Uncle Sam
1732 - Samuel Augustus Adams is born in Concord, Massachusetts.
1749 - 17-year-old Samuel becomes an apprentice typesetter.
1754 - 22-year-old Samuel volunteers for the French-Indian War.
1763 - 31-year-old Samuel returns home at the end of the French-Indian War.
1766 - 34-year-old Samuel gets married & starts his own press.
1771 - 39-year-old Samuel's wife is killed by British troops. He begins publishing separatist papers.
1775 - 43-year-old Samuel dies at Concord & Lexington. He is found by the Wizard Shazam & given the chance to become his champion, but declines, asking to instead become the avatar of his new nation. He becomes the elemental spirit of American independence, Minuteman.
1776 - Minuteman crosses the Delaware with George Washington to ambush Hessian troops in Trenton, New Jersey.
1783 - Minuteman fights in the siege of Yorktown, leading to the surrender of General Cornwallis.
1786 - Minuteman appears for the last time in a naval conflict between French & British forces in Cuddalore, India in the Bay of Bengal.
1812 - The US declares war on the United Kingdom and it's allies. Samuel Augustus Adams appears in a new, brash identity Brother Johnathan, serving in several naval battles.
1813 - US forces levied in New Jersey receive rations from a meatpacking planet in Troy, New York owned by Samuel Wilson. The inspection labels prompt soldiers to invent the character 'Uncle Sam' to represent the government.
1815 - Brother Johnathan leads the charge of Andrew Jackson's troops in the Battle of New Orleans. The Treaty of Ghent ratifies the end of the War of 1812, but Brother Johnathan continues to appear, first when the USS Constitution engages the HMS Cyane & HMS Levant, and in the Battle of the Sink Hole in Missouri when American Rangers fought Saulk warriors uninformed about the treaty. Johnathan is aghast at the violence, and ceases to appear.
1846 - Brother Johnathan appears in the Battle of Palo-Alto defending Fort Texas from Mexican cavalry in the first conflict of the Mexican-American War. His powers are vastly diminished as this is the first American War on foreign soil, and because of the American people's vast conflict over the bullish annexation of Texas.
1848 - Brother Johnathan fights to suppress Mexican guerilla fighters while the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed. He is forced to pursue the American forces of Sterling Price as they advance into Chihuahua after the signing of the treaty, and for the first time fights American soldiers in defense of the Mexican Garrison in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales. He is gunned down and dies on the battlefield.
1861 - The American Civil War begins with the bombardment of Fort Sumpter. Samuel Agustus Adams manifests during the war as two separate beings, Johnny Reb & Billy Yank. The magic empowering them is deeply broken as America suffers this crisis, leaving both entities practically mortal as they undergo deep identity crisis during the war.
1865 - Johnny Reb & Billy Yank both serve in the siege of Peterson & Richmond, and finally confront each other at the Battle of Appomattox Court House, leading to General Lee's surrender. Johnny Reb flees to Texas and is finally found by Billy Yank on the banks of the Rio Grande. Johnny is finally gunned down in the Battle of Palmito Ranch. They have a final tearful confrontation, and Billy holds him as he dies. His magic is not absorbed back into their shared source, but instead dissipates through the American consciousness.
1898 - Samuel Agustus Adams appears with a new persona in the Battle of Cardenas, Cuba. Uncle Sam is a manifestation of a deliberately unified United States, also appearing in propaganda material to sway American support of the intervention in the Spanish suppression of the Cuban War of Independence and Philippine Revolution. Sam's deliberate message of unification and of America as a force for good in the world leads to a quick end of the war in only 10 months at the Battle of Asomante, to the rise of the US as a global superpower, and to sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and establishing a protectorate over Cuba.
1917 - Uncle Sam manifests with the US declaration of War against Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania. Sam's visage is widely used as a recruitment tool as he travels overseas. Unlike the War of 1812, fighting on foreign soil purely in defense of the lives of Americans and their allies with the support of the American people allows him to retain his full power, decisively contributing to the Battle of Château-Thierry & the Battle of Saint-Mihiel.
