The Seven Soldiers of Victory were re-formed "to come together when needed", whatever that means. The line-up will be::
- The Crimson Avenger (Jill Carlyle)
- The Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)
- The Red Arrow (Emiko Queen)
- The Shining Knight (Sir Justin)
- Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore_
- S.T.R.I.P.E. (Pat Dugan)
- The Vigilante (Greg Sanders)
The following characters were rescued that were already from the present day:
- Dan the Dyna-Mite (Daniel Dunbar): He is now young again. Didn't his powers only work in tandem with TNT?
- The Air Wave (Harold Jordan):: Didn't know he was lost, but then, I couldn't tell you here he last appeared.
- The Secret (Greta Hayes): Couldn't tell you where she last appeated, either.
Te following chracters were from the past, but had to remain in the present day because reasons, and who I guess are going to form a Junior Justice Society:
- Robbie the Robot-Dog, that was the original Robotman's pet, apparently. I'd love to know how someone in the 1940's :built a sentient robot.
- Cherry Bomb (Gloria James): An African-American girl who has powers like the original Human Bomb and was his sidekick. Her issue is that she can't always control her powers.
- Betsy Ross (Elizabeth Rose) and Molly Pitcher (Molly Preacher), teen sidekicks to Miss America (Joan Dale). they have mystical patriotic items.
- Ladybug (Rosibel Rivera) A young Hispanic girl who was the sidekick to the Red Bee.
- Little Boy Blue (Tommy Rogers), the Blue Boys (Richard "Tubby" Mehlville and Herbert "Toughy" Simms) and Little Miss Redhead (Janie), who as far as I can recall, were basically just kids who managed to avoid getting shot by the first crook they met who had a gun.
- Quiz Kid (Raghu Seetharaman) And Indian-American sidekick to the original Mister Terrific.
- Tick-Tock (Jmmy Martin) Who I'd never heard of, but was apparently Rex tyler's sidekick.
- John Henry Jr. (John Henry Irons), who has one of the original Jihn Henry's hammers, and I assume is related to Steel.
- Salem the Witch Gril, who is Doctor Fate's new retroactive sidekick.
- The Boom (Judy Garrick) Jay's daughter. Great character idea, lousy name.
- Sparky (Sparkington J. Northrup), sidekick to the original Blue Beetle.
- Pinky (Phineas Butler), sidekick to Mister Scarlet.
- The Newsboy Legion: Tommy Tompkins, Scrapper, Gabby, Flip, big ords and a girl called "Famous" Bobby that I've never heard of. Aren't there already clones of these guys floating around somewhere?
Replies
"The Seven Soldiers of Victory were re-formed 'to come together when needed, whatever that means."
Allow me to translate: "Whenever the writer sells the story idea to an editor."
"The following characters were from the past, but had to remain in the present day because reasons, who I guess are going to form a Junior Justice Society"
See answer above.
"I'd love to know how someone in the 1940's :built a sentient robot."
Ask Professor Horton (who built the original Human Torch).
"Cherry Bomb"
Everything about this character is an anachronism, especially the connotations of her name.
The idea of "kid sidekicks" has always been "iffy" at best, but now (retroactively) virtually every Golden Age DC superhero had one. Some of them I like, others are a stretch. ("Salem the Witch Girl"?)
I think TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite had rings that focused their powers -- they'd do a fist-bump, touch rings, and get explosive. It looks like Dan's wearing both rings now, which probably allows him to access his powers solo.
I like the new sidekick characters for the most part. It'll be interesting to see how they're fitting into the world the next time we see the Young Justice Society.
That became a thing in Roy Thomas' Young All-Stars. TNT was injured and out of action so Dan took up both rings.
Baron: "The Seven Soldiers of Victory were re-formed 'to come together when needed,' whatever that means."
I see that the new team is a character-by-character reformation of the old team.
As usual about DC continuity, I have questions:
For the record, there are a lot more Soldiers than appeared in the original lineup, depending on what you consider canon. (And isn't all of it now?) Here are some notes:
Baron: "The following characters were rescued that were already from the present day."
I seem to remember Dan coming to the present, but TNT being dead, but I don't remember where I read that. And I don't know how it meshes with the retroactive implant, above, where both were GA/Speedy replacements going back to the '40s. If anybody's memory skills (or Googling time) is superior to mine, feel free to explain.
Baron: "The following characters were from the past, but had to remain in the present day because reasons, who I guess are going to form a Junior Justice Society."
This is one is much odder, because it creates a Junior Justice Society with sidekicks to mentors who were never in the 1940s Justice Society, or who were, but didn't have sidekicks at the time.
Here are some genuine '40s JSAers who have been retroactively given sidekicks:
This series drags in a number of other characters who were never in the Justice Society (at least not in the 1940s) and assigns them mostly non-existent sidekicks:
Which of the original 1940s JSAers' DON'T have sidekicks now?
Human Bomb did have sidekicks for a brief while, three adventurers who swallowed his formula and became the Bombadiers. But they were all adults.
