THE SOCIETY versus FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Infinite Crisis (DC comics)
Where: Infinite Crisis #1 When: December 2005
Why: Geoff Johns How: Phil Jiminez

The story so far...
The world is in crisis, and the heroes are divided to fall, while the villains are united in a way never before seen.
The Justice League is falling apart at the seams, struggling to recover from events such as Wonder Woman's brutal execution of the traitorous Maxwell Lord, where she very publicly snapped his neck; and the death of Firestorm.

Heroes such as the members of Uncle Sam's Freedom Fighters do their best to pick-up the slack, but with a united front of evil willing to cross any lines, it becomes more difficult than ever.

Having received information regarding a transmission between Silver Ghost and Mirror Master; Uncle Sam leads his Freedom Fighters to a seemingly abandoned refinery where they believe the supervillains are organizing weapons for terrorist activity. Unfortunately for them, Uncle Sam's suspicions prove valid.
Now the team need not only put a stop to evil, but also fight to survive.

Previous Form:
The Society [#15]: Unsuccessful against the team of Batman & Red Hood.
Freedom Fighters [#19]: Slaughtered by the World's Finest; Superman/Batman.
Black Adam (#13): Undefeated after battles with the Four Horsemen of Apololips.
Dr. Light (#109): Present for Deathstroke's battle with the Justice League.
Psycho-Pirate (#255): Ultimately killed by Black Adam after this alliance.
Uncle Sam (#163): Unsuccesful in team-up with Wonder Woman against Batman/Superman.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Bizarro 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Dr. Light 5 (Professor)
Speed: Zoom 7 (Light Speed)
Stamina: Black Adam 6 (Generator)
Agility: Cheetah 5 (Cat-Like)
Fighting Ability: Deathstroke 7 (Born Fighter)
Energy Powers: Sinestro 7 (Solar Power)

I think you pretty quickly realise you're in trouble when you open the door and one of your guys gets shot through the chest. We'll get to that soon enough, but let's take a look at the daunting stats of the tape first up, which paint a pretty grim picture for the Freedom Fighters!

A team of nine villains is bad enough. A team of villains consisting of; Black Adam, Sinestro, Deathstroke, Dr. Light, Dr. Polaris, Zoom, Psycho-Pirate, Bizarro and Cheetah - even more bad news. A team of these particular villains as oganized by Lex Luthor, who is fronting a united new era for bad guys? Down right scary!

The tape indicate just how well rounded this particular team is. Nobody tips below a five, and even those come in the less common categories, and of the nine, seven of them register as the top characters in their respective category.
That isn't even taking into account things like the comparable strength levels of Black Adam and Bizarro, or the intangible forces controlled by Polaris, Light and Sinestro. Or even things as obscure, and difficult to measure, as Psycho-Pirate's emotive suggestions.

The Freedom Fighters are outnumbered, nine-to-six.
Among their rag-tag mob of heroes are most notably Uncle Sam himself, Human Bomb, Damage and The Ray. Their powers are strong enough to at least register where some of these villains are concerned; Sam bringing a degree of stamina and strength, while the Ray can control and manipulate light in a variety of imaginative ways.

The Human Bomb and Damage pose perhaps the greatest key to victory, but their potential also rests on the potential destruction of their fellows. If either of these atomic-scale heroes really unloads, to the point where they can defeat or waylay The Society, it will probably come at the final hour, with their fellows already fallen.

Black Condor really affects very little influence on this particular fight. Given the scope and brutal power of characters like Black Adam, Deathstroke and Sinestro, it's just simply not in the realm of possibility for a character like Condor to be of use. Likewise, Phantom Lady's illusions and Savate expertise are going to be of little use here.

The Math: The Society
The Pick: The Society

What went down...
Infiltrating the secret arms factory, the Ray uses his powers to manipulate the laser light grid that provides a net of security over the entrance, diverting the light to himself. With that, Human Bomb uses his powers to destroy the control panel for heavy blast doors, and as they open...

A blast of cynical yellow energy cracks it's way through the air, piercing the exposed chest of the unsuspecting Black Condor. Waiting on the other side of the door is the cream of The Society's villainous crop. An apparent ambush.

Bizarro ironically greets the Freedom Fighters with a misplaced Good-Bye, which is all too accurate, given the situation, as Sinestro sneers from beneath the glowing yellow energies of his fear-borne power.

Uncle Sam orders his troops to hold nothing back as they charge into battle with the murderous members of The Society.

The order is as good as worthless.
In a volley of violence and destruction the Society find themselves set upon by some of the deadliest villains known.

The Ray is the first to fall, victim of Dr. Light's similar, but apparently superior, powers.
He sucks the light from The Ray's body in a way that could only be imagined as incredibly painful.

Damage finds himself at the mercy of Zoom's fists, as he swirls around the hero in an unstable, translucent blur. Zoom promises to make them stronger heroes if they survive. His barrage triggers Damage's explosive powers, which send him hurtling out of the building.

Phantom Lady's illusion of invisibility proves to be of little value against the feline senses of Cheetah. She quickly sniffs the Freedom Fighter out, leaping atop her before ripping away at her flesh.

With the Phantom Lady pinpointed and bleeding, Deathstroke charges in with his sword to finish the job. He drives his blade deep into her chest as she rematerializes. Her final word is, "Why?"
For Deathstroke, it is simply a matter of professionalism.

The Human Bomb's explosion topples Sinestro, Dr. Light and Deathstroke, and he cries for them to get away from his fellows.
Shaken by Phantom Lady's death, the Human Bomb runs amongst the carnage before Dr. Polaris floats down to revel in the defeat.

"Oh, she's dead, Human Bomb. Didn't you hear that delicious shriek?"

Enraged, the Human Bomb tears at his protective suit.
If it is death and war that delights Polaris, then the Human Bomb shall deliver more than he can handle. The Human Bomb glows with energy and explodes, blowing Dr. Polaris clean out of the sky.

Bizarro, attracted by the "pretty lights", descends atop the Human Bomb.

Declaring his affections he begins to pound the Bomb's bare flesh, incurring massive explosions with every thunderous punch. For every blow with the strength of a Superman, Bizarro encourages an equal amount of explosive force, until eventually the Human Bomb begins to disipate.

Eventually, with his blood and chest covered in blood, Bizarro is disappointed. The Human Bomb stirs no longer. He has exploded for the final time.

"No more pretty lights."

In spite of the many explosions, the fight rages on amongst the surviving heroes and villains. Uncle Sam finds himself with the uneasy task of battling Black Adam, perhaps the strongest man present.

Adam flies like a human torpedo, knocking Uncle Sam into the air.
Cheetah catches him on the ground, clawing at his face while Zoom buzzes around like a ghostly apparition.

The Ray, alive but weakened by Dr. Light's attack, finds himself at the mercy of the otherwise uninvolved Psycho-Pirate.

As The Ray spits threats at Psycho-Pirate, the medusa mask begins to shift from it's blank state to a calm, comforting smile.
"Don't be angry. Don't be afraid."

The Ray, relaxed, gives in to the exhaustion, allowing himself to be dragged away for the purposes of one, Alexander Luthor, for whom The Society does their bidding.

The last of the Fighters to fall is the first to rally them - Uncle Sam. Though he continues to fight valiantly against overwhelming odds, he is far outmatched, numerically and super naturally.

Sinestro uses his yellow energies to blast at the patriotic hero, sending him hurtling into the air. He eventually comes to land in a swamp somewhere nearby, and while his story is not through, the Freedom Fighters are through, and the Society free to carry out their evil machinations.

The hammer...
Conclusively the winners: The Society!

Meanwhile, Uncle Sam's resumé isn't looking terribly impressive right about now. The last time the character was featured, he and his team were completely wiped out by the tyrannical might of Superman and Batman. [Superman/Batman #15]
This time around things went a little better for the Freedom Fighters, but even still, to come out with a fifty-percent survival rate isn't really all that impressive by anyone's means. Maybe the X-Statix are about the only team impressed by those figures... Yeesh...

At the time this particular issue - the first of a major mini-series at the core of a company-wide event - caused quite a bit of controversy. Given the promotion of the event, a large part of the concern was rating standards, with this issue baring no kind of forewarning for the violence contained within.
Of particular interest at the time was Phantom Lady's brutally depicted murder, which sparked the obligatory discussion of misogynism in comics, and questions of violence against women.

I'm not so much interested in the censorship of violence against one sex over another. We've discussed before that, in fiction, I think it's nice for that equality to exist. I sometimes feel the violence needs to be more prevelent for both sexes, to continue to remind us exactly what kinds of threats these superheroes are dealing with. But I digress...

What struck me immediately having just completed the review was that I was declaring a team who just slaughtered the superheroes - victorious!
I think with the features we've looked at over the past year and a half I've come to build up an association with the declaration of a winner. Usually, even in the cases of the hero losing, there's a certain degree of honor and thrill to it.

Declaring The Society victorious here, however, after killing the heroes the way they did. There's something that just doesn't feel quite right about that.

Not that it really has to go beyond that.
I'm not sure this particular cast of characters was really what you'd call invaluable to the DC lot, and to the company's credit they have continued a tradition of reinvigorating properties in the newest incarnation of the Freedom Fighters. It's not all new, of course. Uncle Sam found his way out of the swamp after compelling one of the new leads to find him, and they have an all new, all-government approach, at least to start with.

I guess there's a triumph to come out of the deaths of these heroes, at least in some kind of creative off-shoot of a way. I admit, I'm usually not one to advocate wanton slaughter of worthwhile characters, but at least they've stayed dead for this long, and an attempt to revitalize the concepts has been made.

Though the book is mostly a vignette-packed primer for the DC Universe as it was becoming heading into Infinite Crisis, there's also a fantastic battle running parallel to this one on the moon, featuring the 'DC Trinity', so hopefully some time in the future we'll get a chance to revisit the story from that perspective.

For now, I've got to check out and head to bed, and hopefully get back to catching up again soon. We've got FF action next-up, cheers!

The Fight: 4.5 The Issue: 5.5

FREEDOM FIGHTERS versus SUPERMAN & BATMAN
Absolute Power Chapter Two: "What Price Freedom...?" (DC comics)
Where: Superman/Batman #15 When: Early February 2005 Why: Jeph Loeb How: Carlos Pacheco

The story so far...
In a world without freedom, the intervention of Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen and Cosmic King is unchallenged.
The time travellers from the 31st century use their hindsight to capture and raise Kal-El and Bruce Wayne through their formative years, sculpting them into the ultimate dicators.

With their knowledge, they preemptively prevent the birth of the greatest heroes. Extinguishing any flame that may potentially rise against their 'sons' and the utopian they believe they have created.

Some flames cannot be extinguished, and lost in the sea of humanity is one such individual, who, once discovered by the Amazonian Wonder Woman, is reborn once more as Uncle Sam. Once in possession of the lost Green Lantern ring of Abin Sur, Uncle Sam and Wonder Woman go about starting a revolution.

Previous Form:
Wonder Woman (#130): Wonder Woman was defeated by Storm during DC v Marvel.
Superman (#6): Superman has victories over Hulk, Metallo and the Mole Man.
Batman (#1): Batman is the first ranked character to reach ten victories, having defeated the likes of; Superman, Captain Nazi, Captain America, Bullseye, Two-Face, Amazo, Slam Badley and The Joker.
Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters: None of the charter members of the Freedom Fighters have been featured on the site.
The Legion of Superheroes: No member of the Legion has yet been featured on the site.

Tale of the tape...
Strength: Superman 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Superman 6 (Speed of Sound)
Stamina: Superman 6 (Generator)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting Ability: Wonder Woman 6 (Warrior)
Energy Powers: Superman 5 (Lasers)


You ever get that feeling you've done something before you've done it?
Yes, not only am I running a couple of days behind again, but I'm catching up by doing a post that I wrote a week ago! If you missed out on that, scroll back to see a big giant picture of Galactus...

Anyway, taking a look again at this one I can tell you straight up that it really comes down to the two major players on either side: Wonder Woman & Uncle Sam versus Superman & Batman.

Sam's in possession of what, in the regular universe, would have been Hal Jordan's ring, given to him by Abin Sur. He's a character who's all about chanelling the people's spirit and will, so he's pretty well in the driver's seat with the ring en tow.

