Frank Miller was at the top of his game from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Then, he fell off a little bit, but, before that, he wrote an amazing assortment of comics. Among his many achievements are The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Ronin, and the Sin City series. However, there is another comic that doesn't really receive as much attention as the others, and that comic is Give Me Liberty.
Give Me Liberty revolves around the aptly named Martha Washington who lives in, for lack of a better term, a ghetto for African Americans. Like most children, she attends school but is just an average student. She is excelling at computer programming but is just a 13 year old when the story begins. Martha befriends a teacher who smuggles her goodies from outside the ghetto, and he encourages her computer skills. That is, until he is murdered by a local thug, and Martha subsequently kills the thug. This action leads to her being placed in a mental institution until it is suddenly closed down, and she is forced to live on the streeets. When two men try to recapture her, she kills one and injures the other. However, with no place to go and a criminal record, she joins the PAX, the new American military armed forces. Martha is just 14 years old, but the PAX accepts her and clears her record.
The world has changed significantly by 2009 in this world. The US has annexed Mexico. The president has been in office for 13 years, and, during his tenure, over 50 amendments have been added to the constitution. The US is engaged in multiple wars including a war against fast food companies in South America, and this is where Martha is off to. This is also where she meets Lieutenant Moretti, who becomes the main antagonist of the story. The rest of it is a bizarre fun ride, and the ending is especially good. This is a comic that has to be experienced, and to tell you more about it would be, simply, unfair. It's a must read, even if you don't like comics.
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