The Freedom League (S.A.)

The world’s greatest heroes, banded together to fight forces and foes too great for any one hero to handle, the Freedom League becomes legendary during the Silver Age of Freedom City, creating a legacy that is reborn in the modern world after the Terminus Invasion. The League is the largest and most powerful hero team in the world, and also one of the most dynamic, its membership changing over the years as some heroes come and go. Still, the core team remains stalwart defenders of Freedom, and the world.

Structure

Galatea

Intrigued by Daedalus’ engram transfer technology, Talos stole it from his old foe and used it to develop a female form robot to function as his “bride,” patterning her mind on that of the sorceress Medea, the first female to thwart Talos. This proved a mistake, as Galatea (named for the legendary living statue of Greek myth) also thwarted Talos’ desires. Her artificial intelligence incorporated an unprecedented degree of free spirit, and she rebelled against her creator, helping The Freedom League rescue Daedalus and defeat Talos.
Lost and alone in the world, Galatea accepted the League’s offer to come stay with them, quickly becoming a valuable member of the team. She struggled with human-like emotions, dealing with bouts of loneliness, especially after an unrequited attraction to Daedalus (who saw her as more of a “daughter” figure and was reminded of his failures with the Chorale). Galatea took innocent joy in many simple experiences, but was also denied some human pleasures by virtue of her artificial nature.
Galatea eventually slid into a depression and sought out the remains of a Foundry base, where she helped to restore Talos. She later discovered this imperative was a failsafe programmed into her at a basic level, but still accepted blame for the evil machine’s resurrection. She sacrificed herself to stop Talos’ scheme to seize control of every computer on Earth, her own digital mind destroyed in the process. Her inert body is still stored in a warehouse secretly owned by Daedalus, so it is possible for some circumstance to reactivate her.

Halogen

Maggie Burroughs was a research technician for ASTRO Labs when an experimental plasma generator overloaded. Maggie saved the other members of her research team, at the cost of being locked in the test chamber with the generator. ASTRO Labs initially believed she was vaporized by the blast, and she was, in a way. Maggie was transformed into a being of pure plasma energy.
Eventually, she mastered the ability to return to her human form at will. She discovered a plot by The Foundry to sabotage ASTRO Labs and acquire supposedly “flawed” technology after it was abandoned. During the investigation she met Daedalus, who introduced her to The Freedom League and later recommended her to take his place in the active roster when he left the team.
Halogen served as a member of the Freedom League for several years before she died along with Tectonic fighting the Katanarchists. She reassumed her human form to help a mortally wounded Tectonic, just enough of an opening for a Katanarchist to stab her in the back. Halogen’s body was cremated in accordance with her wishes.

Tectonic

Ramon Diego discovered his mutant ability to generate and control powerful vibrations when The Terra-King had him kidnapped to power an “earthquake machine” to devastate the surface world. Rescued by The Centurion, Ramon learned to control his vibration powers and accepted an offer to join The Freedom League. The fiery-tempered young Hispanic clashed with the more authoritarian and old-fashioned Centurion on occasion, but became an effective team-member and hero under his guidance.
Tectonic is a Hispanic man in his early 20s with a thin, wiry build. He doesn’t bother wearing a mask or costume, preferring instead an outfit of jeans, a tight-fitting T-shirt, work boots and a black leather jacket with sunglasses. His T-shirts often have different “tremor” or “quake” patterns on them. His hair is black and usually cut fairly short.
Tectonic’s youthful overconfidence and willingness to put himself in danger to help others eventually got him killed fighting the Katanarchists during an ambush.

Mary Minstrel

Singer Mary Vaughn was a local Freedom City celebrity looking to make the break into super-stardom, but never quite able to get beyond the nightclub scene. Late one night after a gig, she talked with a mysterious stranger about her dreams, and he offered her the opportunity to “sing like she never had before.” Mary jokingly accepted and the man disappeared. She wrote the whole thing off until suddenly she drew the attention of record producers and big labels.
Just as she was cutting her first album, it happened. Mary’s singing took on a whole new quality; her voice could shatter steel or create a compelling hypnotic trance. She nearly destroyed the studio, and realized she could no longer sing normally. Indeed she could now “sing like she never had before.” Her career in ruins, Mary began to sink into a deep depression, until the liquor store she was in was robbed. She used her new sonic abilities to catch the criminals and realized she could turn her curse into something good for others. Taking the name “Mary Minstrel” she began operating as a crimefighter in the city and eventually accepted an offer to join The Freedom League.
For much of her career, Mary looked for a way to rid herself of her unwanted powers. Her teammate Daedalus tried to help her, but all of his tests and experiments were unsuccessful, leading him to believe Mary’s abilities were the work of magic, although not even Master Mage Eldrich was able to learn their true origins or remove them.
Although she appreciated helping others, Mary was deeply unhappy about the loss of her singing career due to her powers. Her close friendship with Daedalus might have blossomed into romance, but the opportunity never arose. Instead, Mary sacrificed her own life in battle with the League against the Foundry to save Daedalus. The guilt-ridden immortal attempted to give Mary a kind of immorality as well, using her brain-patterns to create the android Chorale, who ultimately became the Furies Three.

