A few years back, there was a long-standing superstition (backed up by events) that said a successful PC superhero game just wasn't going to happen. Freedom Force is the game that broke that superstition, a role-playing computer game that perfectly captured the feel of '60s Marvel without simply cheating and using analogues of its famous characters. Not only was it a really fun game, it had legimately fun characters and a pretty neat story. Now, on the cusp of a sequel that will look at the Golden Age of these characters, one of the original creators has teamed up with Myth of 8-Opus creator (and channeler of Kirby style) Tom Scioli to bring an adaptation of the original Freedom Force story to comics. This first issue also breaks with previously established wisdom, as it is an adaptation of a video game story with more than a little nudge and wink to the corniness of the Silver Age and yet, it happens to be a great comic, in fact one of the best I read this week.
Of course, Freedom Force #1 won't be for everyone. If you're the sort who sneers at the Silver Age and when comics were fun, there are several comics out this week where someone gets raped or murdered or the heroes are otherwise punked. However, if you like your villains super and your heroes wearing bright gaudy costumes and shouting out slogans as they pummel their opponents to the tune of giant sound effects, than boy are you in for a treat. It's easy to mimic the Silver Age style, but what isn't easy is to do it while both acknowledging the goofy elements and loving them at the same time and to capture the engaging energy that those comics had without becoming mired in what is essentially parody. Freedom Force hits this balance nicely, as it will definitely give any serious comic-book reader some chuckles, but you can't help but root for the good guys and boo the bad guys, just like you would if you were plunked down at a Saturday morning serial.
Those who have played Freedom Force will find this story familiar, but not too familiar. Dialogue and story sequences come right out of the cinematics in that game, but Dieter mixes up the story a little bit, eschewing some of the origin stories and throwing the characters right into the mix so that we have a big old superhero/supervillain throwdown right in the first issue, not to mention the quick formation of the team. It's Stan Lee style plotting all the way, getting to the exciting stuff while letting some of the more structural and background info slide until it's needed for later. It is undeniably cheesy (check out those heroic catchphrases, or the origins for the hero and villain), but it's also undeniably fun, and Dieter really keeps the story moving right along.
Just as it's easy to mimic the Silver Age style in writing but difficult to get it really right, the same can be said of aping the Silver Age style of art, most notably Jack Kirby. Try it and fail and you can wind up looking more like Rob Liefeld than anything else, but Scioli gets it right. His use of perspective puts the reader right up next to the action, so that what look like giant hands fire flame directly out from the panels, or we're zoomed right in to watch the sinister laughter of Nuclear Winter, the Russkie no-goodnik at the center of the villainous plot of this issue. Scioli's work has a lot of the energy and flare of Kirby, along with classic, bright colors by Tom McCraw, and so the book looks and feels just like it should.
I'll be honest, though I enjoyed Freedom Force the game, I didn't think I'd be that into the comic. Silver Age pastiche isn't usually my bag, and an adaptation of a story I'd already seen didn't interest me as much as new stories featuring these characters. As it turns out, though, Dieter tweaks the story of the game just enough to make it work even better as a comic, and though I still would like to see more new stories with these characters, it's now largely down to how good this adaptation of the original Freedom Force stories was. 9/10
