All-Star Squadron #31

All-Star Squadron #31 (March 1984)

title: "Uncle Sam Wants You!"

writer/editor: Roy Thomas
penciller: Rick Hoberg
inker: Mike Machlan
letterer: Cody & Costanza

colorist: Gene D'Angelo
letter column: Roy Thomas

cover: Jerry Ordway

Order of Appearance: The Ray, Black Condor, the Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, Uncle Sam; Doll Man 

Other Stars:  This issue features every All-Star Squadron member (see Roll Call panels below), plus special guest Midnight; cameos of the Shining Knight, Amazing Man, Aquaman, and Blackhawk; cameos by Hourman, the Red Torpedo, Magno the Magnetic Man, Miss America, Neon the Unknown, and the Invisible Hood

Opponents:
German saboteurs

Overall Summary: 
The All-Star Squadron holds its first ever full-membership meeting until it is interrupted by Uncle Sam and Midnight, both asking for help from the Squadron.   

Plot Summary:
On their way to the first full-fledged meeting of ALL "mystery men" in the United States, the Ray meets Black Condor. They then run into Hawkman and Hawkgirl. While approaching the All-Star Squadron head-quarters, Black Condor and the Ray tell the Hawks their secret origins. 

As they arrive at the headquarters of the All-Star Squadron, the heroes all intermingle and meet-and-greet. The Seven Soldiers meet various Justice Society members, the kid sidekicks compare their mentors, and Starman (Ted Knight) recognizes his cousin, Sandra Knight, as the Phantom Lady. She recognizes him as well, and gently chides him for not wearing any mask at all. 

Liberty Belle, in a new uniform that looks suspiciously like her previous one, opens the meeting as the chairperson and calls the roll. 

President Franklin Roosevelt addresses the members via closed-circuit television, telling them that their job is to protect the home front (aka the continental United States) from any possible Axis attack. After the President signs off, Black Condor and the Ray both disagree with that idea. They want to lead attacks on Tokyo or Berlin. Before the discussion can get any further, though, Uncle Sam storms in begging for help. 

Uncle Sam tells them that a few months ago he was pulled into a vortex that took him to another dimensional world. There, he learned that the Axis on that world were invading countries, too, but that there were no super-heroes on that world to oppose them! So he returned to his native Earth and brought back six super-heroes to help him fight Nazis and Japanese on that other world, including Hourman. Unfortunately, although he somehow survived, he believes that all the others were killed. 

Take a note of Neon in panel three above....

Uncle Sam eventually managed to return to his native world, on this actual night. Knowing that the All-Star Squadron was holding this meeting, he rushed to ask them for help. He wants more volunteers to go back with him. 

The Spectre and Sargon the Sorcerer admit to having no knowledge of the multiverse. The membership argues over the idea of helping Uncle Sam until Midnight bursts in, carrying an unconscious Doll Man. 

Review: 

This issue has a lot going for it, I have to admit. However, it's based on a faulty premise and is told so very badly that I just can't recommend it. And of course, Roy Thomas fundamentally changes the Freedom Fighters that we all know and love, which I just can't forgive him for.  

Starting with the good stuff, though, the art by Rick Hoberg and Mike Machlan is fantastic. This is the debut issue of Rick Hoberg as "permanent artist," and what a debut it is! He had earlier inked penciller Adrian Gonzales' work on this book, so he knew what he was getting into and clearly relishes doing it!  His style is clear and crisp, and although some pages or panels may seem dull, I'm sure it was incredibly difficult to juggle 50+ characters in just this one story! I only have two minor complaints about their art: 1. Mr. Terrific in the roll call is facing away from the camera. I understand the idea is to try to make the static "group photo" a little more than just "talking heads," but in this case we literally get the back of his head! That's a shame. And 2. There is a definite lack of backgrounds in several panels. For example, just look at the reprinted page directly above the beginning of this review. As I said earlier, I'm sure it was difficult to draw 50+ characters, but a bit more backgrounds would have been better. 

I also really like the fact that the Spectre and Sargon the Sorcerer are the two characters who talk about the multiverse. Long-time DC fans know that both of these heroes travel to Earth-One later in their careers, so I thought it was a nice touch to have them speak up here. 

My major complaints are against Roy Thomas. As he explains in this issue's letter column, he basically wanted his cake and he wanted to eat it, too. Specifically, he wanted to be able to play with the Quality characters that DC owned (the Freedom Fighters, Plastic Man, the Blackhawks) but he also wanted to keep in continuity the story of the Freedom Fighters as being from a world where the Nazis won World War II. Yet in a multiverse with two Flashes, two Green Lanterns, two Supermen, and two Batmen, he didn't want to have two sets of Freedom Fighters. 

