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It was the 4th of July this weekend, and we let the entire weekend go by with out touching on a single patriotic comic. No Captain America, no Superman… not even an entry on the American Maid.

I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call us commies, but we kind of blew it.

So here, let me make amends…

How does this make amends? It’s not just the American flag backdrop, it’s because this issue was the first appearance of THE FORCE OF JULY~!

I know you’re saying “who” right now. There’s a reason for that: despite having an awesomely ridiculous name, The Force of July were essentially the DCU’s version of pro-wrestling jobbers, and existed primarily to get their asses handed to them every time out.

The only original member who really ever meant anything, let alone survived their Suicide Squad appearances, was Major Victory (aka the unconscious guy being held up on the above SS cover), who actually ended up IN the Squad for the remainder of the series before ending up one of the D-listers who were massacred to put over Eclipso as a major DC Universe villain in Eclipso #13.

Fortunately, you can’t keep a good cheesily awesome concept down, and during Infinite Crisis an all new version of the Force turned up in Battle For Bludhaven, this time using the name Freedom’s Ring (sadly, new versions of original members Mayflower and Sparkler would not appear. And by “sadly”, I mean “fortunately”).

They may look cooler, but Freedom’s Ring just doesn’t roll off the tongue the way Force of July does. You might say it doesn’t have the same “ring” to it…

In the end, the name change really didn’t do them any good, as the team continued their reign as the DCU’s government JOB Squad: the new Silent Majority and Lady Liberty didn’t even make it out of issue 2 alive, and the new Major Victory received a major league beating courtesy of his own severed arm when new team member (and Captain Atom’s lone notable super villain) Major Force went berserk and pulled it off of him like a chicken wing. Since then Major Victory has reappeared with a new arm, we’ve gone through 2 more Lady Liberty’s, and the team has been absorbed into a similar government team called First Strike, serving as opponents of the new Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters.

So yeah. Total D-list jobbers. But man. Force of July. What a great name.

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