Liberty Belle
63 years ago - Libby Lawrence is born.
47 years ago - 16-year-old Libby begins finishing school.
44 years ago - 19-year-old Libby starts working as a foreign correspondent.
40 years ago - 23-year-old Libby is magically empowered by the Libery Bell and first begins adventuring as Libery Belle.
38 years ago - 25-year-old Libby helps form the All-Star Squadron to stop Vandal Savage from taking over all the world's communications.
24 years ago - 39-year-old Libby & Johnny Chambers have their daughter Jesse Chambers, and both retire.
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It's actually surprising just how many awesome female superheroes there were during World War II. Across the dozens of comic companies of the time, many of which went on to be purchased by DC, there was a huge spectrum of women throwing down all sorts of badassery. Where the massive bias against female characters came from is probably a topic for a much longer conversation somewhere else, but some of them still exist, and Libby Lawrence is probably one of the best.
The source of her powers has never made an ounce of sense, but it has a certain golden age purity to it. Uncle Sam already exists, so there's already a president that the "strength of the nation' is already a certain sort of magic, so it's not that much of a stretch that the liberty bell is equally magically empowered. Still, the inherent silliness of her origin is a fun contrast to just how tough she is. Her role in the elseworlds series Golden Age likely informs a lot of how she's currently characterized, and that's a very good thing, because it's a great story. Now over sixty years old, she's mainly depicted as Jesse Chamber's hard-to-please mother, which is a surprisingly fun role for a former badass to play. |