Seven Soldiers: One Thread

The Nebula Man? Huh. Looks like he’s up to old tricks. Anyone got a link or summary of that story.

Hard to tell, but he did mention that the Seven Mysterious Men had given him perfect aim. It’s rather moot at the moment. :slight_smile:

I have a hunch it’ll be one of the guys in the books. Possibly Guardian. He seems a bit mercenary, going only by the ad blurbs.

Just for you Menocchio (and the rest of our 7SOV compatriots) I’ve dug up Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #9 which tells of the Law’s Legionnaires’ final battle. Note that this is the Post-Crisis version; the original version of the story was in the JLofA early 100’s, but as I noted above, Post-Crisis there was no “Earth-2” Green Arrow or Speedy so they had to be replaced.

In the Post-Crisis version, the bulk of the team (SSK, Stripsey, Vigilante and Stuff the Chinatown Kid, Shining Knight, and the Crimson Avenger with Wing) are meeting in their St. Louis headquarters. They had received word from the Spider that their old enemy The Hand had created The Nebula Man, “a living entity of cosmic energy.” Spider also sent plans for a “Nebula Rod” which could defeat Nebby, but he collapsed shortly after reaching the HQ himself.

Because Spider needed someone to watch over him, the rest of the 7SOV went off to battle leaving Wing behind. Originally, Wing was an embarassing asian caricature and wasn’t considered a full hero during the '40’s, which is why the &SOV was never the 8SOV even though they had eight members. In this retelling, Wing is excluded from the group by the Crimson Avenger to keep him safe.

Anyway, the group heads to fight Nebula Man while Wing stayed behind with the apparently ailing Spider. But he is interrupted by another of Vigilante’s partners, Billy Gunn, who had been doing background checks on Spider. As noted above, the Spider was actually a crook who pretended to be a hero, and he was in league with The Hand. As Gunn tells this to Wing, the actually healthy Spider shoots and killed him with an arrow. He taunted Wing by telling him that the Nebula Rod was useless without a part that he’d bogarted. He planned to kill Wing too, but the boy was a better fighter than he’d been given credit for; he kicked the Spider’s butt and headed off to warn his teammates.

Unfortunately he got there just in time to see Crimson use the defective Nebula Rod. The blast transported the whole group halfway across the world but left Nebby uninjured. Then Wing grabbed the rod, replaced the missing part, and with a cry of “Victory!” used it on the Nebula Man. This explosion was much greater – it killed both Nebby and Wing and threw the rest of the group back in time in different eras. Stripsey ended up in ancient Egypt and was a pyramid slave for several days until some JLA and JSA members rescued him, returning him and the others to the JLA’s present – some 30 years after the battle with Nebula Man. (This is the Post-Crisis version of the JLA/JSA team-up from JLofA 100-101.) As noted in SS #0, Vigilante spent several years in the Old West as a real cowboy as a result of the time displacement before being rescued.

For a glimpse of Nebula Man, check out the cover of S&S #9.

–Cliffy

One other brainstorm (ok, brain-summer shower) I had last night – it makes sense that the version of the 7SOV we saw here doesn’t actually have seven members. The team never had seven members – originally it was actually 8 people including Wing, and that was preserved with the Post-Crisis retcon. (Even the cover of the recent 7SOV archive only has six people on it!) This suggests to me that we might profit from looking out for a hidden member to the “team” that develops over the next several months, because whatever the new Seven Soldiers are, they are probably not actually seven.

The next issue is still over a week away – ugh.

–Cliffy

You’re probably thinking of Wild Dog, who was a DC character (first in Action Comics Weekly, then in his own miniseries). Another Straight Doper, watsonwil, is (inexplicably) a big Wild Dog fan! Mad Dog was an early '90s tie-in series to a Bob Newhart sitcom where he worked for a comic book company that published the superhero Mad Dog.

Good point, besides Wing, 8th members (in various continuities) also included Stripesy, Speedy, and Victory (but he’s a horse). We know Victory is back, at least.

As for the dropout of the team in #0, now I’m betting that it’s Frankenstein. Vigilante knew him from his Old West days.

Oh, and thanks for the summation. But now I’m more confused. I thought Nebula Man was a hero that got possessed by Neh-buh-lon in the JLA: Classified story. Did he reform, or did I misread the story?

Vigilante showed up in the big Prince of Darkness storyline around JSA #50, but he was just filling his usual role of background character. I think he got one line spoken to Phantom Lady or something.