That said, if you think Batman is scary in the regular universe, what about a world where he's willing to kill and has access to an entire world's technology and arsenal! Set your phasers to pee yourself, because that's bad news bears.

Some folks are a little uncomfortable with the addition of super strength and flight to Wonder Woman's array of skills and abilities. Personally I'm pretty fond of it, and think it slots her suitably into that top three echelon, so I'm quite willing to entertain the idea that she'll go toe-to-toe with Superman.
That said, I still lean toward Supes when it comes down to a knock down, drag out fight between these particular two super powers. He's got a wider margin for flight, the heat vision, and all those other wacky powers that come and go.

In the mid-card, the Legion of Superheroes will provide strong numbers against the Freedom Fighters. However, the distinct lack of personality and/or fashion sense will leave the future-kids up the creek with the Human Bomb for a paddle.

The Math: Batman, Superman & The Legion
The Pick: Batman, Superman & The Legion

What went down...
The Freedom Fighters launch their attack in the shadow of the looming Superman/Batman New York monument, a symbol of the liberty absent.
There they are confronted by a number of members of the Legion of Superheroes from the 31st century, all brainwashed to do the bidding of their adult counterparts who have orchestrated this entire world.

The Freedom Fighters are swift and uncompromising.
In the interest of the future and liberty they slay all who cannot be subdued without lethality. The distraction does, however, prove sufficient enough, and Superman and Batman soon teleport to the scene.

The Ray is the first to take the bold responsibility of stopping the world's dominators, and he pays for it. Batman fires a clunky gun, blowing a hole through the Ray's head with a spray of blood and brain matter.

While the Human Bomb does his best to blast into the base of the monument, Wonder Woman launches herself at the Batman with a warrior's fury!

While Wonder Woman engages Batman, Uncle Sam uses the Oan energy of the Green Lantern ring to do battle with Superman. He creates a mighty eagle with the energies, channelling the will of the people, despite Superman's objective claims that the people bow before him.

Wonder Woman and Batman wage a war of words while they battle.
The Amazonian deflects an onslaught of razor-edged batarangs, whilst deflecting Batman's notion of a world where humanity desired only war, and needed to be protected from itself.

She takes a chop to the throat, but dishes it back, striking Batman across the face with the edge of her shield. He finds himself on the back foot, phsycially and philosophically as Wonder Woman speaks of a great age of heroes foretold by the Amazonian fates.

With a clear conscience, she strikes the deciding blow. Her sword plunges deep into his chest, and the would-be dictator dies then and there.

The blow is enough to inspire Superman's rage, giving him the maddened strength to shatter Uncle Sam's green projections, and thunder through him at lightning fast speeds to come to the aid of his adopted brother.

At the base of their monument, Superman cradles the frail human body of Bruce Wayne, and cries to the heavens for his mother and fathers. They hear, and teleport their sons to their space station high above the Earth.

Wonder Woman tends to Uncle Sam, but the bone shattering speed at which he was hit has already taken it's course. Like a flickering beacon of justice, Uncle Sam again ceases to be, no matter the strength of the people's resolve.

Cosmic King and Saturn Queen mourn the death of their pawn, and Lightning Lord approaches his emotional son. He directs his pain to vengeance, and with that, the Superman leaps away from the Watchtower, and hurtles back to Earth.

A streak of red and blue trails behind the Superman as he bursts through the atmosphere back to New York, and directly into the Amazonian warrior woman.
She pleads for him to remember a time when he was a great hero, but her words fall on deaf ears as he pounds his mighty fists like piledrivers.

Superman had been taught to be emotionally distanced in his rise above the mere mortals of Earth, but this battle is oh-so different. This battle is personal.
He snatches the broken Wonder Woman's lasso, and coils it viciously around her neck.

This time it's Wonder Woman's turn to die.

Meanwhile, within the depths of the monument below, the Human Bomb has penetrated the hidden fortress below, where the means to travel through time are held under maximum security.

Doll Man goes to work on the controls, with the Phantom Lady en tow, programming them for Smallville, Kansas, in a time before Superman was snatched from the Kent's farm and corrupted.

