| Winter Guard | |
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Cover art for Darkstar and the Winter Guard #1 by Clayton Henry |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Iron Man vol. 3 #9 (October, 1998) |
| Created by | Kurt Busiek Sean Chen |
| In-story information | |
| Type of organization | team |
| Agent(s) | Crimson Dynamo Darkstar Red Guardian Ursa Major Fantasma Powersurge Sibercat Sputnik Vanguard |
The Winter Guard is a fictional team of Russian superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe.
The Winter Guard are noted for being "Russia's answer to the Avengers",..[1] Several members of the group formerly belonged to the Soviet Super-Soldiers, the People's Protectorate and the Supreme Soviets. Unlike those teams, which were often adversarial towards other costumed superheroes, the Winter Guard is much more heroic and representative in nature.
Unlike other superhero teams, the Winter Guard currently has a rotating pool of candidates to fill one of three roles on the team: Darkstar, Crimson Dynamo, and Red Guardian.
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The Winter Guard first appeared during the Kurt Busiek run of Iron Man, where they had several guest appearances. They would later appear in Busiek's stint on the Avengers.
The team made infrequent appearance in the Marvel Universe until Jeph Loeb brought them to attention in Hulk #1. The Winter Guard soon appeared in She-Hulk and War Machine: Weapon of SHIELD.
David Gallaher brought the team back in Hulk: Winter Guard which first appeared as a Marvel Digital Comic[2] and was later reprinted as a comic book. Gallaher returned to writing the team with a 3-issue limited series called Darkstar and the Winter Guard in 2010.[3][4][5]
The Winter Guard was apparently destroyed by The Intelligencia, who tested their ultimate weapon The Zero Cannon on the unsuspecting heroes[6].
The Winter Guard made their debut in Iron Man vol. 3, #9, and fought alongside the Avengers during both the "Maximum Security" crossover and the "Kang War".
Whilst investigating the murder of the Abomination, a Russian supervillan, Doc Samson, She-Hulk and Thunderbolt Ross encounter the revitalized Winter Guard, consisting of Ursa Major, Red Guardian, Darkstar and the Crimson Dynamo.[7] When She-Hulk points out that Darkstar and Red Guardian were dead, Iron Man tells her that they were replaced with new people. It is unknown if the other members of the team are new as well. After teaming up with War Machine to fight the Skrulls, the team was later seen clashing with She-Hulk and the Lady Liberators - and again with The Presence and Igor Drenkov
Their current membership is:
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