SEVEN SOLDIERS OF SATURDAY: The SSOV vs. the ORIGINAL DR. DOOM(E)!!

[alschroeder3]

No less a comic scholar than Roy Thomas has pointed out the Seven Soldiers' fight with Dr. Doome as the inspiration/villain-to-be-updated-in-Silver-Age-fashion for Marvel's Dr. Doom. In both stories, both are brilliant scientists and would-be tyrants, bitter at mankind, who have invented, and are using, a time machine in their first appearance--still called Marvel-Doom's "greatest invention"-- fighting a group of super-heroes. Just as there was a Golden Age Ringmaster who fought Captain America, and a Silver Age one who fought the Hulk/Spider-Man/Thor, a Golden Age Key who fought the Justice Society and a Silver Age one who fought the Justice League, a Golden Age Star Sapphire who fought the Golden Age Flash, and a Silver Age Star Sapphire who fought the Silver Age Green Lantern...

So too was there a Golden Age Dr. Doome (evidently DC thought "Dr. Doom" TOO corny) who fought the Seven Soldiers of Victory and a Silver Age Dr. Doom who fought the Fantastic Four.

Some of you may be familiar with this story when Roy Thomas retold it in abbreviated fashion in an issue of All-Star Squadron, but many of you didn't have that pleasure--and these are pages from the original.

Let's look at the..."Tyrants of Time", from Leading Comics #3, June 1942, 18 of 56 pages.

Yeah, Alexander should be swearing by Zeus, not Jupiter. But something's going to be translating his Greek to English anyway, evidently it needs a little adjusting. Nero should swear by Jupiter though.

Many of the Seven Soldier's stories start with a focus on one Soldier, or at most two. In the previous story, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy brought them together. In this one, it's Green Arrow and Speedy's turn.

Back then, a walkie-talkie was cutting edge.

I like the Knight's response -- "Hey, look at me! Why not THEM!" Also his ignorance of where Alaska WAS.

Sylvester Pemberton (the Star-Spangled Kid) continues to make his father despise him...while getting into a flying wonder-car that makes the Batmobile look like Archie's broken-down car.

As expected with a military general commanding criminals a century and a half in his future, Napoleon didn't cover himself with glory. Wandering through a forest, hungry, thirsty, longing for a horse, in his exaustion he saw a merry-go-round horse, and confusedly...

I remember the same thing happened to Napoleon in a later Bugs Bunny cartoon...

As usual, I'm just posting one page from Green Arrow, since most of us are familiar with him...it was kind of a convoluted story about radium, an inventor of intelligent robots, and one "malfunctioning" robot, Oscar, who had a sense of humor. Let's just see them in action, shall we? No trick arrows back then, so against robots Green Arrow had to use his wits.

Next, the Shining Knight against Genghis Khan.

As far as I know, this is the only story where Justin's magical sword and lance are given titles--the lame "Sword of Sharpness" and the better "Lance of Lightning". I do like how they weave in humorous touches, like Shining Knight and Winged Victory dropping in on a gas station to ask directions to Alaska.

I'm going to skip a lot, for space considerations, like a bet between a braggart cocerning a fish story and his friends. I do want to share the Knight actually fighting Genghis Khan...

...because, as readers of JLA #100-102 know, the Knight, being teleported through time by the Nebula-Man, ended up with memory loss at Genghis Khan's court and actually fought FOR Genghis Khan. After Genghis Khan failed against the Knight in this story, it must have been both ironic and satisfying to have his former foe become his greatest champion.

Next the Vigilante, taking his older "sidekick", Billy "Pop" Gunn, to a western setting at last. (Gunn had maintained a shooting gallery back East and only pretended to be Western.) Look at the excellent (for the Golden Age) art of Mort Meskin, as Atilla and his men look in awe at Mt. Rushmore.

With the possible exception of Green Arrow (who was popular enough to take the limelight on More Fun Comics away from Dr. Fate and the Spectre), Vigilante, who appeared in ACTION COMICS along with Superman, was probably the most famous Soldier. He even had his own movie serial in the Forties'.

