Freedom Force (comics)

Freedom Force is the name of two teams within Marvel Comics' universe.

The original was a supervillain team, though they occasionally acted in a heroic capacity as well. It was a government-sponsored team originally composed mainly of Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They mostly interacted with the X-Men, X-Factor and New Mutants, but also repeatedly met the Avengers.

The second team was set up as Montana's Fifty State Initiative superteam.

Mystique's Freedom Force

Freedom Force started out as an incarnation of the terrorist organization the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. When mutant and human relationships worsened, the team's leader Mystique decided that it had become too dangerous for them to continue their current path. She offered the services of the Brotherhood to Valerie Cooper, a United States National Security Advisor in exchange for full pardons. Cooper saw a great opportunity in Mystique's offer, but wanted the team to prove their loyalty first by arresting the original Brotherhood's founder Magneto. The team accepted, was renamed Freedom Force and the sorceress Spiral was added to the team. They attacked Magneto at a remembrance ceremony for the Holocaust and Magneto's new allies, the X-Men opposed them. In the end, Freedom Force was successful when Magneto turned himself in.

On their next mission, the second Spider-Woman was added to the team's line-up. When the Avengers were framed by their embittered former member Quicksilver, the U.S. government sent Freedom Force to arrest the Avengers, which they did successfully. Spider-Woman felt guilty for these actions, freed the Avengers from jail, and left Freedom Force, becoming a fugitive. Another three members were added; Crimson Commando, Stonewall and Super Sabre had been World War II veterans who had decided to take justice in their own hands and hunt down and execute criminals. When they erroneously targeted Storm, they were defeated and turned themselves in. It was thought that the former heroes could be redeemed and they were offered a position on Freedom Force.

Over the next few months, they were given many unpopular tasks, such as enforcing the Mutant Registration Act and arresting the outlaw X-Men, they also acted heroically to save the people of Dallas during the "The Fall of the Mutants" storyline. Freedom Force had its own dark secrets though, secrets that would make them clash with X-Factor and the New Mutants; these "secrets" largely revolved around indications that Freedom Force was helping the U.S. government forcibly recruit young mutants and potential mutants for training and eventual government service. During this time Spiral left the team for her own reasons. Freedom Force also helped train John Walker to replace Steve Rogers as Captain America and assisted Walker in apprehending the mutant terrorists known as the Resistants. Walker would later become the hero known as the U.S. Agent.

Freedom Force also participated in other missions of a more general nature, including the rescue of Senator Robert Kelly from a South American drug syndicate that had kidnapped him during a diplomatic visit, as well as helping to contain a jailbreak at the Vault.

The team slowly began to fall apart after the mutant Forge asked them to protect Muir Island against the Reavers. During this mission Stonewall and Destiny were killed, and Avalanche was severely injured. The death of Destiny especially hit Mystique hard and the team would fight the Avengers without her leadership. Shortly after the battle at Muir Island, Val Cooper was possessed by the Shadow King and ordered to kill Mystique; however, Cooper resisted the Shadow King's influence and seriously injured herself rather than commit murder. Mystique then assumed Val's identity, passing Cooper's injured body as her own corpse, and later aided the X-Men and X-Factor in the Shadow King's defeat as a "mole" among the villain's servants.

Without Mystique, the remaining members of Freedom Force were sent on a disastrous mission in Kuwait during the first Gulf War, in which Super Sabre was killed and Crimson Commando was severely injured. To save Commando's life, Avalanche left Pyro and the Blob stranded in enemy territory. This mission would mean the end of Freedom Force, though Avalanche and Commando, now a cyborg, would continue to work for the US government, apparently as covert operations agents. The team was soon replaced by a government team called X-Factor, also under Val Cooper's supervision.

Initiative Freedom Force

After the superhuman Civil War, registered superheroes were teamed up and assigned to a state. Montana's Fifty States Initiative team is Freedom Force.

This Freedom Force team consists of Cloud 9, Think Tank, Equinox and Spinner, led by the Golden Age hero Challenger.^[1] Spinner and Think Tank are two new characters. Spinner wakes up every day with a different power. Her known powers have included invulnerability, super-strength, super-speed, and flight. Think Tank possesses telekinesis.

During the Secret Invasion, Equinox was revealed to be a Skrull infiltrator, and was killed by Cloud 9.^[2] Spinner dies soon after, trying to destroy a Skrull weapon system.^[3]

Dark Reign

New Initiative leader Norman Osborn orders Freedom Force to attack the Heavy Hitters after they secede from the Initiative. He feels he can trust the team to follow orders due both to Equinox's criminal past and to Challenger coming from a time where authority is to be respected and obeyed without question. They help the other Initiative teams to defeat and capture the Heavy Hitters' leader, Prodigy.^[4]

Steve Rogers later reported that Challenger refused to take part in the attack on Asgard. Norman Osborn then excluded his team and Stark-formed teams from the Siege.^[5]

Heroic Age

Members of Freedom Force appear at a meeting held by Prodigy regarding magical hammers that have crashed into the earth.^[6] Between these, there is also an inexplicably alive Spinner.

Freedom Force trademark

Marvel Comics abandoned the Freedom Force trademark in the 1990s and it was eventually re-registered by computer game developer, Irrational Games, which used it as the name for their own team of comic book heroes (with no connection to Marvel or its characters). These all-new characters were featured in two games and one comic book miniseries (through Image Comics).

References

External links

• America's Heroes: Freedom Force
• Freedom Force Initiative at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe