SEVEN SOLDIERS OF SATURDAY: THE SSOV VS. THE HAND! (No, NOT the Ninjas...)

[alschroeder3]

The FIRST super-team, the Justice Society, got all the mentions, all the glory. But Harlan Ellison said,

"Before the Magnificent Seven, there was the Seven Soliders of Victory; even more so than the Justice Society (which I adored), I loved this bunch. Particularly, the Vigilante."

Let's find out why, shall we? For the next few Saturdays, I'm going to examine the Seven Soldiers of Victory's individual adventures...and even though the SSOV was the SECOND super-team ever invented, this is the FIRST origin of a super-team ever published--because the Society's origin story was never revealed during the Golden Age, but retconned by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton decades later. How did these heroes get together? The SSOV, unlike the JSA, showed us.

From LEADING COMICS #1, 18 out of 56 pages, written by Mort Weisinger, creator of Vigilante, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Johnny Quick, and later Superman editor from the late Golden through the Silver Age.

The Hand, like so many other early comic concepts, was doubtless influenced by the pulps that preceded them, specifically by several issues in which the Shadow fought the individual "fingers" of the criminal organization called the Hand.

Hey, everybody has a right to their own Bucket List of things to do before they die...

I'll skip a montage page of the Hand cackling like a maniac, as headlines talk about the Needle (a Star-Spangled Kid villain), The Red Dragon (a Shining Knight villain), Professor Merlin (a foe of the golden age Green Arrow, and probably the inspiration of the assasin-archer Merlyn), Big Caesar (presumably a Crimson Avenger foe, but I've been unable to discover where he first appeared), and strangest of all, the Dummy, a kidnapper the Feds who were about to nab--who appears to be a puppet.

Another first: this is, as far as I know, the first "team" of opponents of individual heroes ---preceding even Mr. Mind's Monster Society of Evil, and definitely preceding by years the Injustice Society, and by decades the Masters of Evil or the Injustice Gang or the Secret Society of Super-Villains. Dummy, though he originated in this story (and will return in another SSOV story) appeared in numerous Vigilante stories after this.

The mention of Gotham City indicated clearly that this story is set in the same universe as Batman and Golden Age Green Lantern and thus, the rest of the Justice Society.

The Hand, living in Gotham City, and avoiding until now Batman and the Golden Age Green Lantern, may have been a secretive "Napoleon of Crime", worthy of respect---and certainly the Needle and the Red Dragon strongly respect him--but this plan of warning the heroes as well is pretty stupid. We'll blame it on whatever meds he's on.

Yes, the Golden Age Green Arrow drove a heavily armed and powerful CAR called the ArrowPLANE. Go figure. No, it didn't convert into a plane. In the Silver Age, he gets an actual plane called the Arrowplane, and renames his roadster the Arrowcar.

Luckily, "Woe to all Workers of Evil!" did NOT become the SSOV's "Avengers Assemble!"

In these scans, most of you are fairly familiar with the Green Arrow and Speedy, so I'm going to show less of Green Arrow than the others in their individual "chapters".

Green Arrow follows Professor Merlin to Death Valley, to an eccentric old man who is so used to the heat that he gets chilly if it's below a hundred and twenty. He also knows where a huge supply of gold is.

One amusing thing about the early Green Arrow--for the most part, he just used regular arrows. In the entire issue, this whistle-signal arrow and "arrowlines"---arrows with ropes they can climb on--were the only trick arrows they used. However, the Arrowplane-that-isn't-a-plane had seat-catapults that sent Green Arrow, and on this page, Speedy, up several stories.

Then the Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy...against their old foe, the Needle, with his needle-gun that fired thousands of steel needles as projectiles. Unlike other such pairings, the Kid was the leader. But lest you think Stripesy is just a big, dumb lug, he designed the Star-Rocket-Racer. Anybody remember an old TV series called SUPERCAR? The Star-Rocket Racer was like Supercar, only moreso. It was the Pemperton's limosine, that Pat Dugan/Stripesy chauffered, but at the touch of the button, it transformed into the Star-Rocket Racer...

...Which can in turn transform into a autogyro (an early helicopter), or a rocket-jet that can reach Panama in a matter of hours! (And another SSOV reveals it can turn into a very ordinary-looking seaplane too.) The Star-Rocket Racer is the Iron Man of super-vehicles. It makes the Batmobile, the Arrowplane/car, James Bond's car, even the Fantasti-Car, look sick.

