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Freedom Fighters (2018) #1-12

Freedom Fighters: Rise of a Nation (Freedom Fighters

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Welcome to Earth-X, where the Nazi war machine used metahumans to win World War II and conquer the planet. After decades of fascist rule, the resistance has just been sparked in the form of the FREEDOM FIGHTERS.

When a Kryptonian rocket crash-landed in 1930s Czechoslovakia, the Nazi war machine found themselves with the most powerful weapon on the planet: baby Kal-El. With their new Overman on the march, Adolf Hitler’s brutal regime set its sights on the invasion of America, and by the 1960s all hope seemed lost. A group of metahuman Freedom Fighters fought valiantly to save their country, but they were ultimately crushed and their leader, Uncle Sam, was driven to the graveyard of avatars, never to be seen again.

Now, over 50 years later, a new resistance has arisen…an ALL-NEW FREEDOM FIGHTERS! To crush the Hitler regime and restore their country, The Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, Black Condor and Doll Woman launch a guerrilla hit-and-run campaign to reignite the American spirit. Only a renewed American spirit can bring the powerful Uncle Sam back from the dead to lead the people in the uprising of their lives.

Collects Freedom Fighters #1-12

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2020

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41 people want to read

About the author

Robert Venditti

699 books393 followers
Robert Venditti is a New York Times bestselling author of more than three hundred comic books and graphic novels. Some of his works include the monthly comic book series Justice League, Superman ’78, Hawkman, and Green Lantern for DC Comics, X-O Manowar, Armor Hunters, and Wrath of the Eternal Warrior for Valiant Entertainment, and the graphic novel Six Days, inspired by the story of his uncle’s participation in D-Day. He has also adapted Rick Riordan’s global bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus novels, as well as Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia and Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz. His graphic novel The Surrogates was adapted into a feature film by Touchstone Pictures, and his work on The Flash was the basis for season three of the CW television series.

Venditti lives in Atlanta, where he both writes and serves as a storytelling consultant for some of the most recognizable entertainment brands in the world.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.4k reviews1,060 followers
April 26, 2020
It's nice to see a return of the old Quality Comics gang. We return to Earth-X, last seen in Grant Morrison's Multiversity, where the Nazis won World War II. The original Freedom Fighters were killed and Nazis have ruled America for 55 years. A new Freedom Fighters team appears hoping to inspire Americans to fight back. Bringing America's fighting spirit back will allow Uncle Sam to return as he's inspired by the spirit of the American people.

It's a dark, horrid version of America, but there's something about all these alt-history comics that I can't get enough of. Eddy Barrows is a perfect artistic choice for this comic. He does big fights and explosions extremely well and there's plenty of that with a character named Human Bomb in it.
Profile Image for James DeSantis.
Author 17 books1,204 followers
January 17, 2020
It has finished! And damn was this fun.

When Uncle Sam (yeah you read that right) fights with his army of freedom fighters but all are killed all hope seems lost. Nazi, named Razis here, have taken over the world. All hope is lost...TILL the new Freedom fighters arise. When they do Uncle Sam returns but he's still weak. People don't believe in change yet. And the Freedom fighters must band together, along with Uncle Sam, to show what America is all about.

This is insane, but it's also so damn fun. So many great fight scenes, and interesting twist, and horrible deaths, you can't help but be enthralled by this series. Sure, it took a bit to get into but once issue 4 kicked in, it became a must read. The art only adds to the badass action but also haunting scenes of death. The ending plays it a little safe but I enjoyed 85% of this series that I expected nothing out of. That's saying something.

A 4 out of 5.
Profile Image for Little Timmy.
7,402 reviews60 followers
July 11, 2023
Interesting re-imagining of these classic Golden age heroes. Nice art and story. Recommended
Profile Image for Artemy.
1,045 reviews964 followers
January 15, 2020
I've been dying for somebody to do something with Grant Morrison's Multiversity concepts since the original event wrapped up. Tomasi did some okay things with it during his otherwise crappy Superman run, but that was pretty much it until this series came along — spinning out of The Multiversity: Mastermen #1 comes a series set on Earth-X, a parallel world where Kal El landed in the nazi Germany and became Overman, a weapon in the hands of the Third Reich that helped them take over the entire world.

And while the implications of this setup are quite grim, the actual book itself by Robert Venditti and Eddy Barrows is tons of fun. It's pure popcorn blockbuster akin to what Venditti was doing in his earlier volumes of XO-Manowar, utilizing Morrison's concepts really well and developing them even further with some clever ideas and interesting twists.

