All-Star Squadron (New Earth)
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History
Late into the evening of December 6, 1941, President Roosevelt and an advisor attempt to contact the Justice Society of America but no one answers as their headquarters is empty. In Los Angeles, Johnny Chambers and Tubby Watts cover a charity foot race among the Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, with the Amazon winning by a nose. Wildcat presents Wonder Woman with a trophy noting that he had been wanting to meet the three heroes. The heroes take their leave and meet up (minus Wildcat) in nearby Echo Park where they encounter Solomon Grundy. None of the heroes have fought Grundy yet the villain claims to have fought them before. Grundy bests the costumed trio and is summoned by a mysterious voice to deliver them or "pay the penalty."
Roosevelt makes another attempt to contact the JSA with no luck. Meanwhile, in New York City, Sandman, Starman, and Johnny Thunder (with his personal Thunderbolt), are defeated by the notorious Sky Pirate. Simultaneously, Dr. Fate learns through the Orb of Nabu that Wotan has returned despite having been defeated "forever." The sorcerer quickly departs despite his wife's admonishment that he is not as powerful as before. Wotan uses a disguised Spectre to defeat his old nemesis, thereby defeating them both.
Somewhere in the South Pacific, Ensign Rod Reilly tries to dissuade his sister Danette from her risky volcano research. Elsewhere, in Gotham City, Superman, Batman, and Robin open a new USO club but are defeated by Professor Zodiak. In Washington, DC, the Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Hawkman are attacked at the Lincoln Memorial by The Monster. When the trio best the horror-inspired villain, The Monster changes into an old man mentioning the name Degaton as the person responsible for the attack. Witnessing this is a mysterious man who then walks away "making strangely metallic sounds upon the rough concrete." As the clock strikes midnight, Roosevelt reveals he had hoped to have the JSA ready in case of a Japanese attack. Still unsuccessful in contacting them, the president is cautiously optimistic the United States will "come through this."
On the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathers available superheroes at the White House and asked them to work together to battle sabotage and keep the peace on the home front during World War II. At the time, many of the Justice Society members had been captured by the villain Per Degaton, but the available heroes were asked to first guard against a potential attack on the American West Coast.
Degaton himself used some stolen Japanese planes to launch such an attack, so the new Squadron's first major mission was to stop the attack and rescue the captured heroes, who also became part of the new group. The rationale for not using the Squadron in combat situations in the European or Pacific Theaters of War was that Adolf Hitler had possession of the Spear of Destiny, a mystical object that gave him control of any superheroes with magic-based powers or a vulnerability to magic (including Superman, Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, and others) who crossed into territory held by the Axis Powers.
Paraphernalia
Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.
Notes
- The book chronicled the adventures of a large team of superheroes, comprised mostly of featured characters owned by DC comics (including those purchased from other companies such as Quality Comics) that had appeared in the Golden Age of Comic Books. It included members of the Justice Society of America, Freedom Fighters, and Seven Soldiers of Victory, as well as a number of solo heroes.
- The All-Star Squadron was an example of "retroactive continuity" or "retcon", as it rewrote the already-established history of DC superheroes that had been published during the 1940s. The first known use of the term "retcon" was by Roy Thomas in the letter column of All-Star Squadron #20 (April, 1983).
- The Trylon and Perisphere, actual structures constructed in New York City for the 1939 New York World's Fair, housed the Squadron's headquarters. The All-Star Squadron had a robotic butler named Gernsback, who was based on the Elektro robots from the fair and was probably named after Hugo Gernsback.
- Originally, the All-Star Squadron was supposed to exist on "Earth-Two", a parallel world used by DC as the venue for stories occurring during the 1940s, and including heroes only published during that era as well as the early versions of characters still published up to the present day such as Batman and Superman (the contemporary versions of those characters existed on "Earth-One"). After the 1985 DC Comics event Crisis on Infinite Earths merged the parallel worlds into one continuity, the duplicate superhero versions were eliminated. The All-Star Squadron was then itself retconned and left only with the characters unique to that time period, so that Superman, Batman and Robin; Wonder Woman and Aquaman were not alive at that point in history, and were thus never Squadron members. Subsequently, Green Arrow and Speedy were also removed from the wartime continuity, though this appears to have been a late decision.
Trivia
- No trivia.
