| Invaders | |
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Cover of The Invaders #1 (August 1975) Art by John Romita, Sr. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Avengers #71 (December 1969) |
| Created by | Roy Thomas Sal Buscema Bill Finger Martin Goodman |
| In-story information | |
| Base(s) | Various |
| Member(s) | Current Members: Captain America (Steve Rogers) Human Torch Namor the Sub-Mariner Spitfire Toro Union Jack (Joseph Chapman) Vision Former Members: Blazing Skull Blue Diamond Blonde Phantom Bucky (Fred Davis) Captain America (Bucky Barnes) Captain America (William Nalsund) Destroyer (Keen Marlow) Fin Golden Woman Major Mapleleaf (Louis Slader) Miss America Nia Noble Silver Scorpion Tara Thin Man Union Jack (Brian Falsworth) Union Jack (Montgomery Falsworth) U.S. Agent Whizzer (Robert Frank) |
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 #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).
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The prototype for the Invaders, the All-Winners Squad, created by publisher Martin Goodman and scripter Bill Finger, was an actual historic Golden Age comic book feature with only two appearances—in All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946) and #21 (Winter 1947; there was no issue #20). This team had much of the same membership as the Invaders, but had its adventures in the post-World War II era, the time that their adventures were published. This group was also notable for being the first in which its members did not entirely get along, prefiguring the internal conflicts of the Fantastic Four in the 1960s.
The Invaders team first appeared in flashback stories set during World War II, and comprised existing characters from Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel. 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 British 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.[1] Eventually, Falsworth's children Brian (Union Jack) and Jacqueline (Spitfire) became members.[2] The team later added Miss America (Madeline Joyce) and super-speedster the Whizzer (Bob Frank), during a battle with the Super-Axis.[3] Later, against the threat of the Battle-Axis, the team was assisted by the Blazing Skull and the Silver Scorpion.
The team continued to fight against several threats, (including a Nazi occupation of Atlantis and the emergence of Hydra backed by a time traveling Baron Strucker) 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 #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, having them join 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.
In 2004, a new Invaders team was created in four-issue arc "Once an Invader...", beginning with The Avengers vol. 3, #82, written by Chuck Austen.[4] The revived team was spun-off into its own title, The New Invaders, running 10 issues (August 2004–June 2005), beginning with issue #0, with writer Allan Jacobsen[5] with artist C. P. Smith.[6]
The new team consisted of U.S. Agent (John Walker, the fifth Captain America); Union Jack; a mysterious flame-generating girl named Tara; 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. Later the ageless android Human Torch would join the team, feeling an affinity for Tara, who had been revealed as an android herself. 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 resulting from the betrayal of the Skull-planted Tara. The majority of the members quit the team after this.
In a January 2006 interview,[7] 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 #28–29.
The 2007 twelve issue crossover series Avengers/Invaders saw the original WWII team of Captain America, Bucky, Namor, Toro and the Human Torch (leaving Spitfire and a wounded Union Jack in the past) brought to the present-day Marvel Universe by the cosmic cube, which had fallen into the hands of the villain D'Spayre, whose use of it to draw on the grief generated by Captain America's death had unintentionally caused it to grant the wish of those who wished for his return. Upon arriving in the present-day, the Invaders battle the Thunderbolts and the Mighty Avengers, believing them to be Nazi agents. Eventually, the Invaders come to trust the Avengers teams (both Mighty and New versions) and agree to go back to where they belong. The teams collect the cosmic cube and an American soldier who travelled into the future with the Invaders. However, the soldier took it upon himself to steal the cosmic cube and save his dead friends in the past. This triggers a new timestream to emerge. Most of the Avengers are wiped from time. Doctor Strange manages to send the Invaders and the surviving members of the Avengers into the past before being wiped from time himself.[8]
In the past, the soldier raises his dead friends and heals a dying wounded Union Jack. The soldier them attempts to destroy the Nazis with the cosmic cube, but loses it when he is attacked by the Red Skull's henchman. The Red Skull later comes into possession of the cosmic cube and transforms the world in his own image. Elsewhere, the Invaders and the Avengers arrive in the past, but find that it has dramatically changed. The Avengers take up identities of Golden Age characters so they can fit into the past without giving the Red Skull too much information about the future (Spider-Man as Challenger, Ms. Marvel as Black Widow, Spider-Woman as Silver Scorpion, Iron Man as Electro, Luke Cage as Black Avenger, Wolverine as Captain Terror, while the Wasp used her powers to stay hidden from sight), putting an end to the Red Skull's reign of terror and restoring the timeline to normal.[9]
At the end of the series, Toro is revived in the modern era thanks to Bucky's temporary acquisition of the Cube.[10] His story continues in the eight issue limited series The Torch, which deals with the resurrection of the original Human Torch. In the series, the two Golden Age heroes battle the Mad Thinker and the Inhuman Torch.[11]
In September 2010, Marvel launched Invaders Now, a miniseries starring Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, Captain America (Bucky), the original Human Torch, Toro, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Spitfire. The Invaders are all reunited by Aarkus, the original Vision (along with the current Union Jack) to face a resurfaced threat from World War II. This threat manifests as a disease that mutates those infected, causing horrible deformation, granting superhuman strength, and driving the victim insane with pain and rage; those infected are driven to attack and thereby infect others. In World War II this pathogen was created by Arnim Zola, as his last project before suffering the wounds which necessitated his consciousness being transferred into a robotic form. To contain the plague the Invaders had to kill the entire population of a village in Germany, including some who had been infected but had not yet transformed. Now, the infection has returned in the modern era.[12]
The stories have been collected into trade paperbacks:
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