Demythify: Team Seven to Justice League to Seven Soldiers? DC New 52’s Secret History?

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I had been planning on writing up a column on DC Comics New 52 “Team 7” that has been teased throughout a few titles in the last few months. I was going to speculate on who might be on the team; from those that DC has revealed so far, to who they may be swerving us with, and rounding out the rest with wild speculation. Then, last Friday, DC Comics confirmed its one year New 52 anniversary plans, including four new ongoing series for a “Zero Month”. Yes, you guessed it, one of those new ongoing series is… Team Seven.

Well, the solicit pretty much unveils the cast of Team Seven. It it will be set in DC Comics’ past joining Demon Knights and All-Star Western as the only ongoing titles that do.

    Team Seven #0: Set in the early days of DC Comics-The New 52, threads of the entire DC Universe collide. As Superman emerges, so does the world’s counter measures against him and his kind. Comprised of Dinah Lance, Amanda Waller, Steve Trevor, John Lynch, Alex Fairchild, Cole Cash, Slade Wilson are Team 7—and their story will change everything you know about DC Comics-The New 52. (Written by Justin Jordan and art by Jesús Merino)

I’ve mapped out the solicit against the cover and most characters seem self-evident. However, it would appear that one of two Wildstorm Gen 13 related icons appears to have changed from caucasian to African American?

When DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio responded to my suggestion through his Facebook account, he used an intriguing choice of words:

    The New Team 7 book is a mix of new, DCU and former Wildstorm characters.

The “new” word in the quote isn’t necessarily a confirmation, but it would appear that all is not as it seems from that Team Seven #0 cover. Fascinating! I am intrigued.

Assuming that John Lynch (not Alex Fairchild since his presumed daughter Caitlin is caucasian in the New 52) turns out to be African American that would mean that his son, Burnout who was a founding member of Wildstorm’s Gen 13, would also have had an ethnicity change if he were to debut in the New 52.

In addition, Team Seven may also have some loose tethers with or impacts on a few other modern day titles:

    Justice League – Steve Trevor is currently the team’s government liaison.

    Wonder Woman – We may learn about how Steve Trevor met Wonder Woman. They appear to have had a relationship of some kind in the past as teased in Justice league.

    Birds of Prey – Dinah Lance eventually became Black Canary and a lead in this all-female team. We may also learn more details about how she became a fugitive.

    Teen Titans – Dinah Lance’s supposedly dead husband Kurt Lance is on the trail of the Teen Titans in modern day DC. In addition, in Teen Titans #8 he seemed to indicate that he was a member or affiliated with Team Seven.

    Ravagers – Presumably Alex Fairchild’s daughter is Dr. Caitlin Fairchild who is currently leading the teen fugitives known as the Ravagers.

    Suicide Squad – Amanda Waller currently leads the black ops prisoner-worker-release program known as Suicide Squad.

    Grifter – Cole Cash has his own modern day DC title.

    Deathstroke – Slade Wilson also has is own modern day series.

    ????? – John Lynch is the wildcard here. This Team Seven will be his first appearance in the New 52 DC universe. In the old Wildstorm days he had an affiliation with Gen13 (a teen super-team).

When the concept of Team 7 debuted under the Wildstorm imprint, it was the seventh incarnation of a military wetworks team made up of several branches of government service men. Hence the name Team 7. The original roster of Team 7 actually had more than 7 members.

So, in the New 52, it does not appear this is the seventh incarnation of the team. Does it refer to seven team members? If so, despite what Kurt Lance indicated to Amanda Waller in the pages of Teen Titans #8, the originating Team Seven roster in the New 52 seems to include his wife and not him. Does this signal a quick departure for a team member to be replaced by Kurt? Is Kurt a support for the team and not a frontline fighter?

Anyhow, in the Wildstorm days, Deathblow was actually a founding member of Team 7. It doesn’t appear from the solicit for the new series that he’s part of the New 52 team, but fear not, the character debuted recently in Grifter #9.

Team Seven writer Justin Jordan, of indy hit Luther Strode, has revealed a few nuggets of information about the new series’ premise that is intriguing:

    …in the New DCU after Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, and Superman all become public knowledge, the government is concerned about the run of superhuman threats and develop Team Seven to help deal with them… the government has taken an interest in trying to get ahead of any kind of superhuman threat before it becomes an issue, so they assemble a fairly covert team to deal with it.

On the roster and what they means for the many characters that have modern day set New 52 titles:

    Well, the Team Seven book is set just after Superman makes his big appearance, so it’s approximately five years in the past of the current DCU… If you want to know why some of the characters are the way they are or want a little insight into their history and the events that shape them, this is the place where you’re going to see a lot of that.

What this Team Seven stuff got me thinking about is the Justice League #8 issue where Green Arrow was really trying hard to join the team. The issue ended with Steve Trevor taking Green Arrow aside and offering him something else.

Perhaps I’m fixated on the number “7”, but that got me thinking whether Steve Trevor is starting his own super-powered covert team to go on missions that the Justice League can’t called, perhaps, “Seven Soldiers”. :)

In the old DC universe Green Arrow and Speedy (later Arsenal) were members of the “7 Soldiers”. Grant Morrison revamped the concept in recent years with some of the characters having made into the New 52 such as Frankenstein.

Is Green Arrow on a 7 Soldiers team lead by Steve Trevor who is itching to get back in the field or is 7 Soldiers Grant Morrison’s playground and the concept won’t be touched by anyone else, but him (which certainly seems to be the overall editorial approach to Morrison at DC nowadays).

Or, it may just be as simple as Steve Trevor reconstiuting a new Team Seven for the modern day dc universe? Time will tell, but the Green Arrow / Steve Trevor Justice League subplot is an intriguing one.

Is 7 DC’s lucky number?


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John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!