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:
- 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 (Human Torch Comics #3, Spring 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 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.
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Famous quotes containing the words liberty and/or legion:
“New York is a woman
holding, according to history,
a rag called liberty with one hand
and strangling the earth with the other.”
—Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said] (b. 1930)
“I am sometimes told that “Women aint fit to vote. Why, don’t you know that a woman had seven devils in her: and do you suppose a woman is fit to rule the nation?” Seven devils aint no account; a man had a legion in him.”
—Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883)