title: "The Tyrant Out of Time!"
writer/co-creator: Roy Thomas
penciller/co-creator: Rich Buckler
inker: Jerry Ordway
letterer: John Costanza
colorist: Carl Gafford
editor: Len Wein
letter column: Roy Thomas
cover: Joe Kubert
Order of Appearance: Phantom Lady is the only Freedom Fighter to appear in this story.
Other Stars: The Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, Liberty Belle, Johnny Quick, Plastic Man, Robot Man, Hawkman in the United States; Shining Knight on an island in the Pacific; cameos by other Justice Society members the Sandman, Starman, Dr. Fate, the Spectre, and Johnny Thunder
Supporting Characters:
Danette Reilly, Professor Zee
Opponents:
Per Degaton and his minions from the future Wotan, Professor Zodiak, Solomon Grundy, and Sky Pirate
Overall Summary:
Per Degaton travels from the future, using the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to cover his kidnapping of the majority of Justice Society members. He hopes to use the attack in Hawaii to his advantage, so that he can eventually win the War and take over the world himself! However, there are more Mystery Men besides the JSA still free to hunt him down....!
The seven founding members of the All-Star Squadron rush from Washington, DC to the US West Coast to investigate and potentially stop a Japanese invasion. On the way, several of the "mystery men" tell each other how they got started as super-heroes.
Per Degaton, who has travelled back from 1947 with a band of super-villains, tells his captives, the Shining Knight and geologist Danette Reilly, how he took advantage of Professor Zee's time machine. With it, he intends to take over 1941 for himself.
Above San Francisco, the Sky Pirate (from Green Lantern #27, Aug/Sept 1947) leads a group of hypnotized Japanese Imperial pilots on an attack. The All-Star Squadron arrives just in time to battle against these Zeroes, and as they are defeated they all disappear back into the time stream. Before Sky Pirate disappears he tells Robot Man the entire fantastic story.
On the ground, the citizens of San Francisco head for cover. This includes visiting Senator Henry Knight and his daughter, Sandra. They return to their hotel, but then Sandra becomes Phantom Lady and sneaks out to help in any way she can. This includes helping a woman black out a neon sign that was not turned off during the air raid.
Review:
So here it is, the book Roy Thomas had always wanted to write: tales of the Golden Age DC heroes set in the Golden Age! Regardless of how well he, Rich Buckler, and Jerry Ordway told this story, you have to admire their enthusiasm. You can just FEEL the love Roy has for these characters, bursting forth on every page.
That being said, there is a lot to unpack with All-Star Squadron, but I'll go slow (as Roy did, at the time).
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this series, All-Star Squadron is set during World War II on the Golden Age world where the original Green Lantern, Flash, Hawkman, and their contemporaries were still active. Pre-Crisis this world was called "Earth-Two" to differentiate it from the main DCU world, "Earth-One," where groups like the Justice League and the Teen Titans were active. Instead of writing new stories of the Justice Society, Seven Soldiers, and others on present-day Earth-Two, Roy made the editorial decision to base this series in the past, when (arguably) these characters were at their peak.
In the preview story published as an extra in Justice League of America #193, most of the Justice Society members are kidnapped by the time-travelling Per Degaton and his team of time-travelling super-villains. US President Franklin Roosevelt makes an Executive Order to create the All-Star Squadron as an extra-special war-time protective force. It is then up to remaining JSA members Hawkman, the Atom, and Dr. Mid-Nite and non-JSA "mystery men" Libety Belle, Johnny Quick, Robotman, and Plastic Man to help defend America against Japanese invasion on December 7, 1941. That brings us to this issue, when this group of "mystery men" head to the US West Coast "just in case the Japanese launch a surprise attack there, like they did in Hawaii."
