Near Mint Memories: Invading The Golden Age

While the last few years have been marked by a relative abandonment of continuity and traditions at the “Big Two” comic publishers – DC and Marvel – 2004 seems to be the year in which both companies rekindle their love affair with their pasts.

While DC seems to be reviving many of its Silver Age properties and reverting to more Silver-Age-like characterizations of some of its “name” properties, Marvel is doing the same but with its Bronze Age and Modern Age properties from beyond ten years ago.

A new Invaders title debuts in August, and finds itself on the shelves with other “storied” Marvel franchises enjoying a comeback like Alpha Flight, She-Hulk, Captain America and the Falcon, Iron Fist, Spectacular Spider-Man, Silver Surfer, X-Force, Excalibur, Amazing Fantasy, Venom, and Secret War (minus an “s”), among others. These aren’t “ultimized” titles with their histories and traditions erased. Some are new takes on their legacies and others are extensions of those legacies. What these titles signal is Marvel’s embrace of its past. There are still “newer” Marvel titles and franchises that acompany these books on the shelves, including Runaways, Powerless, District X, the “Ultimate” ones, and others, but FINALLY Marvel isn’t trying to tear asunder the house that Stan Lee pretty much built.

A Winning Tradition?

While Marvel’s Invaders debuted in the 1970s (I’ll get to that in a moment), it was a title that enhanced Marvel’s history. It was a title that was built on and expanded a tradition that started in the Golden Age of comics when the Marvel that we know today was called Timely and whose “super-team” was the All-Winners Squad.

The All Winners Squad debuted in 1946 in the pages of All Winners Comics #19. It was Timely’s answer to DC’s Justice Society from their All-Star Comics title. Interestingly, this “squad” only had 1 other appearance in the Golden Age in All Winners Comics #21 (there was no issue #20). The team revolved around core “big name” Timely properties such as Captain America and the flaming Torch, with their respective teen sidekicks Bucky and Toro, and the Atlantean monarch the Sub-Mariner. Yes, there were others such as the Whizzer and Miss America that rounded out the crew, but its all rather inconsequential for a team that had only 2 Golden Age appearances in total.

Invading the Past

Marvel’s Invaders debuted in 1975’s Giant-Size Invaders #1 and got their nom de guerre for “invading Europe” to tackle the Axis powers of WWII. An ongoing series debuted two months later and retroactively added the Invaders team and their exploits into Marvel’s Golden Age. So, with that in mind, the 1970’s Invaders title introduced a super-team that was founded in 1941 and was precursor to the All Winners Squad mentioned above. The fate of the Invaders was helmed by writer Roy Thomas.

Captain America, Torch, their teen sidekicks, and the Sub-Mariner (hmm… deja vu) came together as the Invaders at the request of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to take on the Aryan uber-man Master Man. They soundly defeated him (Master Man not Churchill) and stayed together for many more war time adventures.

Interestingly, continuing Marvel’s new Golden Age retroactive continuity, 1976’s Marvel Premiere #29 saw the debut of the Liberty Legion. Captain America arch-foe the Red Skull captured and brainwashed the Invaders, but Bucky (Cap’s sidekick) escaped. He rallied a group of Golden Age heroes such as Whizzer and Miss America (deja vu… again) as well as the Red Raven (a footnote from 1940), Thin Man, Blue Diamond, Jack Frost, (a footnote from 1941), and a vanilla Captain America in the form of the Patriot. This Bucky-led Liberty Legion defeated and freed the Invaders. The group stayed together protecting the American home front while the Invaders remained overseas.

Puzzle Pieces in Place

After all this, in the Invaders’ own title, they battled Baron Blood, an Axis vampire. That confrontation introduced a WWI British hero to the team named Union Jack (with one of the coolest comic book hero costumes ever, in my opinion). He subsequently joined the team, but had his legs crushed by the Baron on his first mission and quit the team. His daughter Spitfire, having gained super speed after a transfusion from the Torch, refreshed the team’s ranks by joining. Later, yet another Union Jack (related to the original and Spitfire) joined the Invaders as well.

After WWII, both the Invaders and the Liberty Legion teams folded. Members from each would join together to form the aforementioned All Winners Squad – Captain America, Bucky, Torch, Toro, Sub-Mariner, Whizzer, and Miss America. There was a twist though. While the original team All Winners Squad debuted in the 1940s Golden Age, the 1960s Avengers title from Marvel’s Silver Age saw that team rescue Captain America from a frozen “prison” of sorts – he had disappeared before the end of WWII. Therefore, the Captain America of the All-Winners Squad was actually the The Spirit of ‘76 as Captain America. He was killed and replaced by the Patriot a new Captain America, formerly the Liberty Legion’s Patriot. (Wow, Marvel had quite a few Captain Americas – and this doesn’t even include the Grand Director or Roscoe or the Super-Patriot‘s time under the winged cowl).

Again, retroactively inspired, during Marvel’s Silver Age, a thawed Captain America and Sub-Mariner joined the Avengers to carry on the tradition of the Invaders.

The Invaders title lasted until lasted until issue # 41 and didn’t make it to see the 1980s. Creator Roy Thomas went to DC in the early 1980s and re-imagined that publisher’s Golden Age heroes too with the All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc.)

A Footnote and a Fast-Forward

With regards to Marvel’s Invaders, the 1990s saw a short-lived revival.

2004 marks the return of the Invaders (now in the contemporary Marvel Universe) in the pages of the Avengers. Avengers #82 marked the beginning of the 4-part “Once an Invader story line which leads into an August debuting ongoing Invaders title. Avengers #83 (part 2) is out this week.

To find out more about the new ongoing Invaders title click here.

The Reading Rack

You can probably find old Invaders issues in your local comic shoppe’s cheapie bins or back bins. You could also find them during summer convention season. Happy hunting! (Pssst… when in doubt, check eBay.)