Zenith Comics Presents: The Victory Squad

The Victory Squad is most famous for being the American team of Major Victory, Lady America and their respective sidekicks Kid Victory and Spangle. While it is true that the focus of this team was these costumed super-patriots, many people do not realize that there was also a team of highly trained soldiers from almost every branch of the US Army that were also part of the Victory Squad.

To understand the Victory Squad we must look at their origins, then their run as the most effective Allied unit and their eventual demise at the raid on Castle Fear.

When the Victory Program was first launched, most in the military saw it as a waste of resources. While they saw the potential devastation of Germany's super man, Die Übermann, many didn't believe he was as powerful as the news reels had made him out to be.

The idea of American super soldiers at a cost of millions of dollars to develop to them was a waste of millions that could be spent on gear and training infantry men to do the same job.

When Doctor Phineas Titansky (come Doc Titan) was able to not only produce results by testing his super power granting Infinity Serum on himself but also producing four other super soldiers, a lot of opinions changed.

When the four were deployed to the European theatre in 1942 they fell under the command of Allied Commander, Major General James E. Chaney. It was no secret that Chaney was not at all interested in having them in the theatre and equally felt the costumed soldiers were nothing more than a morale booster. As such he confined them to USO Camp Shows and only in England, far from the front.

The shows they appeared at were a great success and their displays of physical ability thrilled the soldiers, but they had been reduced to little more than show ponies. It is even reported that Lady America and Spangle would do song & dance routines to the cat calls of the soldiers in attendance. This use of the super soldiers infuriated Doctor Titansky, who beseeched President Roosevelt to force General Chaney to use the super soldiers as actual soldiers, but the President refused, citing his absolute trust in the General’s decisions. All that changed on December 24th, 1942.

At a Christmas Eve USO show at the ETOUSA HQ in London, with the new Commanding General, European Theater of Operations, General Eisenhower in attendance, Die Übermann and a whole team of Axis supers called the Super Axis (Actually they were known to the Nazis as Die Blitzkriegers or the Lightning Warriors, but it was translated into English by the Allies as the Super Axis, which is also how it appeared in the comic exploits being published about the Victory Squad back home). The Nazis attacked in force, along with a full squad of reanimated undead Nazi paratroopers. Their mission was to kill the all the Allied commanders in one fell swoop. Unfortunately for them the Victory Squad was performing at that show.

What resulted was an epic battle where the four American supers soldiers were not only able to save the Allied Commanders, but also drive off the Nazi villains. History tells us that General Eisenhower was so impressed by what he saw that he changed his mind on the Victory Squad that very night and they would go on to legend.

What most don’t know is that there were a dozen American soldiers involved managed to secure weapons from undead paratroopers and use them to harass the Nazi villains as well. Of the twelve quick thinking soldiers, only two survived; Corporal Jack Jenkins and Sergeant Hank “Hurricane” McShane (A baseball legend who played for the Capitol City Blue Sox). No fool, and perhaps seeing the need for a support team backing the costume soldiers, General Eisenhower assigned these two men to the Victory Squad and ordered that ten more volunteers be found to join them to bring their numbers back to twelve, in honour of the ten men who had died at the USO show fighting back.

At first many of these men felt they were being asked to “volunteer” for either a soft detail or babysitting. Many jokes were made at their expense by other soldiers, but after their first foray into occupied France left half of them dead, they started to see it as an elite unit. It should be pointed out that the “volunteer” part was no more voluntary than the draft was. Many found themselves “volunteering” for the duty. For many new volunteers the idea of working with Lady America and Spangle was an insult. The vets of the team knew differently as they had witnessed first hand Lady A’s ferocity and her dedication to Victory Squad. It was not unheard of for a new squad volunteers’ gripes about “working with a dame” to be met by veteran members of the squad standing up for her and telling the tales of how she had saved their lives on more than one occasion.

A sidenote about Lady America showed her tenacity and drive to be taken seriously as a soldier. In May 1942, Lady America requested better uniforms for her and Spangle, as it seemed too many soldiers were looking up her skirt during battles. She also asked that the four costumed soldiers be given sidearms as well. The request was refused by Eisenhower’s office, so Lady America and Spangle marched into his office, whipped off their skirts, threw them on his desk and announced that they would battle Hitler with their with undergarments visible from that day forward. Her request was reconsidered and approved the next day.

For the duration of the war Sergeant McShane and Corporal Jenkins managed to survive the longest, being the only members of the original Victory Squad, other than the costumed heroes, to be part of the last battle. It is rumoured, though never proven, that there was an attempt to make a recruitment news reel featuring the two that was scrapped due to Jenkins inability to not swear ever other word and McShane’s lack of acting ability making him seem wooden and unappealing.

