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The Seven Soldiers of Victory, also known as the Law's Legionnaires, were a team of costumed "mystery-men" who were principally active during the 1940s.Green Arrow (Golden Age/Earth Two) and Speedy (Golden Age/Earth Two) were founding members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory superteam (a.k.a. The Law's Legionaires), with the Shining Knight, the Vigilante, the Crimson Avenger, the Star Spangled Kid and Stripsey to form the Seven Soldiers of Victory (or Law's Legionairres).
In 1941, a criminal mastermind known as the Hand was told that he was gravely ill and that he had less than a month to live. The Hand decided to make the world remember him long after his death by giving his greatest, unused plans for crimes to other criminals to commit for him. He sent these plans to the Dummy, the Needle, Big Caesar, Professor Merlin, and the Red Dragon, whom he called "the Hand's Five Fingers". Then the Hand challenged the heroes known as the Crimson Avenger, the (Golden Age/Earth Two) Green Arrow and his (Golden Age/Earth Two) partner Speedy, the Shining Knight, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripsey, and the original Vigilante to stop them.
Thus the Vigilante fought and bested the Dummy for the first time, and Star-Spangled Kid and Stripsey again defeated their old foe the Needle. The other heroes likewise overcame their opponents. The Hand decided to kill the heroes himself, and invited them to his home, which was filled with traps. The Hand then learned from a doctor that a surgeon had just discovered a means of curing him. Now the Hand realized he had to defeat the heroes so he could live out the rest of his life without being in prison.
During the ensuing battle, the Hand aimed a "lightning-ray" machine at the heroes. The Vigilante shot the machine down, and the Hand was seemingly killed by electrocution as a result. (However the Hand survived). After their victory, the Shining Knight proposed that they become a regular team. Thus the seven "Mystery-Men" became the Seven Soldiers of Victory; the Crimson Avenger's aide Wing became the unofficial "eight Soldier". All eight Soldiers became members of the wartime All-Star Squadron.
The Emerald Archer once squared off against one of history's greatest conquerors-- Alexander the Great! Later, a criminal scientist named Dr. Doome used a time machine to bring five infamous historical figures to the present to aid him in his schemes to conquer the world. The Seven Soldiers of Victory split into five groups to battle these historical villains and thwart Doome's plot.Later, after the Seven Soldiers had worked on many cases together, they battled a strange and immensely powerful being called the Nebula-Man. Wing sacrificed his life to defeat the Nebula-Man with a weapon called the nebula-rod. The tremendous forces released in this climatic battle hurled the Seven Soldiers into different time periods in Earth's past.
Decades later, members of the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America went back into time to rescue the Soldiers and bring them back into the JLA's and JSA's own present time. The Seven Soldiers had only spent a comparatively brief time in these past time periods. Hence, when the JLA and JSA members brough the Soldiers to recent times, the Soldiers were only a little older then they were when they left the 20th Century.
The Seven Soldiers of Victory returned to Earth Two (a parallel world where the JSA were the prominent heroes). The Crimson Avenger met a heroic death. The remaining Soldiers assembled for the Crimson Avenger's funeral services, but they quit working as a team after that.
The second team of Earth's Golden Age Mystery Men consisted of the Star Spangled Kid, Stripsey, Shining Knight, Crimson Avenger, Wing, Vigilante, and Stuff. (Note: The current version of the Seven Soldiers of Victory also followed the parallel history of the previous version.) This team gathered during World War II and also found themselves trapped throughout other dimensional timelines because of Nebula Man, in which the Justice League of America would rescue the team decades later.
With the success of the Justice Society of America over in All-Star Comics, DC tried to capture lightning in a bottle twice by scrounging up other mystery-men who had not made the first team. So, who was left?
The Green Arrow and Speedy, the Vigilante, the Shining Knight, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and the Crimson Avenger. The Crimson's partner, Wing, almost always appeared as well, as the unofficial "Eighth" Soldier.
Leading Comics (beginning in Winter, 1941-2) was created as the home of the Law's Legionnaires, and it held on for about four years and fourteen issues, before becoming a funny-animal book. The 7SoV stories in Leading adhered to the same format as those of its JSA sire in All-Star, in that the heroes met at the beginning of the adventure, split up to confront a separate portion of that issue's menace, then re-grouped at the end for one final confrontation. Also, as in All-Star, the regular artist for each hero/team drew the individual chapter for his charge in Leading; for the first three issues, multiple writers were used, as well.
