Thursday, January 10, 2019

7 Soldiers of Victory and The Liberty Legion



The Seven Soldiers of Victory were quite a contrast from the Justice Society - in a good way.  The JSA for the most part was made up of incredibly powerful characters that could host a solo comic of their own.  The 7 soldiers mainly consisted of non-powered adventurers that usually appeared in back-up tales.  I liked the difference in roster types, it helped to make each team a little more unique to me.

18 comments:

DamienR75 said...

Thank you for this!! I've always loved those so-called 'second-string' teams from the Golden Age.

Bob Greenwade said...

I wonder if this story might have some connection with the events of #1852....

Carycomic said...

@Bob: Could be! Perhaps as the result of a three-way alliance between the Queen of Fables, Per Degaton, and General "Thunderbolt" Ross. I mean; can't you just picture Ross wanting to harness the power of the Nebula Man for use against the Hulk?

Jay Johnson said...

I had never heard of the Seven Soldiers before their reappearance in JLA #100-102, although I had seen most of them individually by then (except Spandex Crimson Avenger), but I have always loved teams, so I tried to find their earlier adventures (there weren't many). I always thought the whole reason behind the Liberty Legion was so that Roy Thomas could cram all of the leftover Golden Age Marvel heroes into one book (and have another JLA doppelganger team available), but they were fun to read too, and actually got more play than I thought they would (a couple issues of Marvel Premiere, team-up with The Thing, etc.)

Ross, my OCD was kinda high today so I tracked down the original LL image by Our Pal Sal. Nice job of flipping it and filling in behind the word balloon!

Wolfhammer said...

Nice one Ross! Two great teams. Now we need The Mighty Crusaders to make an appearance and break up the fight.

Glenn said...

This is a great cover. Needs to be part of a two part one, right?

ELS said...

I might be minded to disagree with you about all the "incredibly powered" characters in the JSA. At the end, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and the Green Lantern were indeed potent; but Hawkman had nothing on Sir Justin, Black Canary and the Atom were certainly equivalent to the Kid and Stripesy... they were close in one or two ways, although the JSA were certainly bigger guns where it counted.

Unfortunately, both teams had pretty much the same story format; the villain is introduced, the team briefly meets up to discuss it, then splits to face four or five separate menaces, and recombines at the climax to wrap it up. Very well written sometimes... but awfully formulaic.

Now, the match up I'd have loved would be the Liberty Legion vs the JSA. THAT'S some even pairings!

Ross, the composition is startlingly good to me. This piece is just splendid!

Ross said...

You forgot Dr. Fate, Starman, Thunderbolt, The Spectre and Superman... The JSA is much more powerful than the 7 Soldiers.

Anonymous said...

Did DC's explanatory ret-con of the 7 Soldiers ever specify just _how_ Iron Hand created the Nebula Man?

Dr. OTR said...

Never heard of the Liberty Legion before. Was surprised to see that one of their members is apparently The Guardian (sans shield)?

Simreeve said...

Dr. OTR said...
"Never heard of the Liberty Legion before. Was surprised to see that one of their members is apparently The Guardian (sans shield)?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Legion

The one who looks a bit like The Guardian was 'The Blue Diamond'.

Glenn said...

JSA vs Liberty Legion gave me an idea. Flash and Quicksilver have matched up so what about Wizzer vs Golden Age Flash? The Golden Age Flash was not as fast as Silver Age Flash until he met him.

ELS said...

Ross - I can assure you I know the membership of the JSA, my friend! You're quite right, but in the JSA's last few adventures, their line up was the Atom, Black Canary, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman. So that's the JSA team I was referring to.

No, no, I'm an old fashioned boy. Set me up with Green Lantern, the Spectre, Starman, and Superman, and I'm pretty sure that team is ready to take on ALL comers!

Ross said...

Jay Garrick and the Whizzer have me twice on this blog.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see those two go up against Speedy Gonzales, Beep-beep The Roadrunner, or even Sonic The Hedgehog!

Simreeve said...

Anonymous said...
"I'd like to see those two go up against Speedy Gonzales, Beep-beep The Roadrunner, or even Sonic The Hedgehog!"

Wally 'Flash' West met Speedy Gonzales in a 4-issue JLA/Looney Tunes mini-series that might have been (although it probably wasn't) canon.

[i]"You're pretty fast for a mouse."
"And you, senor, are pretty fast for something that cats don't chase."[/i]

Anonymous said...

@Simreeve: This is the first I've heard of that crossover. Never even came out as a trade paperback in my neck of the woods! :-(

Simreeve said...

Anonymous said...
"@Simreeve: This is the first I've heard of that crossover."

It was Mr Mxyptlk's fault...

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