Shrinking Violet appears on the scene to prevent them, but the arrival of the Superman quickly dwarfs her. He pounds through the ground, furious at the audacity and ungrateful actions of his subjects.

He sprays Phantom Lady with his arctic ice breath, blowing her until her icey visage cracks and shatters. "Obey. Or die."

The Human Bomb warns the angered Kryptonian off attacking him, fearing the potential results of his explosive atomic energies should they interact with the activated time bubble. Superman does not take kindly to the advice.
Heated laser beams penetrate Human Bomb's costume and brain, resulting in an explosion that shatters not only the statue, but the entire world around them.
Superman condemns the world to death.

The hammer...
Well, despite destroying the entire planet, I'm going to give this one to Superman in the end on points. No bonus for killing the planet.

So, here we are, and here I am, at the conclusion of this entry for a second time. I can only imagine how many of you out there have felt the bitter sting of typing away for a lengthy time, only to impatiently go straight for the publish button without paying mind to a cautionary save. You can rest assured that I've reverted to over cautious saving every few paragraphs since then.

As I mentioned, and as you no doubt noticed, I am again running a bit behind.
Apart from being unwell for a little while, there's a slew of convenient excuses. I've got family returning from some time overseas, it's Easter, and I've been hard at work putting the finishing touches on my own comics work, which for all intents and purposes is print-ready. So, hopefully there'll be news on that in the coming months.

In the mean time, what about this comic?
If you can imagine it, the last time I did this entry it was one of my laboured efforts, where maybe I lingered a little long on the one subject, and pushed through various ideas without really articulating them well. Hey, when I'm running behind, sometimes the Legion of Superheroes are enough to sap me of strength.

One of the points I did want to revisit, because I find it fascinating, is the closing stages of the battle between Wonder Woman and Superman.
Apart from being ironically topical off the heels of International Woman's Day last month, it's probably one of those things that has an air of controversy. Although, I don't remember there being any major rumblings about this particular issue, and I didn't use this extra week to polish up my research. [Someone light the Ragnell symbol!]

Superman fairly brutally beats on Wonder Woman, culminating in the full page splash pictured above. The scene where Wonder Woman, already bruised and battered, is choked with her own lasso, whilst exposing just the right amount of alluring waist and thigh. Disturbing, but still a little bit sexy!

Assuming this didn't cause a furor amongst the wacky fan community, I'm going to say I'm pleased. No, I don't indulge in the battery of women (or men), and I certainly couldn't condone any crime of the sort, but this is one of those situations where it's delightful to see reality and fiction suitably separated.

The world in which these heroes live is one of regular violence. Though we may not like to see the subject considered, assault of female heroes would surely be common place, and perhaps to fairly heinous degree.
For whatever reason, innocence has been a theme for comics for a very long time, and stories like Identity Crisis, which dared to breech the subject in a fairly flippant manner have cause phenomenal outcry from fans and commentators alike.

I'm not about to say injecting rape into regular comics is a healthy thing for the industry or reader, but what does please me about this fairly brutal depiction of violence [in Superman/Batman #15] is that it's honest, and it's real.

There seems to be a tendency to want to restrict the fisticuffs to the male characters, particularly if it's going to go beyond cartoony sound effects, but this simply doesn't ring true. Perhaps one of the greatest calls of precedent is the infamous Daredevil #181, where Elektra suffers the perils of being a costumed ninja in a world of criminals and adamantium bones.

From that point, certainly in the Daredevil title, there was a threat of violence to the characters that has rung true even to this day. Few characters have been as realistically battered as Daredevil, and we see that even in the most recent take on the character, with Ed Brubaker taking the stakes to imprisonment.

Superman/Batman seems to have it's share of detractors, as does writer Jeph Loeb. On this particular title much of that seemed to be directed toward the light hearted throwback style of the story telling, and the nature of stories with minimal consequence to the long term canon of the characters within.

Personally, I'm comfortable with that, and I'm going to go the other way.
Even if only in an alternate reality, I'm going to commend Loeb (and Pacheco), for their depiction of realistic violence inflicted upon a character who is a pledged warrior. She just also happens to be a woman.

The Fight: 5.5 The Issue: 5