Liberty Legion
| Liberty Legion | |
|---|---|
 Marvel Premiere #29 (April 1976). Cover art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Invaders #5 (March 1976) |
| Created by | Roy Thomas |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | United States |
| Member(s) |
Blue Diamond Bucky Jack Frost Miss America Patriot Red Raven Thin Man Whizzer |
The Liberty Legion is a fictional superhero team in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team was first created in 1976 and set during World War II. Composed of existing heroes from Marvel's 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books predecessor, Timely Comics, the team was assembled and named by writer Roy Thomas in a story arc running through The Invaders #5-6 (March & May 1976) and Marvel Premiere #29-30 (April & June 1976).
Publication history
Never headlining its own series except for the two issues of the showcase title Marvel Premiere, the Liberty Legion guest-starred in The Invaders #35-37 (Dec. 1978 - Feb. 1979); in the final two-thirds of a three-part story arc running through The Fantastic Four Annual #11, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #1 (both 1976), and Marvel Two-in-One #20 (Oct. 1976); and in issue #3 (June 1993) of the 1990s miniseries The Invaders.
The Thin Man would go on to co-star in the 2004-05 series The New Invaders.
Marvel announced on November 6, 2007, that a new, unrelated version of the Liberty Legion, known as the Liberteens, based in Pennsylvania, would debut in Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1.[1]
Liberty Legion (1940s)
"America's Homefront Heroes of World War II", the Liberty Legion differed from the Invaders by confronting Axis plots and influence in and around the United States as well as fifth columnists, rather than in the overseas theaters of war. It also differed by consisting of mostly obscure Timely Comics superheroes, rather than stars Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch, and sidekicks. The Liberty Legion, indeed, included only two of even the company's secondary tier — the Whizzer and Miss America, who in late-1940s comics were members of Timely's first superteam, the All-Winners Squad. In the team's modern-day retcon origin, the Liberty Legion was assembled in 1942 by Captain America sidekick Bucky, the only Invaders member to escape a brainwashing trap by the Red Skull. To rescue his teammates, he gathered:
- Blue Diamond (introduced Daring Mystery Comics #7, April 1941)
- Jack Frost (U.S.A. Comics #1, Aug. 1941)
- Miss America (Marvel Mystery Comics #49, Nov. 1943)
- Patriot (Human Torch Comics #3, Spring 1941)
- Red Raven (Red Raven Comics #1, Aug. 1940)
- Thin Man (Mystic Comics #4, July 1940)
- Whizzer (USA Comics #1, Aug. 1941)
The Blue Diamond (a super-strong, superhumanly durable anthropologist), Jack Frost (the mythological spirit of winter), and the Thin Man (comics' first stretching hero, predating Plastic Man by just over a year) were here reintroduced into Marvel continuity, appearing for the first time since the Golden Age. Unofficial team leader the Patriot had appeared as a simulacrum projected from the mind of Rick Jones in The Avengers #97 (March 1972), but was otherwise reintroduced here. The winged Red Raven, who'd starred in the single issue of a namesake title in 1940, had re-entered the modern Marvel universe with The X-Men #44 (May 1968). The Whizzer had returned as an older character in Giant-Size Avengers #1 (Aug. 1974), relating how he and the since-deceased Miss America had married each other years before.
Liberteens (2007)
| Liberteens | |
|---|---|
 The Liberteens. Art by Patrick Scherberger. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1 |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | Pennsylvania, United States |
| Member(s) |
Blue Eagle Hope Iceberg Ms. America Revolutionary Whiz Kid 2-D |
The Liberteens, whose name is a homophone of "libertine", is a young group of superhumans inspired by the Liberty Legion and formed as part of the Fifty State Initiative of government-sanctioned superhero teams. The group is first seen as the Pennsylvania-based Initiative team.[2]
The team consists of:
- Their leader, Revolutionary (inspired by The Patriot)
- Blue Eagle (inspired by Red Raven)
- Hope (inspired by Blue Diamond)
- Iceberg (inspired by Jack Frost)
- Ms. America (inspired by Miss America)
- Whiz Kid (inspired by Whizzer), who had previously appeared as the super-speedster courier for the law firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway in She-Hulk vol. 2
- 2-D (inspired by Thin Man)
In public, the Liberteens use "liberty"- and "America"-based puns. In private, the group is shown celebrating victory with debauchery, with the exception of the seemingly straitlaced leader, the Revolutionary, who is revealed to be a Skrull sleeper agent involved in preparations for that shape-shifting alien race's "Secret Invasion".[2] During the invasion, upon the beginning of overt hostilities, a loosely organized band of Initiative members including the Liberteens join forces with the Skrull Kill Krew to identify and defeat the Skrulls within their own ranks, the Revolutionary among them.[3] Afterward, Whiz Kid saved her fellow Initiative members from the Skrulls' poisonous gas, before succumbing to it herself.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ Barry Morse (2007-11-06). "Initiative Initiation: The Liberteens". Marvel.com. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Avengers: The Initiative Annual 1: 33/1 (January 2008), Marvel Comics
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #18 (Dec. 2008)
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #19 (Jan. 2009)
External links
- The Grand Comics Database
- The Liberty Legion at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived October 31, 2011.
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