Freedom Ring (real name Curtis Doyle ) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The character was created by writer Robert Kirkman . Curtis first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #20 (July 2006), becoming Freedom Ring in the next issue. He appeared across the series' storyline "Freedom Ring" for five issues. The character is depicted as a normal civilian who comes across a ring that grants him the ability to alter reality.
59-507: Kirkman intended Freedom Ring to be an example of a superhero who demonstrated inexperience with his superpowers, as he felt that most superheroes quickly adjusting to their powers and having a successful superhero career did not reflect reality. When asked by a fan about the number of visibly gay comic book superheroes, Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, Joe Quesada , also touted the Freedom Ring as Marvel's leading gay hero. However, in
118-565: A Daredevil story written by film director Kevin Smith . Two and a half years after starting Marvel Knights, Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000, following Bob Harras 's departure from the company. At the same time, Bill Jemas succeeded to the presidency of the company. The relationship culminated in the establishment of the Ultimate line of Marvel titles, which were aimed at new readers and took place outside of
177-422: A 30-foot (9.1 m) sphere of reality he can alter. After his first attempt as Freedom Ring, he altered his physiology to give himself superhuman strength, speed, stamina and durability. Curtis's death was met with some negative reactions, including accusations of homophobia from gay comic book sites Gay League and Prism Comics , specifically because Joe Quesada touted him as Marvel Comics' leading gay hero
236-706: A civilian, "Curtis Doyle" in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #20 as part of the five-issue "Freedom Ring" storyline. The character adopts the Freedom Ring superhero persona in the next issue. The character is featured in the storyline until issue #24, when he is killed in battle. The series was canceled by issue #25. After the Master of the Ring story arc in Marvel Team-Up concludes, Captain America arrives to take
295-635: A device that can detect the aliens. Criminal kingpin the Hood aids the heroes, deciding "no more Earth is bad for business." Veranke regroups with her forces in New York City in a final battle against the combined Avengers, now aided by Nick Fury and his new Commandos, Thor , Daredevil , Ka-Zar , and super teams such as the Young Avengers and the Thunderbolts . Veranke is wounded by
354-430: A light box to pencil it, sometimes altering elements in the design such as lighting or other details. In Kevin Smith 's 1995 film Mallrats Quesada is credited as an artist for the opening sequence featuring fictional comic books covers. He also appears in the closing scene of Smith's Chasing Amy , alongside frequent collaborator and inker Jimmy Palmiotti , signing comic books at a convention. He later appeared as
413-445: A link between titles. Other Marvel titles also featured variant covers with the characters depicted as Skrulls. Bendis stated that the series would not deal with the origins of the invasion, but is conceived from the following perspective: "If there's a character on the team who's a Skrull, we will rewind from when they got on that team, or from before they got on that team, so when they are infiltrated, how they became who they became and
472-549: A loft in the Flatiron District . Quesada is a fan of the New York Mets . Secret Invasion (comics) " Secret Invasion " is a comic book crossover storyline written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu , that ran through a self-titled eight-issue limited series and several tie-in books published by Marvel Comics from April through December 2008. The story involves
531-504: A month prior to his death. Robert Kirkman commented on the controversy, stating Freedom Ring was always planned as an inexperienced hero who would get beaten up constantly and probably die. I wanted to comment on the fact that most superheroes get their powers and are okay at it... and that's not how life works. During working on the book, I was also noticing that most gay characters... are all about being gay. Straight characters are well-rounded characters who like chicks. So I wanted to do
590-504: A more exclusive capacity, and contracted him and his partners to produce a line of Marvel books dubbed Marvel Knights . As editor of Marvel Knights, Quesada worked on a number of low-profile characters such as Daredevil , Punisher , The Inhumans, and Black Panther , encouraging experimentation and using his contacts in the independent comics world to bring in creators such as David W. Mack , Mike Oeming , Brian Michael Bendis , Garth Ennis , and Steve Dillon . Quesada also illustrated
