The Freedom's Lady was a starship used by the Guardians of the Galaxy from Earth-691.
History
In 3016 A.D., soon after the destruction of their first starship, the Captain America,[1] the Guardians found Drydock, the long-lost starship-yard of the United Federation of Earth.[2] The Guardians used Drydock's facilities to construct a new starship that they named the Freedom's Lady.
After construction was finished, the Guardians took the Freedom's Lady on a shakedown cruise with Nikki as the pilot. Things were going smoothly until the starship intersected a power beam of incredible intensity which briefly caused them to lose control of the ship. Their attempt to track the dangerous beam to its source led them to the planet of Korvac who sent a meteor storm to drive them away. This diversion in their course led the Guardians to discover the frozen form of Thor floating in space where he had been discarded after being accidentally transported to the future by Korvac. Once Thor was unfrozen, he and the Guardians, united in their desire to stop the unknown foe who had caused their problems, used the Freedom's Lady to return to the beam's source. Finding themselves facing three formidable defense drones, Martinex engaged the auto-pilot program that sent the starship to a safer and more distant orbit while Thor and the Guardians teleported down to the planet where they defeated Korvac's minions and forced him to flee.[3]
In 3017 A.D., after Starhawk suddenly sensed that the threat of Korvac still existed, the Guardians embarked on a Korvac Quest through time aboard Drydock.[4] As their quest neared its conclusion, the Guardians used Drydock to travel to 2977 A.D., the year of Korvac's birth. Informed by Starhawk that Korvac was on Earth's Moon, the Guardians took the smaller Freedom's Lady to the Blue Area to attack him but found themselves facing Korvac's father, Jordan Korvac, whose powers enabled him to detect their ship despite its cloaking device. The resulting battle damaged the Freedom's Lady and sent it crashing into the home of the Watcher. With sorcerous help from the Ancient One and his disciple Krugarr, the threat of Korvac was ended, and Krugarr mystically repaired the Freedom's Lady, enabling the Guardians to return in her to Drydock which then took them back to their own time.[5]
Back in 3017 A.D., the Guardians left Drydock in orbit around the Sun's poles and took off in the Freedom's Lady. Several months later,[5] Yondu found the Book of Antag among his belongings and showed it to Vance Astro who discovered a drawing of what he believed to be Captain America's Shield in one chapter. Believing that the Book of Antag was a galaxy-spanning puzzle that led to the shield, Astro convinced his fellow Guardians to help him search for it.[6][5]
Traveling aboard the Freedom's Lady, the Guardians visited a number of worlds but found only dead ends. When their search eventually led them to the planet Courg, the Guardians left the starship in geo-synchronous orbit while they beamed down to the surface where they soon came into conflict with Taserface and other armored Stark warriors.[6] After having some success in battling the Stark, the Guardians beamed up to the Freedom's Lady which was soon confronted by a newly-arrived and much larger Stark warship. When the Guardians refused to surrender, the Stark opened fire and destroyed the Freedom's Lady.[7] Those Guardians who had been aboard survived by teleporting down to the planet just in time while Starhawk, who had been away summoning Firelord, was then able to disarm the Stark starship and beam its crew down. Since the Stark had destroyed their starship, the Guardians decided to take the Stark ship for themselves and they soon renamed it the Captain America II.[8]Notes
- Although Thor Annual #6 is the first story in which the Freedom's Lady appeared, a starship that looked like it did appear a month earlier in Marvel Presents #12 as part of an invitation to the readers to "Be watching for the next appearance of the Guardians in the Thor Annual on sale in July!" Does this mean that this starship was actually designed by Al Milgrom instead of Sal Buscema?
- Although Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1 revealed that the Freedom's Lady had been aboard Drydock throughout the Korvac Quest storyline, none of the first three parts even mentioned it, let alone showed it.
- Despite having existed for almost thirteen years, the Freedom's Lady is the one that the Guardians used in the least number of stories.
- Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #4 has a half-page entry on the Guardians of the Galaxy's Starship which it identifies as the Freedom's Lady. The text describes it as "a medium-weight, 700-foot Annihilator-Class battleship of 30th Century Earth design" and provides some other details about its specifications. However, the four images in that entry are all of the Guardians' original starship, the Captain America, which makes it unclear to which starship the new data is meant to apply.
- The entry on the Guardians of the Galaxy in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #5 contains a single image of the actual Freedom's Lady but it is not accompanied by any text.
See Also
- 4 appearance(s) of Freedom's Lady
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Freedom's Lady
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Freedom's Lady
- 1 image(s) of Freedom's Lady