For space considerations, I'm only doing one page from the Crimson Avenger and Wing's fight with Nero...also, this is the only page I could find in this adventure where Wing's dialogue is not a stereotyped racist cliche.

Nero did give away Dr. Doome's lighthouse-hideout to the Crimson Avenger. So when the Soldiers met again...

Now THAT's shooting! In the Soldiers, the emphasis is always on skill, not power.

Yeah, Dr. Doome isn't as imposing as his Silver Age successor. As happened with many Silver Age revamps, the newer one was more colorful and imposing. Still, that ugly dwarflike genius had a plan...and a famous destination.

Speedy may be a sidekick, but he's about to show his worth...

Roy Thomas, in the aforementioned All-Star Squadron, had Doome tempt the Knight with a return to Camelot, which he rejected, but otherwise kept to the original, although adding a connection to the other time-travel scientists of the "Time Trust" mentioned in the Justice Society adventure, "The Bomb Defense Formula".

I'm assuming the chronal rods also had built-in translating devices that enabled Alexander, Genghis Khan, Atilla and Nero--maybe even Napoleon--to understand English, and which in turn translated Odysseus/Ulysses' Greek into English.

This wouldn't be the only time the Soldiers would face a time machine--they seemed to be prone to that theme---which is probably why Len Wein, when he reintroduced the Seven Soldiers in JLA# 100-102, had them scattered throughout time.

A few years later, in 1948, the Justice Society seemingly faced many of the same historical figures (Nero, Genghis Khan, and Atilla)--and got KILLED by them--only to be revived by Wonder Woman's "purple ray". In that case though, it was an insane wax museum guard pretending to be the historical figures. The Soldiers faced the real thing, years earlier--and didn't get "killed" by them, to boot!

Next Saturday...the Seven Soliders vs. the Sense-Master/Sixth Sense, and the "Five Senses".

Comments

[beoweasel]

I know this is a early 1940's comic, so I shouldn't expect anything approaching historical accuracy, but Jesus Christ..

First off, why is Ghengis swearing to the Buddha? Ghengis wasn't a Buddhist, he practised Tengrism. Second, why does he refer to Doome as an infidel? Genghis was pretty tolerant of other religions and more importantly, 'infidel' was a Christian term that originated in the fifteenth century, at least a hundred and eighty years after his death.

Also...why Nero???

You have Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, and Attila the Hun, each responsible for establishing major Empires: Macedonian, French, Mongolian, and Hunnic, respectively.

But what the fuck did Nero establish? He was only notable for his excesses, terrible governance of the Empire, and oppressive treatment of the then Christian minority. Why would Doome summon him of all potential Roman Emperors? Why not pick Julius or Augustus, the two men responsible for the formation of the Empire in the first place?

[alschroeder3]

At the end of the chapter before Nero appeared, Doome calls Nero the "coldest, cleverest villain of them all" but you certainly couldn't tell that by the history books or how he proceeded to mess up Doome's plans. Yeah, I would have gone with Julius, at least. I'm assuming the Buddha/infidel thing is a mistranslation by the translation device, along the lines of Alexander calling on Jupiter. Probably the "infidel" thing is a derrogatory term for a non-Mongolian or a non-Middle Kingdom-er, closer to "barbarian".

If you think this one is historically inaccurate, in about five weeks I'm going to present the one where the Soldiers are sent back in time themselves. And remember, this is a book that seems to have a Knight from Thomas Malory's Arthur and Camelot. Brace yourself--it's going to be as historically accurate as Mr. Peabody's Way-Bac machine.

[randyripoff]

There was another Dr. Doom of note. Assuming I can locate it, I'll post some scans.

[alschroeder3]

The Mad Doctor Doom of the Li'l Archie series, perhaps?

[randyripoff]

Exactly. Li'l Archie was a really good comic, and Archie was Mad Doctor Doom's arch-nemesis without even trying half the time.

[agharta75]

Bah. It's almost beneath DOOM to defeat this pretender, who even the cursed Richards would make short work of.

But DOOM will take his amusements where he will and when he will.

(ZOT!)