The Philadelphia Daily Inquirer gives the new Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters title a thumb’s up:
“Everybody wants to believe in America,” said Jimmy Palmiotti, who is co-writing the series with Justin Gray. “Uncle Sam is a classic, iconic character that embodies the spirit of America, and in our series… he gets all his powers from the people that believe in him and what he represents.”
In other words, the more people that Sam gets to believe in him and American ideals, the more formidable he will become.
It is one heck of an idea and it is executed beautifully. Gray and Palmiotti keep the book dark and twisted enough to prevent it from becoming syrupy.
I almost didn’t pick this book up; in fact, it wasn’t until my second trip to the comic shop over the weekend that I bought it. But I’m glad I did. The first big scene alone, where Dollman poses as an action figure, was worth the price of admission.
July 25th, 2006 at 11:47 am
I really enjoyed the first issue, and the whole Santa Claus angle for Uncle Sam was a nice touch, especially his little speech in Brave New World about the powers of the Mississippi River reviving him.
July 25th, 2006 at 11:48 am
How well ss the book isolated from the Crisis bizness? I like the idea’s put forth in that article (Fables: Uncle Sam), but I wonder about the super-hero stylings.
July 25th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
It’s quite tightly bound to the Crisis, but it’s not necessary to know that. A first-time reader would simply be aware that the US government has a team called the Freedom Fighters, who might be at odds with Uncle Sam, the spirit of the US.
Somebody who’d read Crisis would be aware that the US government had an earlier team called the Freedom Fighters which included Uncle Sam, and that this team was killed during the Crisis. But that’s probably not essential to the plot of the new book yet.