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Reviews and commentary by Tony Isabella
"America's Most Beloved Comic-Book Writer & Columnist"
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TONY'S ONLINE TIPS
for Sunday, March 20, 2005
THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 [DC; $49.95] isn't the *last* reprint collection I would have expected from DC Comics - that would be THE COMPLETE TONY ISABELLA BLACK LIGHTNING, as if you had to ask - but it still came as a pleasant surprise to me. It doesn't diminish my glee in the least because it's a tie-in to the Grant Morrison SEVEN SOLDIERS launch. I'm just thrilled to be able to read these tales, of which only one has previously been reprinted [in a couple of 100-page JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA issues from the 1970s].
The Mort Meskin illustration on the cover of the volume comes from the cover of LEADING COMICS #1 [Winter 1941-42]. Inside the book, an introduction by R.C. Harvey does a fine job relating how the success of the Justice Society of America in ALL-STAR COMICS, which came from the All-American side of DC, inspired the National side of the publishing concern to launch their own team of costumed crime-fighters.
The Soldiers, more often referred to as the Law's Legionnaires in their earliest exploits, were recruited from DETECTIVE COMICS, ADVENTURE COMICS, STAR-SPANGLED COMICS, ACTION COMICS, and MORE FUN COMICS: the Crimson Avenger, the Shining Knight, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, the Vigilante, and Green Arrow and Speedy. The sidekicks of the Avenger and the Vigilante accompanied the heroes on their individual missions, but rarely showed up for the finales. Unless one counts the Knight's flying horse as a super-power, what the members have in common is that they are all pretty much normal - albeit superbly conditioned, skilled, and trained - human beings. Given the absence of Aquaman, Johnny Quick, and Zatara, all of whom had extraordinary powers, I believe this was National's intent from the get-go.
Mort Weisinger wrote most of "Blueprint For Crime," the team's origin story. DC credits Jerry Siegel with the Star-Spangled Kid chapter and the Grand Comics Database [www.comics.org] also credits artist Jack Lehti with the Crimson Avenger script.
The Hand, a dying criminal genius, is actually the founder of the Law's Legionnaires. He wants to go out with a crime-wave that will put him in the history books, so he recruits other villains to carry out his capers and challenges the good guys to stop them. By the end of the first chapter, drawn by Mort Meskin, the game's well and truly afoot.
Weisinger keeps the action moving at all times, but there are scenes which bring the story to a screeching halt. For example, in the Green Arrow chapter, the archer and sidekick Speedy are tied to chairs by their arms with their bows slung over their shoulders and quivers strapped to backs. Somehow, without untying themselves, they manage to get their bows in front of them, held between their teeth and their feet, and then load and fire arrows that disarm a device which is freezing them alive. No one this side of Plastic Man is *that* nimble.
I likewise was stopped dead in my reading by Lehti's horribly racist depictions of Wing, the Crimson Avenger's Chinese sidekick. The character is written as a capable and courageous comrade to the Avenger. Indeed, he is usually a tougher fighter than the Avenger. But Lehti draws him with a monkey's face. It's so at odds with the scripts that I question the GCD crediting Lehti with the writing as well as the art for this chapter.
The Native Americans in the Shining Knight story fare better, but, looking at them through today's eyes, they make me wince. On the plus side, Weisinger and artist Craig Flessel pull off a spiffy bit with the villainous Red Dragon expressing his fear of the Hand. In words and visuals, it's a convincing scene.
The Vigilante chapter is drawn by Meskin and it's a pip. The Dummy, frequent foe of the cowboy hero, is seriously creepy in this appearance.
There's no sign of Wing or Vigilante sidekick Billy Gunn when the Legionnaires confront the Hand in his own lair. But Weisinger and Meskin deliver a surprising turn of events and comeuppance for their master villain, a memorable finish for this first adventure of the Seven Soldiers.
From LEADING COMICS #2 [Spring, 1942], "The Black Star Shines" has the same basic plot as the previous issue. As Harvey notes in his introduction, all of the four issues reprinted in this volume have the same basic plot: criminal mastermind, sometimes brilliant mad scientist, recruits five other criminals to do his dirty work. Yet, despite the plot similarities, each of the adventures offers some terrific moments.
