Liberty Legion

Superteambox


imagesize=
caption="Marvel Premiere" #29 (April 1976). Cover art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia.
team_name=Liberty Legion
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="The Invaders" vol. 1, #5 (March 1976)
creators=Roy Thomas
base=United States
members=Whizzer
Miss America
Bucky
Blue Diamond
Jack Frost
The Patriot
Red Raven
The Thin Man
memberlist=
subcat=Marvel Comics
hero=Y
villain=
sortkey=PAGENAME|

The Liberty Legion is the name of a fictional superhero team in the Marvel Comics universe. The team was first created in 1976 and set during World War II. Comprised of existing heroes from Marvel's 1940s Golden Age 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 " Annual" #1. [ [http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.1778.Initiative_Initiation:_The_Liberteens Marvel.com (Nov. 6, 2007): "Initiative Initiation: The Liberteens", by Barry Morse] ]

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, and by consisting of mostly obscure Timely Comics superheroes, rather than stars Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and the original android Human Torch, and sidekicks.

The Liberty Legion, indeed, included only two of even the company's secondary tier (the Whizzer and Miss America, members of Timely's first superteam, the post-war All-Winners Squad), skipping past the popular Angel, Blazing Skull, and Destroyer to instead revive several third-string characters who, in the team's modern-day retcon origin, were 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:

• The Blue Diamond (introduced "Daring Mystery Comics" #7, April 1941)
• Jack Frost ("USA Comics" #1, Aug. 1941)
• Miss America ("Marvel Mystery Comics" #49, Nov. 1943)
• The Patriot ("Marvel Mystery Comics" #21, July 1941)
• Red Raven ("Red Raven Comics" #1, Aug. 1940)
• The Thin Man ("Mystic Comics" #4, July 1940)
• The 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 (styled after Captain America) had appeared as a simulacrum projected from the mind of Rick Jones in "The Avengers" vol. 1, #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 "Uncanny 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)

Superteambox

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imagesize=
caption=The Liberteens.
Art by Patrick Scherberger.
team_name=Liberteens
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Avengers: The Initiative" Vol.1 Annual 1
creators=
base=Pennsylvania, United States
members=The Revolutionary
Ms. America
Blue Eagle
Iceberg
2-D
Whiz Kid
Hope
memberlist=
subcat=
hero=
villain=
sortkey=PAGENAME|The Liberteens, whose name is a homophone of "libertine", is a young group of superhumans inspired by the Liberty Legion. [Comic book reference | title= Annual | issue=1 |date=January 2008 | publisher=Marvel Comics | page=33 | panel=1 ] The group is first seen as the Pennsylvania-based team.

The team consists of:
*Their leader, The Revolutionary (inspired by The Patriot)
*Ms. America (inspired by Miss America)
*Blue Eagle (inspired by Red Raven)
*Iceberg (inspired by Jack Frost)
*2-D (inspired by Thin Man)
*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
*Hope (inspired by Blue Diamond)

In public, the Liberteens use "liberty"- and "America"-based puns. In private, the group is shown [ [http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.1778.Initiative_Initiation:_The_Liberteens Marvel.com (Nov. 6, 2007): "Initiative Initiation: The Liberteens", by Barry Morse] ] celebrating victory with debauchery, with the exception of the seemingly actually straight-laced leader, the Revolutionary. However, the Revolutionary is revealed to be a Skrull sleeper agent, placed within the team to further the Secret Invasion.

ee also

* Crusaders

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.geocities.com/ratmmjess/legion.html Jess Nevins' "A Guide To Marvel's Golden Age Characters": The Liberty Legion]
* [http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/4775/legion.html America's Homefront Heroes...The Liberty Legion]
* [http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/FRAMES00.HTM The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators]
* [http://www.comics.org/ The Grand Comics Database]