In keeping with the spirit of Independence Day, let’s take a look back into the patriotic pages of Captain America in the 1990s, where we find the next subject of our forgotten comic book character blog entry. Today we ask: whatever happened to Free Spirit?
C-Minus in Physical Education
Cathy Webster was your typical college student struggling to make ends meet in the mid-90s. While Cathy was a mostly straight A student, there was one subject bringing her GPA down. Cathy had a C minus in PE. Luckily for Cathy, a friend of one of her professors, Dr. Deirdra Wentworth, was looking for candidates for a performance enhancing exercise involving sleep therapy and subliminal learning tapes. After some convincing from Dr. Wentworth, Cathy agreed to consider the offer.
Little did Cathy know that Dr. Wentworth was actually the man-hating supervillain Superia. Once Cathy agreed to take part in the experiment, Superia’s true motives were revealed. The subliminal messaging on the tapes did somehow give Cathy Olympic-level strength and reflexes similar to that of Captain America, but they also hypnotized Cathy into hating all men, something she only discovered after she injured someone badly at a fraternity party. This was all part of Superia’s master plan of creating a superior female army to rule the world.
Becoming an Ally of Captain America
Once Cathy discovered Superia’s intentions of subjugating her mind by liberating her body, she determined from that point on that she would make her own decisions on how to properly utilize her new-found abilities. Thus, Free Spirit was born. Free Spirit eventually became an ally of Captain America, helping him and Diamondback rescue several kidnapped children from Baron Zemo.
As Free Spirit, Cathy went on to assist Captain America in several campaigns against villainous organizations like the Serpent Society, ULTIMATUM, and Aim. She and Jack Flag were both trained by Cap, becoming founding members of a network of computer operatives known as the “Captain America Hotline.”
What Became of the Free Spirit?
Several years later, Captain America recruited Free Spirit and Jack Flag as part of a Shield operation to take down Hydra. This occurred during the infamous Hydra Cap storyline, in which the Cosmic Cube created an evil version of Steve Rogers.
The evil loyal-to-Hydra Rogers pushed Jack Flag out of a moving airplane without a parachute after the latter disobeyed his orders. Free Spirit found Jack’s body and discovered that he had not yet died. Hydra Cap eventually tried to finish the job while Jack lay in a coma. However, before he could do so, Cathy informed Cap that Jack’s family decided to pull the plug. Cathy was last seen grieving for Jack, still oblivious to Hydra Cap’s betrayal.