All-Star Squadron #33

All-Star Squadron #33 (May 1984)

title: "The Battle of Santa Barbara-- Times Two!"
writer/editor: Roy Thomas
penciller: Rick Hoberg
inker: Bill Collins
letterer: Cody

colorist: Gene D'Angelo
letter column: Roy Thomas

cover: Rick Hoberg & Jerry Ordway

Order of Appearance: Phantom Lady, Black Condor, the Ray, the Human Bomb, Doll Man, Uncle Sam, and Red Bee 

Other Stars: the Spectre, Starman, Firebrand, Liberty Belle, Johnny Quick, Neptune Perkins, Hourman

Opponents:
Japanese Imperial Navy (on two worlds), Tsunami, Baron Blitzkrieg

Overall Summary: 
The Freedom Fighters are on Earth-X trying to stop a full-scale invasion of Santa Barbara by the Japanese Navy. Meanwhile, a small group of All-Star Squadron members are on their Earth investigating a potential Japanese invasion there, too.   

Plot Summary:
The Spectre watches as the Freedom Fighters land in Santa Barbara on "Earth-X" as the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy attack! He is stopped from entering Earth-X himself by "the voice" lest his powerful aura upset the cosmic balance. 

After taking a moment to gather their wits as the Spectre's protective aura fades, the seven launch a counter-attack against the Japanese to help the out-numbered US Army defenders. This being a world without any super-heroes, the US soldiers are surprised by the Freedom Fighters' appearance, to say the least. 

The seven Freedom Fighters somehow manage to defeat the Army attack, then head out to the coast to stop the destroyers that are bombing the oil refinery. 

Meanwhile, "the voice" tells the Spectre again not to interfere. However, when he tries to return to his world, he finds that he cannot. He can only look back on his native world, which he does. He sees Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Firebrand, and Starman heading to their Santa Barbara. 

While being carried by Starman's gravity rod, Belle tells Johnny about Captain Rick Cannon, who she met while they were both in London. He wants to be her boyfriend, but she isn't sure how she feels about him. They are actually on their way to meet with him, but when the All-Stars arrive Rick isn't at the rendezvous site. 

Starman and Liberty Belle track the footprints in the area while Firebrand and Johnny Quick look around the coast. Firebrand surprises Johnny by flying. She tells him that she has been practicing, and that she can now fly for short periods of time. They fly around the coast and then land on the houseboat belonging to Neptune Perkins. The three of them see a mysterious submarine. 

In Santa Barbara, Liberty Belle and Starman find a group of Japanese resident aliens and Japanese-Americans being told to rebel against the US by Tsunami. When she threatens her hostage, who happens to be the missing Rick Cannon, Starman and Liberty Belle step in. Tsunami gets the best of them until an old man stops her from killing them, getting wounded in the process himself. As Tsunami escapes, we learn from the old man's dying breath that Tsunami was his daughter.  

In the ether between worlds, the Spectre tries again to return to his world. In his attempt, he accidentally rips open the dimensional space between Earth-X and Earth 2, and now both worlds seem to want to enter and occupy the same space at the same time! 

On Earth-X, the Freedom Fighters are doing well against the Imperial Navy when Baron Blitzkrieg shows himself, threatening to kill his hostage--- Hourman--- unless they agree to surrender!

Review: 

This is probably the best issue of this storyline. The Freedom Fighters show how talented they are on Earth-X, as the other four All-Stars on Earth 2 show us that they are talented, too. The over-arching successes of the two parallel plots make the rest of the "Huh?" moments in this issue not quite as painful to bear. 

The art, too, is well done. Rick Hoberg seems to know what he is doing, and the inks by Bill Collins add a smooth flow to the proceedings. 

