Invaders (comics)
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The Invaders is the name of two fictional superhero teams in the Marvel Comics universe. The original team was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema in The Avengers vol. 1, #71 (December 1969). A present-day incarnation was introduced by writer Chuck Austen and artist Scott Kolins in The Avengers vol. 3, #82 (July 2004).
World War II team
The first team appeared in flashback stories set during World War II, and was comprised of existing characters from Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel, mostly appeared in All Winner Squad comic book. Originally, Captain America (Steve Rogers), his sidekick Bucky (James Barnes), the original android Human Torch ("Jim Hammond"), the Torch's sidekick Toro (Thomas Raymond), and Namor the Sub-Mariner were together as heroes opposing the forces of Nazism. When these superheroes saved the life of English Prime Minister Winston Churchill from Master Man, the thankful Churchill suggested that they should become a team, known as the Invaders.The Invaders fought the Axis Powers over the world until eventually finding themselves in England, where they met Lord James Montgomery Falsworth, the original Union Jack. He joined the team and provided them with a base of operations in England. Eventually Falsworth's children Brian (Union Jack) and Jacqueline (Spitfire) became members. The team later added Miss America (Madeline Joyce) and super-speedster the Whizzer (Bob Frank), during a battle with the Super-Axis. Later, against the threat of the Battle-Axis, the team added the Blazing Skull and the Silver Scorpion to its roster.
The team continue to fight against several threats, and faced an emotional trauma with the apparent deaths of Captain America and Bucky in a drone aircraft's explosion near the end of World War II, as first described in The Avengers vol. 1, #4 (March 1964). After the war's end, several members—including the second Bucky and Captain America (respectively, Fred Davis and William Naslund, formerly the superhero Spirit of '76)—created a new team, the All-Winners Squad. When that team dissolved, Marvel retconned several members joining Citizen V's V-Battalion.
After the Invaders' introduction in the pages of The Avengers, the team appeared in its own try-out title, Giant-Size Invaders #1 in 1975, followed by the ongoing series The Invaders later that year, and a single annual in 1977. Issues #5–6 of the series introduced another retcon World War II team, the Liberty Legion, in two parts of a story arc, "The Red Skull Strikes", interlaced with another two parts in Marvel Premiere #29–30.
Present-day team
A new Invaders team, set in the present day, was created in four-issue arc "Once an Invader...", beginning with The Avengers vol. 3, #82. The revived team was spun-off into its own title, The New Invaders, running 10 issues (August 2004–June 2005), beginning with issue #0. It consisted of USAgent (John Walker, the fifth Captain America); ageless android the Human Torch; former Liberty Legion member the Thin Man (Dr. Bruce Dickson), who remained ageless as, evidently, a by-product of his transformation in the super-scientific haven Kalahia; and the Blazing Skull (Mark Todd), who remained ageless due to supernatural means. The Invaders were also assisted by former Golden Age hero The Fin and his Atlantean wife Nia, although they did not officially join the team.
They were formed by the putative U.S. Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk—in actuality the Red Skull—who coerced the Thin Man into gathering this new team, which the Skull intended to use for his own goals. The new Invaders eventually learned of the plan, however and thwarted it, but at the cost of the apparent "death" of the android Human Torch. The majority of the members quit the team after this.
In a January 2006 interview [link], writer Fabian Nicieza said the remainder of the team would appear, along with Citizen V and the V-Battalion, in the "Domino Principle" arc in Cable & Deadpool #28–31.
Bibliography
- All Winners Comics #19 & 21 (Sept. 1946 & Jan. 1947, Timely Comics)
- The Avengers vol. 1, #72 (proto version: modern-day Avengers time-traveled to encounter the WWII superheroes)
- The Avengers vol. 3, #82 (Dec. 1969)
- Giant-Size Invaders #1 (June 1975)
- The Invaders (1975–1979)
- The Invaders Annual #1 (1977)
- The Invaders four-issue miniseries (1993)
- Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual #1 (1991)
- Weapon X vol. 2, #14 (Dec. 2003)
- New Invaders #0–9 (2004–2005)
- Giant-Size Invaders #2 (Jan. 2006; reprints The Invaders #1–2, three stories from Golden Age All Winners Comics #1–2)
Trivia
- A year prior to the 1969 creation of this team, another unrelated comic book entitled The Invaders was published by Gold Key Comics, based upon the TV series of the same name.
See also
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