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'{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2015}} {{leadtooshort|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox comics organization <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics--> |image=MarvelPremeire29.jpg |imagesize= |caption=''Marvel Premiere'' #29 (April 1976). Cover art by [[Jack Kirby]] & [[Frank Giacoia]]. |name=Liberty Legion |publisher=[[Marvel Comics]] |debut=''[[Marvel Premiere]]'' #29 (April 1976) |creators=[[Roy Thomas]], [[Don Heck]] |base=United States |members=[[Blue Diamond (comics)|Blue Diamond]]<br>[[Bucky]]<br>[[Jack Frost (Marvel Comics)#Jack Frost (Golden Age)|Jack Frost]]<br>[[Miss America (Marvel Comics)|Miss America]]<br>[[Jeffrey Mace|Patriot]]<br>[[Red Raven (Marvel Comics)#Original Red Raven|Red Raven]]<br>[[Thin Man (comics)|Thin Man]]<br>[[Whizzer (Robert Frank)|Whizzer]] |subcat=Marvel Comics |hero=Y |villain= }} The '''Liberty Legion''' is a fictional [[superhero]] team appearing in [[American comic book]]s 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 ''[[Invaders (comics)|The Invaders]]'' #5–6 (March & May 1976) and ''[[Marvel Premiere]]'' #29–30 (April & June 1976). ==Publication history== The genesis of the [[Marvel Comics]] superhero team the Liberty Legion came in the 1970s' [[World War II]]-set period series ''[[Invaders (comics)|The Invaders]]'', starring a team composed of [[Captain America]], the [[Namor|Sub-Mariner]], and the original [[Human Torch (android)|Human Torch]], plus sidekicks [[Bucky]] and [[Toro (comics)|Toro]], all characters that had appeared in Marvel's 1940s predecessor, [[Timely Comics]]. ''The Invaders'' #5 ([[cover-date]]d March 1976) featured cameo appearances by fellow Timely characters [[Miss America (Marvel Comics)|Miss America]], the [[Jeffrey Mace|Patriot]], and the [[Whizzer (Robert Frank)|Whizzer]], who would go on to the Liberty Legion, and the [[Fin (comics)|Fin]], who would not.<ref>[http://www.comics.org/issue/29651/ ''The Invaders'' #5] at the [[Grand Comics Database]].</ref> The team was formally assembled and named the following month in ''[[Marvel Premiere]]'' #29 (April 1976), with additional Timely superheroes the [[Blue Diamond (comics)|Blue Diamond]], [[Jack Frost (Marvel Comics)#Jack Frost (Golden Age)|Jack Frost]], [[Red Raven (Marvel Comics)#Original Red Raven|Red Raven]] and the [[Thin Man (comics)|Thin Man]] joining.<ref>[http://www.comics.org/issue/29754/ ''Marvel Premiere'' #29 (April 1976)] at the Grand Comics Database.</ref> The team went on to star in two more installments of this four-story arc, in ''The Invaders'' #6 and ''Marvel Premiere'' #30 (June 1976),<ref>[http://www.comics.org/issue/29838/ ''The Invaders'' #6] and [http://www.comics.org/issue/29928/ ''Marvel Premiere'' #30] at the Grand Comics Database.</ref> all written by [[Roy Thomas]] and illustrated by various artists. Never headlining its own series except for the those issues of ''Marvel Premiere'', the Liberty Legion went on to guest-star in ''The Invaders'' #35–37 (Dec. 1978 – Feb. 1979); in the final two-thirds of a three-part story arc running through ''[[Fantastic Four|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 [[limited series|miniseries]] ''The Invaders''. The [[Thin Man (comics)|Thin Man]] would go on to co-star in the 2004–05 series ''[[Invaders (comics)|The New Invaders]]''. A new, unrelated version of the Liberty Legion, known as the Liberteens, based in modern-day [[Pennsylvania]], debuted in ''[[Avengers: The Initiative]] Annual'' #1 (2008).<ref name="Liberteens">{{cite press release | url=http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.1778.Initiative_Initiation:_The_Liberteens | publisher=Marvel.com | date=November 6, 2007 | title=Initiative Initiation: The Liberteens | first=Barry | last=Morse | accessdate=November 8, 2008 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150228011237/http://marvel.com/news/comics/1778/initiative_initiation_the_liberteens| archivedate= February 28, 2015| deadurl=no}}</ref><ref name=initiative>[http://www.comics.org/issue/394360/ ''[[Avengers: The Initiative]] Annual'' #1] at the Grand Comics Database.