DC's Nazi fighting Earth-X dream team, the Freedom Fighters, are making a triumphant return in the Rebirth era with a brand new twelve issue limited series by writer Rob Venditti and artist Eddy Barrows, set to hit shelves this winter.

Featuring some new takes on the familiar faces of the Freedom Fighter's original roster: Human Bomb, Black Condor, Doll Woman and Phantom Lady Freedom Fighters #1 is set in Earth-X's version of 2018, where the population of America has lived in fear of an oppressive Nazi regime since their ultimate victory in World War II. We sat down to speak with Venditti to get some more details about this new take on the classic DC concept, as well as get some insight into just who, and what, we might expect to see.

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Eddy Barrows' cover art for Freedom Fighters #1

So let's jump right in -- talk to me about building out Earth X in the Rebirth era. What sources are you pulling from? What's your take here?

Robert Venditti: For me, it was interesting because I mired in this headspace and dealing with material because of the graphic novel Six Days I have coming out with Vertigo, which is about a battle my uncle was in at the D-Day invasion and, you know, just really kind of put me in the mindset of thinking about that more and the sacrifice and how much it meant to history. To have an opportunity to have Freedom Fighters and really kind of look at that same material from an opposite angle -- you know, what if that sacrifice had gone a different way, what would be like?

So I'm doing a ton of world building, dealing with real history and also the timeline of the story story, bringing in the elements of superheroes. We get to see how 2018 America looks if the Germans won WWII, but also what the status of superheroes is in that kind of environment as well. It's a lot of fun because you get to just kind of build everything from scratch and really get to throw a lot of concepts out there and it's something that takes place in the wider DC multiverse but not being set on this Earth means it isn't as constraint as other stories might be.

We're really drawing from the Multiversity one shot, so that's established some elements but we're really working a lot from scratch. Eddy Barrows is really doing a fantastic job rendering this world and handling the designs.

Have there been any major real world historical moments you wanted to put an Earth-X spin on for this series?

EXCLUSIVE: A page from Freedom Fighters #1

Yeah! We're starting our story on November 22, 1963 which is the day of the JFK assassination, you know, in the real world. But JFK was never president here on Earth-X so we're taking that day in Dallas and dealing with the death of a different hope America had. It's the idea that the dates themselves have significance and power.

When we start out, the team is Black Condor, the Human Bomb, Doll Woman and Phantom Lady. These are all newer incarnations of the characters, and we'll learn new backstories for them, what motivates them and why they're Freedom Fighters. Uncle Sam in 2018 is missing in action. The American spirit was crushed when America was conquered by Nazi Germany, and so the Freedom Fighters are now coming back to try to remind the American population that there is such a thing as heroes and here's what America stands for. They sort of re-stoke that American spirit with the hope that by doing so, if they can stoke it enough, Uncle Sam can return and they'll have this very powerful, you know, fighting force on their side

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What about villains? Are we going to be seeing some familiar faces here or are you inventing new Earth-X threats

Bit of both. We're taking DC concepts and applying them in different ways. So for example, Plastic Man doesn't exist on Earth-X because he was captured by the Nazis and they extracted his DNA, his ability to shape shift. And now they've used that science and applied it to an entire force of covert agents called the "PlaSStic Men." So there's a new SS, and they live among the American population. They can literally be anybody. They could the person who works in the store, someone in your life. They could be your next door neighbor and they're always living in secret -- they're a force that everybody knows is out there, but not where they are. It keeps the American population living in abject terror all the time.

EXCLUSIVE: A page from Freedom Fighters #1

In their default form, all the PlaSStic Men look exactly the same. Their appearances, their uniform -- they all have the blue eyed, blonde hair, but you very rarely see them in that form, because they're always under cover. [EDITOR: You can get your fist look at the PlaSSticMen here.]

The Nazis have another force, too, that's much more visible called the Bozos, which are these giant walking robots to patrol the city. Anything gets out of line or anything goes wrong, you have this huge building size robot.

Tone-wise, is this going a little more camp and black humor or are we dealing with something more serious?

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EXCLUSIVE: A page from Freedom Fighters #1

It's a pretty dark story. There's some lighthearted moments, and we've got the Freedom Fighters and their individual personalities. Also, in the way we handle some the PlaSStic Men and things like that, you know there can be a bit of a dark comedy to it. But you know, it's a very serious subject matter. I'd already been in that headspace dealing with Six Days, and, you know, the D-Day Invasion. My uncle jumped out of a plane and never came home. He never had all the things in life that I've been able to enjoy. So kind of being in that headspace really lends itself to a more serious story.

Freedom Fighters #1 by Rob Venditti and Eddy Barrows hits shelves this December