Additional Members include:

• The Centurion: A founding member of the Freedom League, Centurion was the team’s heart and soul throughout most of its existence. Although the immortal Daedalus and Siren were both older, Centurion was really the mentor and leader of the team, a duty he accepted reluctantly, since he never quite felt worthy of it. Still, Centurion’s dedication to the League was never in doubt. Even when the other members of the team chose to leave it, Centurion remained. He only disbanded the League when he could no longer be responsible for the deaths of any of the other young heroes under his guidance. Centurion’s final battle with Omega was the inspiration for the modern Freedom League. Had he survived that battle, the Centurion would certainly have had a place of honor as the leader of the team once more.
• Daedalus: In many ways, Daedalus is the center around which the Freedom League revolves, although he would be reluctant to admit it. It was Hades’ enmity for the immortal inventor that drove him to attack Freedom City, where Daedalus had settled, and he was the first to inform the heroes rallying to the city’s defense about the true nature of their foe. Since the founding of the League, Daedalus has designed their headquarters, the Pegasus plane, and various other pieces of equipment and been a kind of helpful uncle to his teammates, a voice of considerable experience. In return, Daedalus has found his first true friends in uncounted years among the Freedom League. Although he remains slow to open up, the brilliant hero is quite dedicated to the team he helped create.
• Star Knight I: Star Knight Sri A’Lan Koor was assigned the duty of capturing rogue knight Rojan Lhar, the only one of their order to ever betray their oath. Toward that end, Koor became a superhero on Earth and later a member of the Freedom League. Star Knight’s lack of familiarity with many Earth customs and habits sometimes proved a stumbling block for him, but he managed to overcome it. His knowledge of the universe beyond Earth was often helpful to the League and he found a kindred spirit in Daedalus.
• The Black Avenger: Wilson Jeffers, the Black Avenger, was often known as the “least powerful” member of the Freedom League, particularly in comparison to powerhouses like Centurion and Lady Liberty, but his spirit and fighting skills made him an asset to the team and he proved his worth many times over. Jeffers felt, and to a degree still feels, that the League lost touch with the concerns of ordinary people. He chose to resign in order to fight crime on the streets of his old neighborhood. Now he runs the Lincoln Youth Center and serves as a mentor to the young hero Sonic and other students at the Claremont Academy.
• Bowman & Arrow: The third Bowman was one of the founding members of the Freedom League and a staunch supporter of the team. Bowman’s good relationship with his Freedom League teammates deteriorated, however, due to his drinking problem. Despite their best efforts, the other members of the League were unable to help Fletcher to admit and deal with his problem, so the team was left with no choice but to call for an official inquiry. Bowman quit the League before a decision was reached to avoid the disgrace of being ousted. Although Fletcher Beaumont II has since gotten his life back in order, he hasn’t returned to his superhero career, and his relationship with the Freedom League was never quite the same again. With many of his former friends in the League retired or passed on, Fletcher has fairly little contact with the current Freedom League. His relations with the surviving members of the original League remain cool.
• White Lion: The Silver Age White Lion is M’Zale, King of Dakana. A progressive who understood Dakana could not maintain its legendary isolation any longer in the modern world, M’Zale reached out to other nations and world leaders. He also took up the pursuit of thefts of daka crystals from his homeland, as they made valuable components in various technologies. M’Zale found an ally in Daedalus when it came to hunting down rogue technology, and eventually joined the Freedom League to further his experience with the outside world.
• Pseudo: Ri’ik Faax was gestated in the Grue Unity as an elite scout, bred to infiltrate other societies, gather information, and undermine them from within. As sometimes happened, however, his telepathic contact with humanity changed Ri’ik. He felt sympathy for the first time, and developed his own individual identity, apart from the Unity. When his fellow Grue imitated and tried to discredit the Freedom League, Ri’ik turned against this own kind to help Earth. As the shapeshifting “Pseudo,” Ri’ik became a member of the League. They also helped him adopt the human identity of “Rick Fox,” freelance journalist, and he enjoyed the process of observing humanity and reporting what he saw, since it was what he’d been created to do.
• Siren: Not long after she began operating as a super-heroine, Siren encountered the Freedom League and accepted an invitation to join the team as a part-time and reservist member. The sea goddess worked with the League on and off in matters concerning her domain, and could call upon them for aid while operating in and around her home in New Orleans. When Sea-King joined the team, Siren still found occasions to work with the League, but her expert assistance in aquatic matters was not as needed.
• Lady Liberty II
• Sea-King 
• The Scarab
• The Raven I

1960 - 1981

Type

Adventuring Party