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Martha Washington (comics)
Encyclopedia
Martha Washington is a fictional character
created by Frank Miller
, first appearing in the four-issue comic book
series Give Me Liberty
, published in 1990
by Dark Horse Comics
.
Her teacher, Donald, encourages her to be a better student and, because he lives outside the Green, brings her contraband items. One night Martha shows up at Donald’s classroom and finds that he’s been murdered by the Ice Man, a large thug who works for a local gangster called the Pope. Before dying, Donald managed to stab the Ice Man in the wrist. This distraction allowed Martha to seize his weapon, a longshoreman’s hook
, and plunge it into his shoulder. The Ice Man chases her through the school to a locker room, but before he can kill her, he dies of blood loss. Martha is later remanded to a psychiatric hospital.
In the institution, she discovers that experiments are being secretly performed on children to genetically alter their minds, effectively turning them into human computers. Their heads are covered with wires plugged into their brains. Martha believes one of them resembles the Raggedy Ann doll she played with as a child. This institution is closed due to national budget cuts, and Martha is left homeless. She later joins the PAX Peace Force, where her heroic tale begins.
, and closely based on Ayn Rand
's Atlas Shrugged
, Martha Washington Goes to War has Martha fighting for the PAX army to reunite the fractured United States. The war effort is undermined by frequent technology failures, the disappearances of America's brightest minds, and a general malaise among the people. Washington is crippled in an attack. She's secretly visited by Wasserstein, her old boyfriend, who heals her with unknown technology. Washington is later brought onboard PAX's orbiting satellite Harmony. Wasserstein returns and seems to kill Coogan, Harmony's chief engineer. Washington pursues Wasserstein's flying craft into the radioactive wasteland in Oklahoma. She penetrates the field at the core of the wasteland, and finds a paradise. Wasserstein, Raggyann, and the missing scientists have hidden themselves here to develop technologies and strategies to improve the world. They knew PAX and the current government weren't interested in truly improving people's lives, so they created this sanctuary to wait until they were strong enough to overthrow the corrupt government and implement true change.
Meanwhile, the Surgeon General, living through robot doubles, has taken control of Harmony. He finds the sanctuary by tracking Washington's wrist computer and fires a devastating ray. As she sees the destruction she indirectly caused, Washington realizes it was this weapon that destroyed Oklahoma and not a nuclear device. Washington joins the scientists' cause as they attack and bring down Harmony. The Surgeon General's robots are destroyed. Other revolutionaries infiltrate military bases, free political prisoners, and seize control of the US government. Two years later, Washington continues to work with the revolutionaries to create a better world.
issue published in 1995
, this is a collection of short stories about Martha and some of the many battles she has fought. The first story has Martha landing in Manhattan to take out Dictator Beluga. The building she lands in is shelled by PAX (her own side) and she is forced to head to Mercy Hospital with a wounded soldier of the Manhattan military. After the man she saved is patched up they sit down to share a smoke. He reveals to her that Dictator Beluga is dead, assassinated by his own inner circle and possibly even by his own wife.
issue published in 1995
, Martha Washington Stranded in Space guest-stars The Big Guy
. Martha investigates a space anomaly which temporarily sends her to Big Guy's reality. The back-up story is "Attack of the Flesh Eating Monsters", originally published in black and white in Dark Horse Presents
#100-4. Martha fights off an attack by monsters conforming to 1950s pulp-SF stereotypes; she discovers that this is merely a psychological study conducted by the world-controlling AI.
, Martha Washington Saves the World depicts the arrival of an actual alien spaceship. Martha uses its superior technology to defeat the megalomaniacal artificial intelligence named Venus, which - though it had proved critical in defeating the old corrupt American regime - has been undermining humanity and sapping people's will. Martha and a handful of friends then leave Earth entirely, off to explore the origin of the aliens.
.
In a warzone, surrounded by human warriors apparently under siege from foes unknown, an elderly Martha Washington gives a brief speech of inspiration and dies in 2095, at the age of 100 years old.
