Martinex1: Here we are with a new edition of The Brave Or The Bold where we conduct a face-off between like entities and get your opinions and preferences. When I started developing today's post, I thought it was going to be a simple compare and contrast of two retconned WWII super-hero teams - the Invaders and the Freedom Fighters. And indeed it is that but it is also something more as I will go off on a few tangents this time around. So please stick with me here folks as my comments start to meander. Let's get started.
In 1969, Roy Thomas created the Invaders, a team from the war years in Volume 1 / Issue 71 of The Avengers. During a convoluted game of chance and wits between Kang the Conqueror and the Grandmaster, Yellowjacket, Vision, and the Black Panther were transported back to occupied Paris where they fought the reimagined Timely era heroes. Captain America (with his triangular shield), the original Human Torch, and Namor the Sub-Mariner were banded together as an allied fighting force for the first time in the Marvel years. (Just for fun I share below not only the original Avengers cover, but also the cover from the UK reprint, and a scene from the battle penciled by Sal Buscema, as well as the scene reimagined from the Invaders' view with Frank Springer art from Invaders Annual #1).
In 1975, Thomas spearheaded an ongoing book starring the old-time trio and thus the Invaders title was born. They fleshed out a gap in Marvel history and added another team book to the growing roster of Marvel comics.
The following year, in April 1976, DC rolled out their own WWII heroes using the old Quality Comics' heroes in the Freedom Fighters ongoing. The team consisted of Uncle Sam, the Ray, Phantom Lady, Human Bomb, Doll Man, and Black Condor. The series was initially plotted by Gerry Conway, scripted by Martin Pasko, and pencilled by Ric Estrada. The team had earlier appeared in Justice League of America issues 107 and 108 in 1973.
So in many ways Marvel and DC were following similar paths. They resurrected heroes from defunct (or evolved publishers) Timely and Quality. They modernized the heroes a bit in terms of scripting and action, and set them in adventures back during the battles of the early 1940s.
Later in their series, additional characters would join such as Union Jack and Spitfire into the Invaders and Firebrand into the Freedom Fighters. Take a look at some of the art and covers from the two series.
Martinex1: I followed the Invaders much more closely, but I did think the covers and art for Freedom Fighters was pretty effective, although I never quite liked Uncle Sam's fighting togs and hat.
Martinex1: It is pretty easy to see some of the parallels with these teams. They even had similar tag lines in "The Greatest Superheroes of World War II" for Marvel and "The Gallant Warriors from World War II" for DC.
Martinex1: Just as the series started to get some steam going, there was a wild unofficial crossover experiment conducted by the creators. In the early months of 1977, both headlining teams battled enemies named the Crusaders. These "villains" were analogs of the opposing company's heroes.
So the Freedom Fighters fought Americommando (Captain America), Barracuda (Sub-Mariner), Fireball (Human Torch), Rusty (Bucky) and Sparky (Toro). And the Invaders fought Spirit of '76 (Uncle Sam), Captain Wings (Black Condor), Ghost Girl (Phantom Lady), Dyna-Mite (Doll Man), Tommy Lightning (Ray), and Thunder Fist (Human Bomb). All of this was conducted under the watchful creativity of Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins for Marvel, and Bob Rozakis and Dick Ayers at DC.
Martinex1: The DC villains had a convoluted origin as they were comic book heroes come to life (talk about meta, meta, meta - even their hidden identities reflected comic creators with the names Marvin, Roy, Arch, and Lennie). They were the pawns of the archenemy Silver Ghost. The Marvel villains were dupes of a Nazi spy who gave them their powers. Invaders #15 was one of the first comics I ever purchased (bought in a three-pack poly bag) and still brings joy when I re-read it despite the quirky Frank Robbins art. I liked those Crusaders and wanted them to stay together in the end but alas they disbanded never to be seen again.
Martinex1: But there is another level of complexity in regards to Crusader teams as Archie Comics (later the Mighty Comics Group) has their own team in The Mighty Crusaders. The Archie team debuted prior to all of the above in September of 1965. The initial series was written by Jerry Siegel with art by Paul Reinman and Frank Giacoia. And even though the hero team fought in contemporary times, they were led by a flag costumed hero with the moniker of The Shield. Other members included the Fly, Jaguar, Black Hood, and the Comet amongst many others. The team had a few different incarnations including a version under the Red Circle Comics label (an arm of Archie Comics in the '80s) and another under DC's imprint Impact Comics.
Martinex1: So we've covered a wide and varied amount of territory today from Invaders to Freedom Fighters to the Crusaders. And please don't even get me started on the below characters!
