Give Me Liberty (a review)

Today I’m going to review a comic about a young African American woman who’s trying to find her way in a hyper political world. She goes from a young girl suffering from a traumatic incident to a war hero being constantly targeted by her white, male captain. He does everything he can to keep her silent about his traitorous actions while ultimately seeking to overthrow the president and take over the U.S. Now it’s up to our hero to survive the many obstacles thrown at her and save her country from a greedy dictator.

With that description, the last person you’d associate with this story is Frank Miller.

Give Me Liberty is a four-issue mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics back in 1990. It was written by Frank Miller, known for writing fan favorites like The Dark Knight Returns and Daredevil: Born Again. He’s also known for completely asinine works like All Star Batman and Robin and Holy Terror. It’s a bit of a mixed bag with him. The series was illustrated by Dave Gibbons who was known for a little-known series called Watchmen.

As an added note, there are quite a few spin offs of Give Me Liberty that go on into the new millennium. These spin offs include:

• Martha Washington Goes to War (1994)

• Happy Birthday Martha Washington (1995)

• Martha Washington Stranded in Space (1995)

• Martha Washington Saves the World (1997)

• Martha Washington Dies (2007)

Jesus there’s a lot of them.

Anyways, the plot is pretty much what I said above but here’s the cleaner version. Officer Martha Washington grew up in a low-income housing project. She witnesses the horrific murder of her teacher and is institutionalized for her resulting mental breakdown. After she escapes, she joins the military group P.A.X. to create a new life for herself. Unfortunately, she runs into the bastard captain, Moretti, who does everything in his power to make her disappear while he works to secure his dictatorship. Washington goes through all kinds of crap like nearly dying in space, being captured by a surviving…