FREEDOM FIGHTERS (vol. 1) #8 (June, 1977). Cover by Rich Buckler and Jack Abel.
The Freedom Fighters take on The Crusaders, who are just thinly-veiled versions of Marvel Comics' The Invaders:
Americommando = Captain America
Rusty = Bucky
Barracuda = Namor the Sub-Mariner
Fireball = Human Toch
and Sparky + Toro.
The names for the Crusaders were taken from Golden Age comic book characters, although Barracuda's character was actually named Barry Cuda.
This was actually part of an unofficial crossover with Marvel, wherein the two publishers' teams battled a group called the Crusaders. The members of the Crusaders, in both cases, were versions of the other publisher's group.
THE INVADERS (vol. 1) #14 (March, 1977). Cover by Jack Kirby.
Marvel's version of The Crusaders were analogues of the Freedom Fighters:
Is there any truth to the rumors that Dan the Dyna-Mite had his brain replaced with a clone of Hitler's after the war, or is that just pop-history gone viral?
More like a piece of pop CULTURE that became confused as a piece of pop history.
(SPOILERS for JSA: The Golden Age below. And I really do suggest you read it.)
The plot point of Daniel Dunbar getting his brain replaced with that of Adolf Hitler originally comes from the 1993 alt history political thriller JSA: The Golden Age created by James Robinson and Paul Smith.
(The splash page revealing "Dunbarr" as Dynaman from the copy of the book in my own collection)
Within the plot of the book, Dunbarr is convinced to take part in a government experiment to enhance his explosive superhuman powers at the behest of Tex Thompson, the Americommando who had himself been replaced by the Ultra Humanite at some point during the book's version of WWII. His brain is replaced with that of Adolph Hitler, the experiment to grant his power similar to Superman is a success and he serves as the book's main antagonist and final obstacle in which an apocalyptic clash between him and the heroes of the Golden Age finally burns down the embers of the old order and makes way for the new.
Within the book's fiction Dunbar represents the flower of youth that was sacrificed in the second World War. Not only in the violence that stole a generation of sons, brothers and fathers in the same way that Dunbar was left without his own mentor but in the way that post war 1950s style American complacency allowed for much of the fascism that had just been defeated overseas to plant roots in the American psyche. He stands for the America that, when faced with the trauma and blood spilled against the Nazi war machine used much of their same tactics and rhetoric in its growing paranoia against the Soviet Union.
It's the unsettling metaphor where the newest American generation was becoming frighteningly similar to the monster that the older generation had just bled itself dry to defeat and the ultimate sins of pride, arrogance and bigotry that that older generation has to recognize, confront and overcome in itself before the optimism of a new generation (In the book symbolized by a mixture of 60s counterculture and the rebirth of the superhero through the Justice League generation) can bloom.
Daniel Dunbar in real life is, as of this moment, not only still alive but undergoing something of a Renaissance some 60 years after his initial prominence. It was his investigation that eventually lead to the uncovering of the kidnapping and imprisonment of many of his fellow sidekicks of the era upon the forgotten Orphan Island. He accompanied Stargirl and Red Arrow onto the Island and was regressed to his teenage form by a not fully understood phenomena and has since been seen acting as part mentor, part partner to the young atomic hero Damage making good use of his second lease on life by all accounts!
365 DC Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…
July 5th - Mr. America
Harry “Tex” Thomson had been an investigator in the years leading up to The United States’ entry into the Second World War. After he was almost killed by a nazi saboteur, Tex decided to reinvent himself as a masked vigilante, defending the home front from the Axis Powers. He changed his appearance, dying his hair black, growing a mustache and then donned a patriotic uniform; calling himself ‘Mister America.’
His weapon of choice was a bullwhip that he wielded with expert precision. He thwarted many schemes by German and Japanese spies and was ultimately recruited as an enlisted operative of the Office of Strategic Services under the codename of the ‘Americommando.’ Later in the war Mr. America joined the ranks of All-Star Squadron.
Mr. America continued to operate as a crimefighter following the war. He later went into semi-retirement and formed the ‘Hero Hotline.’ Years later, Thomson’s descendent, Trey Thompson, became the new Mr. America for a brief time before perishing in the line of duty. After that, Trey’s former partner took up the mantle and served briefly with the contemporary iteration of The Justice Society. Mr. America first appeared in the pages of Action Comics #1 (1938).