The ultimate fate of the Victory Squad would be a tragic, yet heroic one. Volunteering to lead a raid on Castle Fear, the base of operations for the Super Axis, then entire team would be wiped out in the resulting battle (except for Lady America) that achieved its mission of removing the Nazi supers as a battle force. This act assured that the Allied troops descending on Berlin in 1945 were not impeded by the Super Axis.

In 1979 Lady America petitioned to have a monument raised in honor of the Victory Squad, though the petition was defeated in Congress due to costs, a sad end to a story of the incredible heroism of normal soldiers alongside the greatest super soldiers in American history.

How To Find An Aritst?

So one of the by products of my working on the Zenith Universe is that I have finally managed to solidify a lot of the story for the inevitable Lady America comic I have wanted to write for the past decade or so.

Now before I start writing it, one of the things that always has kept me from writing comics is the lack of artistic talent or the ability to find an artist to draw what I write.

I have known a lot of artists over the years, but alas most of them also want to write so they have little to no interest in working on another writer's project.

Hiring an artist is just out of the question as the cost would be fantastically expensive and ultimately I would not be trying to sell this comic, but putting it online for free as a sort of webcomic.

So, as I do at times like these, I turn to you all and ask your guidance and advice, how would one go about finding an artist?

If you have any other ideas or thoughts about this, please let me know.

P.S. I also promise my next post will be about my Zenith Universe and MSH since I haven't posted one of those is a long time. Cheers :)

I Need A Batman

Yup that's right.

As I work on the Silver Age for the Zenith Universe, I have my Superman (Guardsman) and I have my Wonder Woman (Lady America) but I am missing a Batman. The guy who uses brains and skill instead of powers. The guy who everyone wonders if he is a hero or a villain. The guy, who when the American Government says "Unmask or go to jail." in the 50's doesn't say anything, he just ignores them and keeps going.

Now the hard part of this is that I don't want him to be a dead-to-rights rip-off of the Bat. Certainly Guardsman doesn't strike anyone as Superman on first blush. He isn't an alien, he started in 1944 and was powered by a magical helmet. Lady America (nicknamed the American Amazon for those who might miss it ;) ) isn't directly Wonder Woman either. She has no powers, uses Martial Arts and is a wrapped in the flag patriot. Essentially she is Wonder Woman masquerading as Captain America.

So how to have a Batman who isn't really a Batman at first glance.

I am wracking my brain on this one and coming up empty, so I turn to you all for input, ideas and guidance.

One caveat, please don't offer me characters from your own campaigns or creations unless you are also giving me permission to use them in publishing ventures (for which proper credit will be given to you if the character is used) as well as to twist, fold, spindle and/or mutilate as I see fit to make them work in the Zenith Universe.

Just had to get that out of the way.

Last One For Today!

Here is the all new and king-sized Lady America modern costume.

The hair is still not right, but that's the way it goes. I am not an artist, so I make do with what I have until I have cash to pay folks to do stuff for me ;)

More Sneak Peaks!

Lady America's original USO costume and her later more military costume, both from the Golden Age :)

New Pictures!

So I realized I was doing something wrong with the way I did my character pictures. So I redid them all and in the process redesigned a little bit :)

Here we go;

First up is my Lady America. I spent a lot of time working on this look and in the end it became a mix of two different Lady America costumes. The first one ever and the City of Heroes look I used that won me oh so many costume contests in Atlas Park.

The hair is still wrong, as it it supposed to look like the singer from Roxette's hair but I just could get that right at all.

It should look like this;

But the problem is that I have little to no artistic talent freehand and drawing said hair would have been beyond my talents.

Still I am happy with how she turned out. Even if her boobs are too big. ;)



Up next is the rework of Gyro. Again I added something to the picture, which was the new chest symbol. I like it a lot more than the one that came built into the Fabrica program, so off to Photoshop I went. In the end I think he looks more streamlined and faster, which is sort of what I was aiming for.

Like Lady A, Gyro is a character that is near and dear to my heart. When I couldn't get his name in City of Heroes I wound calling him Ex Astris, which was fun... but it wasn't right. I can still hear Farrel in my head saying in his Spartacus voice "Gyro! Gyro! Gyro!" in a very Brady Bunch moment.

Sigh those were good time.

Continuing the trend of remake and redesign, I came to my buddy Guardsman. I just couldn't get it right. No matter how I tried to do it, it wasn't coming out the way I wanted.

Then I tried this and everything was okay;

It is amazing what a half-cape and some colour introspection can do for a character. I am beyond happy with how Guardsman turned out. Now he looks like the bad-ass super hero I saw him as originally.

