Seven Soldiers: Then and Now
So as previously mentioned, I've been reading and enjoying Grant Morrison's "Seven Soldiers of Victory" project currently being released through D.C. I knew that there had been a group called "Seven Soldiers of Victory" in the Golden Age (for those not up on comics lingo, "Golden Age" refers to the late-30s & 40s when comics were first popular, while "Silver Age" refers to the resurgence in the 60s. During the 50s comics were targeted as a corrupting influence on youth, especially with regards to both violence and homosexual tendencies. Interest in comics also dropped in the early 70's until revivals later in the decade and in the early 80s). One of its members pops up in the first Morrison SSoV issue in a nice nod to the past. But I hadn't really given the original group much thought, and figured it wasn't something easy to get a copy of anyway.
Of course, it turns out D.C. is smarter than that, and released a Seven Soldiers of Victory Archive Editions Vol. 1, presumably because people like me will notice it and buy it on impulse due to the current series. Which, of course, I did when I saw it while looking for Batman Archive Editions Vol. 1 (which I didn't find then, but more on that in another entry). This happens to be the first collection of Golden Age comics I've read- I've previously been more of a Marvel Comics fan than D.C., and most of Marvel's big properties (including my favorites the X-Men) didn't get going until the Silver age. Wow. This stuff is... different.
Here's the first impression I get from these gems of the Golden Age: You could run them today completely unchanged and it would be considered post-modern irony of some sort. They're completely hysterical in many ways. The Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy have an arrow-themed car which has giant springs under the seats to launch them out of the car at their opponents. Really. These two are particularly interesting as both are still going strong today (This Green Arrow, named Olliver Queen, died for a while but has since returned- his son was Green Arrow for a while, not sure what's up with him now. Speedy grew up, left and took a new code name, rather like the first Robin. He's now known as Arsenal. The current Speedy is an HIV+ girl who (I think) is a former prostitute. Times have definitely changed.
The rest of the SSoV lineup has not proved quite as durable (although some have probably hung around it bit parts for decades). There is a patriotic angle that could never be done straight-up today. Most notably the Star-Spangled Kid and his (adult) sidekick Stripsey. Come on. "Stripesy"? I found these two the least interesting of the seven, although possibly just because I couldn't get past the concept.
There are also awful racial stereotypes, for which the publishers apologize in the introduction (but really, there's no way to edit around them and for historical reasons its more interesting as it is). The Crimson Avenger has a sidekick, Wing, who is chinese and spends the whole book reciting bits of "chinese wisdom" (i.e. "honorable ancestors say...") while fighting the bad guys. In an atrociously-rendered accent. For some reason, Wing (unlike fellow sidekicks Speedy and Stripesy) doesn't even get credited as one of the seven. He never appears in the group meetings and fights, only when they split up and the Crimson Avenger would otherwise be solo (at least in the first issue, all I've read so far).
The remaining two counted members are the Shining Knight and the Vigilante, both of whom connect to the current Grant Morrison project. The Vigilante in the new project is actually the same character, now fairly old but still a cowboy roaming the west. He tries to assemble a team in the lead-in issue #0, but it doesn't exactly end well, so mysterious being comment on needing to find seven more heroes, which leads to the seven mini-series focusing on individual characters. One of those characters is Justin, the Shining Knight. But he's clearly not the same character in the modern story, although the inspiration is equally clear. His "time traveler from the Arthurian Age" is a key part of the current SSoV plotline, actually. But in the original, it was simply backstory.
Possibly the most interesting revelation here is with regards to the structure of the current Seven Soldiers project. One part of the buzz about this project was that it consisted of a lead-in issues, seven 4-issue mini-series, each focusing on a single different character, and a final issue. The two bookend issues and each mini-series can theoretically be read independently. Much was made about how innovative and unusual this is (although in truth the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse event had a similar bookends + miniseries structure, but they were never really supposed to be independent, even though each did more or less have its own storyline).
As it turns out, Morrison isn't being particularly innovative at all. He's using the exact same format that was used in the old Leading Comics issues, except expanded to go at the pace/density of modern comics storytelling. An issue of Leading Comics started off with a brief sequence that caused our heroes to come together (they all had solo careers in other titles). They would then split up, and each would get a solo story where he dealt with some part of the evil plot on his own, pretty much independent from the others. (at the end of each such story would be a plug for the character's regular solo appearance in his own book). They'd come together to at the end to deal with the mastermind and any other loose ends. Its just that it all happened in one book (issues then were much larger because all of the titles tended to carry multiple stories rather than just one. Which is why they were all initially named things like "Action Comics" and "Detective Comics" rather than "Superman" and "Batman").
