By Jim Beard
1946. Post-War America licks its wounds and looks to a brighter future-if they survive the zombies, of course.
The bad news? The Invaders disbanded once hostilities ceased abroad. The good news? Make way for America's other Golden Age super team: the All Winners Squad!
The ALL WINNERS COMICS 70TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL, out August 5, not only celebrates Marvel's Golden Age heroes, but takes a gander at a period of time not often covered in modern "retro" tales, namely the end of World War II and the subsequent rebuilding and refreshing.
"Many [of the] characters are riding high because they helped win the War," says writer Karl Kesel on the mood at the time of his story. "At the same time, there's a certain amount of survivor's guilt for some of them because they lived while so many others didn't.
"Except for Namor who, I'm certain, feels he could have won the War single-handedly and mostly everyone else just got in his way and slowed him down."
The All Winners must cope not only with the prevailing atmosphere of the year following the surrender of both Germany and Japan, but also with a most relentless breed of monstrosity. Kesel relished the opportunity to pit his stalwart champions of justice against...zombies.
"I've loved zombies ever since I saw 'Night of the Living Dead' at a midnight show during college," Kesel waxes. "They're the only monsters that still-still-give me nightmares. Usually when I'm overworked and overstressed, I'll dream about zombies coming for me; sad but true. And since the idea of survivor's guilt was such a big part of the story, the living dead seemed like the perfect way to bring that idea to life. So to speak."
Getting back to Namor, Kesel found that writing the savage Sub-Mariner in the aquatic wonder's heyday proved an unexpected pleasure to script.
"Namor was a big surprise," he notes. "Every brash and arrogant word out of his mouth was an absolute joy to write. He's one of the funniest
characters in comics, and no one knows it!
He doesn't even know it!"
Other than the aforementioned Sub-Mariner, the All Winners Squad boasted a membership of Captain America and Bucky, the Human Torch and Toro, the Whizzer and the lovely Miss America. Curiously, ALL WINNERS COMICS 70TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL reportedly features the original Cap and Bucky leading the ravenous undead horde in an attack on Times Square. But the good Captain's part of the All Winners, right? What gives?
"All I'd like to say is that [the situation] has a huge impact on Jeff Mace, the current Captain America at the time of this story," teases Kesel.
Long-time fans of Marvel and new readers will also be treated in the ALL WINNERS COMICS 70TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL to that most endearing of all comic book traditions: the super hero romance. Yep, the Whizzer and Miss America's fondness for each other becomes public knowledge in the story and it sets tongues to wagging.
"I
loved writing Whizzer and Miss America!" proclaims Kesel unequivocally. "They have an absolutely wonderful Nick-and-Nora-Charles sort of banter between them. And I think I figured out a few interesting things about the characters along the way, with the Whizzer by trying to make some sense of his crazy mongoose-blood origin and name-who calls themselves the 'Whizzer'?-and with Miss America by trying to figure out what it must have been like for a
super woman in a
super man's world back then, and what she might have had to do to be taken seriously. They're both fascinating characters. Luckily, I'll get a chance to write them again very soon...he says with a sly wink."
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