649-539: A pizza delivery man in Smith's 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back . Quesada was one of a number of comics creators that appeared in Once Upon A Time The Super Heroes , a 2002 documentary about the creation and evolution of comic book superheroes. Quesada voices Joe, the owner of the "Q's Cup O' Joe" coffee shop, in the 2017 Spider-Man animated series. The character is modeled after Quesada. Quesada lives with his wife, Nanci and their daughter, Carlie, in
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#1732782669888708-437: A public apology for the content of Captain America #602, which had drawn condemnation from national Tea Party leaders, for its depiction of an apparent Tea Party protest, and the black superhero Falcon , reacting to it by saying that he would not be welcomed by a crowd of "angry white folks." Also at issue was the slogans on some of the signs held by the protestors. Quesada stated that future reprints of that story would have
767-552: A subversive, long-term invasion of Earth by the Skrulls , a group of alien shapeshifters who have secretly replaced many superheroes in the Marvel Universe with impostors over a period of years, prior to the overt invasion. Marvel's promotional tagline for the event was "Who do you trust?". A six-episode television miniseries of the same name, loosely based on the storyline and produced by Marvel Studios as part of
826-699: A waiter from a diner that he frequented, the Abomination attacks nearby and Curtis runs off to fight him. While fighting Abomination along with Spider-Man and the X-Men , Curtis was seriously injured. Spider-Man rushed him to the hospital while the X-Men defeat the Abomination. Curtis recovers, but is told he will never walk again. Troy helps him return home, and Curtis uses the ring to restore his legs. Going after Troy, who just left, he finds that his neighbor
885-524: A well-rounded character who just happened to like dudes. Then I decided to combine the two ideas. In hindsight, yeah, killing a gay character is no good when there are so few of them... but I really had only the best of intentions in mind". Kirkman later confirmed his opinion, stating, "Frankly, with the SMALL amount of gay characters in comics in general, and how unfortunate the portrayals have been thus far, whether intentional or not—I completely understand
944-401: A well-rounded ordinary male character who happened to be gay. Later, Kirkman admitted that he regretted killing Freedom Ring due to the relatively limited number of gay characters in mainstream comics. The term "freedom rings" refers to one of several popular LGBT symbols , and it may be that Kirkman intended the character's name as a reference to said symbol. Freedom Ring first appeared as
1003-591: Is an American comic book artist, writer, editor, and television producer. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, Man of the Atom . He later worked on numerous books for DC Comics and Marvel Comics , such as Batman: Sword of Azrael and X-Factor , before forming his own company, Event Comics , where he published his creator-owned character, Ash . In 1998 he became an editor of Marvel Comics' Marvel Knights line, before becoming editor-in-chief of
1062-766: Is an undercover Skrull who was sent to monitor the Avengers just before they disassembled . Losing track of them, the Skrull turns his spy equipment toward his neighbors. He knows everything about Curtis, and having decided to become a superhero himself (dubbed the Crusader ), asks Curtis if he wishes to be his partner. Curtis is unsure, given what happened with the Abomination, but the Crusader convinces Curtis that he can do it, because if he fixed his legs, he can make himself stronger and faster, and less reliant on conjuring up
1121-416: Is last seen with Crusader as it whisks him away to parts unknown after he is shot in the head by Skrull Kill Krew member, 3-D Man . Curtis Doyle originally had no inherent super-powers on his own. However, the character comes into possession of a ring crafted from a fragment of a destroyed Cosmic Cube which allows the wearer to alter reality within a radius of roughly 15 feet (4.6m) around him, giving him
1180-461: Is quick to move on to the ranks of Earth's Mightiest Heroes for immediate blood testing. Though her methods are certainly intrusive, to say the least, the Avengers all acquiesce to her demands for a blood sample. This leads to Black Widow being uncovered as a Skrull, which when coupled with the lack of any other failed tests, is enough to calm the rest of the heroes' nerves for the time being. And, in
