Who's This? Quality heroes.
The facts: In the JLA/JSA crossover in Len Wein and Dick Dillin's Justice League of America #107–108 (October–December 1973), they put a bunch of heroes bought by DC from Quality Comics together, put them on Earth-X, where the Nazis won the war, and called them the Freedom Fighters. In 1976, they got their own series, I guess in time for the Bicentennial. It lasted 15 issues before the DC Implosion cancelled it. It was suggested at times that other Quality heroes not on that roster were also members. After Crisis, these were presumably 1940s heroes who banded together on the only Earth we had, and so we primed for legacies. DC picked up the thread again around the time of Infinite Crisis as auxiliaries of the JSA, debuting a new team, working for the government, in two "adult" Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters mini-series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray between 2006 and 2008, and then 9 issues of a new ongoing in 2010 by the same writers. From the New52 forward, the Freedom Fighters are back on Earth-X, or rather, Earth-10, and are mostly seen in multiversal cameos.
How you could have heard of them: In comics, the original team had its own issues of Convergence (among the better fare from this event). On television, they appeared on Batman: The Brave and the Bold and in the Arrowverse's Crisis on Earth-X.
Example story: Freedom Fighters #7 (April 1977) "The Emperor of the North Pole!!" by Bob Rozakis, Dick Ayers and Jack Abel
To my surprise, this random issue of the series doesn't have any Nazis. The America we're shown is pretty conservative and the Freedom Fighters are considered "fugitives", but that's a far cry from decorating New York in swastikas or whatever. Heck, 2024 has more Nazis than Earth-X here. Instead, we're going to tap into the idea that Uncle Sam is a mythic icon, and therefore, Santa Claus must be real too. Well... almost:
It's Santaland in Upstate New York, a seasonal tourist trap that nevertheless has an evil elf who plans to title the Earth's axis so that the amusement park really IS at the North Pole, plunging half the United States into deep freeze. Thanks to Black Condor's emerging telepathic powers, he's gotten a flash of this and the team goes into action. But not everyone takes it as seriously:
Also, me.*I* don't take this silly story very seriously. In subplot land, the Ray is putting the moves on Phantom Lady, and the unrequited Human Bomb is crushed. Sounds about right. She's way above your weight class, Guy Who Can't Touch Anyone Because He'll Make Them Blow Up. And the Ray also laughs at the toy soldiers converging on their position until he discovers they're shooting real bullets. They're easily destroyed, but the elf keeps sending threats. Uncle Sam has to fight an animatronic bear.
They couldn't keep this for a fight against a Russian enemy? Doll Man avoids a razor-sharp Frisbee by shrinking down, but I feel like he's the one who should be fighting killer dolls.
The fight continues until we've seen everyone's powers. Some teamwork too, with the Ray freeing his friends by burning off assorted skipping ropes and such. Hey, what about Uncle Sam?
Yes, that's the action I crave. The elf then sends action figure-sized robots of Earth-1's best-known heroes into the fight, and the Superman figure flies right into the Human Bomb's explosive face!
Eventually, the Ray freeze him on the spot by [not proper physics] and the Freedom Fighters have to bail because trigger-happy cops have arrived.
A very weird story that WAS on the stands in December, at least, but if this is what they were doing with the book, I can see why it didn't last. I mean, your core concept is superheroes versus History's Greatest Natural Villains and you still put them through plots that could happen to anyone on Earth-1. Seems a waste.
Who's Next? A Stan Lee stand-in.
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