Liberty Legion Appreciation!

The introduction to the Liberty Legion began in The Invaders #5 (cover-dated March 1976):


In that issue, the Invaders had been called back to the U.S. for a War Bond rally to raise money for the fight against the Axis forces.




And then, after The Invaders were captured (with the exception of Bucky) by the Red Skull, . . .


All of which led to the events of Marvel Premiere #29 (April 1976)



Was that really almost 45 years ago since they first appeared as a group?

Continuing with Marvel Premiere #29 (April 1976):




The Patriot was introduced in the pages of Human Torch #4 (cover-dated Spring 1941 and with an on-sale date of March 31st, 1941 according to the GCD) in both a text story


and in a ten-page feature story (page 1 is below):


Also, during the Kree-Skull War back in the early 1970s, The Patriot was one of the Golden Age heroes conjured up from Rick Jones' memories.



from Avengers #97 (March 1972)

Next up: Red Raven




As mentioned, Red Raven was featured in his own comic book (cover-dated August 1940) which lasted for one issue:



And after that, Roy Thomas wrote an issue of X-Men (#44, cover-dated May 1968) that brought back the character (and also gave him the costume he would later wear when he was part of the Liberty Legion):




NOTE: I read this story when it was reprinted in X-Men #92 (February 1975)


And Roy also used Red Raven in Sub-Mariner #26 (June 1970):

The Thin Man (Bruce Dickson) was another of Timely / Marvel's "one-and-done" characters, having his lone Golden Age appearance in Mystic Comics #4 (August 1940)







Bruce was short-changed when Marvel Comics produced their Bicentennial Calendar for 1976 (the 200th anniversary of the United States declaring independence) and had a "National Liberty Legion Week" in the middle of January.




And, for the record, the author Dashiell Hammett wrote the novel The Thin Man, which was published in 1934 (though the story was included in a December 1933 magazine). A series of movies were also produced based on the characters of Nick Charles (a retired private detective) and his wife Nora (a wealthy socialite) from that book. However, "The Thin Man" referred to in the title of the book was not Nick Charles (nor his wife Nora).