1239-541: Is sliced off and his body is pierced by the armor multiple times. Captain America is able to defeat Iron Maniac, but it is too late to save Curtis, who is dead. Captain America notes that they didn't even know him and yet he saved them all by buying them time to recover. The ring is then acquired by Crusader, who utilizes it as a member of the Initiative during the Skrull Secret Invasion . The ring
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#17327826698881298-666: The Kree–Skrull War the Earth superheroes Iron Man , Mister Fantastic , Namor , Black Bolt , Professor Charles Xavier and Doctor Strange join as a group called the Illuminati to secretly confront the Skrulls . They attack the Skrull Empire, and warn that any future invasion attempts of Earth would mean further reprisals; however, they are all captured and intensely studied before escaping. An eventual successor to
1357-516: The MC2 title Spider-Girl for continuing to provide fans with a stable marriage and an expanded family, although that title was later canceled and relaunched multiple times, eventually being cancelled for good in 2010. In June 2009 Quesada began writing a weekly column for Comic Book Resources called "Cup O' Joe", in which he answers questions every Friday from readers or provides information on Marvel projects. On February 10, 2010, Quesada issued
1416-659: The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debuted in June 2023 on Disney+ . Writer Brian Michael Bendis stated in interviews that the motivation for the invasion is the destruction of the Skrull Empire in the 2007 "Annihilation" storyline. Bendis said the Skrulls believe Earth "is religiously and rightfully theirs," and that there are hints as to the plot placed in the limited series Secret War and
1475-616: The President of the United States , while a last Skrull (posing as the Avengers' butler Edwin Jarvis ) flees with the child of heroes Jessica Jones and Luke Cage . This Skrull is killed by Bullseye shortly after returning the child. Norman Osborn is placed in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D's replacement, H.A.M.M.E.R. , and forms a secret group consisting of himself, Emma Frost , Namor , Doctor Doom , The Hood and Loki which commences
1534-486: The School of Visual Arts , from which he graduated with a BFA in 1984. Though he had drifted away from comics, having come to think of them as a child's medium, his interest in them was renewed at age 25 when a friend who learned of his interest in art showed him Frank Miller 's The Dark Knight Returns . Quesada's comics career began in 1990 when he was hired by DC Comics on the basis of his 12-page portfolio, which
1593-958: The " Dark Reign " storyline. The Mighty Avengers The New Avengers Fantastic Four Skrulls Additionally, several variants of the Super-Skrull appear, utilizing the powers of Archangel , Captain America, Iron Man, Doctor Octopus , Electro , Sandman and the Illuminati , among others. Also, several Skrulls are seen impersonating such pop culture figures as George W. Bush , Stephen Colbert , Tom Cruise , and Eric Cartman from South Park . Cloak Noh-Varr Thunderbolts Captain America (Bucky Barnes) Thor Franklin Richards Valeria Richards Young Avengers The Initiative Secret Warriors Skrull Kill Krew The Hood's Criminal Syndicate Howard
1652-521: The 1992 Batman: Sword of Azrael miniseries. Later, Quesada and his inking partner Jimmy Palmiotti , formed a publishing company, Event Comics , and co-created Ash , a firefighter with superpowers . Quesada cites his editorial experience with Event, and the creators he formed relationships with during that period as that which best prepared him for the later role of Marvel's editor-in-chief. In 1998, Marvel Comics, which had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , asked Quesada to work for Marvel in
1711-488: The Avenger Hawkeye . Criti Noll activates a booby trap placed on the heroine Wasp , although the blast is contained by Thor at the cost of her life. Veranke is then shot and killed by Norman Osborn (using a weapon he created with intelligence stolen from Deadpool ). The last remnants of the Skrull armada are destroyed, with Iron Man locating the missing heroes. S.H.I.E.L.D. is dissolved by an executive order of
1770-701: The Duck X-Men Medusa Black Panther Sabra (Ruth Bat-Seraph) Uatu the Watcher Daredevil Mockingbird Valentina Allegra de Fontaine President of the United States Cabal According to Comic Book Roundup, the core series has an average score of 6.9 out of 10, based on 79 critic reviews. Issue #1 was not very well received despite critics noting its "strong introduction to
