Uncle Sam (comics)


Uncle Sam is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Based on the national personification of the United States, Uncle Sam, the character first appeared in National Comics #1 and was created by Will Eisner.

Publication history

Quality Comics

Uncle Sam first appeared in National Comics #1, which was published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books. He was depicted as a mystical being who was originally the spirit of a slain patriotic soldier from the American Revolutionary War, and who now appears in the world whenever his country needs him. The character was used for a few years from 1940 to 1944, briefly receiving its own series, Uncle Sam Quarterly. During this time, he had a young, non-costumed sidekick named Buddy Smith.
According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes, "He fights a variety of Axis agents, human and super-human, from the Black Legion to the shrink-ray-wielding Professor Nakajima. Uncle Sam also fights the mad scientist Dr. Dirge, the King Killer, and the insanity-causing Mad Poet."

DC Comics

acquired the character as part of its acquisition of the Quality characters in the 1950s, and he was used as a supporting character in Justice League of America in the 1970s. This established Uncle Sam as the leader of the Freedom Fighters, a team of former Quality characters that briefly received its own title. This team was initially based on a parallel world called Earth-X, where World War II had lasted into the 1970s.
Uncle Sam's origin was rewritten somewhat in The Spectre, where Uncle Sam is described as a spiritual entity created through an occult ritual by the Founding Fathers. This "Spirit of America" was initially bound to a powerful talisman and would take physical form by merging with a dying patriot. The new origin states that the Spirit of America had taken human form as the Minute-Man during the Revolutionary War, Brother Jonathan in later conflicts and, during the American Civil War, had been split in two as Johnny Reb and Billy Yank.
The Spirit first assumed its now-familiar Uncle Sam incarnation in 1870, when it resurrected a political cartoonist who had been killed by Boss Tweed. The second host of Uncle Sam fought in World War I. A third was a superhero during World War II but vanished at the end of the war, erasing any subsequent appearances from the fictional history of the DC Universe In The Spectre, the Spirit is resurrected in a new costumed form called the Patriot, but later reverts to Uncle Sam in a Superman issue.
A 1997 Vertigo series features the character with the persona of a street person. A similar notion was suggested by Alan Moore in his 1980s crossover proposal Twilight of the Superheroes; this interpretation was inspired by the satirical novel The Public Burning by Robert Coover, which also features a superheroic version of Uncle Sam.
In Infinite Crisis #1, the Freedom Fighters are attacked by the Secret Society of Super Villains. Three of the Freedom Fighters, Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, and Black Condor are killed in the battle. Uncle Sam himself seemingly dies at the hands of Sinestro. The other team members are brutally injured but survive. Uncle Sam is seen face down in rainwater.
However, when the dead heroes are found strung up on the Washington Monument in Infinite Crisis #2, Uncle Sam is missing.
The character's latest incarnation appeared in the first issue of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, and spends the first few issues of this new series attempting to form a new version of the Freedom Fighters. This new Uncle Sam emerges from the Mississippi River at the same time as Father Time is elsewhere planning the future of S.H.A.D.E. with new incarnations of the Freedom Fighters members. Uncle Sam, disturbed by the deadly force used by the new versions of Phantom Lady, The Human Bomb, Doll Man, and others, successfully recruits these metahumans into his new Freedom Fighters team, which results in Father Time ordering his remaining S.H.A.D.E. personnel to pursue and kill Uncle Sam and his team. Although Uncle Sam is shown to be against killing, particularly rebuking Doll Man for murdering a crime lord in front of the man's young grandson, Uncle Sam is not against using deadly force when necessary.
He is also seen in Final Crisis #4 and classified as Corrupted when Alan Scott is looking for remaining superhumans to fight Darkseid's forces.
Uncle Sam shows up in the Blackest Night crossover, helping many other superheroes fight the returning dead. This includes the slaughtered incarnation of the Freedom Fighters.
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, a human African-American version appears in the comic series Human Bomb. One of the S.H.A.D.E leaders he calls delivers an order to capture Michael Taylor.

Powers and abilities

Uncle Sam has demonstrated various powers, including super strength, invulnerability, the ability to alter his size, enhanced speed, and some degree of clairvoyance. He is also shown to be able to transport himself and others to a pocket dimension called The Heartland; he does this to Doll Man in issue #2 of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. The Pre-Crisis version of Uncle Sam could at one point travel to parallel universes, as he did with the Freedom Fighters to travel to Earth-X from Earth-Two, however in Freedom Fighters #1, Uncle Sam and the other Freedom Fighters require the help of a scientist's machine to travel to Earth-One. His powers are said to be in direct proportion of the belief people have in the idea of the United States as The City Upon a Hill. In Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, Father Time states that tests indicate Sam is not a human, meta-, or magical being, and the question of what he is can be considered inconclusive. In issue #3 of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, he states that he does not have the ability to fly.

Other versions

Based on comments by Grant Morrison and the fact that a Nazi version of Superman is depicted in the scene, this alternate universe is not the pre-Crisis Earth-X.

Television

Uncle Sam appears in Justice League Unlimited tie in comic #17.