The Statue of Liberty is a 150-foot high copper statue of a woman (Lady Liberty) located on Liberty Island at the mouth of the Hudson River near New York Harbor. Though located inside the borders of New Jersey, the area legally belongs to New York.
History
Lady Liberty is seen holding a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left hand which indicates the date, July 4th 1776 (the day that the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain).
By 1941, Europe had already been fiercely embroiled in the Second World War. It was only a matter of time before America would be forced to recognize the atrocities of Nazi Germany and commit itself to the Allied cause. The United States government collaborated with all branches of the armed forces to create a special program specializing in psychological warfare. Their program became known in covert circles as Project M.
In the spring of that same year, Project M established itself in a secret laboratory annex beneath the Statue of Liberty. One of Project M's most eminent scientists, Professor Mazursky, realized that psychologically, all humans were viscerally frightened by images of ghoulish, ghastly monsters. Taking advantage of such a paradigm, he labored to create a team of super-powered soldiers whose physical visage would inspire terror in enemy forces. At first, Mazursky recruited soldiers on a strictly volunteer basis. Three army officers named Warren Griffith, Vincent Velcro and Elliot Taylor were transformed into horrifying warriors that resembled a werewolf, a vampire and the Frankenstein Monster. Joined by a fourth female member, Doctor Myrra Rhodes, these monstrosities became known as the Creature Commandos.
The Statue of Liberty also became the headquarters for another well-known super-agent – Miss America. Mazursky employed a secret agent known only as X to recruit a man named John Dale to the Project's cause. However, X misread the file and instead targeted Joan Dale, a reporter for the Daily Star. He lured Dale to Bedloe's Island, where he surreptitiously drugged her. She was brought to the Project M facility below the Statue of Liberty, where Mazursky exposed Joan to a special experimental radiation treatment. The treatment was designed to give its recipient super-human strength, but with Ms. Dale, it instead granted her the ability to alter the molecular structure of inanimate matter. Feeling as if their efforts were wasted, Mazursky ordered X to bring her back to Bedloe's Island. When Dale revived, she began hallucinating and believed that the Statue of Liberty was actually speaking to her. Dale was therefore convinced that it was the spirit of Lady Liberty herself that granted her these strange fantastic powers. Inspired by her own vision, she decided to become a soldier of freedom using the name Miss America.
Although Project M had long since shut down its doors, the Statue of Liberty continued to stand tall as a symbol of freedom and prosperity for many years. In the early-mid 1980s (real time), the statue underwent a massive restoration project as part of its centennial celebration. During this time, the interdimensional demon Trigon invaded the Earth dimension and temporarily transformed all of New York into a wasteland of decaying rock. His enemies the Teen Titans were thrust into a nightmarish dreamscape where they were forced to combat evil versions of themselves. Wonder Girl Donna Troy fought her doppelganger in the sky above the scaffolding surrounding the statue.[1]
During the Sinestro Corps War, the heroes of Earth defended their planet against the onslaught of Sinestro and his followers, and New York was the central landing point for the Anti-monitor. In the heat of battle, the Cyborg-Superman punched Superman, sending him flying into the statue, destroying it. Shortly afterwards, the Sinestro Corps raised a giant statue of Sinestro in its place.[2] Following the Sinestro Corps War, Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner repaired the statue.[3]
The Statue of Liberty was also the scene of a massive fight between the new Judomaster and the Ketsueki-Senshi, also known as the Blood Soldiers.[4]
Residents
(Former Residents)
- Creature Commandos
- Doctor Medusa
- Elliot Taylor
- Force of July
- Manhattan
- Metropolis
- Miss America
- New York City
- Vincent Velcro
- Warren Griffith
Notes
- The Statue of Liberty suffered massive damage due to a villain uprising during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. The torch was broken, and the Statue's head was removed. Reconstruction of the statue commenced shortly following the Crisis.[5]
Trivia
- In the 1987 film Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, the Statue of Liberty can be seen located just outside of Metropolis. This is another example of both movies and comics attempting to draw a parallel between New York City and Metropolis.
- The Force of July member Lady Liberty wears a costume fashioned after the Statue of Liberty.
- In JSA #29, Solomon Grundy defaced the Statue of Liberty by painting her face so that it resembled the garish countenance of the Joker.
- The ruins of the Statue of Liberty, as seen in Kamandi #1 is a reference to the climactic final scenes from the 1968 movie, Planet of the Apes.
Alternate versions
The Statue of Liberty appears to exist in most parallel counterparts of the planet Earth.
- Kingdom Come: In the alternate dimension colloquially known as the "Kingdom Come" reality, the Statue of Liberty was the scene of numerous battles between the newest generation of metahumans. The right-wing activist known as the Americommando staged a revolt at the statue, declaring that immigrants were no longer welcome into their overly-populated city. The statue also had the words "Lobo Wuz Here" spray-painted across the body, presumably done so by Lobo himself.[6]
- Earth-AD: In the post-apocalyptic future timeline of Kamandi, the Statue of Liberty still exists, though partially submerged by the flooded waters of what was once New York Harbor.
- 2020: The Statue of Liberty still stands in the future era of the year 2020.
See Also
- Appearances of Statue of Liberty
- Location Gallery: Statue of Liberty
- Catalogued images related to Statue of Liberty
Links and References
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Statue of Liberty. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.