Liberty Legion

Liberty Legion
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Invaders Vol. 1, #5 (March 1976)
Created by	Roy Thomas
In-story information
Base(s)	United States

The Liberty Legion is a fictional superhero team in the Marvel Comics universe, 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 and Marvel Premiere #29-30.

History

"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 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)

Marvel Premiere #29 (April 1976), cover art by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia.

The Blue Diamond (a superstrong, 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.

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.

See also

• The Invaders
• The Crusaders
• Timely Comics

References

• Jess Nevins: The Liberty Legion
• America's Homefront Heroes...The Liberty Legion
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• The Grand Comics Database