The Freedom Collective #1

2004. Cover price £2.45
32 pages. B&W contents.
Kremlin Comics [Rough Cut Comics]

Communism's Mightiest Super-Heroes!

Edited by Igor Sloano [Iain Henderson].

Cover p: Dom Regan, i: Colin Barr, colouring by UNKNOWN (uncredited).

Contents:

 2 "Many Years Ago..." text introduction by UNKNOWN (uncredited).

 3 Freedom Collective "This Land... This Terror!", part one, w: Comrade Barr (Colin Barr); p: Domski Regan (Dom Regan), i: Comrade Barr (Colin Barr), lettering by Pioter Rorkov (Peter Rourke).

14 Record Your Parents Voices at Home (half page) fake advertisement. / New from Kremlin Kraft (half page) fake advertisement.

15 "The Power of the Chief!", part two, w: Comrade Barr (Colin Barr); p: Domski Regan (Dom Regan), i: Comrade Barr (Colin Barr), lettering by Pioter Rorkov.

24 Bonus Feature! The Origin of the Krimson Kommisar and the Freedom Collective! w: Comrade Barr (Colin Barr); p: Domski Regan (Dom Regan), i: Comrade Barr (Colin Barr), lettering by Piotr Rorkov (Peter Rourke).

26 Freedom of Speech readers' mail.

28 Society: Party Animal in-house advertisement.

29 The First Cut is the Deepest in-house advertisement for The Surgeon

30 The Final Cut editorial by Edward Murphy.

31 The Sensational Alex Harvey Band advertisement.

32 New from Borealis Plastics - Glow in the Dark Rasputin & The Gamma Tzar Kits fake advertisement.

Taking the overblown histrionics of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's early sixties patriotic fervor, and twisting the message for a suitably Soviet flavor, could have resulted in a horrible mess. Be assured that this is a far better title than most retro titles. While it is a smarter, and less comedic, take on its subject than the cover suggests, it isn't entirely without problems - the very rough title isn't in keeping with the Marvel style, and the Rough Cut logo should have been in a more sixties mode. However the sheer audacity of both the plot and artwork manage to overcome whatever obstacles it makes for itself.

Colin Barr's script manages to avoid most of the problematic mistakes which have plagued US superhero titles (conflating Communist and Nazi ideology), and goes so far as to portray a Nazi (wryly named Von Braun) in league with The Chief.

There's some very subtle touches in the artwork, and good likenesses of historical characters, but the most impressive aspect of Dom Regan and Colin Barr's art is the depth of the images. The employment of foreground/middle ground/background composition grounds the characters in a time and place, unlike many of the classic comics which it parodies, and manages to appease my aesthetic requirements where superheroes are involved.

Freedom Collective mostly amuses my sense of humor through its' use of in-universe advertisements and letter-page, which keeps up the conceit of this being published in the USSR in the sixties, though this presents other (though minor) niggles - the Borealis advert feels more like a seventies advert, and one might suggest that more could have been made of its adverts.

Should this return in some way, I'll be reading. It is a magnificent and audacious title, which has managed what many would have believed impossible... It has made me genuinely interested in the adventures of a group of superheroes.