The 1978 2017 2023 DC Calendar of Super-Spectacular Disasters: September Spirit of '76

This is an expanded and updated version of a post originally published September 1, 2017.

"September: The Freedom Fighters" in The 1978 Calendar of Super-Spectacular Disasters; artwork by Dick Ayers and Jack Abel
(Click picture to patrio-size)
Another month, another fire-powered villain, and a twin brother: Flamesplasher I and Flamesplasher II! Nice job with the original code-names, guys, especially since the second one sprayed water. They're the super-villain team that battles themselves! And say, about those names...was the codename "Heat Wave" already taken? Yes. Yes it was. Luckily for us, the Nazi-punchin' team from Earth-X known as The Freedom Fighters made the journey all the way from defunct, bought-out Quality Comics (Hey! Where's The Spirit?) to battle this mercury-risin' villain...and his slightly-damp twin bro.


Say, JLA Sinclair ZX-81 Computer, how's those year-long calculations comin' along? Did me filling in this months squares give us any better an idea who the Ultimate Head-Guy Super-Mastermind is? I bet it's Condiment King. It's always Condiment King.


Oh hey! It's Stevie Wonder!


Barry Ween?!?

Today in Comics History, December 24, Christmas Eve: Elf with a Gun? Izzat you, you crazy nut? What're you doin' over here at DC, ya big goofball?

from Freedom Fighters (1976 series) #7 (DC, May 1977), script by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Jack Abel, letters by Ben Oda

Today in Comics History, November 25, 1963: Oh, get outta here with that garbage, Fox News

from Freedom Fighters (2019 series) #3 (DC, April 2019), script by Robert Venditti, pencils by Eddy Barrows, inks by Eber Ferreira, colors by Adriano Lucas, letters by Andworld Design

Today in Comics History, June 23, 1977: Well, of course they held him; he's really tiny

from Freedom Fighters (1976 series) #10 (DC, September 1977), script by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Jack Abel, letters by Ben Oda

Today in Comics History, June 12: Happy birthday, Len Wein!

Born on this day in 1948: comic book editor and writer Len Wein, who co-created Swamp Thing, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Brother Voodoo, Amanda Waller, Lucius Fox, Clayface III, and many, many more classic characters and comics!


from Mighty Marvel Calendar 1976, 1977, and 1978 (Marvel, 1975-1977)


from FOOM #8 (Marvel, December 1974)

Today in Comics History, January 18: Happy birthday, Human Bomb!

Born on this day: Roy Lincoln, better known to the superhero world and comic book-reading collective as The Human Bomb! (Boom!)


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Oda
I usually like to include some of a character's first appearance on their birthday, but alas! Aside from the Phantom Lady and Plastic Man stories, I don't have anything from H.B.'s debut story by Paul Gustavson in Police Comics #1 (Quality, August 1941). No, not even the Millennium Edition (DC, 2000)! So here's a nice recapped version of his origin from a little later on.


from Police Comics #12 (Quality, October 1942); script, pencils, inks and letters by Paul Gustavson
Yes, 27QRX, now with new additive Lincoln!

Roy';s origin is revisited once again in the Silver Age...well, almost. The following is from a Xerox™ of the cancelled Freedom Fighters #17, a victim of the DC Implosion (see here and here for more on that), so it was only published in a short run of 35 copies for copyright purposes. And I've got one of 'em! (Naw, not really! You can find this story reprinted in The Secret Society of Super-Villains, Volume 2 trade from about ten years back.)




from "Murder Times Seven" in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 (DC, Fall 1978), script by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Dick Ayers and Mike Vosburg, inks by Bob Smith, letters by Shelly Leferman
Happy birthday, Roy! Please remember to blow out, not blow up, your birthday cake candles!

Today in Comics History, January 7: Happy birthday, Phantom Lady!

