Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Freedom Ring

Comic writer Robert Kirkman felt that it was unrealistic that teen heroes almost immediately adjusted to their superpowers. So, he wanted to create "an inexperienced hero who would get beaten up constantly and probably die". So, he created Curtis Doyle / Freedom Ring for Marvel Team-Up #20 and had him killed in issue 24. However, because the character was gay, people have accused Marvel of being homophobia. Kirkman later admitted to regretting for killing him off due to the small amount gay people in comics.
The villain Ringmaster had made a ring out of a Cosmic Cube (a type of reality warping object), but lost it when the Punisher shot his ring finger off (Ouch). Captain America found it and was going to give it to SHIELD. However, he lost it when he was attacked a MODOC Squad. Curtis Doyle found the ring. He accidentally created a ice cream sundae and realize the ring allowed him to warp reality. He got the name "Freedom Ring" from his friend, Troy, who called the ring a "free dumb ring" (not realizing its power). Troy (who turns out to be a Skrull) became a superhero Crusader and Freedom's partner. FR battled Abomination and got seriously injured. He used the ring to heal himself and made himself stronger, faster and tougher (due to Crusader convincing him to do so). He battled Iron Maniac (an alterate reality version of Tony Stark) whose armor expand outwards and ended up killing Freedom Ring. Crusader later ended up with the ring.
My sources was Comicvine page "Freedom Ring" and Wikipedia page "Freedom Ring".