Who's Who Update '87
The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe
#1 (Aug 1987)
cover: Joe Brozowski & Dick Giordano
editor: Robert Greenberger
contributing writers: Mike W. Barr, Todd Klein, Paul Levitz,
John Ostrander, Barbara Randall, Bob Rozakis, Len Wein
contributing writer/researcher: Peter Sanderson
production: Steven Bove
colorist: Anthony Tollin
copy editor: Art Young
Featuring: The All-Star Squadron
Continuing our review of the six main Freedom Fighters' Who's Who pages from 1985-1987 (plus two more profiles for two more characters who were involved with the Fighters in a specific, meaningful way.)
Art by Howard Simpson & Danny Bulanadi
Because Who's Who had been appearing concurrently with the Crisis, the earliest entries did NOT represent the joint universe that was eventually unveiled in CRISIS #11. So after the Who's Who series ended per se, DC decided to go back and print revisions to some of their earlier, most-dramatically changed entries. The only entry that we are interested in, however, is for the All-Star Squadron.
You will notice right off that the main trio of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are no longer members. You may also notice that Robin, Green Arrow, and Speedy are also not members. At this point it had not been decided who would be the revised members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, only that Green Arrow and Speedy were NOT included.
The first thing you might notice when you look at this entry is that although Red Bee is included, Rod Reilly aka Firebrand is NOT. As I anticipated during my review of CRISIS, the male Firebrand has now ceased to exist. Possibly he had a brief life as an adventurer before being wounded (or perhaps killed) at Pearl Harbor. Then his younger sister, Danette, probably took up the mantle pretty much as it was shown in All-Star Squadron #5.
The other interesting thing about this entry is that, if you compare it to the initial All-Star Squadron entry in Who's Who #1, there really wasn't any need to revise it. That initial entry didn't feature Superman, Batman, OR Wonder Woman; nor did it call them out. I suppose Roy Thomas or someone else at DC wanted to establish that all these Golden Age (Earth 2) characters still existed, now on the same Earth as everybody else. Not quite sure what the point of calling that out was, but it makes for a pretty cool illustration.
I'm also not quite sure why DC and/or Roy Thomas felt obligated to cancel the ongoing All-Star Squadron series. The majority of their stories did NOT feature Superman, Batman and Robin, or Wonder Woman, so continuing on as he had been doing seems like it would have been commercially viable. I can only guess that Roy made some type of decision to stop that series and put the spotlight on a new batch of characters, The Young All-Stars. It didn't work, and that book lasted less than three years.
Black Condor
Uncle Sam
As you can see, Red Bee is now alive again (as initially he was a member BEFORE, say, Tsunami or Tigress were).
The Freedom Fighters are "back" on the one combined Earth. Although I am okay with that decision, I WOULD like to know how and/or why these six or seven members decided to get together as a sub-group of the All-Star Squadron and call themselves the Freedom Fighters. If they never had to leave our Earth, what was/is the new reason for this group organizing itself? THAT would have been a great Secret Origins story! I wonder if that story will ever be told....
Starting Next Week: Speak of the Devil--- a Little Secret Origins!!
Freedom of Information
- Howard Simpson was the then-current artist of The Young All-Stars.
- Young All-Stars #3 was on sale at the same time as this issue.
- All-Star Squadron the book had been cancelled five months prior to this entry.
- Coincidentally, of the five men who wear hats in the Squadron, three of them are together in alphabetical order: Uncle Sam, the Vigilante, and the Whip. (The other two are Midnight and Zatara.)
The Freedom Fighters
assembled by Len Wein
No comments:
Post a Comment