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!
