Posted by andPOP Staff on July 20th, 2005

What do you get when you take seven unrelated B-list heroes from out of the vault at DC Comics, give them to writer Grant Morrison (New X-Men, The Invisibles) and seven different artists, who pit them against the greatest force of evil of all time? The most elaborate interwoven story in recent history-Seven Soldiers.

Morrison?s master plan of a giant tome of seven books that not so much come together as reverberate bigger consequences through to each other (Since none of the heroes actually meet, their can be no real ?coming together? to speak of?at least in the conscience sense?on their part.) Each book holds up as a four issue story arc on its own, with each artist doing a different one, but when combined with the two bookend bonus issues and the other stories in the set, the connections between each book, really start to show through. .Not only are they fighting the same evil threat, but a seemingly insignificant decision in one book is felt through the lives of all seven heroes and the best part is, this super-team never meets. Just who are these independent heroes, with no idea their fighting in the same war?

Hold on a sec, before we get to the new Seven Soldiers we must first tip our hats to those of old?The Seven Soldiers of Victory, (sometimes referred to as Law?s Legionnaires) from which, Morrison?s idea comes. The Seven Soldiers of Victory were created in 1941, a year after the Justice Society of America, designed to capitalize on the projected profits thought to be brought about by two super teams. The 7 were made up of The Crimson Avenger, The Star Spangled Kid, Green Arrow, Vigilante and Shining Knight, plus, their respective sidekicks, Stripesy and Speedy rounding out the seven. (Although in the book itself, The Crimson Avenger?s sidekick, Wing, was ignored in the title probably because he was Asian. Since leaving us as a regular series in 1955, all of the 7 soldiers have enjoyed minor roles and guest spots in DC comics. They were always B and C list heroes, just like Morrison?s members of the new incarnation were before he brought them together to create a new seven. Morrison even tips his hat to the old team in issue #0, when Vigilante tries to form his own new team of Seven Soldiers by placing an ad in the paper, but on their very first mission, they are all killed by the new evil threat known as, The Sheeda! Who will be fighting the Sheeda together without even meeting in person, inadvertently becoming the newest Seven Soldiers? Well, let me introduce you to?

The Shining Knight (Artist: Simone Blanchi)-(Orignally ran from 1941-1951) Sir Justin is a knight of King Arthur?s round table who gets transported to the 20th century. He has armor that is enchanted by Merlin and a winged horse called Winged Victory. He usually just fought crooks on the streets. Now, in Morrison?s version, Justin is transported to the 21st century and his horse dies almost immediately. Instead of fighting crime, he turns himself in, until an ancient demon threat (The Sheeda) that he is all too familiar with, is revealed to be attacking Earth. Morrison also adds a giant helping of real mythology and Arthurian mythos that grounds the story in a historical context. However, this book is too similar to its golden age counterpart in origin and there is a whole lot of build up to a story yet to come. It is, however, the most tripped out of all the books, and has the best line work in the art.

The Manhattan Guardian (Artist: Cameron Stewart)-(Originaly ran in 1942) Created by Comics legend Jack Kirby, Jim Harper was a regular guy who decided to become a policemen in the poor section of Metropolis known as ?Suicide Slum.? After rescuing a gang of orphaned newsboys from a life of crime, he decides to become a superhero named The Guardian, eventually converting the orphaned newsboys into his own superhero team called The Newsboy Legion. If Jack Kirby and Grant Morrison did a comic, this is what it would be. He?s taken this old concept and made, hero for hire, Jim Harper into, reluctant Hero, Jake Jordan. He works as a superhero mascot for a newspaper whose exploits are designed to generate headlines for a newspaper. He also works inside a living, breathing office building. Well, not exactly, the guy he works for is a computerized talking head, ala the wizard of Oz. The newsboy legion is back too, as the newsboy army, a rag-tag group of freelancers who provide much needed reinforcements. That?s where the Kirby similarities end however, because Morrison injects his trademark bizarro world irreverence into every panel. Jordon is fighting personal demons, after accidently killing a child, but he is also fighting a group of subway pirates that are following a map tattooed to someone?s back and fighting an Epcot Centre version of the world?s population, following all the statistical sociological data that makes up the real population of earth. That means that out of the one-hundred robot citizens, 70% are black and five of them have all the wealth and power. This comic is the most creative of them all, and is a nice nostalgic nod to Jack Kirby. It?s the most straightforward, in execution and story, of all the books. It?s perfect as a straight-up superhero book with a tinge of weirdness thrown in. It is also very refreshing since the rest of them aren?t so straightforward and tend to contribute a little more to the confusing story at large called Morrison?s master plan.