1829-707: The Illuminati. The Skrulls capture several superhumans and infiltrate Earth's defenses, with Veranke herself posing as heroine Spider-Woman . Veranke is inconvenienced when there is a breakout of supervillains at the Raft prison, which forces her to join the New Avengers team. After the Civil War , Elektra , the leader of the ninja group the Hand , is revealed to be a Skrull named Pagon after dying in battle with
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1888-750: The New Avengers. Veranke takes the corpse to Tony Stark (who, at the time, led the pro-registration Mighty Avengers) to sow distrust among the superhero community. She joins the Mighty Avengers, claiming it will throw the Skrulls off balance. Posing as agents of spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. , the Skrulls attempt to mine the metal vibranium in the Savage Land and battle the New Avengers before being killed. The Illuminati battle an impostor posing as Black Bolt and two new Super-Skrulls , possessing all-new powers. The Skrull invasion destabilizes
1947-493: The Skrull throne, Princess Veranke , claims that a prophecy foretold the annihilation of the Skrull homeworld. The current Emperor, Dorrek, exiles her to a prison world for inciting religious extremism. After the destruction of the Skrull Throneworld by the cosmic entity Galactus , Veranke becomes Empress by lineage, and guides an invasion of Earth, armed with the knowledge of superhumans gained from having studied
2006-423: The actual size at which he will render the final drawing. He employs a Cintiq drawing tablet when he desires to do a "tighter" digital layout of an illustration. When sketching figures, he will sometimes use photographic reference, and incorporate the photos directly into his sketches during the process of finalizing a layout. Once he makes a final decision on a layout, he will then print it out at full size, and use
2065-436: The backlash on the death of Freedom Ring, regardless of my intentions. If I had it to do all over again... I wouldn't kill him. I regret it more and more as time goes on. I got rid of what?[sic] 20% of the gay characters at Marvel by killing off this ONE character. I just never took that stuff into consideration while I was writing". Joe Quesada Joseph Quesada ( / k ə ˈ s ɑː d ə / ; born January 12, 1962 )
2124-406: The case of Tony Stark, it is enough to assure him that his fellow Skrulls' plans are going exactly as intended. Upon returning to his lab, Stark is met by another version of himself while revealing the blood bag taped to his arm which he used to pass Hill's test. This is more than enough to make it perfectly clear that Stark has been replaced without anyone else realizing it. It also sets the stage for
2183-470: The cheaper collections, not realizing that monthly sales are an indicator to publishers of interest in such collections. When confronted with a backlash by fans due to his decision to dictate a controversial retcon of Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson in the " One More Day " storyline, Quesada participated in a series of interviews on the subject to address the issue of the marriage, comparing it to real life marriages. He also promoted and praised
2242-670: The company in 2000. He was named chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment in 2010 and left his editor-in-chief role in January 2011, being replaced by Axel Alonso . His position was re-titled as executive vice president and creative director in October 2019. He left the company in 2022. Quesada was born in New York City to Cuban -born parents, and grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens , 15 blocks from Shea Stadium , which his father help build as part of
2301-466: The construction crew. The first comic book he became an ardent fan of was The Amazing Spider-Man , which he began reading around issue #98, the last issue of a historic anti-drug storyline, which garnered his father's approval. As the character resonated with him (in part because both grew up in Queens), Spider-Man remains a character he particularly enjoys drawing. Quesada majored in illustration at
2360-503: The cover would always be the number of issues that the series had before Harras restarted it), and then definitively restoring the "old" numbers for Fantastic Four , Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers when they each passed the 500 mark. Quesada was involved in the creation of three successful Marvel imprints: Critics of Quesada's policy of emphasizing trade paperbacks charge that they cannibalize monthly comic book sales, because readers may opt to forgo monthly series in order to wait for
