History ComicBook / GiveMeLiberty

* EnergyWeapon: The United States has a series of giant laser cannons in space - as does the Soviet Union. When the United States tries to fire it at Libya, they hit [[WhatAnIdiot their ally Saudi Arabia instead]]. Later, the Aryan Thrust captures it.

* NuclearNasty: A big zone in the western USA is irradiated and home of mutants. Their bands are very popular with the kids.

* UpToEleven: The politics of Rexall are Reaganism UpToEleven, invading foreign countries and axing social programs. Even the colors are much more colorful than in most other comics.

* BaldOfAwesome: Martha in the sequels. She defeats [[spoiler:the AI which takes over the world]] and [[spoiler:commands a spaceship to the place where they believe the Precursors which seeded humanity came from]]. And this is only while she is bald, most of her war exploits occur when she isn't bald.

* ''Martha Washington Stranded in Space'' (1995)

* ClimateChange: New York has become like Venice, since the sea level has risen because of global warming. [[spoiler:Being shelled by the US military in order to put the secessionists down has helped too]].

* Climate Change: New York has become like Venice, since the sea level has risen because of global warming. [[spoiler:Being shelled by the US military in order to put the secessionists down has helped too]].

* CloningBlues: Some billionaire had a number of blonde buxom babe clones made. They're not very nice people.

* GlobalWarming: New York has become like Venice, since the sea level has risen because of Global Warming.
** [[spoiler:Being shelled by the US military in order to put the secessionists down has helped too]].

* TheFaceless: The Surgeon General.
* FanDisservice: Martha is placed naked into the Surgeon General’s torture device and given a MindRape.
* FriendlyEnemy: Martha battles a female soldier of the First Sex Confederacy and one by one all their weapons fail, at which point Martha’s opponent stops fighting and bursts out laughing. They sit down and have a chat instead, and wait to see which one of them will be taken prisoner.

* UnexpectedSuccessor: Agriculture secretary Howard Nissen becomes president after a bomb takes out the rest of the cabinet. Despite his good intentions, it doesn't work out in the long run, arguably because by that point in time the US is simply too broken as a result of Rexall's tyranny and incompetence. This causes Nissen to cross his [[DespairEventHorizon despair event horizon]], which results in him spiralling ever deeper into alcoholism.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: [[spoiler:Nissen's ministers kill him, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar style. Then, Moretti gets rid of his partners in crime by blowing up the White House.]]

''Give Me Liberty'' is a ComicBook series by Creator/FrankMiller and Dave Gibbons, originally published in 1990-1991 in four 48-page volumes. It describes the life of Martha Washington, an impoverished black girl born into one of the worst ghettos of Chicago in a dystopian near-future, with the United States on the verge of civil war. Despite her lack of opportunities and the machinations of others out to destroy her, Martha eventually becomes a war hero and a major figure in deciding the fate of the United States.

The success of the original series spawned several sequels, which comprise a comprehensive StoryArc of Martha's life and death:

* ''Martha Washington Goes to War''
* ''Happy Birthday Martha Washington'' (a collection of shorts)
* ''Martha Washington Saves the World''
* ''Martha Washington Dies''

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The comic was published in 1990 and is set in 2009.

* FrickinLaserBeams: The United States has a series of giant laser cannons in space - as does the Soviet Union. When the United States tries to fire it at Libya, they hit [[WhatAnIdiot their ally Saudi Arabia instead]]. Later, the Aryan Thrust captures it.

** Ironically, while he's shown to be very good at plotting to accumulate power, once Moretti has killed Nissen and appointed himself interim leader "until new elections can be held," everything falls apart as without Nissen's leadership most of the United States promptly secedes from the union. Moretti's obsession over Martha doesn't help matters.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Moretti falls victim to the villainous version of this trope. [[spoiler:He skillfully manipulates the drunken, seemingly incompetent President Nissen into committing an act of genocide, manipulates Nissen's cabinet into murdering him Caesar-style, and then blows up the Cabinet, leaving him unquestionably in charge. Unfortunately for Moretti, it turns out that he's better at scheming for power than actually being in power, and that for all his apparent drunken incompetence Nissen was pretty much the only thing holding the country together. The country soon falls apart into civil war and Moretti isn't capable of putting it back together again. The fact that he's pretty much obsessed with getting rid of Martha to the exclusion of everything else doesn't help either.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Moretti

* LittleMissBadass: Martha is just thirteen years old when she joins the PAX militia.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Moretti falls victim to the villainous version of this trope. [[spoiler: He skillfully manipulates the drunken, seemingly incompetent President Nissen into committing an act of genocide, manipulates Nissen's cabinet into murdering him Caesar-style, and then blows up the Cabinet, leaving him unquestionably in charge. Unfortunately for Moretti, it turns out that he's better at scheming for power than actually being in power, and that for all his apparent drunken incompetence Nissen was pretty much the only thing holding the country together. The country soon falls apart into civil war and Moretti isn't capable of putting it back together again. The fact that he's pretty much obsessed with getting rid of Martha to the exclusion of everything else doesn't help either.]]

--> '''Charles Shock''' (pushing the gun away from him): You're no ''president'', kid. And just between the ''two'' of us, you'll never make ''general''.

* [[ThrowAwayCountry Throw Away City]]: In the sequel, [[spoiler: Chicago is nuked. Martha's mother is also killed]]. Cue the justified {{angst}}.

* DistantFinale: The final one-shot comic takes place decades after the previous book. What happened between the two stories is only hinted at.

* DividedStatesOfAmerica: New England, UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, Florida, Texas, the Northwest, South California, the Southwest, and the DeepSouth secede from the US, leaving them with only 20 states. (Alaska and Hawaii aren't even mentioned - maybe people just forgot about them in the mess.)