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Javaman

(62,530 posts)
Fri Jan 12, 2024, 09:22 AM Jan 2024

The origin of Superheroes: Uncle Sam (comics)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam_(comics)

Uncle Sam is a 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 (July 1940) and was created by Will Eisner.[1]

Publication history
Quality Comics

National Comics #3 (September 1940). Cover art by Lou Fine.
Uncle Sam first appeared in National Comics #1 (July 1940), which was published by Quality Comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books.[2] 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.[3] The character was used for a few years from 1940 to 1944, briefly receiving its own series, Uncle Sam Quarterly.[4] 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 superhuman, 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".[5]

DC Comics
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.[6] This team was initially based on a parallel world called Earth-X (unrelated to the Marvel Comics universe of the same name), where World War II had lasted into the 1970s.

Uncle Sam's origin was rewritten somewhat in The Spectre,[7] 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.

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The origin of Superheroes: Uncle Sam (comics) (Original Post) Javaman Jan 2024 OP
I had an Uncle Sam action figure. Tom Kitten Jan 2024 #1

Tom Kitten

(7,347 posts)
1. I had an Uncle Sam action figure.
Fri Jan 12, 2024, 08:39 PM
Jan 2024

Pretty obscure superhero!
Other Quality Comics heroes included Dollman and Plastic Man.

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