2419-508: The effects of their actions from their 'point of view' is shown." The Marvel website featured two online-exclusive e-comics for the event, titled Secret Invasion Prologue (a seven-page comic that reveals the replacement of a previously unknown Skrull agent) and Secret Invasion: Home Invasion (a MySpace video blog featuring a young teenager named Kinsey Walden and her fears regarding her brother's strange behavior), supported by comic pages by writer Ivan Brandon and artist Nick Postic. After
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2478-402: The idea for his superhero name. When he accidentally creates an ice cream sundae out of thin air, he discovers that the ring gives him the ability to alter reality. He runs away terrified, but when he returns, he finds that the sundae has disappeared without a trace. He calls Troy, and later, they have a long night of super-power practice. The next day while Curtis is on a date with Jeffrey,
2537-487: The intelligence community to prove that they are ready for another Skrull invasion. After dealing with the various Nick Fury imposters, she alerts the Avengers and assures them that it is unlikely that they have been infiltrated, unfortunately she is wrong. While the world's most clandestine forces move in silence to quell the situation before it gets out of hand, Earth's Mightiest Heroes have been left wondering who among them might be an alien infiltrator. Thankfully, Maria Hill
2596-497: The launch of the Secret Invasion series: The following issues tie-in to the Secret Invasion mini-series: The stories are collected in volumes : From November 2022 forward, Marvel released a new Secret Invasion title composed of five issue miniseries that serves as a spiritual sequel to the original event and sees new hints from the Skrulls to invade again Earth that will force Maria Hill to put out an alert in
2655-406: The next issue, the character was killed, leading to controversy and accusations of homophobia from some comic book reviewers. Kirkman defended his writing decision as having "nothing but good intentions", highlighting his original concept of "an inexperienced hero who would get beaten up constantly and probably die", claiming that Freedom Ring's sexuality was merely an attempt to simultaneously write
2714-510: The offending material omitted. On June 2, 2010, Marvel announced that it promoted Joe Quesada to chief creative officer of Marvel Entertainment . In this position Quesada will help ensure that all portrayals of Marvel's characters and stories remain true to the essence of Marvel history. He will also oversee the creative aspects of media adaptations of Marvel properties, which include participating in story and script development. On January 4, 2011, Quesada stepped down as editor-in-chief, and
2773-503: The reality-altering ring that the Ringmaster was wearing into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. However, A.I.M. sent a group of soldiers called a M.O.D.O.C. ( M ilitary O peratives D esigned O nly for C ombat) Squad to fight Cap for an unknown reason and Captain America does not notice when the ring is lost. The ring is eventually found by a young man, Curtis Doyle, whose friend Troy calls it a "free, dumb ring". This comment gives Curtis
2832-762: The restrictive continuity of the Marvel Universe . In the mid-2000s, Quesada imposed a moratorium on the practice of creatively bringing back characters thought to be dead, known as "dead is dead." In a January 2008 interview in which he was questioned about numerous characters that had since been resurrected, Quesada clarified that the policy was for writers to exercise forethought and caution before killing off characters or resurrecting them, so that such plots were not produced too frequently or without gravitas, and not that it be entirely prohibited. Joe Quesada's predecessor as Marvel editor-in-chief, Bob Harras, canceled and restarted all of Marvel's titles that were not either X-Men -related or at fewer than 100 issues already. This
2891-443: The right item. Curtis agrees, making himself stronger, and practices with the Crusader for two weeks. In a later battle with Iron Maniac , who had just defeated Spider-Man and Wolverine and was currently facing Captain America , Luke Cage and Spider-Woman , Curtis reveals the source of his power. Though he is able to immobilize the villain, Curtis does not expect Iron Maniac's armor to expand outwards. When it does, his ring finger