Former Members
- Air Wave (Larry Jordan)
- Amazing Man (Will Everett)
- Aquaman (Earth-Two) (Pre-Crisis Only)
- Blackhawk (Janos Prohaska)
- Blue Beetle (Daniel Garrett) (Post-Crisis Only)
- Blue Boys
- Little Boy Blue (Tommy Rogers)
- Little Miss Redhead (Janie)
- Captain Triumph (Lance Gallant)
- Commander Steel (Hank Heywood)
- Doctor Occult
- Firebrand (Danette Reilly)
- Guardian (Jim Harper)
- Judomaster (Hadley Jagger) (Post-Crisis only)
- Tiger (Masi Tanaka) (Post-Crisis only)
- The King (King Standish)
- Liberty Belle (Libby Lawrence)
- Johnny Quick (Johnny Chambers)
- Manhunter (Paul Kirk)
- Merlin (Jock Kellogg)
- Americommando (Tex Thompson)
- Quicksilver
- Red Tornado (Ma Hunkel)
- Robotman (Robert Crane/Paul Dennis)
- Sandy the Golden Boy (Sanderson Hawkins)
- Sargon the Sorcerer
- Speed Saunders
- Tarantula (Jonathan Law)
- TNT (Thomas N. Thomas)
- Tor (Jim Slade)
- Whip (Rod Gaynor)
- Zatara the Magician (John Zatara)
Seven Soldiers of Victory
- Spider (Tom Ludlow Hallaway) (Post-Crisis only)
- Billy Gunn (Post-Crisis only)
- Crimson Avenger (Lee Travis)
- Green Arrow (Earth-Two) (Pre-Crisis only)
- Shining Knight (Justin Arthur)
- Speedy (Earth-Two) (Pre-Crisis only)
- Star-Spangled Kid (Sylvester Pemberton)
- Stripesy
- Stuff the Chinatown Kid (Danny Leong)
- Vigilante (Greg Sanders)
- Wing
Freedom Fighters
- Uncle Sam
- Black Condor (Richard Grey, Jr.)
- Phantom Lady (Sandra Knight)
- Doll Man (Darrel Dane)
- Firebrand (Rod Reilly)
- Human Bomb (Roy Lincoln)
- Jester (Chuck Lane)
- Manhunter (Dan Richards)
- Midnight (Dave Clark)
- Miss America (Joan Dale)
- Plastic Man
- Ray (Langford Terrill)
- Red Bee (Richard Raleigh)
Justice Society of America
- Atom (Al Pratt)
- Batman (Earth-Two) (Pre-Crisis only)
- Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)
- Doctor Mid-Nite (Charles McNider)
- Flash (Jay Garrick)
- Green Lantern (Alan Scott)
- Hawkman (Carter Hall)
- Hawkgirl (Shiera Sanders)
- Hourman (Rex Tyler)
- Johnny Thunder & Yz, the Thunderbolt
- Mister Terrific (Terry Sloane)
- Robin (Earth-Two) (Pre-Crisis only)
- Sandman (Wesley Dodds)
- Spectre (Jim Corrigan)
- Starman (Ted Knight)
- Superman (Earth-Two) (Pre-Crisis only)
- Wildcat (Ted Grant)
- Wonder Woman (Earth-Two) (Pre-Crisis only)
Young All-Stars (Post-Crisis only)
- Dyna-Mite
- Flying Fox
- Fury (Helena Kosmatos)
- Iron Munro
- Neptune Perkins
- Tigress (Paula Brooks)
- Tsunami (Miya Shimada)
Squadron of Justice (Post-Crisis only)
- Bulletman (James Barr)
- Bulletgirl (Susan Kent-Barr)
- Commando Yank (Chase Yale)
- Phantom Eagle (Mickey Malone)
- Ibis the Invincible (Amentep)
- Minute-Man (Jack Weston)
- Mister Scarlet (Brian Butler)
- Pinky (Pinky Butler)
- Spy Smasher (Alan Armstrong)
Allies
- Arak, Son of Thunder (Bright-Sky-After-Storm)
- Black Pirate (Jon Valor)
- Golden Gladiator (Marcus of Rome)
- Miss Liberty (Bess Lynn)
- Silent Knight (Brian Kent)
- Strong Bow
- Super-Chief (Flying Stag)
- Trigger Twins (Walt and Wayne Trigger)
- Iron Maiden (Valda)
Marvel Family (Pre-Crisis Only)
Infinity, Inc.
- Silver Scarab/Sandman (Hector Hall)
- Fury (Lyta Trevor)
- Jade (Jennie-Lynn Hayden)
- Nuklon (Albert Rothstein)
- Brainwave, Jr. (Henry King, Jr.)
- Northwind (Norda Cantrell)
- Obsidian (Todd Rice)
Young Allies (Post-Crisis only)
Newsboy Legion
- Anthony Rodriguez / Big Words
- John Gabrielli / Gabby
- Patrick MacGuire / Scrapper
- Tommy Thompkins
- Walter Johnson
See Also
- 107 Appearances of All-Star Squadron (New Earth)
- 22 Images that include All-Star Squadron (New Earth)
- Team Gallery: All-Star Squadron (New Earth)
- Fan-Art Gallery: All-Star Squadron (New Earth)
Links and References
- Discuss All-Star Squadron (New Earth) on the forums
- All-Star Squadron at Wikipedia
- More (All-)Stars Than There Are In Heaven by Roy Thomas From Alter Ego Vol. 3 #6 - A discussion of the creation of the All-Star Squadron.
- Invaders A Marvel comics WWII Team at the Marvel Database
- HITLER NEVER STOOD A CHANCE . . .Unca Cheeks' article on the All-Star Squadron
- ALL-STAR SQUADRON 1-67 (1981-1987) at the Comic Treadmill