So what do you think? Which ongoing title did you like the best? Did you like the time and setting of WWII comics and adventures? Did you find a fascination in the various Crusader teams? What did you think about the "unapproved" crossover? And what about the Mighty Crusaders - did anybody follow that series?
There is so much to talk about, so join in gang and have your say about the brave or the bold on BITBA today!
15 comments:
When I was a kid I must have really liked all the WWII era heroes because I used to buy The Invaders, and All Star Squadron, and I was a huge fan of The Freedom Fighters comic in the 70's. I think I started reading it around issue #6 or so and bought every issue after that until it was cancelled.
The first superhero I ever created myself (when I as around 11) was Captain Commando and his stories were set in WWII, and he led a team of super heroes that were loosely based on a combination of the Freedom Fighters and The Invaders. I remember at the time that I only had like three colored pencils (orange, blue, and yellow) so all of my early superheroes wore a combination of of those colors. It made no sense for a guy called Captain Commando to run around in blue costume with orange boots and gloves. LOL
Impressive research Marti. I had no idea that there was an unofficial cross-publisher arc in '77. Very cool.
This is a tricky subject, not having read a single Freedom Fighters comic and being relatively unfamiliar with The Invaders.
But I loved Roy Thomas on All-Star Squadron so that bodes well for future reading.
An aside, flicking through a copy of the British reprint issue pictured above (Avengers and Savage Sword of Conan #108 Oct 11 1975) There is an ad for a Stan Lee appearance at London rock venue The Roundhouse on Oct 20th. Tickets 60p. "Slide show from 7.15pm"
Not sure, but clues point to Smilin' Stan announcing the new Captain Britain comic during his appearance.
An aside to the aside - The Doors made their only UK appearance at The Roundhouse, fact fans.
I never really liked the Invaders ... I always preferred the All-Star Squadron (which is strange since Roy Thomas wrote both series).
I like the Freedom Fighters in general, but the whole Earth-X thing never appealed to me. I liked how they were just an offshoot of the All-Stars post-Crisis. But I haven't read the 70s Freedom Fighters series, nor the reboot so I can't really elaborate.
Very well-researched post. I really enjoyed it.
Freedom Fighters was a book that I really have no idea why I never bought. I am pretty certain I've not read a single issue. I always eyeballed it, but guess I just never pulled the trigger. However, should DC collect it, I will definitely make the move now.
Like others, I had a love/hate relationship with the Invaders. And as others have also said, had they given the book to Kirby to pencil it might have been so much better.
Doug
Thanks for the comments guys. I am glad that you like the general concept of today's post.
I have never been entirely in tune with the Freedom Fighters but I like the concept. I was a bit remiss in not mentioning DC's Earth X in which the Nazis never lost the war and continued to fight on for decades. There were no U.S. nuclear weapons and the Nazis developed mind control devices. The Freedom Fighters moved from Earth 2 to Earth X (the circumstances of which I don't recall) and continued to fight.
I did like the Americommando's costume and it's relativity to Captain America's costume. I also always liked the triangular shield, and thought it was funny that the Americommando threw that shield.
Love it!
So my exposure to Golden Age was via the quirky art being reprinted in DC's 100 pagers and such and Steranko's History.
Thus when I first saw the Invaders, I had already been "primed" by those "quirky" reprints, such that Robbin's quirky art actually put me in the 1940s. I felt it was legitimate, authentic.
Similarly, the Quality characters (Freedom Fighters) had such beautiful artwork (Crandall, Fine, Cole, et al.) that I was already primed to see them drawn in the modern style (JLA 100 and such). Quality's artwork from the 1940s still strikes me as some of the best ever seen but for perhaps Foster's Prince Valiant.
(And, Kaluta's work on the Shadow... it just feels 1930s, no?)
The one group that never quite worked for me was the All Star Squadron. I don't recall if they were set in the 1940s but Wood's "modern" art, the big-breasted Power Girl showing cleavage, etc. just didn't "fit" for me.
Colin B - You better corner the market on all the Dandy, Beano, Beazer, etc ASAP! Mile High Comics (with 8,000,000 back issues in 2 monster warehouses in Denver) is suddenly selling them for $40 - $80 each, from the 1970s. I've never ever paid more than $2 - $3 online. I was the ONLY bidder on a bunch of lots this past week, which is very typical, and "someone" swooped in to get them all. I really, really hope that this one guy does not wreck what has been a nice, fun read for us older dudes taking a walk down memory lane. Ohhh! Jim Morrison is still alive. Just FYI... LOL!