Born on this day, according to the DC Super Calendar 1976: Sandra Knight, the effervescent but sometimes hard-to-see Golden Age crimefighter known as Phantom Lady! (Not to be confused with Phantom Girl, who is more than 1,000 years younger.) She was created by the Eisner & Iger Studio and drawn by Arthur Peddy, who had a deft hand with a glamor girl character (he also drew Marvel/Atlas's "Jann of the Jungle").


from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Oda

365 Days of Defiance, Day 114: Revealed: the surprise ending of Secret Empire

Panels from Freedom Fighters (1976 series) #8 (May-June 1977), script by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Dick Ayers, inks by Jack Abel

365 Days of Defiance, Day 79: To Me, My Earth-X Men

The Justice Society of America! Strange visitors from another world (Earth-2, to be precise)! Hey, since they came first, why is their world Earth Two? If'n I were the Original Flash and the Original Green Lantern and the Original Superman, I'd have a thing or two to say about that. Anyway: they're fightin' Nazis! Which is always a good thing, as Earth-2 Martha Stewart told you first.


Panels from Justice League of America (1960 series) #107 (September-October 1973), script by Len Wein, pencils by Dick Dillin, inks by Dick Giordano, colors by Glynis Wein, letters by Ben Oda
All is darkest before the dawn (and also because my scans didn't turn out as bright as I'd hoped on those last panels), but luckily the JSA is accompanied by their Earth-1 non-union equivalents, the Justice League of America! Er, at least, Green Arrow, Elongated Man, and...Red Tornado, not even actually yet a member of the League. Oh man. They're boned.


Hooray! It's the Nazi-bustin' heroes of Earth-X! The Earth where no one under the age of eighteen will be admitted, cos' it's kinda saucy. It's...Amerihat! Gnat Boy! Cling-Film Woman! Captain Rhinoceros! Designed-By-Mike-Grell-Costume Kid! And Poppin-Fresh! They are the Freedom Fighters!


I kid the Freedom Fighters, but they punch Nazis, so they're okay by me. You go, FF!

One Night in Rutland: 1976

I WANT YOU! declares Uncle Sam, TO READ THIS FAIRLY UNEXCEPTIONAL COMIC BOOK!


Splash panel from Freedom Fighters #6 (January-February 1977), script by Bob Rozakis, pencils by Ramona Fradon, inks by Bob Smith, colors by Liz Berube, letters by Ben Oda

Well, it is a 1976 bicentennial tie-in to the Rutland Halloween Parade, but it's basically the end of the grand, issue-spanning Rutland crossover events that reached their height with 1972's Amazing Adventures, Thor and Justice League. It is, in fact, FF #6! No, not this one, which guest-stars Dr. Doom and the Sub-Mariner and is one of the awesomest comics of its age...


Cover of Fantastic Four v.1 #6 (September 1962), pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Dick Ayers, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

...but rather this one, which features another FF, but they're four completely different characters!


Cover of Freedom Fighters #6 (January-February 1977), pencils by Rich Buckler, inks by Vince Colletta

The Freedom Fighters, trapped in a world they never made, sworn to protect a world that fears and hates them, were sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. They promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the...secret publicist of the Freedom Fighters, journalist Julia Martha Roberts!



Why, you're right, Girl with the Big Ditko-Style Eyes! The FF need to load up the truck and moved to Vermont! (Rutland, that is.) A town whose chief import is inflatable models of superheroes and Ziggy.



Mysterious explosions! That's a rare occurrence in Rutland on Halloween night, right? Also appearing: the elderly Tom Fagan, who seems to have aged forty years since his last appearance in '73's Avengers #119. I'd guess this is a paradox brought about by the destruction of Earth-3 in Crisis on Infinite Earths...but that would just be plain insane.



AIEEEEEEEE SHE'S HAVING A STROKE IN THAT LAST PANEL oh no wait she's just winking, Clark Kent-style, at the reader. Ms. Reynolds, please, for the safety and comfort of all comic book readers...NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

One fun thing I'll supposedly do again is revisit Rutland in '76, flying in with a certain Thunder God to check up on what happened to his brother! Be here or be shaped rectangular, cats and kittens!