I don’t mind his being dead or the new versions of Shining Knight and Guardian (I do hope he acknowledges that the Mr. Miracle he’s using has a history), but I am a little concerned that he’s going to screw up Zatanna, who has been used more and more recently and had the great Everyday Magic one-shot a couple years ago. Ah well, we’ll see.

Yeah, that was it!. Thanks! But about the inexplciably part, it was about a Middle American superhero/vigilante who did things pretty much the way I would expect to them to happen in the real world, and it took place in the same universe as other superheroes. I loved it. Another hero who does thing realisticaly is Richard K. Lyon’s Lightningman. Avalible at http://www.pulpanddagger.com/pulpmag/wiz/diet2.html

I was disappointed to hear that the Mister Miracle will be Shilo Norman and not Scott Free, but I’ve always been a fan of the character (Scott, at least). And how awesome was that Zatanna one-shot? I loved it! Those are probably the two Seven Soldiers miniseries I’ll try out, unless I hear resoundingly positive reviews about the others.

We should understand this last phrase to include “from people other than Cliffy, who would slobber over Grant Morrison’s grocery list.”

It’s true! I would! I bet it’d be great!

That said, the guy can’t win from losing – Candid is afraid he’s going to change the originals too much and Lou is disappointed that he’s not using the originals.

–Cliffy

Very! I was always hoping for a follow-up.

A little dissapointed that he’s revamping the Witch Boy after what Peter David did with him, but hten I can’t imagine anyone but Peter David writing that Witch Boy and having it work, anyway.

Which reminds me that one thing I really liked about SS#0 was the dialog. I tend to be a fan of Morrison’s writing, but I always wish he’d get someone else to write his dialog for him because it tends to come out… very jerky and weird (and when he’s writing superheroes, I get sick of the “Please, (Flash/Beast/Whoever), I just did the entire world’s laundry in the time it took you to sneeze”, “look how cool superpowerse are” bits that he puts in without fail). But the dialog in this book was pretty good, I thought.

P.S. to Lou – you have to read the whole thing; you’re the seventh person to post in this thread so if you don’t hang around it’ll just be weird. :wink:

–Cliffy

I haven’t even read SS #0 yet, but I have no expectations whatsoever, good or bad. I just like Mister Miracle, and I’m always happy to see him show up in stuff.

So Cliffy, if you’re a world-class Grant Morrison fan, recommend me some Morrison I would like! I didn’t get past his first issue of New X-Men because I don’t like Quitely’s art, and I think I read JLA #1-10 before dropping it (probably due to financial constraints). I tried two random issues of Invisibles that didn’t make any sense, and that Doom Force one-shot from the '90s (a pre-Vertigo parody of Liefeld comics). From all this, I just don’t like the guy as much as his contemporaries (Moore, Ellis, Gaiman, etc.), but I’d be willing to give him another chance on the right project. Too many people with good taste like his work, and I’d hate to be missing out. To my credit, I did enjoy his DC One Million miniseries, which I picked up recently for a total of $2, and I love the one Animal Man issue I’ve read with “I can see you!”, but I seek more.

Lame! :wink:

I always think of that more as an Ellis thing. But I love when Morrison’s characters announce things 'cuz it’s always the coolest/goofiest (these are the same thing, something Morrison and I both learned from Jack Kirby).

“THE BLOOD RED GAME OF GODS HAS BEGUN!”

How can you not love stuff like that?

–Cliffy

Sure he could win.

It’s called “Try using the original characters.” :wink:

What’s wrong with Scott Free, Sir Justin, and Jim Harper, anyway?

Perhaps because people will bitch when he has them all killed by a giant spider? (And isn’t Jim Harper dead?) I think you’re guilty of pre-judging (I am too, of course, in a different direction) – there may be good story reasons for using the new characters (also maybe he wants to). Anyway, although I haven’t read Doom Patrol, I don’t see that Morrison has ever ignored continuity – the opposite is usually the case. As I noted above, this issue is the perfect example: you’re going to enjoy it more if you recognize that all these characters are legacies from the Golden Age. The whole idea only exists because Morrison loves the Golden Age – I doubt that DC was out trolling for writers to relaunch the 7SOV because they did so well last time around.

Lou, it’s actually tough to recommend Morrison because one of his standard themes is that things are not as they seem. Therefore, he writes things for you to feel one way when you read it and then understand it completely differently when you read the next issue, or the next 30 issues. Invisibles for instance, I really didn’t like at the beginning because it seemed like we were supposed to root for these heroes that were utterly morally bankrupt. Then in vol. 2 there’s an issue (#12) that turns this completely on its head. I even thought about dropping New X-Men at one point, but after I read the last issue it all made sense.

