Episode 270 of the Letters Page: Writers’ Room: Freedom Five #513

Freedom Five were busy so this is what we get instead

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I love how hard this cover leans into “This is a shallow marketing ploy that was done for money!” The incredible, nineties badassness of it all, it’s spectacular.
Also, I’m really enjoying listening to Christopher arguing against Chrono-ranger so persistently, knowing he ends up on the cover, it gives a nice sense of irony!

So that is definitely not what I expected Mr. Knight to look like, lol. I had somehow imagined a really tweedy pasty government dweeb guy in the vibe of Soothsayer, but clearly he’s more of an Albert Cleary from Damage Control aesthetic.

I do wonder if in different eras he looks different.

God, this cover is great.

A movie about me? Awesome.

Oh man, a story leading up to hero vs. hero combat? I’m here for this!

Wait, that’s Jefferson Knight and not Captain Cosmic? :OOOO Shit, this is cool.

This episode is giving me a real sense of what it would have been like to be a comics reader in the 90’s in this universe, as they note all the various characters and what they’re doing at the time.

Also, I’m really liking this creative process, because we know who’s on the final roster, so it’s like, “Okay, how does Christopher get convinced to go with Sky-Scraper?”

Glamour feels like a natural fit. I’m finding I actually really like her, considering she doesn’t have an EE deck (and I absolutely hate the one card she is on).

Oh man, Skeleton Key time? We need more of these obscure minor villains in roles like this! And he dies and gets brought back to life by Zhu Long? Does he become someone else at that point?

And I’m chuffed that we’ve gotten another episode that fulfills my desire for more bad stories. :3

I love the cover. The only criticism I have is that ChronoRanger’s gun and arm are colored the same and are both kind of amorphously sketchy, so it’s really hard to see where the gun ends and the arm begins. (Cable’s guns are almost always done in gunmetal gray instead of silver for exactly this reason!) But that said, “gun so big it’s obscuring the character” is right in line with 90s comics style so that may not actually be much of a criticism.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the gun got formed from his arm.

Glamour is probably the most irritating card, in my opinion, in Enhanced Edition… and after learning more about her, it really fits…

He’s got a 90s Bishop vibe, which was probably intentional. The cover is so 90s… I mean, I was wondering who the lady in the dress was, because Nightmist was supposed to be here, and I couldn’t really picture her dressed like that (if it was black? yes, see Darkwatch variant)…

NightMist was seen like that previously like that for episode 226

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Her Faye, Warrior Princess look as I have dubbed it.

for real! I’d rather take two Devastating Auroras than deal with her

I love how they talked about Freedom Knight getting armor, and what he ended up with has massive cleavage and one giant pauldron/pouch thingy. I can’t even tell what that shirt is supposed to be made of—it has sculpted abs like ridiculous '90s armor, but it also has a collar over a v-neck?

Yeah, now I want to see what the heck he looked like in a suit while he was doing his day job…

That’s why I decided he was Albert Cleary aesthetic, because that RL character definitely has the interaction of “badass cool” and “professional government nerd in a suit” going on.

the “new Freedom Five” team made me think of the “New Young Justice” team when Beast Boy lead Flamebird, Lagoon Boy, CM3, and Batgirl as Young Justice because the normal group were out of action and recovering and BB wanted to show the world that “Young Justice” was not just the 5 (secretly 6) kids but an institute.

Cobra Bubbles from Lilo and Stitch?

Okay, yeah, but seems unlikely that he looked like that when he first showed up.

I think I listened to the first bit of this earlier in my journey, as a result of someone linking to it. I definitely never heard the Freedom Knight part though. I started wanting a deck for him, but then I realized you just play The Knight from Cauldron. Technically you shouldn’t get the Armor and Helmet, but that’s way less of a problem than making Nightmist’s deck represent her lack of most of her spells.

Glamouns!

I recently learned of the Olympic winter sport called Skeleton, and now I regret that Skeleton Key is just bones.

“We never have duos…” except Natch/Thriya and Guischolare.

I love Christopher slooooowly cracking up over the dirty joke.

“What does he look like?” Heee…lookalikeaman! (Who suspiciously resembles Bishop.)

Some quality outro mouth music on that one. That feels weird for me to say.