Monday, May 3, 2021

The Defenders and The Crusaders

 


I remember the Impact Comics imprint that DC had for a short time.  I thought that the heroes included fit right into the DCU and had hoped they would be folded in to the continuity the way the Charlton characters were.  Alas, it was not to be, and they went on to be reintroduced and rebooted a few more times for other companies.  

16 comments:

Crazy Ivan said...

This feels like the kind of story the Freedom Fighters would have been involved in, with their migration to Earth-1 from Earth-X causing so many problems.

And that has me wondering; have these Crusaders ever met the Crusaders that fought the Freedom Fighters or the Crusaders that fought the Invaders... or the Crusaders that fought the Southern Knights (not to be confused with the Crusaders album "Those Southern Knights")?

det_Tobor said...

I was a big fan when the Fly first popped up. My first 'kid becomes an adult superhero' since I didn't know anything about the then Capt. Marvel. When Troy later went into law, but not as a detective, that was different too. The Archie group of 'supers' comics slowly grew but I liked what they were doing.

Between the new characters later done, like the Comet, they kept my interest. The later incarnations just lost me completely.

Carycomic said...

If memory serves, the "Impact! Comics" imprint of DC was an attempt to revive the Red Circle heroes from Archie Comics. Twenty years later, DC tried again. Even licensing the name "Red Circle" for the issues containing their second attempt at reviving the Mighty Crusaders!

Still no go. So, Archie Comics basically revoked the license and tried reviving the Might Crusaders for a third time, on their own, as "The New Crusaders."

Sort of their version of pre-Crisis Infinity, Incorporated.

Carycomic said...

P.S.---wouldn't it be something if the pre-Crisis Dr. Chaos had tricked the Defenders into releasing the Crusaders from Limbo so as to renew the Earth-STF version of post-COIE Ragnarok?*


*The Crusaders replacing the JSA in that never-ending cycle.

Kid Charlemagne said...

Carycomic's last comment would fit with what the Fly is saying on today's cover.

Jay Johnson said...

Way back then, for some reason I couldn't get into the Fly or the Shield, but thought Jaguar was cool. Looking back, he might have been the dorkiest of the bunch. Ah well, young and stupid. Of course, it might have been because of distribution company issues, I saw the Archie (and DC) heroes about 2 years before I finally saw Stan and Jack's work.

Bob Greenwade said...

Probably irrelevant, but the early editions of Champions had a hero named Crusader as their "sample PC." I'm not sure whether there ever was a color picture of him, though.

Somewhere I had a copy of one of the Fly's solo adventures in the 60s, with him and a female counterpart on the cover. I'm not sure whether I still have it or not, though.

Side note: Marvel just released a big Phase 4 trailer that includes title reveals for The Marvels and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as well as first footage for The Eternals.

Comment Deleted could Not have said...

Fly Girl was her name. Actress I recall. Had human feelings too.

BigMike20X6 said...

Personally, I'd love to see the Archie-verse fold into the DCU. But what I really want is a story where the Riverdale gang meet DC's teen characters like Scooter, Windy & Willy, Debbi, Binky, and even Prez
I'd even be down to read The Little Archies meet Sugar & Spike!

Unknown said...

I loved the Impact line. I wish it had sold better and kept going. As to folding into the DC universe is not something I hoped for as I feel there are already too many super-heroes in a one time line universe. Keeping them in their own universe doing crossovers like the classic JLA/JSA to me would be more fun. You could then do a yearly crossovers like Impact/Freedom Fighters, or Charlton/JSA, New Teen Titans/Crusaders. Ah, but if only the Super-Team Family team-ups could come true!

Carycomic said...

@BigMike: Or Li'l Sabrina meets Stanley and his Monster.

Anonymous said...

@comment Delete Ed: her civilian name was Kim Brand. And, yeah, she was an actress/movie star. Code name: Fly Girl!

Daviticus said...

The Archies meet Brother Power? :)

Anonymous said...

We're those 1960's MLJ Archie hero adventures, besides Pureheart, etc, ever collected and reprinted?

バーンズ エリック said...

When I first saw the pair-up headline, for some reason I thought it would be the Defenders and Jack Chick's Bible-thumping, supernatural-battling pair of Crusaders, which would be pretty funky and weirdly awesome. Guess it would have to be a 'versus' instead of an 'and', though, come to think of it.

Anonymous said...

This is like "12 Points Of Kevin Bacon."

Justice Machine once met the Agents of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. who also met Thunderbunny who's met both the Mighty Crusaders and some of the Vault Heroes who've also met FemForce, whose leader Ms. Victory fought in the War of the Independents alongside Fishnet Angel and Liberty Girl, who could introduce both of them to Flare and the rest of the League of Champions.

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