That said, the recent We3, which you might be able to find around (3 issues) was brilliant, as was the first issue of Vimanarama (also 3 issues; #2 ships 3/9). Animal Man is very good if kind of Morrison-lite; it’s not nearly as dense as a lot of his stuff but by the end it’s unquestionably his. Although most everybody knows what the big payoff is, which harms to work somewhat. But probably the best thing is to read some of his JLA trades – you can sample them at most of the big bookstores these days. Because it’s the JLA it doesn’t have the internal continuity than Invisibles depends on. Rock of Ages is usually considered the best one, but Strength in Numbers is awfully good (and has some Waid fill-ins to break the monotony. That’s a joke.). Any of them are worth the read, although WWIII is much better if you read it in order because he’s been setting things up (sometimes subtly) all along.

–CLiffy

It’s annoying. Sometimes it works (like when Ultraman describes what he’s doing to Braniac at the end of Earth2), but most of the time it’s unecessary (“This is the guy who said he can’t live up to his myth… he’s wrestling an angel”; yeah, okay, we get it, there’s a huge drawing of it right on the page). In X-Men it just drove me nuts (“I just did (amazing thing)” “Well, I just (amazing thing)” “Jean! They’re going to (amazing thing)”). I can appreciate the shout-out to older styles of storytelling, but it ususally comes accross to me as awkward and also annoying in a self-conscious, “look how cool I’m being” sort of way.

I also think that for someone so enamored with the bizarre (which is what I like about him), he infuses his work with dissapointingly little humor. I think someone else writing his dialog might help with that, too.

But ah well, even with those reservations, he’s easily one of my favorite writers working right now, even if only for the obvious enthusiasm with which he attacks each of his projects.

Hey cats and kittens, just a bump to remind us all to pick up Shining Knight #1 at the LCS today. (And Vimanarama #2!)

Also, on another board I occasionally frequent, folks have suggested that the six characters from SS #0 are meant to represent various eras of comics – Greg being the Golden Age, Gimmix being the style-over-substance Image era, the new Whip being the Grim & Gritty period, etc. Seems like a stretch to me, but anyone else have thoughts on this?

–Cliffy

First of all, DAMN. Seven Soldiers #0 was probably the best introductory issue I’ve read in quite a while… at least since Milligan and Allred’s X-Force #116, which is actually structured very similarly. Morrison really did start things off with a bang! It left me stunned, thrilled, and desperate to find out what happens next, all feelings I haven’t had from comics in a while (including my beloved Sleeper). This may be what finally makes me appreciate Grant Morrison!

As for the team, I thought I, Spyder was the most obvious representation of the grim-n-gritty/Image hype periods, as to how he was originally an unassuming archer character, but “reimagined” by the mysterious seven people into a badass in a leather jacket and shades with ill-defined powers, who slept with his sexy female teammate the first night they met. He was practically (re)created by a focus group, with all the attributes that would have made him “kewl” in 1992.

I also wondered if Dynamite Man (I forget his name right now) was a poke from the writer at all the fanboys who review comics and complain on Internet message boards–a typical “Comic Book Guy”-looking individual who talked the talk, but ultimately could not perform when it was time to walk the walk.

I wondered if The Whip was supposed to represent the embarassing “bad girl” trend in comics in the mid-'90s, but as far as becoming a superhero to write a book about her exploits, she was hardly the first: Hollis Mason, Nite Owl I, wrote Under the Hood in Watchmen, and the Tarantula (Jonathan Law) and Jesse Quick both wrote books in the DCU.

Gimmix, an obvious tie-in to Merry Pemberton, Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks, might have been partially-inspired by Silver Age-era Batman, who had a bad-gadget for every occasion (like the “Bat shark repellent” from the 1966 movie), or low-level heroes like Booster Gold, who were motivated by financial gain.

I’m pretty much just brainstorming now, but could any of these guesses be accurate? Did anyone else see these things in the new characters?

Read Shining Knight #1! (No spoilers follow)

Not a whole lot to say about it except that it was a fun read and definitely has me looking forward to the next installment. Very nice artwork, too.

I can’t really see that at all. Where would Little Boy Blue and I, Spyder fit in? Or the 7th mystery member? It seems like Vigilante was more representative of Western characters than anything, and I can’t see the Gimmix thing.

Got Shining Knight #1. No sign of Morrison nodding to previous continuity yet. I grow more worried. Apart from that - interesting.