Eddy Barrows's artwork is gorgeous as always and so well-suited for this kind of series full of explosions and big action set pieces, and it's also quite reminiscent of Jim Lee's artwork on the original one-shot. Actually, if you ask me, Barrows's stuff here looks much better than Lee's did in Mastermen, but that's more a matter of taste.

Overall, Freedom Fighters came out of nowhere and ended up being a huge surprise for me, I had a lot of fun following this story month to month.
Profile Image for Will Robinson Jr..
918 reviews18 followers
February 12, 2021
Been following the work of Robert Venditti for some time and I feel he may be one of the best writers at DC Comics. Kudos to DC Editorial for finally deciding to expand one of the many brilliant IPs to come out of Grant Morrison's The Multiversity. The more I go back to read that book the more I feel Morrison was creating an endless buffet of possibilities for the DC universe. For some incredibly odd reason, DC comics has just mastered the out of continuity storytelling. Many of their eleworld tales are not only incredibly creative but the best stories at DC comics. Freedom Fighters is no exception. Basically, we have returned to what I believe is Earth X in the Dc comics multiverse. On this earth, America lost World War II to the Nazi party of Germany. Superheroes don't show up until around this time in history and they are fighting a losing battle against their fascist opponents. The Freedom Fighters are not a new idea as many of the characters that appear in this book have roots going back to the DC wide crossover event series Crisis on Infinite Earths. I am a big fan of both World War II period superheroes and Multiversity, so getting this book was a no brainer. Venditti does a great job of world-building in this story which is greatly enhanced by the amazing art of Eddy Barrows. The story is simple but yet the message still endures. In this world we are reminded why it was important the US won World War II. Black Condor's story was especially well told. I really enjoyed this book from beginning to the end and I hope DC will consider putting Venditti on JSA. He would fit that book like a glove. I hope they would bring artist like Barrow, Ivan Reis, or Doug Manke to the JSA book as well. If you enjoy this book I would recommend reading these books from Venditti as well: Hawkman, Vol. 1: Awakening, Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020) #1, Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, Vol. 1: Sinestro's Law, Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead, & X-O Manowar, Volume 1: By The Sword.
Profile Image for Alan.
2,050 reviews15 followers
January 17, 2020
The rating is a bit high, but Venditti takes from a lot of the lore that has been built up around these characters over about the oh say last 30 years, and he works it well. Even the last couple of dangling plot threads he left in case some editor feels the desire to revisit this team I think work.

It's a simple premise. Hitler and his forces won WWII and occupied America. An occupation that has left the majority feeling oppressed, and African Americans have essentially been forced in a few cities, in one case its Detroit, to work as slave labor.

The story begins with the death of the original team at the hands of Hitler's forces, and inheritors of the names and power are looking for Uncle Sam. Taking from Alex Ross's two issue series where the country's belief in its ideals and freedom are part of what powers Uncle Sam, and atthe start the American people believes the Nazis unbeatable because of their corps of Plastic Men and Overman (aka Superman).

The early part of this 12 issue series is about finding and then building Sam up. Building people's faith in a new American revolution. As the series progresses we get a little more about the other team members, especially Black Condor.

Note: in the interest of full disclosure read as digital floppies.
Profile Image for Brandon.
2,840 reviews39 followers
August 11, 2020
The Nazis won WWII and with the help of Overman (Superman who crash-landed in Germany instead of Kansas) they have wiped out the Freedom Fighters. All hope of freedom has died, and Uncle Sam himself has disappeared. Decades later a new batch of Freedom Fighters are making their last stand. I went into this series blind, and what surprised me the most was how fair it was. Freedom is still championed as the ultimate good, but America isn't portrayed as this fallen perfection. It's shown as a flawed place, full of its own problems, but the possibility for greatness is there. This might be about the avatar of America punching Nazis in the face, but it isn't just America itself. That's just a setting, or the promise of the American dream, the spotlight is always on the ordinary people rising up against their oppressors- in this case the "ordinary people" just happen to be American.

There's also some fantastic body horror with the PlaSStic Men that was insidious and creepy. Anything, anyone, anywhere, could be a Nazi spy. You can't trust anyone, and they can capture you or snap your neck before you realize they're there. It's terrifying.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books168 followers
June 23, 2020
A story of modern-day Earth X, still under the control of the Hitler dynasty (growing out from the depiction in The Multiversity). It's a nice piece with an epic feel to it and a lot of feel-good patriotism and anti-facism. With that said, it's a bit shallow too. When the action really gets going to the back-half of the book, it's a joyous read, but it's also going to be pretty forgettable now that it's done.

With an OK first half and a good back half, call it 3.5 stars.
Profile Image for Kris Ritchie.
1,660 reviews16 followers
December 10, 2020
A strangely entertaining read of heroes I have little to no familiarity with.