Steelite is what their ropes are made of, and evidently it was a flexible metallic line, also invented by Pat Dugan/Stripesy.

In addition to his needle-gun, the Needle steals from an inventor a ray gun that can destroy whole buildings. He's going to use it to destroy the Panama Canal, and then after demonstrating its power, sell it to a foreign power. But...

Yep. The Star-Rocket Racer is explosive AND ray-proof. As well as the "Glassite" that the driver and passenger are enclosed in. Pat Dugan is a certified GENIUS of an engineer. As well as an ex-circus acrobat.

The Kid is smarter in general terms---is a better strategist, better at picking up clues, has a greater range of knowledge. But Dugan is a genius.

A shame that the art is, in Steranko's words, "like Bob Kane drawing left-handed".

The art is a little better with the Crimson Avenger's story...

But the term, "The Gay White Way" (a totally non-sexual-orientation term at the time) combined with where Wing's hands are in the splash panel, makes you wonder if the Crimson Avenger or Wing were ever shown with regular girlfriends. Besides being the first costumed character at DC, the Crimson Avenger might be the first ground-breaking comic hero in ANOTHER area...

Also, amusingly, the Crimson Avenger and Wing travel in costume by train, and in the next page, by taxi. Why they didn't go as Lee Travis, newspaper publisher, and his chauffeur/valet, Wing, I have no idea. Maybe they had heard New Yorkers were not easy to startle or impress.

My apologies for reprinting the painfully cliched and racially stereotypical speech of Wing. Oddly enough, when he first appeared, he spoke much more normal English. The Crimson Avenger started as a mysterious character three-fourths the Green Hornet, one fourth the Shadow, armed with a gas gun. Later, he gave in to changing superhero fashions and adopted this costume...but yellow trunks are never a good idea, and when Wing joined him in a color-reversed costume, it was even worse. Wing, however, wasn't totally a stereotype: later in this very story he admits he doesn't like Chinese food. He was never an "official" member of the Seven Soldiers, yet all the SSOSV treated him as an equal partner in all their adventures.

They put an end to Big Caesar's plans to black out--and rob--Times Square.

Next up, the Shining Knight against his old foe, the Red Dragon. In a remote valley, an Indian tribe cut off from the outside world had a legend about a flying savior called the Wendigo--which is certainly a twist on the USUAL legends about the Wendigo. They mistake the Red Dragon, who when unmasked looks just like the silent-movie PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, for the Wendigo, when he lands in his plane. He enslaves them and makes them mine the radium deposit in that land.

Meanwhile...

The Knight soon leads a revolt against the Red Dragon, who takes off in his plane. However, when you have a winged horse and magic bulletproof armor...

Waitasecond. How is the Knight able to move fast enough to block bullets, magic sword or no? He isn't magic, just his armor and sword. Another mystery.

Anyway, the Indians realize the Knight is the fulfillment of their prophecy. Sort of. Kinda.

Next, the Vigilante, with the best art of the issue, by artistic stylist Mort Meskin, an influence on many later artists, including Steve Ditko. Interestingly, like the Kid, Vig's sidekick/partner was ALSO older than him---in this case, the oldster Billy "Pop" Gunn, who talks like a bad Western, but really hadn't been West of Passiac, New Jersey before he took up with Vig.

A director in Hollywood wants country singing star Greg Sanders to star in some Westerns, but the "dude" fake-Western star turns into the Vigilante, and starts to show off...

The Dummy is kidnapping people and replacing them with ultra-realistic statues, convincing the public they've been "turned to stone". The Dummy issues orders to his men---who afterwards wonder which of them is REALLY the Dummy, because surely the puppet can't talk by HIMSELF...then...

There is some controversy over what the Dummy really is. Most stories say he is a midget (dwarf? Little person?) dressed up to resemble a dummy, and in one story, other midgets helped him because midgets should stick together. Yet Roy Thomas treated him as a magically-animated puppet, able to pierce the golden age Green Lantern's power-ringed shield because he's made of wood. Maybe he's a midget who can project his consciousness and ability to move into a puppet? Mysteries, mysteries...

"Pop" Gunn would later be replaced by Stuff, the Chinatown Kid, the LEAST stereotypical Oriental sidekick ever developed, an Asian American kid who talked with no accent, who talked like a typical American. A flickering ray of sanity in a cliched stereotypical media.

To say the least, the Hand is NOT pleased with how his "fingers" performed.