A Kirby-drawn Invaders would have been incredible...consider the fantastic work he did on another W.W. 2 comic, D.C.'s The Losers. But I doubt Roy Thomas was gonna give up writing the Invaders, given how nuts he was about Golden Age heroes, and I think Kirby was well past the point where he was gonna draw a comic somebody else had written. There may have been exceptions to that I'm unaware of.
Then again, maybe he was sick of World War Two, having actually been in it.
At least we'll always have the covers!
M.P.
Jack did some Invaders covers, as I recall, but I don't know if he did any interiors. I don't have any Invaders laying about but my head is spinning imagining imagining Kirby on the outside and Robbins on the inside? I can't think of anything more extreme?
Very interesting post, partner! Also educational; I never read any of the Freedom Fighters, or the All Star Squadron, or any other Golden Age material other than Marvel's Invaders and an issue of Fantasy Masterpieces. My loss, obviously. That 'crossover that wasn't' looks like something well worth reading. More to look through the dollar boxes for.
Charlie Horse 47- Thanks for tipping me off on the quality of the Quality (heh, heh) heroes' artwork. That's a mighty fine list of talent you rattled off. And although there were some Kirby covers on Invaders, my favorite cover on the series was the Romita job from issue 1...
I bought and read all the Invaders issues in the '70s, but always thought it was a bit silly because the Allies would have defeated the Nazis in a few months with super-humans like that on their side. And yes, the art was cringe-worthy.
Crusader literally means 'fighter for the Cross', specifically against Islam. It's extremely offensive to Muslims and there's no way a character of that name would be published in today's world.
The Freedom Fighters were interesting because they had lived on so many different Earths. In their pre-crisis history they started out as heroes on Earth 2 during WWII, and were all members of the All Star Squadron. Uncle Sam recruited them to join in his fight against the Nazis on Earth X. By the time we encounter them in the 70's the war had been won by the Nazis and heroes from the Earth 1 JLA and the Earth2 JSA came together to deal with the crisis on Earth X. This is when they first encountered The Freedom Fighters. Eventually the Freedom Fighters moved to Earth 1 in the 70's for a period of time where they were considered outlaws. And I think they eventually ended up on Earth X again by the end of the series. A lot of Earth hopping going on.
The name Freedom Fighters doesn't make sense. Shouldn't they be called the Tyranny Fighters?
For me the Invaders were a dream. I don't know when it dawned on me that Cap, Subby, and the Torch could be a team (probably right after their Avengers appearance in the Kang hubbub) but I knew I'd buy it. And then we got The Invaders. Frank Robbins gets a lot of flack but for me he was a dandy energetic artist unafraid to fill his pages with manic action. Frank Springer's inks were lush and a bit heavy in spots, but overall, I found the art on The Invaders among Marvel's best of the time.
And then there were the Freedom Fighters. Those two issues of JLofA which introduce Earth-X (Swastika) are among my top faves all time for that run. The series that came out of it was less good but still pretty nifty. The crossover alluded to in "The Crusaders" appear in both titles was a great subterfuge before Marvel and DC recognized each other.
The Invaders presented Roy Thoamas at the top of his game, having tons of fun with history and continuity and throwing in nifty details. By the time he tried this same game with All-Star Squadron the fusion of quaint and obscure details and the power of narrative seemed at odds often. Not in the Invaders though.
Rip Off
I read the Invaders when I could find a copy of it. I really loved it and unfortunately right in the middle of their run, my local store stopped carrying comics, so I was only able to buy an issue occasionally when I went somewhere that had comics. Though I was sort of put off by Robbins' art at the beginning (I hated him on Captain America & the Falcon), as Rip said, the sheer energy carried the day with The Invaders.
Like Roy Thomas, I loved these heroes in this WW II setting. I was interested in WW II at that age and when Thomas put together All-Star Squadron at DC a few years later, I really was able to get into it in a big way.
I think that was why I never really got into the Freedom Fighters. I enjoyed their JLA/JSA team-up, but when the new series carried over into modern times, I didn't stick with it very long....I missed out completely on the crossover with the Crusaders. It might have been fun had they backtracked to pre-JLA/JSA and showed their Earth X adventures against the Nazis.
I grew up in the 70s and fell in love with Invaders and Freedom Fighters! It was only recently I realized that they used the Crusaders as enemy analogues for the competing company’s heroes! So much fun. Roy Thomas’s enthusiast treatment of these characters is infectious which is why these characters hold up for us. Re-reading these stories now is fun and nostalgic.
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