LogFAQs > #973110959

#61 - Uncle Sam
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/7/0/AAUHRBAAEbBm.png
Or is it
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/4/0/AAQcMAAADiuA.jpg

Sams country needs him, and he needs his country. From its foundation, the incarnation of America has undergone many radical transformations, but he was always as strong as faith in the good ol USofA. Now, however, America has become an institution believed dead, and Sams powers have waned to a breaking point. As such, Sam himself has fragmented into at least three disparate pieces. Sam recently commissioned Rozetta and Jesse Custer to not only help put Sam back together, but his country as well.

According to Sam, his nature changes as the population of America adjusts its thinking, usually conforming to the most popular and dominant schools of thought. When the Puritans arrived in Plymouth, for example, Sam manifested as a peace-loving minister who brought prayer to the first interactions with the natives of America. During the Civil War, Sam revealed that he was divided into two disparate entities - Johnny Reb and Billy Yank. Sams more recognizable and codified form started to develop in the late 1890s, and as belief in Sam itself has become more tangible and notable, his form remains far less varied than it had prior to his popularization.

I know his appearances have been significantly limited, but the opportunity to explore the double-life of Uncle Sam as a living representation of America's legacy has proven to be boundlessly fascinating for me. I've been so excited to dig into what that legacy entails to the individuals living in the United States. There's a broken aspect of a country that could be better on one hand, and there's this massive jingoistic monolithic monster that crushes the aberrations from the manifest destiny on the other. Even though I probably haven't earned it, I'm really enjoying the dissection of the role Native Americans play in this country's heritage so far. I grew up in a family that was very close with another family of those who were descended from Native Americans, so I've always had a voice in my ear that questioned the motives of America. For me, Walt Whitman's works often are conjured to mind when I think about the larger corporate body of the United States - millions of voices homogenized into one superior sentiment. Too often, the idea of a melting pot overlooks the fact that everything placed within it ultimately congeals into one flavor - the most dominant one - and everything else is lost in the process.

The future for Sam, whose entire being is tied inextricably to the American citizenry's faith in it own nation, seems entirely bleak for the moment. But perhaps there is a hope to be had - perhaps Roz'etta, an alien immigrant, just like those tired, huddled masses who braved the fogs of New York and witnessed the rising, cresting crown of Liberty on the horizon, will be able to unite the various states of Sam - and in doing so, resurrect the American Experience once more.

#60 is a longtime OG of the campaign, drafted in the back half of our board!