"You only think you know who won the war!"
Anthem, officially titled Roy Thomas' Anthem, is a miniseries by Roy Thomas, with art by Daniel Acuna and Benito Gallego, published by Heroic Publishing. It is based on an old idea he came up with for All-Star Squadron.
Seven young heroes - Stars, Stripes, Liberty, Stonewall, Dawns Earlylight, Bomb-Burst, and Rockets Redglare - awaken in a hidden lab under the care of the mysterious Agent 76. It's July 4, 1942, President Roosevelt is dead, and the Axis Powers are winning the war. These seven young heroes are all part of Project Anthem, America's last desperate hope to defeat the Axis, and they must work together if they're going to survive.
This series contains examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: As "Dawns Earlylight" is a bit of a mouthful, her teammates often just call her "Dawnie". She herself nicknames Liberty "Libby".
- Amnesiac Hero: All seven of the Anthem heroes have significant gaps in their memories as a result of the experiments that gave them their powers.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Liberty is a Polish Jewish girl whose family fled from the Nazis.
- Five-Token Band: Liberty is a Polish Jewish immigrant, Dawns Earlylight is a Native American, Bomb-Burst is black, Stonewall is a white Southerner, Rockets Redglare is a former pacifist, and Stars and Stripes are the sons of a German-American.
- Funetik Aksent: Stonewall has a heavy Southern accent, so his speech is peppered with apostrophes where there should be consonants.
- Kill It with Fire: Liberty wields a torch-like flamethrower that unleashes fire at her command.
- President Superhero: Issue 4 reveals that FDR survived the bombing of the White House... sort of. His brain was intact, but his body was too damaged, so Agent 76 transferred his brain into a robot body. He became the first Anthem, managing to put down enough Axis forces to keep the American Midwest free, but the robot body eventually burned out, too, necessitating another radical procedure.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: In this universe, the Nazis suddenly gained advanced technology in 1941 that enabled them to survive their campaign in Russia and conquer almost all of Europe. Issue 3 reveals the secret of their technology - they made a deal with aliens.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Stars and Stripes argue with each other the way you'd expect from two brothers, Stonewall is a racist who doesn't readily get along with his non-white teammates, and Dawns Earlylight resents that she's been drafted to serve the same government that stole her people's land.
