Society of Super-Villains #16! 

Review: 

When you get to the end of this story you are probably thinking, "That story was really weird and not very good." Then you think, "Well, their decision to continue as carnival side-show entertainers sounds fun, so next issue will hopefully be better." Then you realize, "But holy shit, before that there's going to be a crossover with the Secret Society of Super-Villains!! Cool!!" 

You're in for a bit of heartache and a long, long wait, Little Russell Burbage. 

You turn the page and read the letters' page and find out that this is the LAST issue of Freedom Fighters. 

This is depressing news, but not completely surprising. Copies of the last few issues have been sitting on the comic racks for months. Specifically I remember seeing FF #12 (arguably one of the best issues) seems like EVERY TIME I went to get new comics. 

Still, this was one of my favorite titles and I was not happy. Little did I know that the DC Implosion nee Explosion was just around the corner, and was going to break my little 13-year old heart to pieces. 

Oddly enough, this issue also features this in-house ad. Look for a very familiar face among the rest of the gang (of losers).  

What else is there to say about this issue? The art by Dick Ayers and Jack Abel is competent but not very exciting. Some of the scenes where pieces of the synthetic men go flying are just not very good. 

And the story? As I mentioned last issue, Gardner Fox did it better in JLA #4. How or why did the aliens hit on the idea of reprocessing humans into a super soldier? Why start their attack from a minor carnival on the East Coast? How did Kathy Kane not notice that her guests were acting strange? Why were there no female aliens? (Stever Gerber tackled this issue in the pages of The Defenders with the alien race the Badoon, which was fun.) After one or two aliens are knocked down by Doll Man and Batgirl, why didn't another alien just order the Freedom Fighters to stop their physical activity again? Why do I care? 

Sure, we had to wrap everything up in one issue, but if writer Bob Rozakis knew that this was the last issue, why try to pigeon-toe in Batwoman and Batgirl in the first place? They add nothing to the story. If the location was going to be Kathy Kane's carnival, then I understand the inclusion of Batwoman. In fact, she would have made a great additional Freedom Fighter in the long-run. But Batgirl, as much as I love her as a character, just gets in the way of Black Condor, Uncle Sam, and Firebrand having more to do here. 

So, to sum up, this is a lousy last issue, but the hope is that the Freedom Fighters' story will continue to its conclusion in Secret Society of Super-Villains. (Present-day Russell Burbage sighs.) 

But before we get to the SSOSV, join us here next week for a very special Freedom Fighters appearance that I couldn't decide WHERE to post before---! 

Black Condor Moment 

Black Condor gets a fight scene against the synthetic men, 

as he admits they aren't much of a fighting force~!   

Doll Man Moment

Doll Man escapes from the aliens' mental prison, 

and gets the drop on two of them---  literally!  

Firebrand Moment

Firebrand gets a scene fighting the synthetic men

that he shares with Batwoman. 

Human Bomb and The Ray Moment

The Human Bomb saves the day and doesn't even know it,  

when The Ray overwhelms him with energy until he explodes!  

Phantom Lady Moment 

Phantom Lady takes on more of a leadership role here and I love it! 

See below for more on this!  

Uncle Sam Moment

Uncle Sam knocks the synthetic mens' blocks off. Kpow! 

Best Moment

To me the best moments belong to Phantom Lady, who refuses to succumb to anxiety or 

inaction, and listens well enough to come up with a plan to save the day. 

I would have liked to have seen this personality trait continued if the book had gone on. 

Worst Moment

In order to complete the story the aliens get away and 

there is no explanation as to their motivations. Not good, guys. 

Moment They Could Have Been Cleared:

As this story does not concern the "outside world," there are no opportunities for the Freedom Fightrers to aver their innocence. 

This issue's letter column was all about the cancellation of this book and the immediate future of the characters crossing over to the pages of Secret Society and Black Lighting. 

"...the DC Explosion happens right now!!" (sigh) 

Freedom of Information

• Black Condor does not appear on the cover.  
• Uncle Sam references meeting Batman, which occurred in JLA #s 107-108 and in DC Super-Stars #10.  
• What do you suppose happened to the leftover synthetic men? 
• This cover is some of the earliest work of Alex Saviuk. He told me when I asked him to sign this for me at Heroes Con that he was asked to do a few covers by Jack C. Harris, as he was already drawing Green Lantern for him at that time. 
• Over fifteen issues, Uncle Sam appeared on EVERY cover. The Ray comes in at #2 with thirteen covers, then the Human Bomb and Doll Man tie with twelve covers each. Phantom Lady appeared eleven times, Black Condor appeared ten times, and late-comer Firebrand appeared on four covers, every issue while he was a member. 

The Freedom Fighters

assembled by Len Wein