I don't know why he didn't just ignore JLA #s 107-108, the storyline that introduced the Freedom Fighters and said that they were from a world where the Allies had lost. That story was from 1973, so why wouldn't this set of Freedom Fighters be the second generation of heroes fighting that war? In other words, in the same way that Earth-1 characters like Barry Allen and Hal Jordan were aware of their JSA versions from comics, why couldn't the Earth-X Freedom Fighters have taken their identities from All-Star Squadron era versions of these super-heroes? They never would have met each other, so what difference would it have made? 

But no, Roy Thomas felt obligated to "explain" a problem that didn't need fixing. In this issue he clearly establishes that the soon-to-be created "Freedom Fighters" are all originally from the Justice Society world, retconning out the main plot point from JLA #s107-108 in a totally needless way. You can't see me, but I am vehemently shaking my head even as I write this. 

Besides the fundamental disagreement with the course this story is taking, I have other complaints about this story which have nothing to do with the Freedom Fighters. My biggest gripe is with the story structure itself: Uncle Sam somehow opens up a vortex to another dimension (an ability he never had before and never has again) and then decides to take a group of heroes to "Earth-X." Instead of maintaining the uniqueness of the Freedom Fighters, Roy shoe-horns in five MORE (Quality Comics) characters. WHY!?!  The first time I read this story I thought, "Okay, Roy is actually trying to move ALL of the Quality characters to Earth-X. That atleast makes sense...." But as we will see, that is NOT what he was doing. Also, Plastic Man is vehemently AGAINST going to Earth-X, even though he is the most well-known Quality Comics character DC has. 

Speaking of going to Earth-X, I hate hate hate when writers try to create drama by threatening established characters you KNOW are not going to be killed. Case in point this issue: Hourman. Roy via Uncle Sam tells us that Hourman is dead. Well..... let me tell you (spoiler alert?), Hourman has appeared more than a dozen times since 1942, so I am guessing that if he IS dead, that he gets better. In fact, knowing that Hourman couldn't possibly be dead, I had hopes for the other initial Quality Comics characters missing in action. Here's hoping that they can return from the dead, too.  

Lastly, am I the only one who really didn't care for the inclusion of Midnight into this story? We do not know who he is or what he is up to, and never learn it. There is no "introduction" to him like there is for basically every other character in the story! So his attempts to escape from Nazis just distracted me. I suppose Roy will try to knit Midnight's and Doll Man's story in with Uncle Sam's story. We'll see how that goes. 

Believe it or not, this story gets worse. We'll be back next week.   

Black Condor Moment 

Black Condor speaks up in support of DOING something

(perhaps he's a Republican Senator not keen on FDR?)    

Doll Man Moment

Doll Man appears on the very last page of the story, 

unconscious and possibly dying!  

Human Bomb Moment

The Human Bomb has one line of dialogue in this story

(plus a "Hear, hear!" agreeing with Black Condor)   

Phantom Lady Moment 

Phantom Lady has several great moments in this story, 

but her come-back to Starman is my favorite. 

The Ray Moment

The Ray speaks up in support of helping Uncle Sam 

Uncle Sam Moment

Uncle Sam gives us a quick "origin" story 

Best Moment

The Human Bomb, Black Condor, the Ray, and Phantom Lady voice their support

of doing something to help Uncle Sam, while more 

established heroes like the Atom and Johnny Thunder 

flatly refuse to even consider helping. 

Worst Moment

Is this a snide criticism of the Human Bomb's safety suit? 

With literally dozens of mystery men to choose from, 

Roy Thomas picked on Roy Lincoln to make fun of?! 

Freedom Fanmail
This is the issue where Roy Thomas prints his explanation/apology for deciding that there really is no "Earth-X" Freedom Fighters. The yellow box that will live in infamy......! 

 

Freedom of Information

• Uncle Sam references artists Tom Nast and Monty Flagg, two Civil War and World War I era artists famous for their versions of him. Thomas Nast (1840-1902) was an editorial cartoonist who is also given credit for creating the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey symbols. James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960) created the "I Want You! For US Army" Uncle Sam poster that this issue's cover is an homage to. 
• Midnight is running from the Manhattan Transfer company on the splash page, possibly named after the pop group from the Seventies. 
• The Atom is distracted by Phantom Lady's cleavage (see roll call page, reprinted above). whereas Johnny Thunder is clueless to his surroundings. 
• If Uncle Sam just got back to his home world today, how did he know about the All-Star Squadron meeting he crashes? 
• The Human Bomb and Doll Man do not appear on the cover. 
• The picture of Neon on page 20 is a direct swipe of an Aquaman pose drawn by the great Jose-Luis Garcia-Lopez (below)

• 
  

The Freedom Fighters

assembled by Len Wein