Reviving Captain Freedom

Today is World Freedom Day, he said with a hollow laugh. As of November 5, the prospects for genuine individual liberty anywhere in the world seem very dim indeed, and likely will be until long after I am gone. If you haven’t come to terms with that yet, prepare for your rude awakening, no matter who you are. It’s already too late to change anything, but I will derive savage pleasure in witnessing the misery of the people who brought this day about. I’m sorry, that’s not very nice of me? If you believe in being nice to your oppressors, God love you and may he continue to bless your short, innocent existence.

Like everyone else, I’m trying to figure out next moves. But til then, I have vowed to keep on doing what I do, and that’s what today’s post is about.

I learned about Captain Freedom about a year ago when I was doing my post on Harvey Comics. C.F. never got his own title; he was featured in Speed Comics from 1941 through 1947. He was later revived by A.C. Comics in 1983. It’s not difficult to deduce why the character was both short-lived and subsquently forgotten. He’s clearly a total rip-off of Captain America. The character was obviously brought into the world purely as a business decision. His creator is billed as one “Franklin Flagg”, a patent pseudonym for one or more writers and artists. No one can take the blame for the plagiarism!

Yet there are some interesting points about him. His alter ego, Don Wright, was a newspaper publisher, thus combining elements of Clark Kent and Peter Parker on the one hand (news gatherers) and wealthy moguls like Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark on the other. Nowadays, I venture to say being in charge of a media empire puts you more in line with being a super VILLAIN, but citizens were made differently back then.

Naturally, just like Captain America, Captain Freedom was all about defeating the Nazis and their Fascist and Imperial allies in the Axis, and of course we love that part. Somebody else does, too! Captain Freedom may actually have a future. A group of prominent comic book artists and writers launched a Kickstarter to revive the character for the Trump era, with the slogan “Combat Hate”, meaning the Captain Freedom character (now in the public domain) would now fight domestic Fascists and racists. They launched their campaign in 2017 and it seems to have been active as of 2020. At that time, there was apparently a digital edition as well a printed one that she was shipped to backers. I don’t know if it’s still possible to get copies, but if you’re interested, reach out to them here. Also check out this article in the Pittsburgh City Paper. I can’t think of a better time to revive Captain Freedom yet again.