Well that's it for now.

More to come, as there are already designs on the plate that haven't been seen yet. Some of which still need to be stated out as well.

Cheers and enjoy!

"EVIL CLONE" Lady America - By Request

1980's "EVIL CLONE" LADY AMERICA
Amanda Reese

LADY AMERICA
Amanda Reese
31pts (16 Stats/15 Powers)

Stats

Brawn: 4
Agility: 2
Mind: 2

Powers
Armour 2 (x5 Soak)
Eye Beams: Special Attack: 4 (+2DM/Mid Range)
Flight 4
Mind Spikes 5

Skills - Physical
Athletics – Aerobatics
Drive – Steering
Pilot – Control
Stealth – Evading Security

Skills - Mental
Military – Command
Security - Surveillance

Advantages
Leadership
Never Surrender
Quick Thinking
Security Clearance

Disadvantages
Duty*
Nightmares**
Rogue’s Gallery
Secret

Mental Malfunction
Super Patriot

Background
According to the EAGLE file on this one, the Citadel (or VENOM depending on whose files you read) captured and cloned Lady America and gave her different powers. They then sent her out to pretend to be the actual Lady America. A ruse that lasted from 1981 to late 1983. In late 83 the real Lady America escaped capture and confronted her doppelganger, who had gone crazy and was attacking the Project Liberty HQ. The battle was brilliant and brutal, but ended with the real Lady America holding her dieing clone in her arms. The clone's last words were "Why?".

Lady America - BASH!

Here is Lady America written up in BASH Ultimate Edition for the new Ultimate Guardians campaign.

Note that due to players being able to read this blog, I have had to leave a couple of things blank. These are things to be discovered through play.

Also I have included a Timm done of her in her City of Heroes costume. While not perfectly how I see her, it is a good look.

With out further ado;

Lady America
Amanda Reese
Power Level: 35pts

Stats (16)

B: 2
A: 4
M: 2

HP: 3/_
XP: _

Powers (16)

Attack Weak Point
Disarm Expert
Fleet of Foot
Keen Senses
Martial Arts 3
Mind Spikes 5
Swift Strike

Skills - Physical
Athletics – Acrobatics
Drive – Steering
Pilot – Control;
Stealth – Evading Security

Skills – Mental
Military – Command
Security - Surveillance

Advantages
Leadership
Never Surrender
Quick Thinking
Security Clearance

Disadvantages
Duty*
Nightmares**
Rogue’s Gallery
Secret

Mental Malfunction
Super Patriot

*Duty - New Disadvantage; You work for or are beholden to some group or organization that can call upon you to perform tasks or such, thereby interfering with your life and your heroing.

**Nightmares - New Disadvantage; You suffer from nightly nightmares due to something in your past, outside forces, premonitions (work it out with your Narrator). As such each morning you must make a difficulty 20 Mind check or suffer 1d6 Setbacks for that day.

Zenith Comics Presents: Ultimate Guardians

Well the die is cast and I am underway working on my Ultimate Guardians campaign. There has been a lot of enjoyment in my mind of working out various things and such.

The question of system is still up for debate (my declaration of BASH as a winner earlier may have been a bit premature) and it seems the old FASERIPer is in the running, but maybe as 4C. I will know as soon as I start to write stats down.

I have also teamed up with my buddy Longbow from the Super Buddies forums and he has started doing some art for me in the Bruce Timm style from the DCAU.

The first piece up is my old favourite, Lady America;

This is an old costume of hers and not her final look for sure, but it was nice to see her come to life in the first costume I ever designed for her!

While she isn't a Guardian at the start of the campaign, she will be an ally of them team.

The characters (no art yet) are as follows;

Galvanos - A Japanese Robot in the Shogun Warrior style controlled by a handicapped Japanese youth.

Max Plastic - A smart mouthed former-crook-turned-hero who can stretch and shape himself into almost anything.

Kestrel - An angry young mutant with the looks of an angel. His temper is legendary.

Traxx - A speedster who embraces all the traditional stereotypes about speedsters.

Zero-G - An ex astronaut turned superhero with power over gravity itself. A southern gentleman.

Arrow - A soldier/archery expert with hand-to-hand skills to match. He is secretive about his past.

Cascade - A mutant aquatic woman form Australia who studies marine biology and is at best a relunctant hero.

Now the game will be set in Capitol City, which I am going to do an big overhaul of. I am going to make it sort of a Chicago of the East, more on that later.

The big trick to the game is this. All the characters are from the older campaigns I have run, but this time it won't be the player who made them playing it. For example, Galvanos' player won't be playing Galvanos, etc... Really shaking it up.

More as it develops