Klarion the Witch Boy (Artist: Frazer Irving)-(Made his debut in 1973) Klarion was an old enemy of Jason Brood aka ?The Demon.? He escaped from witchworld with his ware-cat Teek in order to practice magic without adult interference. On earth, his magic always went awry and The Demon was usually called in to clean up the mess. The character Klarion has also made brief appearances in both the current Justice League cartoon series and the now older, New Adventures of Batman and Robin. This is the comic where Morrison has made the most improvement to an otherwise weak caliber villain. Witchworld is now a puritan society that sits in purgatory where its inhabitants worship the dead and use enchanted corpses as slaves. The desire to go to earth, stems, instead, from a stronger desire to see the ?magical relics of our world? (i.e. Candy, CDs, Gum, things that are not allowed in witchworld?s hyper religious society.) that were smuggled in and shown to Klarion by a friend. Also, his desire to rebel from the clutches of the elders of the village plays a very significant role. However, once he is on earth, he realizes that an evil (Sheeda again!) has escaped from his world and must be stopped. Morrison brings a neo-goth/EMO kid sensibility to the story that fits well to contemporize Klarion?s experience in our world, but the overall pacing of this story is very slow and the puritanical dialogue can be very boring. Although, the art is some of the best art in the series. (excluding J.H. Williams?s work done in the two stand alone bookend issues to start and finish the series) The colouring overall is excellent as well, with tonal hues of Blue, Black and green throughout.

Zantanna (Artist Ryan Sook) (First appearance was in 1964 in Hawkman in a story called ?The Girl Who Split in Two?) Zantanna is the most recognizable of all the characters, as a permanent B-list member of the Justice League. The most basic rundown of her lackadaisical first appearance is basically, she gets Hawkman to come look for her father, a master magician who taught her everything he knows in the way of spells. (In her world, all you have to do is say a command backwards and you have a spell i.e. ?disappear? would be ?raeppasid? and to my mind, if that?s all her father knows?we have a problem.) She decides to use what she?s taught and become a superhero that performs sold out magic shows by day in Vegas. She has never really had a solid individual run in her own book(Gee, I wonder why?), but since Morrison seems to be the master of the re-launch lately, with X-Men now, and in the past, with Animal Man, she seems to be in good hands. First, he starts her off in a meeting of washed up superheroes that have no idea why they still feel this compulsion to fight even though they are all truly pathetic. (At least he knows Zanny doesn?t have a good track record.) Then, he has her lead her band of merry men through so many dimensions and doors that one must rotate the particular page in every direction just to read the dialogue. (One feel?s sick in the process, but in a good way) However, the piece de resistance, of this trial run, is that Morrison has decided to reluctantly pair her with a junior mystic or rather, a pint sized version of herself. He could be going for a magical Gilmore Girls spin off here, but somehow, with the quick-witted dialogue and off-hand quips, it works. The art is average, but Sook definitely wins best cover, for his piece that puts Zanny smack in the middle of a hodge-podge of rabbits, making her look like she?s meant to be found on an incredibly obvious ?Where?s Waldo?? page.

With the rest of the books, Frankenstein, Bulleteer and Mr. Miracle, not scheduled until September, all I can say is they?re highly anticipated, especially given the fact that the Mr. Miracle cover is so awesome. (Look to your left!) I?m going to have to find out about them with the rest of you. The only question left is… how is Grant Morrison going to pull off this interconnected storyline with such vastly different characters who never even meet? I?ve read every issue so far and I still can?t see where he is going with this, but time will tell?and knowing Grant?s work, we haven?t even begun to explore the complexity of the Seven Soldiers weirdness. (All I can say is hang in there friends, I?ll have a primer on the rest of the books where I will discuss the possible outcomes of the story at large.) Hopefully, it will all work out, leading Grant Morrison to yet another, creative victory.

Tags: 7 soldiers, comics, Grant Morrison, seven soldiers