Seven Soldiers Saturday #3

Hi there! It's time for another installment of Seven Soldiers Saturday. 

This is a weekly serialization of an adventure featuring the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Back in the 1940s, SSoV writer Joe Samachson wrote a story that was never actually drawn and published. Three decades later, DC editor Joe Orlando rummaging around the files and desk drawers in the mid 1970s comes across the script and assigned it to be drawn by some of DC's best artists of the day. 

In our previous installments, a magical imp named Wee Willie Wisher has sent the individual members of the SSoV to confront a variety of mystical conundrums.

We've seen the Shining Knight and Green Arrow & Speedy deal with their magical adventures over the last two week. 

This week, the Crimson Avenger (AND Wing) face a mystic peril of royal proportions.

In the 1970s, Mike Grell was a major artist for DC, making a big splash on Superboy & the Legion of Super Heroes as well as drawing Green Arrow in Action Comics and Green Lantern's back up in the Flash. Grell would go on to create, write and illustrate an epic sword and sorcery series called The Warlord.  

The Crimson Avenger holds a special place in DC publishing lore as the first masked costumed super hero, predating Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics#27.  












Even in universe; Grant Morrison established that the original mask, hat and cloak of the Crimson Avenger are used in a special ritual whenever a new member joins the Justice League, in honor of him being, in the Martian Manhunter's words, "the first of our kind". 

Who exactly was the Crimson Avenger? Lee Travis, a crusading newspaper publisher, fought crime with the aid of Wing How, his trusted valet and chauffeur. 

The Crimson Avenger's original look was inspired by the pulp hero The Shadow. Later, he would adopt a more conventional super hero outfit during his run with the Seven Soldiers of Victory.  






In the 1980s, writer Roy Thomas revived the character in the suit and cloak outfit with new adventures set in 1938.   



In the credit where credit is due department, the scans for these SSoV stories come from Diversions of the Groovy Age. Sadly, the Groove Agent is no longer posting as he once did but the site remains a treasure trove of comic books from 1968 to 1980.  

Next week in Seven Soldiers Saturday #4, the Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy encounter the strangest world of all from the mystical manipulations of Wee Willie Wisher.