No, Hand, the world will laugh at you because summoning the heroes to "oppose" the villains was a stupid flaw in your plan. Don't feel bad, though, Loki will make a similar mistake when his plan goes awry and causes the Avengers to be formed...

After all, the Hand only had a month to live, so what does he have to lose...what's THAT, Doctor?

When it comes to medicine, ALWAYS get a second opinion.

That's the Arrowplane-not-a-plane's catapult seat in action. And although it's no Star-Rocket Racer, the Arrow"plane" is pretty sturdy.

It's nice to see the Avenger go back to his gas-gun. Good times, good times...

The Hand-motif seems a little overdone, for a Napoleon of Crime who kept concealed from the world. Again, I'm going to blame it on the meds.

Now, before you yawn at that deaththreat...remember that these guys don't have the Spectre, or Doc Fate, or the Flash, or Green Lantern, like the Society. They don't have the Human Torch or the Thing, or Iron Man or Thor. Even the Shining Knight's armor, which is bulletproof, is vulnerable to electricity, as shown in another story. Cliched as this is, this can really kill them. All of them.

If the Justice Society is Superman, they're the Batman of super-groups.

Their only hope is their skill...

...And that's enough.

Note it's the Knight who talks them into this. Considering he has only one person to confide in, a stranger in a strange time (much more so than Steve Rogers--Sir Justin is CENTURIES out of date) and how he's used to being part of the Knights of the Round Table ---his wanting some comrades to fight with is very, very understandable.

The Hand actually survives, losing one hand, and later threatens the SSOV, the Justice Society, and the Justice League, in JLA #100-102. Too bad Vincent Price isn't around to play the Hand in a movie...he would've been perfect.

Next Saturday, another SSOV story. See you then!

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

These guys really are awesome in a second-rate sort of way. And I mean that with affection because honestly, they were all the decent heroes left over after the JSA got the headliners.

It's funny how they never did officially agree on the full roster--half of them were sidekicks and yet some of those sidekicks weren't always official. Who was #7? Why were there sometimes 8? The world will never know. They picked Seven Soldiers, and by god, they were going to stick to it. And of course it got worse once DC started retconning them Post-Crisis and they no longer had Green Arrow or Speedy in the original lineup...

[alschroeder3]

Oddly enough, they didn't include the newly-created Johnny Quick or Aquaman, also by Weisinger. I think they really were trying for something a little different from the JSA---a more human, down to earth team. (Or maybe they saw how the Spectre or Doc Fate should have ended every story in two pages.) Sometimes...less is more.

[reveen]

I like how Stripesey is just some bruiser in a Waldo shirt.

[alschroeder3]

I know, right? We laugh at the Clark Kent disguise, but in the Golden Age of Comics, that was actually one of the BETTER disguises. The Golden Age Flash, the Golden Age Starman, Shining Knight, Stripesy---all let their real faces hang out.

I think the Kid became the defacto leader because of the two, he was the only one who was smart enough to wear a mask.

[icon_uk]

Fascinating, I alway love seeing Golden Age material, and these are some classic guys who I remember from reading All Star squadron (Where Shining Knight was a member)

The Dummy I only remember as a human, with the gimmick that the human he performed with on stage WAS a dummy who was, it was hinted, operated through an interface in it's hand, which the Dummy operated via... ummm... muscle control in his gluteus maxiums.

[jkcarrier]

Thanks for posting this. Golden Age stories can look crude and quaint by modern standards, but the best ones have a lot of energy and charm. The Hand is a classic, scenery-chewing evil mastermind. Besides Vincent Price, he also reminds me of Raul Julia as Gomez Addams.

Weird that the Crimson Avenger is sporting a cape in the "bookend" chapters, but not in his solo sequence. Maybe he was feeling nostalgic for his old outfit...

[bradygirl_12]

Love these SSOV stories! They are the Golden Age at its most fun! :)

[randyripoff]

I've been a fan of the Vigilante for some time, ever since the reprints from the 100 Page Super-Spectaculars in the 1970's, so this is great fun. Thanks for posting.

[doomedpatroller]

Poor Wing. He looked really...uh....

[alschroeder3]

Yeah. Unfortunately, it's going to be hard giving you an idea of what the SSOV were like without including him. Yet I can't see any trace of discrimination against him by the other Soldiers. There was a later story where the Soldiers were separated into different pairings, and he and Stripesy worked well together. And as I mentioned, Vig's later partner, Stuff, could have been any kid partner in comics, except he happened to be Asian in descent. His slang and way of speaking was very American.