Give Me Liberty - A Review of a Frank Miller Classic

In America, the president suffers character assassination via the press. In America, the president rules like a king. World leaders condemn America while the citizens are divided. American Corporations have stake and stance in the execution of war. The Constitution is abused. Ice caps are melting. Education is used as a propaganda tool. This is a world gone irrevocably wrong on a Babylonian Road. You do understand this is a fictional world I speak of.

Writer-creator Frank Miller is the man with the midas touch in Hollywood. He is the man behind surprise hits Sin City and 300. In 1991 Miller first introduced Sin City to the comic book audience. In 2005, director Robert Rodriguez created a movie adaptation that's nearly word for word and panel for panel of the source material. Frank struck gold a second time, when Zack Snyder made a faithful adaption of 300, based of a 1999 graphic novel. King Leonidas leads 300 Spartans in war against 1 million Persians in a retelling of the fantastic battle of Thermopylae. Historical fantasy and noir fiction, what else does Miller have to offer?

In Give Me Liberty, author Frank Miller paints an American Landscape without the hyperbole of Utopia/Dystopia. Oddly, his America looks a lot like... ours. Miller wrote his American expose in 1990. Thus, life eerily imitates art.

There is more to Give Me Liberty than atmosphere. This is the story of the rose that grew from concrete; Martha Washington. Martha is raised in a single parent household in the historic, prison-like Cabrini Green Housing Projects. At age two, her Father dies in a protest march. By age twelve, Martha exhibits an aptitude for information technology. Evidence of her adaptability to the ever changing world around her. In her harsh environment, I.Q. is not enough to save one self. She must contend with criminal elements around her. Her saving grace is her mother and Donald, a school teacher. Two people that maintain integrity in a sea of lies. They both help mold the positive attributes of young impressionable Martha. Preparing her for the life journey that we all must take into adulthood.

No journey is without obstacles. Such is the case here. Martha must navigate: an exclusive offshoot of the Aryan Nazis, children guinea pigs in a covert psychic program, a personal army of clones, the oxymoronic fighting Peace Force and a vengeful Apache Nation. And keep your eyes open for the fully operational "Star Wars" Defense System talked about since the Reagan Administration.

Miller and Dave Gibbons are masters of their craft. Often setting the trends. Both are multi award winners. Inside the medium of comic books, Miller most notably for his 1986 tour de force Batman: the Dark Knight Returns and Gibbons for his 1986 classic Watchmen. Here, two legends of their medium meld minds for unapologetic, political, commentary blended with adventure. Give Me Liberty was largely ignored at the time of publication by the masses. Mainly not yet appropriate for the times. Seeming unrealistic before the Clinton and W Eras. Now it is properly aged. Potent as ever. Awaiting it's "proper" audience to discover it. Do your' self a favor, allow Martha Washington to show you the curse of being young and gifted.

Title: Give Me Liberty

Author: Frank Miller

Illustrator: Dave Gibbons

Colorist: Robin Smith

Genre: Action / Adventure / Science Fiction

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Price: $16.00