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Way back when, in the dark and distant 1970s, it was a fan's dream that Marvel and DC
characters would be allowed to interact, but until the classic Superman vs Spider-Man,
such meetings occurred only in the form of "pastiche" type characters and super-teams,
A few years back, I did a column on Marvel's "Justice League" the Squadron Supreme.
This time around, I thought I'd look at DC's "Avengers", known variously as the
Champions of Angor, the Justifiers and the Assemblers.
Appearing in Justice League of America #87, which had the same cover date as the first
appearance of the Squadron Supreme, the Assemblers were drawn into conflict with the
Justice League when resource plundering robots, following attacks both Earth and Angor,
were tracked back to their home world Can-Nam-Loo. Each team thought the other had sent
out the plunder-bots and the traditionaly hero-vs-hero battle was on. We won't discuss
how any culture that could contruct robots capable of interstellar travel and able to
extract resources from distant planets could use the same robots to strip mine their
own star system's planets, moons and asteroids, as well as those of hundreds of
millions of uninhabited star systems, without inconveniencing any sentient types with
super powers.
The Assemblers, in that story, consisted of Wandjina, an angry-looking storm-god,
filling Thor's role. Bluejay is a shrinking man with artifical bird wings, doing
Yellowjacket's job. Silver Sorceress, who doesn't seem to wear any silver, at all,
indicating someone missed the point of the "scarlet" in Scarlet Witch's name, eh? And,
last, but not least, the super speedster called Jack B. Quick, who looks, to me, like
an early 70s Clint Eastwood in a Quicksilver knock-off costume.
Much later, Wandjina, Silver Sorceress and Bluejay were reintroduced to Justice League
fans when Justice League was relaunched, following the Legends mini-series. This time
around, the heroes from Angor were wandering the universe, determined to help prevent
nuclear disaster on the worlds they visited. When a nuclear reactor was damaged in
their battle with the Justice League, Wandjina gives his life preventing a meltdown.
In a later appearance, we got to travel to the Assemblers' homeworld, via time travel,
and get a glimpse of Angor and several other Assemblers. The members who were shown in
that story include Tin Man, Bowman, and an unnamed giant-man clone. I never liked the
name Tin Man, which seems somewhat demeaning, to me. In one flashback sequence, Jack B.
Quick's real name was revealed to be Harry Christos and his code-name was changed to
Capt. Speed. Considering the occassional name changes Marvel characters go through,
sometimes, I can see that. It also allows me to come up with different names for a
couple of the characters.
For the main characters, I haven't made any name changes. Wanjina's costume, I updated
and gave him pants, always important to one's godly dignity. Instead of the red cape, I
wanted something a little "stormy" looking. Lost the damn gold fur, no need for that.
With Silver Sorceress, I streamlined the outlandish headgear and gave her some silver
color to the costume, in the blue/silver cape and revealing her silver-white hair. I
kept the gold body suit and thought red boots fit better with it than blue/silver.
Looking at Jack B. Quick's costume, I decided (as with the Whizzer costume from my
Squadron Supreme) that dark blue and silver would look good. I gave him a goggle-mask,
because I think eye protection is important. Instead of a repetative jagged "lightning"
pattern, I went for a more "energetic" lightning design.
On Bluejay, I didn't make many changes. I borrowed the boots from one of his earlier
costumes, but made them gold, like his gloves. One of the things that bugs me about old
costume designs is their reliance on the gymnastic/circus costume lines. It was fine,
in the early days, but by the 1970s, it was time to find other design influences.
Instead of white, I made the bodysuit light gray and black/dark blue.
That covers the original Assemblers, from there I looked for the Avengers analogues who
were missing. They need an Iron Man, a Captain America and a Hawkeye. They also need a
"Wasp", to go with their "Yellowjacket", and a "Vision" to go with their "Scarlet
Witch".
Filling those roles isn't that hard, since I've been designing my own characters for so
many years. For Iron Man, I borrowed a bit from the "Tin Man" shown in JL Quarterly
#3's "Justifiers" team, designing a bulky armored suit. In JLQ #3 his colors are light
blue and pale gold. Not very tough looking. For my design, I tried to take it back a
little closer to Iron Man, and gave my Ironsmith a rust and gold color scheme.
It's a bit more difficult with the Captain America type. There are so many "patriotic"
characters around, it's easy to step on someone else's designs. For this exercise, I
went with the "star-spangled" look. When I designed the shield and the "V" design was
coming together, the name Victory came to mind and since these guys are from a
different world, with different history and traditions, I figured their
America-analogue used red, white, blue and gold.
IN JLQ #3, there was a Bowman, but I never liked his costume and the name, while
excellent, lacks the flash of a Hawkeye. I came up with Arrowstar, and gave him colors
that would let him find camouflage, in the woods or the city. The boots, I based on an
Apache design I saw, once. And, instead of having the "bowman" trained by American
Indians, I made him an indian.
As I said, with Bluejay in the Yellowjacket role, we need a Wasp. Or, in this case, a
Lark. Like Bluejay, she "grows" her wings as she shrinks.
And, to round things out and provide a companion for Silver Sorceress, a being who can
walk through walls and render himself indestructible. I don't think of Phantasm, as I
call him, as an android, I was thinking more along the lines of the original Vision, a
transdimensional being, able to phase in and out of normal existence.
See you next month.
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