1918 - Uncle Sam is unable to assist across the multiple fronts of the War.. He only participates in the final offensive of the Meuse–Argonne Offensive, leading to vast American casualties. After Armistice Sam travels among the soldiers, getting their stories.
1919 - Uncle Sam's last appearance of World War I is accompanying returning soldiers in New York after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
1941 - Uncle Sam manifests upon the US declaration of war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the massive loss of life in World War I, he begins traveling the US to find allies to join him, assembling the Freedom Fighters to fight overseas.
1945 - Uncle Sam steps back from the Freedom Fighters after the surrender of Germany on VE Day. While they remain in Europe fighting the various superpowered threats, he intends to join the Pacific Theater against Japan. The atomic bomb is dropped on Japan, and Sam does not manifest. After World War II America ceases to declare war before engaging in conflict, and Sam has not manifested.
The realization that Uncle Sam is actually a DC Comics superhero always seems odd the first time you discover it. It shouldn't be that odd... he's a fictional character, and SOMEONE must own the rights to him.
Sam has been a part of a very particular corner of DC's history, and when told well he can be a lot of fun. The challenge for us is to try to make that character not only work in their own way, but also as a core part of the mainline history. We did it by really digging into the bedrock of the history we're looking to represent. I really like how this worked out and am really eager for you guys to read it and give me your feedback!
Sam has been a part of a very particular corner of DC's history, and when told well he can be a lot of fun. The challenge for us is to try to make that character not only work in their own way, but also as a core part of the mainline history. We did it by really digging into the bedrock of the history we're looking to represent. I really like how this worked out and am really eager for you guys to read it and give me your feedback!
Uncle Sam's Original HistoryLet's just start out with a fun bit of history. Most people know the character of Uncle Sam from this poster, a 1917 World War I recruitment poster by James Montgomery Flagg, which was inspired by a similar British poster featuring Lord Kitchener. The character of Uncle Sam, however, predates this poster by quite a bit. He appeared in political cartoons representing US government, along with the characters like Brother Johnathan, who represented the American people, or Columbia, who represented the nation (you can still see Columbia today in the logo for Columbia Pictures).
Uncle Sam’s actual origin is not definitive, but the one most recognized is that during the War of 1812, meat rations were delivered to troops in New York & New Jersey in barrels with the inspection logo “E.A. - U.S.”. This stood for Elbert Anderson - United States, the man contracted to deliver the meat to the troops, but for many of these New York troops they recognized the name differently. The meat was supplied by slaughterhouses from Troy, New York owned by E & S Wilson, the Wilson Brothers, who were early founders of the city of Troy. This included younger brother Samuel who was known by their employees as Uncle Sam. |
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This created the popular idea among the troops that their rations were being delivered by Uncle Sam, even among soldiers with no awareness of the original association. This lead to the common expression of referring to the government itself as Uncle Sam, eventually evolving into the political cartoon character.
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Uncle Sam's Comic HistoryUncle Sam first appeared in comics in 1940, in the earliest wave of comic characters following the invention of Superman. He appeared in the first issue of National Comics, a Quality publication, and is a creation of Will Eisner. Like a lot of Quality characters there wasn't a lot of time spent worrying over his origins, he just landed fully formed and proceeded to have adventures with his kid sidekick Buddy. He continued to appear right through the War years, even getting his own book called Uncle Sam Quarterly, but in 1944 he stopped appearing in National Comics, and Uncle Sam Quarterly was renamed Blackhawk, possibly illustrating an early shift away from the popularity of superheroes to war comics.
