All-Star Squadron (New Earth)

All-Star Squadron
Gallery
Official Team Name	All-Star Squadron
Team Aliases	The All-Stars
Status	Defunct
Universe	Earth-Two · New Earth ·
Base of Operations	The Trylon and Perisphere, New York City
Affiliations
Team Leader(s)	Formerly Liberty Belle (Libby Lawrence); Formerly Hawkman (Carter Hall)
Former Members	See Below
Allies	Blackhawks, The All-Star Squadron had a robotic butler named Gernsback
Enemies	Adolf Hitler, Baron Blitzkrieg, Axis Amerika, Ultra-Humanite, Cyclotron, the Axis Powers and their agents, various Fifth Columnists
Origin
Place of Formation	Washington, D.C.
Creators	Roy Thomas · Rich Buckler · Jerry Ordway
First appearance	Justice League of America #193 (August, 1981)

History

Late into the evening of December 6, 1941, President Roosevelt and an advisor attempt to contact the Justice Society of America but no one answers as their headquarters is empty. In Los Angeles, Johnny Chambers and Tubby Watts cover a charity foot race among the Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, with the Amazon winning by a nose. Wildcat presents Wonder Woman with a trophy noting that he had been wanting to meet the three heroes. The heroes take their leave and meet up (minus Wildcat) in nearby Echo Park where they encounter Solomon Grundy. None of the heroes have fought Grundy yet the villain claims to have fought them before. Grundy bests the costumed trio and is summoned by a mysterious voice to deliver them or "pay the penalty."

Roosevelt makes another attempt to contact the JSA with no luck. Meanwhile, in New York City, Sandman, Starman, and Johnny Thunder (with his personal Thunderbolt), are defeated by the notorious Sky Pirate. Simultaneously, Dr. Fate learns through the Orb of Nabu that Wotan has returned despite having been defeated "forever." The sorcerer quickly departs despite his wife's admonishment that he is not as powerful as before. Wotan uses a disguised Spectre to defeat his old nemesis, thereby defeating them both.

Somewhere in the South Pacific, Ensign Rod Reilly tries to dissuade his sister Danette from her risky volcano research. Elsewhere, in Gotham City, Superman, Batman, and Robin open a new USO club but are defeated by Professor Zodiak. In Washington, DC, the Atom, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Hawkman are attacked at the Lincoln Memorial by The Monster. When the trio best the horror-inspired villain, The Monster changes into an old man mentioning the name Degaton as the person responsible for the attack. Witnessing this is a mysterious man who then walks away "making strangely metallic sounds upon the rough concrete." As the clock strikes midnight, Roosevelt reveals he had hoped to have the JSA ready in case of a Japanese attack. Still unsuccessful in contacting them, the president is cautiously optimistic the United States will "come through this."

On the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathers available superheroes at the White House and asked them to work together to battle sabotage and keep the peace on the home front during World War II. At the time, many of the Justice Society members had been captured by the villain Per Degaton, but the available heroes were asked to first guard against a potential attack on the American West Coast.

Degaton himself used some stolen Japanese planes to launch such an attack, so the new Squadron's first major mission was to stop the attack and rescue the captured heroes, who also became part of the new group. The rationale for not using the Squadron in combat situations in the European or Pacific Theaters of War was that Adolf Hitler had possession of the Spear of Destiny, a mystical object that gave him control of any superheroes with magic-based powers or a vulnerability to magic (including Superman, Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, and others) who crossed into territory held by the Axis Powers.

Notes

• The book chronicled the adventures of a large team of superheroes, comprised mostly of featured characters owned by DC comics (including those purchased from other companies such as Quality Comics) that had appeared in the Golden Age of Comic Books. It included members of the Justice Society of America, Freedom Fighters, and Seven Soldiers of Victory, as well as a number of solo heroes.

• The All-Star Squadron was an example of "retroactive continuity" or "retcon", as it rewrote the already-established history of DC superheroes that had been published during the 1940s. The first known use of the term "retcon" was by Roy Thomas in the letter column of All-Star Squadron #20 (April, 1983).

• The Trylon and Perisphere, actual structures constructed in New York City for the 1939 New York World's Fair, housed the Squadron's headquarters. The All-Star Squadron had a robotic butler named Gernsback, who was based on the Elektro robots from the fair and was probably named after Hugo Gernsback.

• Originally, the All-Star Squadron was supposed to exist on "Earth-Two", a parallel world used by DC as the venue for stories occurring during the 1940s, and including heroes only published during that era as well as the early versions of characters still published up to the present day such as Batman and Superman (the contemporary versions of those characters existed on "Earth-One"). After the 1985 DC Comics event Crisis on Infinite Earths merged the parallel worlds into one continuity, the duplicate superhero versions were eliminated. The All-Star Squadron was then itself retconned and left only with the characters unique to that time period, so that Superman, Batman and Robin; Wonder Woman and Aquaman were not alive at that point in history, and were thus never Squadron members. Subsequently, Green Arrow and Speedy were also removed from the wartime continuity, though this appears to have been a late decision.

See Also

• 132 Appearances of All-Star Squadron (New Earth)
• 14 Images that include All-Star Squadron (New Earth)
• Team Gallery: All-Star Squadron (New Earth)

Links and References

• All-Star Squadron at Wikipedia
• More (All-)Stars Than There Are In Heaven by Roy Thomas From Alter Ego Vol. 3 #6 - A discussion of the creation of the All-Star Squadron.
• Invaders A Marvel comics WWII Team at the Marvel Database
• HITLER NEVER STOOD A CHANCE . . .Unca Cheeks' article on the All-Star Squadron
• ALL-STAR SQUADRON 1-67 (1981-1987) at the Comic Treadmill