One thing which distinguished the 7SoV from the JSA was that none of the Law's Legionnaires possessed a super-power. The Shining Knight wielded a sword which could cut through almost anything, and the Green Arrow and Speedy had their trick arrows; but that and their costumes was as super as they ever got.
There was no concluding story in Leading Comics #14 (Spring, 1945); the Law's Legionnaires simply vanished into comics limbo. Then, in December, 1969, Justice League of America #76 (a Giant) contained a text piece on the 7Sov, along with a one-page pin-up drawn by Murphy Anderson. Denny O'Neil revived the Vigilante for a two-issue JLA adventure shortly thereafter, and Shining Knight reprints appeared in Adventure Comics. The increased fan interest set the stage for JLofA #100-102 (8-10.72). These landmark issues were, in fact, the annual JLA/JSA cross-over, wherein the two groups search for the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
As the story developed, we learned that the 7SoV had, sometime in Earth-2's past, the Legionnaires had again come up against their first foe from Leading #1, the Hand. (Perhaps it was decided that the 7SoV operated on Earth-2 because of the Green Arrow/Speedy conflict.) The Hand had created a cosmic-powered Nebula Man; at the cost of one of their members (Wing), the 7SoV defeated the Nebula Man, but the resulting cosmic explosion flung the heroes into separate time eras and locations. JLA/JSA teams travelled through time and recovered the Legionnaires, bringing them to then-present-day in order to defeat their old foe--now calling himself the Iron Hand--who was again threatening Earth-2 with a renewed Nebula Man.
The Law Legionnaires were used in the 1970's DCU, but little was seen of them. The 7SoV versions of G.A. and Speedy were not used, probably due to the conflict with the modern-day versions, and the Vigilante would also have conflicted with his Denny O'Neil-revived counterpart. The Star-Spangled Kid and the Shining Knight, however, were refolded into the JSA lore, appearing in the revived All-Star Comics; and a well-received back-up "Whatever Happened to...?" story in DC Comics Presents told of the Crimson Avenger's modern-day fate. Nobody cared much about Stripesy, it seemed.
In 1985's watershed Crisis on Infinite Earths series, the original Green Arrow was killed off, and the original Speedy's fate was left unseen. Roy Thomas occasionally included the 7SoV in his All-Star Squadron series, once even re-drawing and abrdiging their adventure in Leading #4. Later, the Star-Spangled Kid moved on to Infinity, Inc., and Stripesy made an appearance in #11.
Post-Crisis: The merging of all parallel Earths into one removed Green Arrow and Speedy from continuity. To preserve "Seven" Soldiers, DC announced in Young All-Stars #27 that Wing was an official member as well as the Vigilante's partners Billy Gunn, replaced later by Stuff, the Chinatown Kid. Also, Shining Knight's sidekick the Squire was said to have been an unofficial member.
Post-Zero Hour: In The Shade #3, a former Quality Comics hero, the Spider, was retconned as a rogue super-hero--a criminal whose crimefighting career diverted all suspicion. He gained the trust of the the SSoV, and in Stars and STRIPE #9, the SSoV are unmistakeably portrayed: Stripsey, Star-Spangled Kid, Shining Knight, Vigilante, Crimson Avenger, the Spider and Stuff. Wing and Billy Gunn are both clearly portrayed as an unofficial members. No mention is made of the Squire. In this version of their history, the Spider kills Billy Gunn and is partially responsible for throwing his teammates across time. In 1951, when the Golden Age Flash retires, the Spider became Keystone City's resident super-hero. Buy when the Shade discovered his ruse, he killed the Spider.
There was one other formation of heroes called the Seven Soldiers (though they never actually uses the name). They were brought together one time by Deadman. They also included Adam Strange, Batgirl, Metamorpho, Blackhawk, Mento and Shining Knight II (Gardner Grayle, who eventually becomes the Atomic Knight).
First appearance, Golden Age: Leading Comics #1 (Win '40/'41)
Post-Zero Hour line-up revealed: Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. #9
First appearance, Silver Age: Silver Age: Showcase #1
Series:
Leading Comics, 41 issues (1940-50)
Crimson Avenger, 4-issue mini-series (198)
Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E., 14 issues (1999-2000)
Visit DC Cosmic Teams for more excellent background information on other DC comics groups.