I actually rather like the structure more now that I know its a nod to the original format. The innovation is really that none of the modern Seven Soldiers know that the other six are out there and dealing with different aspects of the same problem (presumably they'll meet in the capstone issue- the lead-in featured different characters entirely). The new project is really quite good. The 2nd of the first wave of miniseries just finished, and the 1st of the 2nd wave is about to start (4 in the 1st wave, 3 in the 2nd). Both "Shining Knight" and "Manhattan Guardian" turned out well, although it may be a stretch to say you can read them without reading the capstone issue. I suppose you could, but there's lots left unresolved. We shall see, I suppose.
Of course, it turns out D.C. is smarter than that, and released a Seven Soldiers of Victory Archive Editions Vol. 1, presumably because people like me will notice it and buy it on impulse due to the current series. Which, of course, I did when I saw it while looking for Batman Archive Editions Vol. 1 (which I didn't find then, but more on that in another entry). This happens to be the first collection of Golden Age comics I've read- I've previously been more of a Marvel Comics fan than D.C., and most of Marvel's big properties (including my favorites the X-Men) didn't get going until the Silver age. Wow. This stuff is... different.
Here's the first impression I get from these gems of the Golden Age: You could run them today completely unchanged and it would be considered post-modern irony of some sort. They're completely hysterical in many ways. The Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy have an arrow-themed car which has giant springs under the seats to launch them out of the car at their opponents. Really. These two are particularly interesting as both are still going strong today (This Green Arrow, named Olliver Queen, died for a while but has since returned- his son was Green Arrow for a while, not sure what's up with him now. Speedy grew up, left and took a new code name, rather like the first Robin. He's now known as Arsenal. The current Speedy is an HIV+ girl who (I think) is a former prostitute. Times have definitely changed.
The rest of the SSoV lineup has not proved quite as durable (although some have probably hung around it bit parts for decades). There is a patriotic angle that could never be done straight-up today. Most notably the Star-Spangled Kid and his (adult) sidekick Stripsey. Come on. "Stripesy"? I found these two the least interesting of the seven, although possibly just because I couldn't get past the concept.
There are also awful racial stereotypes, for which the publishers apologize in the introduction (but really, there's no way to edit around them and for historical reasons its more interesting as it is). The Crimson Avenger has a sidekick, Wing, who is chinese and spends the whole book reciting bits of "chinese wisdom" (i.e. "honorable ancestors say...") while fighting the bad guys. In an atrociously-rendered accent. For some reason, Wing (unlike fellow sidekicks Speedy and Stripesy) doesn't even get credited as one of the seven. He never appears in the group meetings and fights, only when they split up and the Crimson Avenger would otherwise be solo (at least in the first issue, all I've read so far).
The remaining two counted members are the Shining Knight and the Vigilante, both of whom connect to the current Grant Morrison project. The Vigilante in the new project is actually the same character, now fairly old but still a cowboy roaming the west. He tries to assemble a team in the lead-in issue #0, but it doesn't exactly end well, so mysterious being comment on needing to find seven more heroes, which leads to the seven mini-series focusing on individual characters. One of those characters is Justin, the Shining Knight. But he's clearly not the same character in the modern story, although the inspiration is equally clear. His "time traveler from the Arthurian Age" is a key part of the current SSoV plotline, actually. But in the original, it was simply backstory.
Possibly the most interesting revelation here is with regards to the structure of the current Seven Soldiers project. One part of the buzz about this project was that it consisted of a lead-in issues, seven 4-issue mini-series, each focusing on a single different character, and a final issue. The two bookend issues and each mini-series can theoretically be read independently. Much was made about how innovative and unusual this is (although in truth the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse event had a similar bookends + miniseries structure, but they were never really supposed to be independent, even though each did more or less have its own storyline).
As it turns out, Morrison isn't being particularly innovative at all. He's using the exact same format that was used in the old Leading Comics issues, except expanded to go at the pace/density of modern comics storytelling. An issue of Leading Comics started off with a brief sequence that caused our heroes to come together (they all had solo careers in other titles). They would then split up, and each would get a solo story where he dealt with some part of the evil plot on his own, pretty much independent from the others. (at the end of each such story would be a plug for the character's regular solo appearance in his own book). They'd come together to at the end to deal with the mastermind and any other loose ends. Its just that it all happened in one book (issues then were much larger because all of the titles tended to carry multiple stories rather than just one. Which is why they were all initially named things like "Action Comics" and "Detective Comics" rather than "Superman" and "Batman").
I actually rather like the structure more now that I know its a nod to the original format. The innovation is really that none of the modern Seven Soldiers know that the other six are out there and dealing with different aspects of the same problem (presumably they'll meet in the capstone issue- the lead-in featured different characters entirely). The new project is really quite good. The 2nd of the first wave of miniseries just finished, and the 1st of the 2nd wave is about to start (4 in the 1st wave, 3 in the 2nd). Both "Shining Knight" and "Manhattan Guardian" turned out well, although it may be a stretch to say you can read them without reading the capstone issue. I suppose you could, but there's lots left unresolved. We shall see, I suppose.