Time can make things strange.
It’s weird that what was once a joke could be considered almost reality. That what was meant as satire, in an absurdist cautionary tale, could be applied as actual policy. Just like when you think of other dystopian science fiction stories that some seem to have taken as guidebooks rather than warnings. Like the idea of a forever president or forced birth. It’s like this bizarre application of Poe’s Law.
“It’s always an emergency. And guess who has to fix it…”
Give Me Liberty by Frank Miller, Dave Gibbons, and Robin Smith introduces us to Martha Washington. In many ways the series is about what happens to her, rather than a character full of agency, at least not for a few choices and a transformative character arc. Giving us someone’s eyes through which we can see the bizarre sociopolitical hellscape of the series’ envisioned alternate future.
I know Frank Miller can be politically and personally problematic to many people. While indisputably a driving force for great works within the industry like Daredevil and Dark Knight Returns, some of his opinions didn’t age well. And others, like the Islamaphobia inherent in Holy Terror, were ill-considered from the outset. I don’t blame anyone for choosing to disregard his output. I still think it can be informative and entertaining, with things that can be learned, while acknowledging sensitive parts. Like the racial and homophobic slurs in Give Me Liberty. Or the bizarre gay Nazi terrorist group Aryan Thrust. That remnant from the early ’80s BDSM scene still kind of confuses me.
Anyway, in among the gonzo antagonists, there’s an interesting pattern and an almost yearning for the devil you know in the blatantly oppressive dictatorship, many of the organizations and pitfalls are of socially progressive ideologies turned fascist. Healthcare, environmentalism, reparation to indigenous peoples, and a peace corps turned against the country. All under a bleeding heart liberal President thrust into the role portrayed as someone who’s incapable of doing the job, turning to drink. It’s a curious development from two creators whose most famous works can be considered reactions against Reagan and Thatcher’s policies. Though fast food corporations rising to their own paramilitary status makes sense.
“I hate it when things don’t make sense, and right now they don’t make sense.”
Dave Gibbons’ artwork is, of course, stunning. I’d be tempted to say looser than Watchmen, but only in the sense of varied layouts. The line art is tight and clean-lined as ever. Wonderful bits of detail and sense of realism. Being largely centered around war, it brings to mind some of his work on Rogue Trooper too. Interesting designs for the Surgeon General and his Health Police and the riff on the Big Boy Burgers mascot for the Fat Boy robot war machine. Enhanced with a natural colour scheme from Robin Smith, with greens, blues, and a bit of yellow often featuring as central colour themes. That central green also punching up the ideas of war.
And maybe that’s the core idea here. War. Left or right. Authoritarian or libertarian. War never changes.
An argument can be made about freedom from and freedom to if you want to make it. That liberty in itself is overall freedom to do what you want, and that the two primary regimes presented in Give Me Liberty by Miller, Gibbons, and Smith both lack that freedom. That an open dictator and a nanny state are two sides of the same thing. But maybe that’s simplistic. Strange.
Classic Comic Compendium: GIVE ME LIBERTY
Give Me Liberty
Writer: Frank Miller
Artist & Letterer: Dave Gibbons
Colourist: Robin Smith
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: June 1990 – April 1991 (original issues)
Available collected in The Life & Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century
Read past entries in the Classic Comic Compendium!
English (US) · 