Created by Batman reanimator Frank Miller and artist Dave Gibbon, the world described in "Give Me Liberty" is no less dark and disturbing than anything in cyberpunk, but the forces of decay are more biological, cultural, and psychological than technological and economic.
The earth is covered by vast toxic "No Man's Lands," and inner cities have become prisons from which the poor can only escape by joining the media-bred PAX force, a post-armed forces "organization" that presents itself as a "kinder and gentler" version of the old military, while in reality, it is completely corrupt and ruthless.
The American health care system has also become a police force, run by a born-again Surgeon General hell-bent on disinfecting a population riddled with disease and pollution-based illnesses. All the people in positions of power are insane, or at least sociopathic, but are able to maintain power through fear and media manipulation. The heroine of Give Me Liberty is an inner city black women who joins PAX as an escape from her hellish existence. She quickly finds, to her horror, that hell has many faces. Her successes, her strengths, and her humanity are secretly abhorrent to the powers that be, and they continuously put her in perilous situations from which she miraculously escapes. The world we experience through her eyes may be an exaggeration of our own, but we can all identify with the varieties of criminality, cruelty and degradation she is faced with. This numbing and all-too-possible world is rendered by its creators with a unique blend of social criticism, psychological horror and ludicrous humor (e.g., a war is being fought in the Amazon jungle between hamburger companies).
Give Me Liberty
Frank Miller & Dave Gibbons
Dark Horse Comics
333 44 Street
Night City, Kansas 98888
(555) 777-5555
216 pages - $15.95