Epic
comic book series, published in 2005-2006 by
DC Comics and written by
Grant Morrison.
The concept for the series was conceived and intricately plotted-out by Morrison, a Scottish writer best known for creating "
The Invisibles" and for shepherding "
JLA" and "The
X-Men" through some of their most critically acclaimed storylines. They decided on the name of the series after doing extensive work on the project after realizing that DC already owned the rights to the
Seven Soldiers of Victory, a normal team of superheroes created back in 1941.
Morrison's comic is a superteam book with a
twist -- none of the seven
superheroes ever meet each other or even know that they're working toward a common goal. Each character gets his or her own four-issue
mini-series, with new artists, (mostly) new
origins, and free-standing storylines. All of the main characters have names familiar to DC Comics readers, though most get a facelift for the new project. You could buy just one of the mini-series and get a complete, satisfying story, without needing to know about any of the other stories. Of course, if you pick up all seven mini-series (that's 28 separate issues, plus two bookend issues at the beginning and end, spanning over a year), you're going to get an
intricate, novel-length epic with a shared, interlocking set of
plots,
villains,
supporting characters,
symbolisms, and
mythologies, from one of the best and most ambitious comic writers out there.
All
seven of the main characters face an
extinction-level event -- a
faerie-like race called the
Sheeda who periodically invade Earth and exterminate almost everyone, leaving just enough people to rebuild the population for the next time the Sheeda invade. Can seven superheroes, working completely independently, shut down an army of powerful invaders with millions of years of experience in hunting down and killing large numbers of humans?
The series started with
Seven Soldiers #0, featuring art by
J.H. Williams. The
Vigilante (a combination
cowboy/superhero from the early '40s) hires a group of five low-rent superheroes to help him put down the threat of the Sheeda.
The Whip,
Gimmix,
Boy Blue,
Dyno-Mite Dan, and
Spyder (all updated versions of Golden Age characters) help Vigilante put down a giant
spider... but they are unprepared for the huge numbers of Sheeda that soon attack them, nor for the cosmic villain called the
Nebula Man (or
Neh-buh-loh), and they are all brutally slaughtered. The mysterious
Seven Unknown Men, the secret patrons of the team, are disappointed, but they set into motion their plan to assemble a new team of heroes who will never meet each other... Once that's out of the way, the seven individual miniseries get started, including:
- Shining Knight with art by Simone Bianchi. Sir Ystina is the last of Arthur's knights, transported to modern-day Los Angeles with her winged horse. She can't speak English, she can't understand anything that's going on, and the Sheeda have corrupted Camelot's greatest knight to destroy her.
- Guardian with art by Cameron Stewart. Jake Jordan is an ex-cop trying to rebuild his life. When the mysterious publisher of the Manhattan Guardian newspaper offers him a position as a superhero / reporter / corporate trademark, he is thrown into a terrifying world of subway pirates, killer robots, and the Newsboy Army.
- Zatanna with art by Ryan Sook. The same backwards-talking, fishnet-wearing spellcaster from the DC Universe, Zatanna is a washed-up hero who has lost her powers. Taking on an apprentice, she investigates magic threats while searching for her father's missing spellbooks and trying to regain her abilities.
- Klarion with art by Frazer Irving. The eternally youthful Witch Boy is re-imagined as a refugee from a lost, underground Puritan colony. Exulting in his magical power, Klarion and his cat Teekl explore the amazing but deadly world above his home caverns.
- Mr. Miracle with art by Pascal Ferry, Billy Dallas Patton, and Freddie Williams II. Shiloh Norman is the world's greatest escape artist, dividing his time between the city's hippest hotspots and its poorest ghettos. Plagued by strange memories and visions of a band of New Gods, Shiloh rushes toward the one man he cannot escape -- the fearsome Dark Side.
- Bulleteer with art by Yanick Paquette. Alix Harrower never wanted to be a superhero, but when she is coated in an indestructible "living metal" in an accident that kills her less-than-faithful husband, she finds herself swept up in events beyond her control. She has escaped certain death more than once -- but can she escape it -- or the terrible secrets of the past -- forever?
- Frankenstein with art by Doug Mahnke. Based on DC's '70s-era "Spawn of Frankenstein," the main character here is an immortal, poetry-quoting monster with a multitude of mismatched body parts, a big-ass gun, a razor-sharp sword, and a boundless thirst for righteous vengeance.
Can the seven heroes work together without actually working together? Will they survive the prophesied betrayal or the death of one of their number? Will the Sheeda destroy the world again? Or is there hope for humanity among these seven secret soldiers?