The mysterious Black Star gathers seemingly worthless objects while passing on more valuable items. His henchmen are mostly used to distract the heroes. DC credits Weisinger as the writer of all but the Vigilante chapter and the finale.
Now about those moments...
The Shining Knight battles Falseface, a master of disguise, in a chapter drawn by Craig Flessel. There is a terrific scene when the Knight mistakes Mardi Gras celebrants for the king and fellow knights he knew in the long-ago era from which he came, an exciting escape from death, and a shocking moment when our hero finally sees his foe's real face.
Green Arrow's opponent is the Hopper, whose weapons are a pogo stick and his own enormous feet. Drawn by George Papp, the chapter consists of the heroes and the villains turning the tables on each other until they run out of pages, which is a great deal more fun that you would imagine from that description.
The Crimson Avenger and Wing contend with the Brain in a tale involving a dying man with a surprising connection to the villain and a pair of twins, one of whom can save the man. It's merely one of my hunches - which often turn out to be wrong - but this story *feels* like a Bill Finger story to me.
DC does credit Finger with both the Vigilante chapter and the finale. The Vigilante chapter, again drawn by Meskin, features a strange and unsettling resort where wealthy retired men go to learn how to play like the children they never really were. Just my luck to read it within hours of watching an extremely creepy episode of C.S.I. involving adult baby fetishists.
Comes the finale. Finger and Meskin reveal the importance of the stolen items and the villain's motivation. They also give said villain a fittingly ironic demise.
"The Tyrants of Time" from LEADING COMICS #3 [Summer, 1942] is the most fanciful of the four stories. Neither DC nor the GCD has any writer's credits for this one, but it doesn't read like it was written by either Weisinger or Finger. When did Robert Kanigher start writing for DC?
The "Tyrants" of the title are Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Nero, transported to 1942 by the time machine of Doc Doome. The past is an open road to Doome, but he needs more money so he can develop his machine further and visit the future as well. His ultimate plan is to become the king of the future, but, truth be told, the guy is far from the brightest light of his own time. It takes him several chapters to figure out that it's the Seven Soldiers of Victory who are kicking the posteriors of his historical henchmen.
One of the things I like about the Soldiers is that they don't waste time deciding whether or not to call for back-up. Whenever trouble arises, especially trouble that comes in fives, they're on the horn to the rest of the gang.
The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy take on Napoleon, who turns out to be a quick study. Flying in an airplane doesn't faze Nappy and he picks up enough modern technology to know he has to disrupt communications for his heist of a gold shipment to succeed. When his plan goes awry anyway, he leaves his modern-day henchmen to the Kid and Stripesy and makes his escape, only to end up being caught by insane asylum guards before returning to his own time via one of Doome's devices.
Alexander goes on a solo mission to steal radium from a robot-building scientist. He kills the scientist and takes over all but one of the robots, a loony mechanical mutant who has somehow gained free will. The robot kind of sort of helps Green Arrow and Speedy. Alexander gets spooked by the snakes and crocodiles of the swamp and heads back to his own time.
The Shining Knight takes on Genghis Khan to save a shipment of platinum. The Khan has some 1940s hoods working with him as well as some of his 12th-century warriors. The Knight barely raises a sweat dealing with the Khan and company.
The next match-up is the Vigilante versus Attila with art by Meskin. This chapter is characterized by some neat action at Mount Rushmore and a good "B" plot involving a man who might be the ghost of a legendary western lawman. Doome must have run out of his own henchmen; both Attila and Nero - who takes on the Crimson Avenger - have flunkies from their own era.
Lehti again draws the Crimson Avenger chapter. His depiction of Wing remains offensive and, this time around, the Asian is even written as mere comedy relief.
The finale has the Seven Soldiers - sans Wing and Billy Gunn - following back in time Doome to the Siege of Troy and then back to 1942. Doome tries to use his machine to go to the future and the whole thing goes boom, leaving the heroes unsure if the mad genius reached his destination or blew himself to atoms. It's a nice bit, but not enough to save this dog of an adventure.
Both DC and the GCD are tentative about crediting the entirety of "The Sense Master" to writer Bill Finger, but the adventure from LEADING COMICS #4 [Fall, 1942] screams his involvement. We get our fourth criminal mastermind in a row and our second mad scientist, but we also get the best story in the book.
