All-Winners Squad

The All-Winners Squad is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The company's first such team, it first appeared in All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946), published by Marvel predecessor Timely Comics during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books.[1]

All-Winners Squad
All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946). Cover artists unconfirmed, possibly Al Avison and Al Gabriele.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceAll Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946).
Created byBill Finger (writer)
Vince Alascia
Al Avison
Bob Powell
Syd Shores (artists)
In-story information
Member(s)Captain America
Bucky
Human Torch
Toro
Sub-Mariner
Whizzer
Miss America
Blonde Phantom
Angel

While the comic-book title has no hyphen, Marvel, on its website version of the company's The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Teams 2005, spells the team name "All-Winners Squad" with a hyphen,[2] as do independent sources.[3][4]

Publication history

1940s Golden Age appearances

The All-Winners Squad was created for Marvel predecessor Timely Comics in 1946, during the Golden Age of Comic Books.[5] It consisted of Captain America and sidekick Bucky; the Human Torch and sidekick Toro; the Sub-Mariner; super-speedster the Whizzer; and Miss America.[6]

While the super-team made only two Golden Age appearances—in All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946) and #21 (Winter 1946; there was no issue #20)[4]—it reacquired fan interest upon their being reprinted by Marvel during the 1960s Silver Age of Comic Books.

The first appearance of the All-Winners Squad, titled "The Crime of the Ages", was written by Bill Finger. The 43-page story, split into seven chapters, was pencilled variously by Vince Alascia, Al Avison, Bob Powell, and Syd Shores, and inked by Avison, Alascia, Powell, Allen Bellman, Al Gabriele, and Don Rico.[4] In this story, the team fought the Nazi spy Isbisa.[7]

The second outing, "Menace from the Future World", was written by Otto Binder. The 43-page, seven chapter story was penciled by Alascia, Avison, Shores, and the pseudonymous Charles Nicholas also known as Chuck Nicholas, and inked by Alascia, Avison, Gabriele, Nicholas, and Shores.[4] This story involved the machinations of Madame Death and the time-travelling Future Man.[7]

Timely and Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee recalled in 1999:

I suspect that [Timely's publisher] Martin Goodman was the guy behind the All-Winners Squad. It's not the type of title I'd have made up. I think he simply must have said to me one day, 'I wanna do a book featuring the Torch, Toro, C.A., etc.—and let's call it the All-Winners Squad.' In which case I woulda just gotten the stuff together and sent it out. But honestly, although I can remember the title, I can remember nothing else about it.[8]

Latter-day fans during the Silver Age of Comic Books were introduced to the team via reprints 20 years later, with their tale in All-Winners Comics #19 being reprinted in Fantasy Masterpieces #10 (Aug. 1967) and All Winners Comics #21 being reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes #17–18 (Nov. 1968 & Jan. 1969). Thirty years after this, the entirety of All Winners Comics #19 was reprinted as Timely Presents: All-Winners (hyphen sic; title per reprint indicia), also known as Timely Comics Presents All Winners Comics (title per reprint cover) (Dec. 1999).

All Winners Squad #21 (Winter 1946/47). Cover by Avison and Charles Nicholas.

Retroactive continuity and later appearances

The All-Winners Squad has been retconned as the post-war continuation of the Invaders and Liberty Legion (two World War II-era teams created by Marvel in the 1970s) and as the inspiration for the V-Battalion (a post-war superhero team created by Marvel in 2001).

The team was reintroduced in What If? #4 (Aug. 1977), an alternate universe umbrella series. A canonical portion of the story reveals that when Captain America/Steve Rogers and Bucky were presumed dead in 1945, U.S. President Truman asked William Naslund, the patriotically costumed World War II hero the Spirit of '76, to assume the Captain America role, with a young man named Fred Davis as Bucky. They continue to serve in the same roles after the war with the All-Winners Squad, until the android Adam II fatally injured Naslund in 1946.

After Naslund's death, Jeff Mace, the Golden Age Patriot, took over as Captain America, with Davis continuing as Bucky; however, Davis was shot and injured in 1948 and forced to retire. Mace teamed with Betsy Ross, the superheroine Golden Girl, and sometime before 1953 gave up his Captain America identity to marry her. Mace developed cancer and died decades later.[9]

The Liberty Legion, created in 1976 but whose adventures are set in World War II, included two future members of the All-Winners Squad: the Whizzer and Miss America.

The All-Winners Squad made flashback appearances in The Sensational She-Hulk #22 (Dec. 1990), working alongside the Blonde Phantom,[4] in All Winners Comics 70th Anniversary Special (2009) and Captain America: Patriot (2010).

References
  1. Brevoort, Tom; DeFalco, Tom; Manning, Matthew K.; Sanderson, Peter; Wiacek, Win (2017). Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. DK Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 978-1465455505.
  2. All-Winners Squad at MarvelDirectory.com, reprinted from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Teams 2005
  3. All-Winners Squad Archived 2010-05-16 at the Wayback Machine at Nevins, Jess, A Guide to Golden Age Marvel Characters. Archived 2010-08-21 at WebCite of latter.
  4. All-Winners Squad at the Grand Comics Database
  5. DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
  6. Markstein, Don. "All-Winners Squad". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  7. Nevins, Jess (2013). Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes. High Rock Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-61318-023-5.
  8. "They Were Winners, Every One!" by Roy Thomas: Timely Presents: All-Winners (hyphen sic; title per reprint indicia), also known as Timely Comics Presents All Winners Comics (title per reprint cover), Marvel Comics, Dec. 1999: pp. 46–47 (unnumbered)
  9. Captain America #285 (Sept. 1983)
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