Review – Freedom Fighters #11: Man vs. Superman

Freedom Fighters #11 – Robert Venditti, Writer; Eddy Barrows, Penciller; Eber Ferreira, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist

Ratings:

Ray – 6/10

Ray: Freedom Fighters #11, the penultimate issue of this year-long maxiseries finally brings us the moments we’ve been waiting for – but also has several scenes that are wildly out of step tone-wise and I’m a bit surprised made it past DC editorial.

Now that Uncle Sam is revived and the Detroit rebellion has begun, the American fighting spirit is making a comeback. The opening segment is one of the strongest of the series, as a pirate radio broadcast sends out the word across the United States and we see the disenfranchised listen in. That gives Uncle Sam the strength to face off against Cyborg Overman, in a wide-screen battle that tests the half-robot abomination against Uncle Sam’s growing strength. Sam has always been the strongest part of this series, so watching him finally step up for the last battle is great. Some of his homespun lines remind me of a Jonah Hex who never fought for the wrong side.

The problem is, the rest of the issue isn’t nearly as strong as that segment.

A scene involving the rescue of Doll Woman and Human Bomb in particular leads to Phantom Lady displaying her powers against a group of Plasstic Men. We know she did something grotesque to them – but the splash page reveal is more disturbing than anything in a Black Label book and makes me surprised it got out the door.

Overall, aside from Sam it still feels like most of the characters are generic and haven’t really gotten their own storyarcs – besides Black Condor, whose storyarc seems to be leading to a painful death due to his new condition. Eddy Barrows’ art is fantastic, but Venditti’s writing here isn’t nearly up to the level of his other comic this week. A comic pitting heroes against Nazis in this time period should probably have more on its mind than a generic year-long superhero battle.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.