Seven Soldiers of Victory
The
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).
*
Crimson Avenger (Lee Travis)
*
Star-Spangled Kid (Sylvester Pemberton)
*
Stripesy (Pat Dugan)
*
Vigilante (Greg Sanders)
*
Shining Knight (Sir Justin)
*
Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)
*
Speedy (Roy Harper)
|
The original Seven Soldiers of Victory. |
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
Joseph Samachson from the 1940s was serialized in
Adventure Comics #438-443, 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 of America, 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,
The Sandman and
Metamorpho rescued the Shining Knight from the hordes of
Genghis Khan.
Hawkman,
Doctor Mid-Nite, and the Golden Age
Wonder Woman found the Golden Age Green Arrow in medieval England, where he had been mistaken for
Robin Hood.
Batman,
Hourman and
Starman retrieved Stripesy from ancient Egypt. The Silver Age
Green Arrow,
Black Canary and
Johnny Thunder and Thunderbolt saved the Vigilante from a tribe of Indians in the Old West.
Aquaman,
Wildcat and the Silver Age
Green Lantern rescued the Star-Spangled Kid, who was 50,000 years in the past.
Zatanna, the Silver Age
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 would 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 Gotham City from a boatload of explosives in
DC Comics Presents #38).
*
Crimson Avenger (Lee Travis)
*
Star-Spangled Kid (Sylvester Pemberton)
*
Stripesy (Pat Dugan)
*
Vigilante (Greg Sanders)
*
Stuff the Chinatown Kid (Victor Leong, The Vigilante's sidekick)
*
Shining Knight (Sir Justin)
*
Spider (Tom Holloway/Thomas Ludlow)
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 helped 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.
The Seven Soldiers have not reformed in the Modern Age (partly due to Grant Morrison's project; see below). Three of the originalsremain. The team has inspired a few legacies. The first is
Stargirl, who at first carried the mantle of Star-Spangled Kid in memory of Sylvester Pemberton. She is now a double legacy, as she also carries on the legacy of
Starman. The second SSoV legacy is the new
Crimson Avenger, who has appeared sporadically in
JSA. She has yet to make an appearance
One Year Later, though she was seen towards the end of
Infinite Crisis. The third one is Gardner Grayle, the
Atomic Knight (see below). The last one is the new Sir Justin in Grant Morrison's project. (The current
Green Arrow and
Speedy, as well as
Arsenal, could also count as SSoV legacies, but due to retcons, Green Arrow and the original Speedy were never members of the team.)
Another 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:
*
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)
*
Blackhawk*
Metamorpho*
Mento*
Deadman*
Adam Strange*
Shining Knight II (Gardner Grayle)
This Shining Knight was Gardner Grayle, from the Silver Age feature
The Atomic Knights; in previously published stories that occurred after the
Silver Age limited series, he became the
Atomic Knight and joined the
Outsiders. This was the only appearance of this particular assemblage.
In 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:
*
Manhattan Guardian*
Shining Knight III (Sir Ystin)
*
Zatanna*
Klarion the Witch Boy II
*
Bulleteer*
Frankenstein*
Mister Miracle II (Shilo Norman)
Together, they fight to save Earth and its environs from the
Sheeda.
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 (called "
I, Spyder" and apparently the son of the original), Gimmix (daughter of
Merry, the Girl of a Thousand Gimmicks), a new
Boy Blue, Dyno-Mite Dan (owner of two "working fakes" imitations of the explosive rings of
T.N.T. and
Dan the Dyna-Mite), and Whip IV, the granddaughter of the Golden Age
Whip. The team went off to battle the Buffalo Spider (betrayed by Spyder in another nod to the original), only to be killed during an event known as the Harrowing.
A central part of Morrison'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 actually not a team.