DC of course bought the Quality character catalog in the 50s, but didn't use many of them until 1973 in Justice League of America #107, when they introduced Earth X and the superhero team the Freedom Fighters, using a selection of classic Quality characters, Uncle Sam included. They would go on and star in their own series for much of the seventies, and then were heavily featured in Roy Thomas's All-Star Squadron. Uncle Sam himself was heavily featured on the Crisis on Infinite Earths as the representative of the Freedom Fighters Earth X. |
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Lots of classic Golden Age characters saw attempts to either modernize them or to pass on their legacy in the 80s & 90s. Uncle Sam was largely left alone for much of that period, but did appear in Ostrander's Spectre series, in which he was given a more comprehensive origin; showing that the founding fathers had used alchemy to create a talisman that allowed a host to manifest as a spirit of the nation. It also introduced the idea that Uncle Sam was not the original persona, but had been preceded by Minuteman, Brother Johnathan, and the split persons of Johnny Reb and Billy Yank. The story culminated with an attempt to remake Uncle Sam into a new modern identity called the Patriot, but it didn't stick, and given the design you can understand why.
Shortly after his appearance in the Spectre, Sam got his own two-issue Vertigo miniseries drawn by Alex Ross that really mined the ideas of Uncle Sam in a way that feels pretty heavy-handed, but was still a neat attempt to tell a more complex story than you'd usually see in a comic. |
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Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters saw a pretty impressive boost to their profile in the 2000s. The original team (or rather, the modern-day team that was operating in current continuity) were killed as early victims of 2006s Infinite Crisis, but in the aftermath we saw a whole new version of the team with a really compelling and complex internal narrative developed by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti in their series Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, which was followed by several follow-up series lasting right up until the nu-52 rebooted continuity in 2011.
Several of the Freedom Fighters saw attempts at reboots in the aftermath of the nu-52, and Uncle Sam made a few appearances there, but his big return came in Grant Morrison's Multiversity, which re-established the idea of Earth X and of the Freedom Fighters role in it. Uncle Sam is effectively the primary superhero of an interesting subset of DCs continuity, giving us a really interesting opportunity to interpret him and use him in a way that really feels like it's a deeply important part of our continuity. |
Our Uncle Sam StoryThe current canon explanation for Uncle Sam is that the founding fathers used occult magic to create a talisman that allows a person to become a host for an extraplanar entity representing elements of the American people. This isn't that farfetched an idea, there are actually several other characters already doing that, but given the level of power at play here, we really wanted to make this just a little bit more esoteric.
To that end we actually chose to connect his power to the Wizard Shazam and his ongoing effort to find a champion to wield the power of the Rock of Eternity. We invented our version of Samuel Agustus Adams, a veteran of the French Indian War and an instigator of the original American Revolution via his separatist publication, who falls at Concord & Lexington, is offered the role of Champion, and chooses to instead become the Avatar of his new nation. Connecting Uncle Sam to another character who originated outside of DC just feels immediately correct, and this gives us a very clean, comic book origin that keeps with the strange way his magic shifts and changes with the events of American history. |
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We do really like the idea that Sam had previously manifested with other identities, all of them more or less versions of political cartoons of the era. Very early on, we decided that we would use the concept that Sam only manifests while the country is at war as a framing device. This gave us an easy explanation for why he hasn't appeared since World War II (America stopped declaring war and just engages in 'armed conflict'), but it also allowed us to really explore America's history of warfare as an explanation of the national identity.
This is the part I'm personally really proud of. I'm no historian, but I really dug into the events of all of America's declared wars, and explored ways to make Sam a story of the shifting ideology of the country. Minuteman is the spirit of independence, and exclusively fights in the Revolutionary War. Brother Johnathan is a brash young figure meant to represent the country in it's youth, but in both of his appearances he finds himself challenged, first by the country's violence against Native Americans and then by its aggressive expansion into Mexico, ultimately leading to him being killed by actual American troops in a conflict stoked by divisions in the country that result in our Civil War, which manifests in Sam being split into two entities and a vast crisis between them. Sam himself was a figure meant to unify America, and by appearing for the first time in the Spanish American War, he can be a symbol of America's rise to global superpower, and then represent her in both World Wars. Sam should be as much a symbol as he is a hero, and I hope we managed to capture a whole spectrum of what that can mean, both as a projection of what is intended to be righteous unity, and the many ways we can fall short of that. |
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