The details of the various collections:
A numbered, limited edition version of the collection includes "tip-in pencil art" signed by both creators ISBN 1-59582-309-3).
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
created by Frank Miller
Frank Miller (comics)
Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
, first appearing in the four-issue comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty is a four-issue comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990. It was created and written by Frank Miller and drawn by Dave Gibbons...
, published in 1990
1990 in comics
-Year overall:Days of Future Present, the sequel to Days of Future Past, appeared in the annuals of Fantastic Four, New Mutants, X-Factor and X-Men.-January:* Dinosaurs for Hire is cancelled by Eternity Comics with issue #9....
by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
.
Fictional character biography
Born in 1995, Martha Washington grew up in the Cabrini–Green housing project in Chicago (called "The Green") with her mother and two brothers in abject poverty brought on by the economic policies of the President Erwin Rexall. She is an average student, but one who displays a gift for computer programming and hacking.Her teacher, Donald, encourages her to be a better student and, because he lives outside the Green, brings her contraband items. One night Martha shows up at Donald’s classroom and finds that he’s been murdered by the Ice Man, a large thug who works for a local gangster called the Pope. Before dying, Donald managed to stab the Ice Man in the wrist. This distraction allowed Martha to seize his weapon, a longshoreman’s hook
Longshoreman’s hook
A Longshoreman's hook, also known as a box hook, cargo hook, loading hook, or docker's hook is a tool historically used by longshoremen . The tool consists of a round wooden handle with a strong metal hook about 8" long projecting at a right angle from the center of the handle...
, and plunge it into his shoulder. The Ice Man chases her through the school to a locker room, but before he can kill her, he dies of blood loss. Martha is later remanded to a psychiatric hospital.
In the institution, she discovers that experiments are being secretly performed on children to genetically alter their minds, effectively turning them into human computers. Their heads are covered with wires plugged into their brains. Martha believes one of them resembles the Raggedy Ann doll she played with as a child. This institution is closed due to national budget cuts, and Martha is left homeless. She later joins the PAX Peace Force, where her heroic tale begins.
Give Me Liberty
Martha Washington's first appearance. It features Martha joining the PAX Peace Force — a reinvented U.S. Army — and engaging in various heroic efforts, such as saving the rain forests of South America from crazed cattle ranchers. She eventually has to thwart the megalomanical plans of Colonel Moretti before he brings the country to the brink of destruction.Martha Washington Goes to War
A five-issue series published in 19941994 in comics
-Year overall:* Huge changes in the marketplace force many retailers and small publishers out of business...
, and closely based on Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
, Martha Washington Goes to War has Martha fighting for the PAX army to reunite the fractured United States. The war effort is undermined by frequent technology failures, the disappearances of America's brightest minds, and a general malaise among the people. Washington is crippled in an attack. She's secretly visited by Wasserstein, her old boyfriend, who heals her with unknown technology. Washington is later brought onboard PAX's orbiting satellite Harmony. Wasserstein returns and seems to kill Coogan, Harmony's chief engineer. Washington pursues Wasserstein's flying craft into the radioactive wasteland in Oklahoma. She penetrates the field at the core of the wasteland, and finds a paradise. Wasserstein, Raggyann, and the missing scientists have hidden themselves here to develop technologies and strategies to improve the world. They knew PAX and the current government weren't interested in truly improving people's lives, so they created this sanctuary to wait until they were strong enough to overthrow the corrupt government and implement true change.
Meanwhile, the Surgeon General, living through robot doubles, has taken control of Harmony. He finds the sanctuary by tracking Washington's wrist computer and fires a devastating ray. As she sees the destruction she indirectly caused, Washington realizes it was this weapon that destroyed Oklahoma and not a nuclear device. Washington joins the scientists' cause as they attack and bring down Harmony. The Surgeon General's robots are destroyed. Other revolutionaries infiltrate military bases, free political prisoners, and seize control of the US government. Two years later, Washington continues to work with the revolutionaries to create a better world.