Joining in with those who say Salem the Witch Girl doesn't work at all. In my head canon she's someone who worked with Dr. Fate maybe two untold tales and has inflated her status to Robin-class sidekick.
As with the original team, the Asian American sidekicks — Wing (Crimson Avenger) and Stuff, the Chinatown Kid (Vigilante) — are omitted. Is there any mention of why they won't be included?
Wing is a key character in this story. The kids try to save him, but he chooses to return to his proper place in time and die defeating the Nebula-Man. Stuff does not get a mention.
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Is that referenced in the series, or is some other timey-wimey device used?
Greg, Justin and Pat are still young-ish. No explanation is referenced.
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The female Shining Knight doesn't get a mention.
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Roy Harper doesn't get a mention. Isn't his daughter alive again, too?
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A couple of decades later, The Spider replaced Wing.
The Spider doesn't get mention.
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In 2010 it was revealed that TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite were retroactively part of the '40s team as GA/Speedy replacements, possibly erasing everything I said above. Or not.
TNT is shown to have been killed in action at the start of the story. Dunbar starts the story as a sad old man, but is rejuvenated to teenhood by the end. Current continutiy is that Ollie and Roy time traveled back to the 1940's and now are/were the Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy.
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In the "Silver Age" event, Adam Strange, Batgirl, Blackhawk, Deadman, Mento, Metamorpho and Shining Knight (actually Gardner Grayle, the Atomic Knight) used the "Seven Soldiers" name. That's a one-off I don't expect to see again.
These guys don't get a mention.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Infinite Crisis version of the 7 Soldiers consisted of Bulleteer (formerly Bulletgirl), Frankenstein, Klarion the Witch Boy, Manhattan Guardian, Mister Miracle, the female Shining Knight and Zatanna. Infinite Crisis left me very confused, so I don't know if this counts or not.
These guys never got a dinner, either.
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Blue Beetle was a Fox character, and is retroactively awarded a sidekick named Sparky.
Sparky, a.k.a Spunky, is not a retroactive character, He first appeared in The Blue Beetle #14 (September 1942)
"Tick-Tock", to be precise.
Captain Comics said:
. The reboot puts him in costume as Hourman's sidekick Quiz Kid, which didn't happen in the comics.
I made the two fixes you mention.
Baron: "Wing is a key character in this story. The kids try to save him, but he chooses to return to his proper place in time and die defeating the Nebula-Man."
That is very sad, but it does make the continuity easier to remember.
Baron: "Stuff does not get a mention."
As usual. Poor kid never gets a mention.
Baron:
"Greg, Justin and Pat are still young-ish. No explanation is referenced."
"The female Shining Knight doesn't get a mention."
"Roy Harper doesn't get a mention."
"The Spider doesn't get mention."
"These guys don't get a mention."
"These guys never got a dinner, either."
This really streamlines the Seven Soldiers continuity, as they appear to have jettisoned everything from immediately post-Crisis to now, where:
Ollie and Roy time traveled back to the 1940s and now are/were the Golden Age Green Arrow and Speedy.
This is a pretty clumsy fix, but as I've said, really helps to streamline continuity. Anytime you say "Green Arrow," there's only one of them.
Baron: "Isn't [Roy's] daughter alive again, too?
It would not surprise me.
TNT is shown to have been killed in action at the start of the story. Dunbar starts the story as a sad old man, but is rejuvenated to teenhood by the end.
I could use a pinch of that.
Johns did use Stuff in an issue of STARS AND STRIPE giving the (now null and void) post-crisis account of the Law's Legionnaires' battle with Nebula Man. Only it's Stuff II, younger brother of the first Stuff, because the Dummy killed Stuff I in James Robinson's Vigilante. So it's surprising Johns didn't use any version, given his obvious fondness for the team.
Roy's daughter Lian is alive, and older than we'd last seen her (thanks to that soap opera magic of kids aging when they're offstage... but hey, probably 15 years actually elapsed since she died, anyhow). She's been appearing in Catwoman, I believe, as an ally named Boots.
I didn't realize Cherry Bomb was an anachronism, but yeah -- the term was apparently coined in 1953. The explosives have been around since at least the 1920s, though.
John Henry Jr. is a precursor to Steel -- but his actual inspiration is John Henry, from Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier. I think they might be related, but they never met.
I like some of these sidekicks better than others. Some (like Quiz Kid and Tick-Tock) haven't really had a chance to shine. Some of these sidekicks, I see as appearing in one or two (new) golden age stories, but not teaming up regularly (Cherry Bomb and Ladybug seem like that sort). Salem, on the other hand, I can see teaming up with Dr. Fate against his wishes on a regular basis -- a magic nuisance he can't get rid of, who sometimes manages to save the day. Out of all the new ones, she's probably my favorite. Because to me her biggest problem (why would Dr. Fate have a sidekick?) seems like her biggest selling point. (He wouldn't! Not willingly.)
Others, though, like Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher, feel authentically like Golden Age Sidekicks to me. A magic pitcher that pours out whatever you want it to? What a fun power! If they were around when Mort Weisinger were editing comics, we'd have an archive's worth of their stories.
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