An explanation for this has been presented in
Manhattan Guardian and
Zatanna. In the first, a man named Ed Starsgard (aka Baby Brain) tells Guardian that the Sheeda have been attacking humanity in periodical waves, taking everything of value (physical & mental) and leaving behind just enough for the survivors to rebuild for next time. It is prophesied that the Sheeda will eventually be stopped by seven soldiers, so they target teams of seven, including the
Ultramarine Corps and the
Justice League of America (
JLA: Classified #1-3) But, because the Seven Soldiers have never met, they stand a chance of doing the job.
In
Zatanna, a ghost remarked that there were too many coincidences in the story and it felt like there was 'mystery string tying it all together'. It eventually emerged that the Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp are driving the Seven Soldiers to stop the Sheeda.
In an interview with Grant Morrison, he said that this series of stories (which he calls a "megaseries", also known as a
metaseries) takes place after
Infinite Crisis, which may explain what some fans have seen as plot holes or inconsistencies in the series.
Dan DiDio has since stated that, after careful consultation with Morrison, the series is now considered to take place a week before
Infinite Crisis.
Because the Soldiers have appeared in
Infinite Crisis, though, it has let out a big spoiler. Grant Morrison wrote that in the Seven Soldiers, a Soldier will die at the end. But Bulleteer, Klarion, the Manhattan Guardian, Shining Knight, Frankenstein, and Zatanna have all appeared in
Infinite Crisis. Mister Miracle also made an appearance, but it is unknown if this one is Scott Free, or Shilo Norman. Also, Mister Miracle didn't show up in the two page spread of the new heroes of the DCU in
Infinite Crisis #7 [
1]. Zatanna is, at present, the only Soldier to appear in the
One Year Later continuity, making her first post-Infinite Crisis appearance at the end of
Catwoman #57.
The comic Seven Soldiers of Victory #1 was originally scheduled for release on April 1, 2006, but it was re-scheduled for October 25, 2006.
The original lineup of the Seven Soldiers appeared in the
animated series Justice League Unlimited as members of the League. In an episode entitled "Patriot Act", they, along with other non-powered members of the League, faced a
rogue super-soldier while representing the League at a parade.
The team essentially was the
DCAU versions of the original Golden Age Seven Soldiers including:
* Green Arrow
* Vigilante
* Shining Knight
* S.T.R.I.P.E. (formerly known as, in comics continuity, Stripesy)
*
Stargirl (formerly known as, in comics continuity, the second Star-Spangled Kid)
The sixth and seventh members, The Crimson Avenger and Speedy, arrived in the middle of the battle as reinforcements. The character of Speedy is the
Roy Harper version and has also appeared in the animated
Teen Titans series. He appears to be an older version of the same character, which leads many to wonder about the connection between Teen Titans and JLU.
There are now a number of reprints.
DC's Archive Editons are releasing the original line up:
*The Seven Soldiers of Victory Archives Volume 1 (collects
Leading Comics #1-4, DC, 2005 ISBN 1401204015)
Grant Morrison's run is also being released as a series of four
trade paperbacks throughout the first half of 2006:
*Volume 1 (collects
Seven Soldiers of Victory #0,
Shining Knight #1-2,
The Guardian #1-2,
Zatanna #1-2 and
Klarion #1;
Titan, ISBN 1845762363;
DC ISBN 1401209254)
*Volume 2 (collects
Klarion #2-3,
Shining Knight #3-4,
The Guardian #3-4 and
Zatanna #3;
Titan, ISBN 1845762371;
DC ISBN 1401209750)
*Volume 3 (collects
Mister Miracle #1-2,
Zatanna #4,
Klarion #4,
Bulleteer #1-2 and
Frankenstein #1;
Titan, ISBN 1845762886;
DC ISBN 1401209769)
*Volume 4 (collects
Frankenstein #2-4,
Mister Miracle #3-4,
Bulleteer #3-4 and
Seven Soldiers of Victory #1;
DC ISBN 1401209777)
*
Article from Don Markstein's Toonopedia*
DC Cosmic Teams: SSoV*
Grand Comic-Book Database: SSoV*
Who's Who: SSoV*
Barbelith Wiki entry on the Grant Morrison Seven Soldiers series*
Interview with Grant Morrison on various series, including Seven Soldiers