Nazis survived World War II and ventually take over USA. With the death of members like the Ray, it is up to a new generation of Freedom Fighters to resurrect Uncle Sam to fight the ratzis.
Profile Image for James Elkins.
325 reviews8 followers
November 10, 2020
I’m a big fan of these characters in and out of Earth-X and there was an opportunity to tell a better story here; but I’ll give credit where credit is due because, in the socio-political climate in which this is written, it could have been much worse. The art is great, if sometimes busy, with some big screen action moments. The story is fairly simple and straight forward: Nazi’s took over the world, killed the spirit of America. Freedom Fighters raise the Spirit of 76 and beat the Nazi’s. The End.
There were a lot of opportunities for positive lessons in civics and American history, maybe a little flag waving. This might indeed be the result of the socio-political climate in which it was written.
Profile Image for Daniel Butcher.
2,950 reviews2 followers
September 9, 2020
I honestly have always found Uncle Sam to be an odd hero in the DC pantheon. But this volume does a great job showing us how Sam works and that it can work.

Overall, the story reminded me of what America can be and should be in a time we need reminders. And some of the art combined with the message is striking.

A great reminder of how well comics can be used to tell a story with a big moral lesson.
Profile Image for Kyle Dinges.
412 reviews11 followers
January 20, 2021
I usually come into these based-on-little-known material event series from DC and Marvel with pretty low expectations because they're usually awful. Freedom Fighters isn't awful! It's actually pretty good. Full disclosure I have read absolutely no previous Freedom Fighters material and you don't need to before reading this either.

Freedom Fighters imagines a world where the Nazis won and now rule over the United States (and the rest of the world). A crew of super heroes who have been hiding come up with a plan to resurrect the legendary hero Uncle Sam to defeat the Nazis.

The book is the all the appropriate levels of action, humor, and grandiose comic book scenes. There's even a cognizant social commentary that never feels too heavy handed for a super hero book. Collecting 12 issues, the creative team also got a lot of room to flesh out the story and used it wisely. 6 issues would have been too few but it felt like the series reached a satisfying ending and I think stringing it out would have lessened the overall product.

Robert Venditti has always been someone I've felt is a bit underrated as part of the DC stable over the last decade. He's always solid and has a knack for some creative story-telling, which is on display here. The art team of Eddy Barrows (pencils with Bruno Redondo on a fill in issue), Eber Ferreira (inks), and Adriano Lucas (colors) were on board for most of the full twelve issues and consistently prove up to snuff illustrating the large scope the story entails.

At the risk of sounding too hyperbolic...DC spends so much time focusing on rehashing old plots and looking for the next Watchmen by letting someone else try their hand at the Watchmen they don't stop to make more books that are creative and substantial like Freedom Fighters. Again, this isn't the Watchmen, but it's a good book that's worth your time that largely isn't based on anything else in the DC Universe that people will actually be familiar with. I'm pretty well versed in DC history and had never heard of Freedom Fighters before this book. That seems like the kind of place you're going to find the next good story like Watchmen, not by whatever the hell it was Geoff Johns tried to do in Doomsday Clock.

Freedom Fighters is good, super hero fun that packs a punch and is well illustrated. It's not going to change your life but it's a good use of time!
Profile Image for Roberto Diaz.
706 reviews7 followers
June 2, 2024
A great use of the concept and character

As a non-USA reader, I still find quite cool the idea of the "spirit of the country" avatar that is Uncle Sam in the pages of DC Comics. This is self-contained 12-part series that has the ever reliable Robert Venditti (X-O Manowar, Hawkman, Green Lantern) taking the concept of the story Multiversity: Mastermen and expanding it to give us a more fleshed out fight against Hitler's forces in an occupied world on an alternate Earth with lots of action and fun.

Eddie Barrows (Rise of the Batmen, Superman) give us an almost full illustrated volume with only one issue of rest, aided by Bruno Redondo (Suicide Squad, Nightwing), in which we are witness of the race against time that the current Freedom Fighters have to make in order to bring back Uncle Sam, by raising "the american spirit", that has been dormant since the obliteration of their previous group.

Great panel spreads, concepts like the secret polize, overman, war wheels, and more explored in a world with meta humans that keeps getting better as the story goes forward.

