Martha Washington (comics)

Martha Washington
Martha Washington on the cover to Give Me Liberty #1. Art by Dave Gibbons.
Publication information
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
First appearance	Give Me Liberty #1, 1990
Created by	Frank Miller
In-story information
Alter ego	Martha Washington
Abilities	Computer Programming, Hacking, Hand-to-Hand Combat

Martha Washington is a fictional character created by Frank Miller, first appearing in the four-issue comic book series Give Me Liberty, published in 1990 by Dark Horse Comics.

Born on March 11, 1995 and died on March 11, 2095, Martha Washington grew up in the Cabrini–Green housing project in Chicago (called "The Green") with her mother and two brothers in abject poverty brought on by the economic policies of the President Erwin Rexall. She is an average student, but one who displays a gift for computer programming and hacking.

Her teacher, Donald, encourages her to be a better student and, because he lives outside the Green, brings her contraband items. One night, Martha shows up at Donald’s classroom and finds that he’s been murdered by the Ice Man, a large thug who works for a local gangster called the Pope. Before dying, Donald managed to stab the Ice Man in the wrist. This distraction allowed Martha to seize his weapon, a longshoreman’s hook, and plunge it into his shoulder. The Ice Man chases her through the school to a locker room, but before he can kill her, he dies of blood loss. Martha is later remanded to a psychiatric hospital.

In the institution, she discovers that experiments are being secretly performed on children to genetically alter their minds, effectively turning them into human computers. Their heads are covered with wires plugged into their brains. Martha believes one of them resembles the Raggedy Ann doll she played with as a child. This institution is closed due to national budget cuts, and Martha is left homeless. She later joins the PAX Peace Force, where her heroic tale begins. She fights in many battles during the second American Civil War.

During the second American Civil War, her mother and brother die when Chicago is destroyed by a nuclear weapon.

Martha Washington's first appearance. It features Martha joining the PAX Peace Force — a reinvented U.S. Army — and engaging in various heroic efforts, such as saving the rain forests of South America from crazed cattle ranchers. She eventually has to thwart the megalomanical plans of Colonel Moretti before he brings the country to the brink of destruction.