Happy Birthday, Martha Washington
A one-shotOne shot (comic)
A one-shot is a comic book that is a pilot or a stand-alone story created as a single issue, rather than the more typical series format.-United States:...
issue published in 1995
1995 in comics
-January:*After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse is launched. All X-titles change to different names for the next four months.* Thor marks his 400th appearance in Marvel Comics with issue #482....
, this is a collection of short stories about Martha and some of the many battles she has fought. The first story has Martha landing in Manhattan to take out Dictator Beluga. The building she lands in is shelled by PAX (her own side) and she is forced to head to Mercy Hospital with a wounded soldier of the Manhattan military. After the man she saved is patched up they sit down to share a smoke. He reveals to her that Dictator Beluga is dead, assassinated by his own inner circle and possibly even by his own wife.
Martha Washington Stranded in Space
A one-shotOne shot (comic)
A one-shot is a comic book that is a pilot or a stand-alone story created as a single issue, rather than the more typical series format.-United States:...
issue published in 1995
1995 in comics
-January:*After Xavier: The Age of Apocalypse is launched. All X-titles change to different names for the next four months.* Thor marks his 400th appearance in Marvel Comics with issue #482....
, Martha Washington Stranded in Space guest-stars The Big Guy
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot is a 1995 comic book written by Frank Miller, drawn by Geof Darrow and published by Dark Horse Comics...
. Martha investigates a space anomaly which temporarily sends her to Big Guy's reality. The back-up story is "Attack of the Flesh Eating Monsters", originally published in black and white in Dark Horse Presents
Dark Horse Presents
Dark Horse Presents was the first comic book published by Dark Horse Comics in 1986 and was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, running from July 2007 until August 2010...
#100-4. Martha fights off an attack by monsters conforming to 1950s pulp-SF stereotypes; she discovers that this is merely a psychological study conducted by the world-controlling AI.
Martha Washington Saves the World
A three-issue series published in 19971997 in comics
-January:*Avengers #3 - Marvel Comics*Captain America #3 - Marvel Comics*Fantastic Four #3 - Marvel Comics*Iron Man #3 - Marvel Comics-February:...
, Martha Washington Saves the World depicts the arrival of an actual alien spaceship. Martha uses its superior technology to defeat the megalomaniacal artificial intelligence named Venus, which - though it had proved critical in defeating the old corrupt American regime - has been undermining humanity and sapping people's will. Martha and a handful of friends then leave Earth entirely, off to explore the origin of the aliens.
Martha Washington Dies
A one-shot published in 20072007 in comics
-January:*January 10: Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator released.*January 24: The Boys is canceled with issue #6.-February:*February 2: Newsarama reports that The Boys has been picked up by Dynamite Entertainment....
.
In a warzone, surrounded by human warriors apparently under siege from foes unknown, an elderly Martha Washington gives a brief speech of inspiration and dies in 2095, at the age of 100 years old.
Collected editions
Dark Horse released a hardcover collection of all the stories, remastered with added extras, in October 2009. It was initially announced as The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty First Century, and then The Martha Washington Omnibus, before finally settling on the original name.The details of the various collections:
- The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century (Dark Horse ComicsDark Horse ComicsDark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
, hardcover, 600 pages, July 2009, ISBN 1-59307-654-1) collects:- Give Me LibertyGive Me LibertyGive Me Liberty is a four-issue comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990. It was created and written by Frank Miller and drawn by Dave Gibbons...
(4-issue mini-series, June–September 1990, tpb, Dell, ISBN 0-44050-446-5) - Martha Washington Goes to War (5-issue mini-series, 1994, tpb, ISBN 1-56971-090-2)
- "Happy Birthday, Martha Washington" (one-shot, 1995)
- "Martha Washington Stranded in Space" (one-shot, 1995)
- Martha Washington Saves the World (3-issue mini-series, 1997, tpb, ISBN 1-56971-384-7)
- Martha Washington Dies (one-shot, 2007)
- Give Me Liberty
A numbered, limited edition version of the collection includes "tip-in pencil art" signed by both creators ISBN 1-59582-309-3).