Five hoodlums with special talents corresponding to the five senses are seized by a robot and brought to the secret headquarters of "The Sixth Sense," a paralyzed man kept alive by the transparent iron lung in which he sits. Each small-timer has one of his senses enhanced to a superhuman degree by a hormone extract created by the captive Dr. Brett. If they can steal five precious gems and bring them to the Sixth Sense, he will reward them with even more money than the gems are worth.
The Shining Knight gets nabbed trying to stop the last of the abductions, but escapes with knowledge of who owns the gems sought by the villains. Five super-criminals, five gems, five main heroes and their sidekicks. Amazing how that worked out.
The story starts off on a high note as the Crimson Avenger and Wing trail con man Mickey Gordon, who is out to steal a gem from a young pianist. Mickey's hearing has been enhanced; when he hears the woman playing classical music, it speaks to his very soul. His struggle between his past life and this new beauty which has come into his world is convincing and heartwarming. Not only do I think this must be a Finger script, I think it's Finger at the very top of his game.
Each succeeding chapter has something cool going for it. The Shining Knight meets a strange fellow who could be a modern version of Don Quixote and helps him achieve his life's dream. The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy try to protect a gem owned by the Kid's parents. Green Arrow and Speedy join the circus to apprehended the eagle-eyed minion of the Sixth Sense.
The Vigilante chapter is a battle of wills between a criminal whose sense of taste has been enhanced and a former movie star who is afraid to eat. The actor won't go to the authorities with his fears of being poisoned because he also fears the public learning he has been packing on the pounds since his last film. Oh, where is Jenny Craig when you need her?
The "tasteful" crook hires on as the actor's food-taster and doesn't make any secret of his motives. He tells the actor he'll keep him alive while he figures out where the gem is hidden and the actor figures he can outsmart his new employee. The deal changes when the crook uses the actor's nephew as leverage.
The individual victories of the Seven Soldiers are less than they might wish. They get their men - Mickey Gordon reforms - but the Sixth Sense's robot gets all five gems. Billy Gunn or Wing are absent from the surprise-filled finale, but at least Mickey gets to come along to confirm his reformation.
Besides being written entirely by Finger, "The Sixth Sense" is entirely drawn by Ed Dobrotka, best known for his work on Superman with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Dobrotka isn't as polished as Meskin, Papp, or Flessel, but his storytelling is quite good and he brings a rough excitement to the art. As I said above, this is the best story in the volume.
THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 is a handsome hardcover, reprinting nifty stories which would cost you hundreds, nay, thousands of dollars if you could find the original comics in which they appeared. While I can and do fault DC for not including a disclaimer re: the depictions of Wing and the Native Americans in this volume - accuracy of reproduction and common courtesy need not be mutually exclusive - I still believe the book is a great buy for comics fans and historians. As such, I give this archives edition the full five out of five Tonys.
Thanks for spending a part of your day with me. I'll be back soon with more stuff.
Tony Isabella
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THE "TONY" SCALE
ZERO: Burn your money before buying any comic receiving this rating. It doesn't *necessarily* mean there's absolutely nothing of value here - though it *could* - but whatever value it might possess shrinks into insignificance before its overall awfulness.
ONE: Buy something else. Maybe I found something which wasn't completely dreadful in the item, but not enough for me to recommend it when there are better comics available. I only want what's best for you, my children.
TWO: Basic judgment call. I found some value, but not enough to recommend it. My review should give you enough info to decide if you want to take a chance on it. Are you feeling lucky today, punk? Well, are you?
THREE: This denotes something I find perfectly respectable. There are better books out there, but I wouldn't regret buying this item. Based on my review, you should be able to determine if it's of interest to you. Let the Force guide you.
FOUR: I recommend anything earning this rating. Unless you don't like the genre, subject matter, or past work of the creators, I believe you'll enjoy this item. Isn't it uncanny how I can look right into your soul that way?
FIVE: Anything getting this rating is among the best comicdom has to offer. You should buy/read this, even if the genre/subject matter doesn't appeal to you. It's for your own good. Me, I live for comics and books this good...but not in a pathetic "Comic-Book Guy" sort of way.
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