All-Winner’s Squad: Band of Heroes #2

Captain Flame's secret, Operation Firefly and Loki are presumably parts of the central mystery that will unfold as the series progresses, involving the present as well as the past. Paul Jenkins is gradually introducing us to his cast of characters, to avoid overload. We haven't yet exhausted the list he mentions in his interview. Last time, apart from the absent Blue Diamond and Victory Boys, we fully met Young Avenger, Slo-Mo Jones, Captain Flame, Merzah, Archie the medic, Invisible Man, Taxi Taylor and Transisto-Mech, with side-mentions of Captain Strong, Sgt Byrd and Flash Foster. This time those 3 play a bigger role, along with Fighting Yank, Jap Buster Johnson and Father Time, with mentions of Moon Man, Secret Stamp and American Ace. I still feel there is more confusion than necessary with some of these characters. For instance in this issue we see a certain masked character referred to as Larry. But it is only the fact that I know the mask and secret identity of Larry Scott that enables me to link this to a reference to Father Time. I also find Sgt Byrd's intentions during the battle less clearcut than I've expressed them here. So I'm still only giving this issue a 4, even though I personally still love it.

One way out of this is to say that this Timely's comics are different from those in our universe. Apart from the existence of the scrapped Super Hero Comics starring Captain Flame, we hear this time that Young Avenger and Moon Man are popular strips, whereas in our universe they each lasted only 1 issue. Also, last issue we glimpsed a strip featuring Blue Diamond working with the Invisible Man in occupied France. Significantly this corresponded to one of the exploits recounted in #1 itself. This suggests that this Timely's stories were (often?) based on their universe's reality. In his interview on marvel.com Paul Jenkins exhibits the contradictory conventional view that our Timely comics reflect the Marvel universe's history when he suggests that the reason some characters had a limited run was that they died during the war. In fact during the events of this series. However the non-conventional view gives Paul the opportunity (or even the necessity) to modify characters' origins. For instance in this issue Merzah the Mystic is described as an ex-circus performer, as opposed to the spy-fighter with no apparent means of financial support in Mystic Comics #4. Of last issue's characters only Blue Diamond and the Victory Boys are missing (even though 1 of the Victory Boys is on the cover). Presumably 'Captain' Flame is only a Private at this point, judging by how Strong talks to him, not the Lieutenant of #1. And Captain Strong of the Foreign Legion is also presumably only a buck-private in the US Army.

Several heroes are mentioned but not seen. Moon Man (no known name) was a costumed vigilante in the Batman mold in Mystic Comics #5. Secret Stamp (Roddy Colt) was a schoolboy costumed crime-fighter in CAC#13-27 and USAC#7-9. Again both these guys were unpowered. As was American Ace (Perry Webb) in Marvel Mystery Comics #2,3. He was a pilot who helped Attania aginst invasion by Castile D'Or. (Apparently the author finished the story with modified names in Centaur Comics Arrow #2.) The squad want to recruit American Ace as a pilot. This story ignores the fact that Johnson was a pilot in his Timely strips. Sgt Byrd also mentions they have 2 British pilots. I don't know who they are. My first thought was 2 of the Sky Devils (DMC#2,4,5), recently resurrected in The Marvels Project. But only 1 of them was British. There was no problem reconciling the 1944 events of last issue with the limited early non-war (except for Captain America and Bucky) Timely exploits of the characters. But this issue's 1942 setting does clash with some comics appearances. Jap Buster Johnson's run would obviously be parallel with this, as was Fighting Yank's solo outing. Father Time's non-war activities also spanned 1942. More problematic is that Roddy Colt's schoolboy adventures would be happening while he was here as a soldier!

A character I didn't recognise last issue was Flash Foster, who made his lone appearance in Daring Mystery Comics #1 as a college football star who refused to throw a game. Why he's in a superhero squad is (hopefully) yet to be revealed. This issue has its own slew of new characters. Fighting Yank (Bill Prince) was a US agent in China who only appeared in Captain America Comics #17. Doug 'Jap Buster' Johnson was a Naval Air Force officer with a much more established career in USA Comics #6-15, Kid Komics #6,8-10, All-Select Comics #2,8,9 and Complete Comics #2. But both of these are merely skilled fighters, and so are nearly as strange a choice for a super-squad as Foster, except to provide combat experience to support the costumed rookies. The same applies to Captain Strong. Father Time (Larry Scott) isn't much better. He featured in CAC#6-12, plus Mystic Comics #10 and Young Allies #3. True he was a costumed crime-fighter, but like many in those days he had no powers.

I think I was wrong, and Blue Diamond is in this issue. He's not named, but there are 2 guys with similar masks. One is Young Avenger, the other Blue Diamond. technically BD's in blue while YA's in green, but the colours aren't always distinguishable. BD's mask shows the whole of his nose, but YA's only exposes his nostrils.