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?