</ref> ==Fictional biographies== ===Liberty Legion (1940s)=== "America's Homefront Heroes of World War II", the Liberty Legion differed from the Invaders by confronting [[Axis powers|Axis]] plots and influence in and around the United States as well as [[fifth column]]ists, 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 [[Namor|Sub-Mariner]], and the original [[Human Torch (android)|Human Torch]], and sidekicks. The Liberty Legion, indeed, included only two of even the company's secondary tier – the [[Whizzer (Robert Frank)|Whizzer]] and [[Miss America (Marvel Comics)|Miss America]], who in late-1940s comics were members of Timely's first superteam, the [[All-Winners Squad]]. In the team's modern-day [[retroactive continuity|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 (comics)|Blue Diamond]] (introduced in ''[[Daring Mystery Comics]]'' #7, April 1941) * [[Jack Frost (Marvel Comics)#Jack Frost (Golden Age)|Jack Frost]] (''[[U.S.A. Comics]]'' #1, Aug. 1941) * [[Miss America (Marvel Comics)|Miss America]] (''[[Marvel Mystery Comics]]'' #49, Nov. 1943) * The [[Jeffrey Mace|Patriot]] (''Human Torch Comics'' #3, Spring 1941) * [[Red Raven (Marvel Comics)#Original Red Raven|Red Raven]] (''[[Red Raven Comics]]'' #1, Aug. 1940) * The [[Thin Man (comics)|Thin Man]] (''[[Mystic Comics#Mystic Comics (Timely)|Mystic Comics]]'' #4, July 1940) * The [[Whizzer (Robert Frank)|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)|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 (comics)|Rick Jones]] in ''[[Avengers (comics)|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 ''[[Uncanny X-Men|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)== {{Infobox comics organization <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics--> |image=Liberteens.jpg |imagesize= |caption=The Liberteens.<br>Art by [[Patrick Scherberger]]. |name=Liberteens |publisher=[[Marvel Comics]] |debut=''Avengers: The Initiative'' Annual #1 |creators= |base=[[Pennsylvania]], United States |members=Blue Eagle<br>Hope<br>Iceberg<br>Ms. America<br>[[Revolutionary (comics)|Revolutionary]]<br>Whiz Kid<br>2-D |subcat= |hero= |villain= |sortkey=Liberty Legion |}} 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 [[Avengers: The Initiative|Initiative]] team.<ref name="Liberteens" /><ref name=initiative /> The team consists of: * Team leader [[Revolutionary (comics)|Revolutionary]] (inspired by the Patriot) * Blue Eagle (inspired by Red Raven) * Hope (inspired by the Blue Diamond) * Iceberg (inspired by Jack Frost) * Ms. America (inspired by Miss America) * Whiz Kid (inspired by the 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 the 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]]".<ref name="Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1">{{Comic book reference | title=[[Avengers: The Initiative]] Annual | issue=1 |date=January 2008 | publisher=[[Marvel Comics]] | page=33 | panel=1 }}</ref> 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.<ref>''Avengers: The Initiative'' #18 (Dec. 2008)</ref> Afterward, Whiz Kid saves her fellow Initiative members from the Skrulls' poisonous gas, before succumbing to it herself.<ref>''Avengers: The Initiative'' #19 (Jan. 2009)</ref> ==See also== * [[Crusaders (Marvel Comics)]] ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== *[http://www.toonopedia.com/libertyl.htm The Liberty Legion] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [http://www.webcitation.org/62rK3z2Hp Archived] October 31, 2011. {{Initiative}} {{Invaders}} [[Category:Golden Age superheroes]] [[Category:United States-themed superheroes]]'