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Seven Soldiers of VictoryThe Seven Soldiers of Victory (also known as Law's Legionaires) is a team of comic book superheroes in the DC Comics universe. They first appeared in Leading Comics #1 (Winter, 1941-1942).
Original Line-Up (pre-Crisis)
The Seven Soldiers of Victory (also known as the Law's Legionnaires) was DC Comics' second super-hero team. It may be worth noting that, unlike almost every other superhero team, this one included two sidekicks as members. (Stripesy was that rarity, an adult sidekick to a "kid" lead character.) On the other hand, the Crimson Avenger's sidekick Wing also took part in the team's adventures, and was in every other way an "eighth Soldier," but was never considered a member of the team. The Seven Soldiers of Victory appeared in the first fifteen issues of Leading Comics. Notable villains included The Black Star, The Iron Hand, The Dummy (enemy of the Vigilante), and Dr. Doome, one of several villains the team faced who had a time machine. A script by Joel Samachson from the 1940s was serialized in Adventure Comics #438-442, with each chapter illustrated by a different artist (including Dick Dillin, Mike Grell, Lee Elias, and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez). The team was resurrected in the seventies in Justice League of America #100-102. During the celebration of the 100th meeting of the JLA, the team was summoned to Earth-Two by the Justice Society, where a giant ethereal hand controlled by the Iron Hand threatened to destroy their world. The only way to stop the hand was to find the legendary Seven Soldiers of Victory, who defeated a similar menace in the form of the Nebula Man many years previously, though at the seeming cost of their existences, since no one could remember who they were. An unearthly Oracle revealed to the JLA and the JSA that the Seven Soldiers had been scattered through time, and the multitude of heroes were sent back to find them. Doctor Fate, the Atom and the Elongated Man found the Crimson Avenger in Mexico, where he had amnesia and believed he was the Aztec Sun God. Superman, Sandman and Metamorpho rescued the Shining Knight from the hordes of Genghis Khan. Hawkman, Doctor Mid-Nite, and the Golden Wonder Woman found Green Arrow (who has been mistaken for Robin Hood). Batman, Hourman and Starman retrieved Stripesy from ancient Egypt. Green Arrow, Black Canary and Johnny Thunder (and his Thunderbolt) saved The Vigilante from a tribe of Indians in the Old West. Aquaman, Wildcat and Green Lantern rescued the Star-Spangled Kid who was 50,000 years in the past. Zatanna, The Flash and the Red Tornado freed Speedy (and themselves) from the clutches of Circe in ancient Greece. The Golden Age Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific and the Golden Age Robin went on a quest to discover the identity of the Unknown Soldier of Victory, whose tomb lay in the mountains of Tibet, where the Seven Soldiers had fallen after defeating the Nebula Man. The Seven Soldiers were reunited and created a new Nebula Rod to deal with the giant hand that the Iron Hand devised. Unfortunately, whoever used the Nebula Rod to destroy the Hand was certain to perish (as did the Crimson Avenger's partner Wing, revealed to be the Unknown Soldier of Victory, when the Nebula Man was stopped). While the heroes argued over who wouldl sacrifice themselves, the android Red Tornado took the Nebula Rod and destroyed the Hand, apparently destroying himself in the process. The only other modern meeting of the team (either in pre- or post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity) took place in Infinity, Inc. #11, in which the Vigilante, the Shining Knight, Green Arrow, Speedy and the Star-Spangled Kid gathered at the grave of Lee Travis, the man known as the Crimson Avenger. It had taken two years for the team to confirm his death (having died saving a city from a boatload of explosives in DC Comics Presents #38). Original Line-Up (post-Crisis)
In the original Post-Crisis retcon of the team, both Wing and the Vigilante's sidekick Stuff, the Chinatown Kid were promoted to full membership, to replace the Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy, who had been removed from active continuity. Stuff had never appeared with the team during the original Leading Comics run, while an older man named Billy Gunn helping out the Vigilante on his cases in the comic. That particular retcon was yet again changed in the late nineties, in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #9. While Stuff remained a full member (and the Vigilante's mentor Billy Gunn was also present), Wing was not an official Soldier (because his mentor the Crimson Avenger wanted him to do something more important with his life). The remaining spot on the team was filled by the Spider, an archer who had originally appeared in Quality Comics' Crack Comics (in a feature called Alias the Spider). The twist on the new Spider was that he was really a villain - and in this particular adventure, had been working with the team's arch-enemy the Hand, who created the original Nebula Man. The Spider sabotaged the Nebula Rod that the Soldiers had built to stop the Nebula Man and sent the team off to fight a fruitless battle. The villain then killed Billy Gunn (who had discovered his deception) and tried to kill Wing, but failed. Wing reached the other Soldiers and repaired the Nebula Rod, using it to destroy the Nebula Man. Wing died, and his teammates were again tossed through time and later retrieved by the JLA and JSA. The only major difference between this story and the original was that this time the Vigilante had been found after he had spent nearly 20 years fighting crime in the Old West. Seven Soldiers of Victory of the Silver AgeAnother group that loosely took the name of the Seven Soldiers of Victory appeared in the Showcase issue of the limited series known as Silver Age. This group, brought together to help the Justice League of America and the other major heroes and teams of the sixties to battle the menace of Agamemno, consisted of the original Batgirl, Blackhawk, Metamorpho the Element Man, Mento, Deadman, Adam Strange, and a new Shining Knight (Gardner Grayle, from the silver age feature The Atomic Knights and former/future member of the Outsiders as the Atomic Knight ). This was the only appearance of this particular assemblage. Modern Seven Soldiers ProjectIn 2005, writer Grant Morrison launched a retooled version of the Seven Soldiers in what he terms a "megaseries" of seven interrelated miniseries and two bookend titles. While many members of this new team are long-running DC Universe superheroes, none were affiliated with the previous incarnation of the team. The mini-series featured The Manhattan Guardian, The Shining Knight, Zatanna, Klarion the Witch-Boy, the Bulleteer, (Spawn of) Frankenstein, and Mister Miracle. In the first issue of this story (which was part of a two-issue framework for the project), the Vigilante gathered together a new Spider (spelled Spyder, and apparently the son of the original), Gimmix (apparently related to Merry, the Girl of a Thousand Gimmicks - and thus, to her brother, the original Star-Spangled Kid), a new Boy Blue, Dyno-mite Dan (who bought the explosive rings of T.N.T. and Dan the Dyna-Mite off of eBay), and the granddaughter of the Whip. The team went off to battle the Buffalo Spider, only to be apparently all killed during an event known as the Harrowing. A central part of Morrion's idea for the current series is that although the seven characters in question are each a part of the same struggle, they never actually meet (although there are references to each other in the various titles). Thus, the team is still actually not a team. External links |
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