2950-458: The stories within our comics. My role has been one in which I work on the larger stories and the overall flavor and feel of our books and universe." Quesada later elaborated on this decision in a 2011 interview with Visual Arts Journal , a publication of his alma mater, the School of Visual Arts , by saying that he always viewed the editor in chief position as a finite one that he would leave after he accomplished what he had set out to, and that
3009-512: The story, good pacing, and "slick" art style", although some concerns were raised over Bendis' dialogue. Sales estimates suggested that around 250,200 copies were sold, more than twice as much as the second highest seller. The Secret Invasion: The Infiltration collected volume also topped the trade paperback chart, with an estimated 7,247 sales. The second issue kept the top slot, with estimated sales dropping to 200,344. The following issues were released with The Infiltration banner prior to
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#17327826698883068-590: The superhuman community as: Additionally, the Avengers are attacked by Skrulls posing as heroes in the Savage Land , and Reed Richards is wounded by the Skrull Criti Noll (who was posing as Henry Pym ) seconds after determining a way to identify the shape shifters. After several battles between Earth's heroes and the Skrulls in Manhattan and the Savage Land, Mr. Fantastic manages to develop
3127-820: The then-recent purchase of Marvel by Disney opened up opportunities he wanted to explore. Quesada contrasted his former editor in chief role as one in which he was solely focused on rebuilding Marvel's editorial division and overseeing its comics content, with his Chief Creative Officer role as one in which he would be involved creatively with several divisions. With the October 2019 Marvel reorganization that named Kevin Feige as Chief Creative Officer across Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Studios, he would continue to work for Marvel Entertainment with his position re-titled as executive vice president and creative director for Marvel Entertainment. On May 31, 2022, Quesada announced he would part ways with Marvel. After leaving Marvel, Quesada
3186-417: The title New Avengers from the first issue. The limited series concluded the plot and was, according to Bendis, "a hell of an end." In November 2007, several ongoing titles and mini-series were branded as tie-ins to the main Secret Invasion storyline, with the tagline: Secret Invasion: The Infiltration . In addition to the core story, the Avengers titles provided additional plot material and acted as
3245-400: Was an effort to shore up sagging sales with a new #1 issue for each of Marvel's popular titles, issued at a time shortly after the 1990s bust of the comic book collecting market , and when Marvel was in the throes of bankruptcy. Quesada reversed this policy first by showing the "old", combined issue numbers beside the "new" numbers on covers (the difference between the two issue numbers shown on
3304-497: Was composed of three three-page sequences, plus a cover for each. These included a Superman story intended to show reviewers from DC Comics that he could handle their characters; an X-Men sequence to display both his ability to depict the characters of Marvel Comics and his ability to handle groups of characters; and a vignette of two people having coffee, which Quesada included to show his ability to illustrate non-superhero stories. Among Quesada's earliest widely distributed work
3363-461: Was for Valiant Comics , specifically penciled interiors and covers for Ninjak , Solar, Man of the Atom and others. His art was heavily influenced by Alex Toth , Mike Mignola , and Alphonse Mucha . At DC Comics , he and writer Jack C. Harris co-created an updated version of the Golden Age character The Ray . Quesada co-created the character Azrael with writer Dennis O'Neil for
3422-486: Was recruited to Amazon Studios in a first-look deal to develop film and television productions from comic book properties. In July 2024, he was announced as the head of a new comic book company called Amazing Comics. A joint venture between Mad Cave Studios and Belgian publisher Dupuis , their first series will be Disciple , a reimagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet , with Quesada co-writing and drawing. When illustrating, Quesada begins with sketches much smaller than
3481-400: Was replaced by Axel Alonso . After being given the additional job of CCO, in 2010, Quesada explained to Comic Book Resources , "With my increased travel schedule over the last year plus, I've only been able to work with the publishing division in a more macro sense, or as you put it, a more, "big picture," sense. During this time, Tom and Axel have been handling the more detailed functions of
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