On the other hand, I remember thinking when I first read this story (and was reminded as I read it again for this review) that we never get a "Hi, my name is...." scene with these characters. Although I was acquainted with the Freedom Fighters already, I know that some readers had to have been meeting them for the first time. Similar to last issue, when Roy never really introduced the ill-fated Miss America, Red Torpedo, Neon, et al, we never get any sense of who THESE seven characters are. And besides, in real time wouldn't they all INSIST on knowing what each other could do, before committing to going on a potential suicide-mission together? I can imagine the Ray saying, "You can turn invisible and blind men with a black-light ray....is that it?!?!" And as mentioned last week, I find it hard to believe that the All-Star Squadron thought it was a good idea to send just seven people against the Japanese Imperial Navy! 

Speaking of ideas that aren't good, please tell me that I am not the only reader who thought the melodrama about the Spectre being caught between worlds was something I've seen before. As a long-time JLA-JSA team-up fan I couldn't help being reminded of the TWO previous incidents when the Spectre was LITERALLY in the exact same predicament: JLA #s 46-47, and JLA #s 82-83. Let's hope this time the story is told somewhat differently from the previous versions. 

The other sub-plot that IS good is the whole scene with Tsunami trying to get Issei and Nisei to join with her and the Imperial Japanese in their attacks against the United States. This hints at the actual scare that the US experienced from Winter 1941 that Japanese-Americans and resident Japanese living on the West Coast would help Japan in their efforts to destroy the US. Of course, no evidence was ever found that any American citizen ever did anything traitorous. That didn't stop President Franklin Roosevelt from signing Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, only a few days after the actual Santa Barbara attack, the basis for the fictional events told in this story. Although this story is told in very heavy-handed and melodramatic way, it was nice to see that none of the Americans or their parents shown in this story agreed with Tsunami. 

Black Condor Moment 

Black Condor is most successful at getting the enemy airplanes 

to fly into each other, but his best moment might have been 

dropping the Human Bomb onto the deck of the Japanese Destroyer.  

Doll Man Moment

Small but powerful, Doll Man wades right into the Japanese Army  

Human Bomb Moment

The Human Bomb demonstrates his abilities, using the Japanese Army as his tools  

Phantom Lady Moment 

Phantom Lady shows off her invisibility powers (?!?!) 

The Ray Moment

The Ray maneuvers a bomb back onto the Japanese Destroyer 

Best Moment

Need I say more?

Well....Red Bee isn't featured here. What's up with that? Hmmm....  

Worst Moment

from All-Star Squadron #33

from All-Star Squadron #31

For the second time in three issues, Rick Hoberg uses the same 

Jose-Luis Garcia-Lopez Aquaman pose for a Freedom Fighter 

Freedom of Information

• Although Doll Man finally makes it onto the cover with his team-mates, the Human Bomb and Red Bee do not appear. 
• Tsunami makes her debut in this issue. As explained in the text, "tsunami" is Japanese for Tidal Wave.
• "Issei" are Japanese people who have emigrated to a foreign country. "Nisei" are the children of those immigrants. "Kibei" are Nisei born in the US who went back to Japan for education, generally used to refer to people with pro-Japanese ideas. Regardless of what Liberty Belle says, there is no particular way to distinguish between any of these people visually.  
• Bronco Nagurski, referenced by Starman when he catches Captain Cannon, was an NFL fullback and defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears from 1930-1937.  
• Esther Williams, would-be Olympian swimmer and famous Hollywood starlet, is referenced by Liberty Belle when she calls Tsunami a "bargain basement Esther Williams." At the time of this story (February 1942) there is little chance that Williams, as a member of a travelling water show, would have been well known. Her first film, Andy Hardy's Double Life, was not released until December 1942, while her first swimming film was Bathing Beauty in June 1944!
• Likewise, at this point in the story there is nothing to suggest to Liberty Belle that Tsunami has anything to do with swimming at all, so the reference to Esther Williams is doubly wrong. 
• When he first arrives on Earth-X, the Spectre cries out, "Sheol and Gehenna!" According to catholic.com "Sheol" is a word used in the Jewish tradition to refer to the general abode of the dead; "Gehenna" is used to solely describe a place of punishment for the wicked. Is this an actual exclamation? For more information on these places, check out Cripplegate.com

The Freedom Fighters

assembled by Len Wein