The Quality of Freedom!

DC snatched up the vintage Quality Comics heroes and more than a bit of fun with them. They became the Freedom Fighters. How they got there is one of my favorite stories in all of comicdom. What we commonly call Quality Comics rose from the ashes of Centaur Publications, and the machinations are complex but not uncommon in an era where hucksters hoped to make a quick buck in a medium which was exploding in popularity. But the main guy behind Quality Comics was a chap known as Busy Arnold and he seems to be a businessman who valued his employees by and large and honored contracts. 

(The First Quality Comic - 1937)

Quality really made its mark when Arnold made a deal with Will Eisner who quit his gig with Jerry Iger and went to work with Arnold. 

(Doll Man -- Quality's First Super-Hero)

It was here that he created such characters as The Ray, Black Condor, Doll Man, Lady Luck, Blackhawk, and his most famous creation of all -- The Spirit. Such was the relationship between Arnold and Eisner that Eisner allowed the creation of Midnight by Lou Fine for Quality in case WWII did something to Spirit sales. 

(Will Eisner)

But nothing lasts forever, and eventually Arnold and Eisner go their separate ways. The comic book industry gets torpedoed by likes of Frederic Wertham, and eventually Quality closes shop in 1956. Much of their material was sold to DC who continued the highly successful Blackhawk series.

(Among the Last Quality Comics - 1956)

Eventually DC tried out Plastic Man as well. Then in the pages of Justice League of America Len Wein, Dick Dillin, and Dick Giordano brought back the Quality heroes with gusto. 

By the time of Justice League of America #107, the general template of the Justice League and Justice Society crossovers had been set. The two teams would meet and the added value from year to year would be new heroes. This time the heroes of Earths One and Two would meet the Quality heroes on Earth-X. DC had control of these heroes since they had bought out Quality Comics some many years before. Len Wein had wanted the name to be Earth-Swastika, but editor Julie Schwartz kiboshed that idea for obvious reasons.

The story really began with the previous two issues of Justice League in which both Elongated Man and Red Tornado were inducted into the League. The Tornado had survived the end of the last JLofA-JSofA adventure and been stranded on Earth-1 where he was found by his creator T.O.Morrow who promptly gave the android hero a new face and tried to use him to destroy the League which had welcomed the android hero into their ranks. Morrow's plan failed, but the Red Tornado now had the distinction along with Black Canary of being a member of both the League and the Society.

"Crisis On Earth-X" was written by Len Wein and drawn by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano. The comic featured another outstanding Nick Cardy cover. The action begins with both the Justice League and the Justice Society trying to synchronize two transporter devices with which they hope to be able travel between the Earths at any time of the year. Despite Red Tornado's pleading to be allowed to return to his Earth, the League sends Green Arrow, Elongated Man, and Batman into the machine. Likewise, the Society sends Sandman, Dr. Fate, and Superman into their device. But Red Tornado stows away in the device causing the transporters to malfunction and the seven heroes to vanish. They end up on another Earth entirely, one that seems to have Nazis in control. They battle the Nazis who have super-scientific devices and are saved from defeat by the intervention of Uncle Sam, the Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, the Ray, the Black Condor, and Doll Man. Uncle Sam reveals that on this Earth World War II lasted far longer due to the untimely death of the President, and that eventually the Nazis won taking control of the globe. They maintain power with mind control devices to which Uncle Sam and his freedom fighters are immune. Dr. Fate uses his magic to detect the locations of the hidden mind control devices, and the heroes divide into teams and Uncle Sam sends the teams away to destroy the devices. Red Tornado is left behind. Batman, Dr. Fate, Ray, and Human Bomb are sent to Paris where the mind control device seems to be in the Eiffel Tower. The quartet battle their way to the top and find the machine which is sentient and defends itself with specially constructed foes for each of the heroes. The heroes prevail but then are taken over directly by the machine. They are able to destroy the machine though by combining their powers and relying on their reflexes. Meanwhile the heroes of Earths One and Two search for their disappeared comrades.

 

"Thirteen Against the Earth!" under another great Cardy cover is again by the Wein, Dillin and Giordano team. Uncle Sam breaks the fourth wall and brings the reader up to date on the events of the last issue. Superman, Doll Man, Green Arrow, and Phantom Lady arrive in Japan, the former Axis power which was also defeated by the Nazis, to find the second mind-control machine. It is hidden in plain sight and Superman detects it and reveals it. The machine threatens to destroy Japan if the heroes attack it, but Superman is undeterred landing a ferocious punch. Immediately Japan suffers a massive earthquake, and Superman flies off to alleviate the problem. Meanwhile the other heroes work together to get Doll Man inside the machine where he disables it. Elongated Man, Sandman, Black Condor, and Uncle Sam arrive at Mount Rushmore where Hitler's face has been added to the monument. The heroes fight their way to another machine only to discover that it's an illusion. They deduce the machine must be inside the Hitler head and Uncle Sam aided by Elongated Man delivers a massive punch to Hitler's stony ediface destroying the machine. The heroes are them reassembled but discover that the mind control has not diminished despite the destruction of the three machines. In fact, the heroes of Earths One and Two are taken over by the mind control and attack the heroes of Earth-X. Red Tornado detects the source of the mind control and follows the trail into orbit where he finds a huge Nazi satellite "manned" by an android Hitler. It turns out the Nazis had actually been defeated by their own mind control machines some years before and that the machines have ruled Earth-X since. Red Tornado attacks and succeeds in causing the satellite to fall out of orbit and crash into the ocean. He rescues a bit of equipment the machines used to communicate, and the heroes are able to contact Earths One and Two to arrange rescue. The leave Earth-X free of its oppressors and they leave behind some truly quality freedom fighters.

The Freedom Fighters proved to be pretty popular and even got their own series several years later. It was a quirky series and brought the heroes to Earth-1 and made them fugitives, an attempt I guess to recreate their underground guerrilla warrior role from the crossover. I enjoyed it, but after a few years the series was cancelled. This crossover itself is one of my absolute faves. The artwork by Dillin and Giordano is outstanding, with Giordano giving Dillin's storytelling some real drama. In the years before internet and archives and whatnot, getting to see these vintage heroes was an awesome treat. While I adore the modern era with access to old comics easy to get hold of, part of me yearns for those sweet days when such glimpses were exceedingly precious because they were so rare. 

The Freedom Fighters went on to get their own series, one which lasted a few years and was caught up in the end in DC's notorious implosion. Here's a cover gallery. 

The book might have died, but there was no killing these Quality characters. 

A few years later Roy Thomas developed an origin story of sorts for the Freedom Fighters in the pages of All-Star Squadron. This comic was Roy's attempt to organize and to some extent sanitize DC's often chaotic Golden Age era. 

Alas, his hard work was largely undone by Crisis on Infinite Earths. The arrival of Harbinger was the end of classic DC take on those vintage Quality heroes. 

Look for more posts on the Quality heroes as July rumbles along. For more about these comics, I highly recommend Twomorrow's Quality Companion. (See the cover at the top of this post.) It has a wide array of features and traces the rise and fall of the company and its many talents. It even includes many full-color comic stories from Quality's heyday. 

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