For me, the only thing that I find odd is that Multiversity: master Men is Just one issue, that, not being wrtten by Venditti,is not included in this volume, and they reference the events unfolded in it in this story, so why not include it? It is not necesary since is kind of explained lightly, but it would have been good to have all the material tha inspired the entire series.
99 reviews
January 13, 2026

In the pre-crisis DC Universe the Freedom Fighters on Earth X finally destroyed the Reich with the help of the JLA and ISA but in this take there are on their own. With most of the original members executed and Uncle Sam missing, it is over 5 decades later and Hitler’s Germany has taken over the US and most of the world. Using Overman, Plasstic Men, and Iron Police they have taken total control, but a new group of Freedom Fighters rises up to try to bring about the return of Uncle Sam. Venditti does a good job of introducing this team and a great job of capturing the true nature of DC’s version of Uncle Sam, used better here than in any other appearance I have come across. The art is solid for the most part but at its best when it is just the Barrows/Ferreira team (The Redondo fill-in is solid but a bit jarring in the middle of the run.) As violent and disturbing as a revolution with super powered beings would be, so not for everyone, but nice to see the story brought to a satisfying conclusion.
651 reviews1 follower
August 2, 2020
Loved this book. The writing was great and the art was great, Robert Venditti and Eddy Barrows both did wonderful jobs. I feel like this book would have been better served had it been released under the new DC Black Label imprint as the story is more adult in nature than many of Dc's more mainstream material.

This retelling of how Uncle Sam and his band of Freedom Fighters attempt to take back the US from Nazi occupation is great. The story is dense and the world is well thought out. Maybe the team besides Black Condor could have been fleshed out a little more but it is not so much a complaint as an add on. If you enjoy alternative history stories and superheroes this is a great one for you to read.
Profile Image for Tobias.
Author 2 books36 followers
November 24, 2020
A fun story with some nice visuals. After the Multiversity story, I had hoped for a bit more Overman (aka Superman). This story doesn't grapple with the implications of an Axis victory with any particular sophistication or play with what it would mean for Superman to have been a Nazi, but while it lacks depth it is still kitschy entertainment.
Profile Image for Matt.
2,608 reviews27 followers
March 10, 2021
Collects Freedom Fighters #1-12

Following the events of "The Multiversity: Mastermen" Issue #1 from 2015, this story is set on Earth-X, an alternate Earth in which Nazi Germany's metahuman war machine conquered the planet. I really enjoyed this patriotic story, and I liked the idea behind the character of Uncle Sam.
Profile Image for Martin Maenza.
1,003 reviews25 followers
August 23, 2020
This was a fantastic mini series. Though it takes place in the alternate world Earth-X (where Hitler and his armies won WWII), the story has powerful themes and imagery that resonate in our world in 2020. It is very much a story for our times as well. Excellent work by the creative team.
Profile Image for Will Cooper.
1,899 reviews6 followers
June 11, 2022
Earth-X where the Nazis (or Razis as they are called here) won the war and most of the original Freedom Fighters are dead. Now the new Fighters have to resurrect the ideal of America and in doing so, Uncle Sam. Twists and turns and a fun ride. Also, fun to see "Plastic Man" as a baddie.
Profile Image for Scott.
638 reviews10 followers
September 28, 2020
Great read. Robert Venditti nailed it here. Nice art work here too. This was impossible to put down.
Profile Image for Joshua K.
125 reviews
August 31, 2024
Sometimes all you want from comics is Uncle Sam punching a bunch of Ratzis in the face.
12 reviews1 follower
November 27, 2024
The story is pretty standard alt history sci-fi but man the plastic man villains are pure nightmare fuel. Horrifying artwork
Profile Image for Graham Bradley.
Author 24 books43 followers
June 15, 2025
Good art, decent concept, execution was rather uneven, but I think there's just not much you can do with this idea that doesn't come across as hokey. Alas.
Author 27 books37 followers
March 31, 2021
Love the Freedom Fighters, but all their post-70's appearances tend to be very grim, grirtty and political at the cost of any sense of fun.

Decent effort to create a history for Earth X, but adding a Superman seems lazy, and writers keep doing it, rather than just change actual WW2 history, which would probably require research.
694 reviews3 followers
August 17, 2020
The Nazis won the war and it is up to the Freedom Fighters to take back America. While I liked the original way back when, the concept just kind of losses steam after a while. How many battles can the FF win and still be no closer to taking back the country? So as a limited series this story worked much better. It actually it felt a bit underdone. The 1963 part of the story really could and should have lasted longer. Jesse Owens as the leader of the resistance was a great idea, but the story quickly jumped to present day and left all those possibilities behind.
The story that followed was pretty good. A little cliched at times, no backstory on the current crop of heroes, and a bit preachy at times, but still a good read with a decisive ending.
Profile Image for Paul Griggs.
150 reviews
January 16, 2020
Superheroes hitting Nazi’s is always going to be a fun concept (especially today with far too many people demonstrating modern Right Wing beliefs) but I’m not convinced it deserved 12 issues.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews

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