As for the story itself, I have to admit that as a kid I enjoyed Roy's Marvel version of this, The Invaders, which was set in England and Europe during the early days of World War II. This DC series, however, reads a bit differently. In this book there are a handful of panels where the US citizens cry out about the "Nip sneak attack" and "Japanazis" and other, shall we say, out-of-date pejoratives that were certainly used at the time (December 7, 1941) but are borderline racist now (as well as when they were first published, in Summer 1981). Because this series begins on the day the United States entered World War II, there will be a lot of racism shown on the Home Front. In fact, there are quite a few issues of All-Star Squadron that I do not remember as fondly as I do The Invaders. We will cover those together if any of them include the Freedom Fighters, but I don't look forward to them....
Besides that, this initial story arc was always one of my least favorites, mostly because it features Per Degaton, my personal nominee of One Trick Pony Character of the Century. EVERY single time he appears it is a riff on the "I stole the time machine from Professor Zee and (blank)." And EVERY single time he is defeated, and goes back to working for Professor Zee thinking, "I had the weirdest dream last night." EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
This time his plot is even more convoluted, what with him going back in time from his "current day" in 1947, but bringing a couple super-villains back in time with him! Let me ask you: if you were a King Bee, or Sky Pirate, or Professor Zodiak, would YOU go back in time with Per Degaton!?!! It's just stupid. What could have been a straight-forward "why didn't the JSA prevent Pearl Harbor?" story turns into a time-travelling mess. The art by Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway is fantastic, and that is by far the best part of the issue! All of the characters, even those I wasn't particularly familiar with, look great!
And that brings us to the sole Freedom Fighter featured in this issue. I was happily confused to see Phantom Lady appear in this story, with the origin that I was accustomed to (daughter of a Senator). Firstly, I was happy because she was there at all, and she looks great! Of course, I noticed right away that she now has a mask, something she almost never had in her Golden Age appearances, and absolutely never had during her Freedom Fighters days. Still, you can't really keep your identity secret if you don't have some type of mask on, right? So I forgive that addition to the uniform.
However, the point that is glossed over in this issue (and will be continually for the next two years) is the issue that actually confused me: Phantom Lady is NOT and never was from the same world as the Justice Society, so she shouldn't be included here at all!
Those of you who have been following my reviews of the Freedom Fighters on this blog know that they are originally from another dimensional world called Earth-X, neither Earth One nor Earth Two, where the Nazis actually won World War II. She and her team-mates never met the Justice Society OR the Justice League before 1973! So to include Phantom Lady here, on what is clearly identified as Earth Two, is more than somewhat confusing!
Her inclusion, and that of Plastic Man, and the eventual inclusion of the majority of Quality Comics characters, will eventually be explained in All-Star Squadron. For now, though, we can only enjoy her appearance and hope for the quick inclusion of her erstwhile team-mates.
Specifically, Phantom Lady is portrayed well, not only as coolly professional but also as brave and clever. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Roy chose to include her because she was one of the few female characters at the time, and that he liked her. As a debut, she does just fine.
Phantom Lady Moment
Phantom Lady, confident in her black-out light, stops a car full of crooks from escaping
Freedom Fanmail
This issue's letter column was a text piece by Roy regarding his love of these characters. It also included a run-down on the debut appearances and origins of all of the characters featured. In Phantom Lady's case, he attributed her debut to Police Comics #1, but then states that she never had an origin. Does that mean that Bob Rozakis wrote her origin, which appeared in Freedom Fighters #15?!? I find that very hard to believe.....
This issue's letter column was a text piece by Roy regarding his love of these characters. It also included a run-down on the debut appearances and origins of all of the characters featured. In Phantom Lady's case, he attributed her debut to Police Comics #1, but then states that she never had an origin. Does that mean that Bob Rozakis wrote her origin, which appeared in Freedom Fighters #15?!? I find that very hard to believe.....
Freedom of Information
- Rod Reilly appeared in the prologue and in All-Star Squadron #1 as a member of the Navy. No mention yet of his alter ego, Firebrand.
- Phantom Lady's black-out ray resembles a flashlight, not a bracelet. This is a call-out to her original ray, as illustrated in the Golden Age by artists such as Arthur Peddy.
The Freedom Fighters
assembled by Len Wein
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