Marvel Premiere #29
Marvel Premiere #29 marks the first full team appearance and origin of the Liberty Legion, a Bronze Age retcon creation that wove a cohesive home-front superhero unit into Marvel's World War II continuity using characters who had not appeared since the Timely Comics Golden Age. Writer Roy Thomas used the issue to formally reintroduce Blue Diamond, Jack Frost, and the Thin Man into the modern Marvel Universe — characters absent for over three decades — while simultaneously positioning lesser-known Timely heroes like the Patriot, Red Raven, Whizzer, and Miss America as a distinct, patriotic alternative to the overseas-fighting Invaders. The issue is the narrative hub of a four-part crossover arc that demonstrated, in an era of Marvel anthology titles, that a single issue of a showcase book could carry the weight of a landmark team debut. It also stands as one of Roy Thomas's most deliberate acts of Golden Age stewardship, bringing obscure wartime characters back into shared continuity with a meticulous editorial voice that few writers of the period matched.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The Liberty Legion's formation grew directly out of Thomas's concurrent work on The Invaders, the WWII team title he had launched in 1975 starring Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and the original Human Torch. Cameo appearances of Miss America, the Patriot, and the Whizzer in The Invaders #5 (March 1976) set the stage, and Marvel Premiere #29 — cover-dated April 1976 and on sale January 6, 1976 — delivered the formal assembly and naming of the team in the second chapter of the four-part arc. Interior art was handled by penciler Don Heck and inker Vince Colletta, with coloring by Petra Goldberg and lettering by John Costanza, while the cover was drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Frank Giacoia; Thomas himself served as both writer and editor on the issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First full team appearance and origin of the Liberty Legion, assembled in-story by Bucky (James Buchanan Barnes) and named in this issue — the team's official debut as a unit.
- The issue is part two of a four-part crossover arc running through The Invaders #5–6 (March & May 1976) and Marvel Premiere #29–30 (April & June 1976), all written by Roy Thomas.
- Blue Diamond (Elton T. Morrow), Jack Frost, and the Thin Man (Bruce Dickson) are reintroduced into Marvel continuity here, having not appeared since the Timely Comics Golden Age of the early 1940s; the Thin Man is notably identified as comics' first stretching hero, predating Plastic Man by just over a year.
- The cover was drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Frank Giacoia; interior pencils are by Don Heck with inks by Vince Colletta; Roy Thomas served as both writer and editor.
- The story's framing device — Bucky using a live radio broadcast to summon scattered heroes — serves as the in-universe origin of the team name 'Liberty Legion,' coined by Bucky at the issue's climax.
- The issue includes a letters page titled 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Legion!' with character notes written by Roy Thomas himself, providing readers a behind-the-scenes look at the Golden Age research underpinning the team.
- The issue also contains a Marvel Value Stamp (Series B, Stamp #62 — Asgard/Thor), typical of the mid-1970s Marvel promotional inserts.
- The story and its crossover companions have been reprinted in: Thing: Liberty Legion HC (Marvel, 2011), Invaders Classic: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (Marvel, 2014), and the Invaders Omnibus (Marvel, 2022), among other collections.