The All-Star Squadron is a

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

team that debuted in '' Justice League of America'' #193 (August 1981) and was created by Roy Thomas,

Rich Buckler Rich Buckler (February 6, 1949 – May 19, 2017) was an Americans, American comics artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' in the mid-1970s and for creating the character Deat ...

and

Jerry Ordway Jeremiah Joseph Ordway (born November 28, 1957) is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books. He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining ''Crisis on Infinite E ...

. Although the team was introduced in the 1980s, its self-titled series took place in the 1940s, retroactively inserting their narratives into the fictional history of the DC Comics superheroes. The team included many of DC's Golden Age era characters, new characters, and other

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

superheroes which DC did not own during the 1940s but later acquired. The name "All-Star Squadron" was creator Roy Thomas' reference to '' All Star Comics'', the series that introduced the Justice Society of America, the first comic book superhero team. According to the series ''All-Star Squadron'', US President Franklin Roosevelt creates a "superhero draft" called Article X during World War II. Article X asks all active American masked crime-fighters and superhuman adventurers to join forces as a single war-time organization, just as many American labor organizations did during World War II. In the canon of DC Comics, the

Axis Powers The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...

used the mystical Spear of Destiny to create a "sphere of influence" over their occupied territories and surrounding areas during most of World War II. This sphere of influence caused superhumans, magically empowered people, and magic-users to fall under Hitler's control and take on some of his personality traits. For this reason, the All-Star Squadron focused its activities on protecting the US from invasion, super-villains, spies, and sabotage rather than risk their minds being controlled by the Axis Powers if they operated overseas in Europe or Asia. After their introduction in Justice League of America, the team starred in the series ''All-Star Squadron'' which ran from 1981 to 1987. At different times, the organization's chairperson was Liberty Belle or

Hawkman Hawkman is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1, published by All-American ...

. A spin-off series entitled '' Young All-Stars'' began in 1987 and published 32 issues.

Publication history

During the Golden Age of Comics (roughly 1935–1951), several comic books featured crime-fighters, "mystery-men", adventurers, and superheroes. DC Comics began publishing the anthology series ''All Star Comics'' (sometimes referred to as ''All-Star Comics'') in 1940. In issue #3, DC had many of their superheroes join together for dinner and share stories, declaring the gathering to be the first meeting of the

Justice Society of America The Justice Society of America (JSA) is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It was conceived by editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox during the Golden Age of Comic Books. It first appeared in '' ...

. The JSA was the first comic book superhero team and became the main feature of ''All Star Comics'' until it was canceled with issue #57 in 1951. Writer Gerry Conway revived the ''All Star Comics'' series in 1976, continuing the original numbering by starting with issue #58. By this time, DC had established that its modern day adventures took place in the universe of Earth-One, whereas DC's Golden Age stories during the 1930s and 40s occurred in a parallel reality called

Earth-Two Earth-Two (also Earth 2) is a setting for stories (a "fictional universe") appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. First appearing in ''The Flash'' #123 (1961), Earth-Two was created to explain differences between the original ...

. While the Golden Age

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

, introduced in 1938, had lived through World War II, the Earth-One Superman had not even been born until long after the war was over. While the modern-day Earth-One

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

was a superhero in her prime, new stories revealed that the Golden Age Wonder Woman of Earth-Two had fought Nazis during World War II, then later semi-retired, married her dear friend Steve Trevor, and had a daughter named Hyppolyta Trevor (who became a hero called Fury and joined a team of heroes known as Infinity, Inc.). The 1970s revival of ''All Star Comics'' involved some flashback stories, but most of the issues took place in the modern day, showing the Justice Society members as older heroes decades after World War II. Conway also included younger heroes in the group, such as Power Girl (an Earth-Two version of

Supergirl Supergirl is the name of several fictional superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original, current, and most well known Supergirl is Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Kara Zor-El, the cousin of superhero Superman. Th ...

). His hope was to later have the younger members star in a spin-off series of their own, forming a team that could be called the All-Star Squadron. Management at DC worried that the team's name would be abbreviated as A.S.S., and so the group's name was changed to the Super Squad. A team known as the All-Star Squadron debuted years later in a special insert in '' Justice League of America'' #193 (August 1981). The team's official series ''All-Star Squadron'' then began the following month with the creative team of writer Roy Thomas, with artists

and

. The comic book series lasted 67 issues from September 1981 to March 1987, with three annuals published as well. In ''All-Star Squadron'' #1, series writer Roy Thomas published "An Open Letter to the Readers" wherein he described the impetus for the series. Namely, DC wanted a comic book telling tales of the

(JSA). The last series to do so was the second volume of '' All Star Comics'', which lasted only seventeen issues from 1976 to 1979. Roy Thomas said that DC management gave him "a chance to write a return of the JSA". Instead of writing stories in the modern era of Earth-Two, Roy Thomas chose to set the series during World War II. Roy Thomas decided to include other Golden Age era characters that were not published by DC Comics during the 1930s and 40s but were acquired by the company in later years, such as the

Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, ...

characters. ''All-Star Squadron'' established that most of these characters co-existed with the Golden Age DC heroes on Earth-Two. In a nod to the original JSA adventures in '' All Star Comics'', Thomas tried to include at least a cameo appearance by the Golden Age

in every issue, since he was the one hero to appear in every Golden Age issue of the original ''All Star Comics series'', including the two issues that predated the formation of the Justice Society of America. Although Hawkman did not appear in every issue of the second ''All Star Comic'' series, Roy Thomas wanted to create a new streak for the character in ''All-Star Squadron''. The artwork for issue #49 was printed without Hawkman's cameo included, making it the only issue of the series where he does not appear. The All-Star Squadron is an example of "

retroactive continuity Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in fictional story telling whereby facts and events established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work ...

" or "retcon", since the team was retroactively inserted into the history of DC superheroes and the series rewrote portions of DC canon 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). Several story lines ironed out continuity errors, fleshed out characters' origins, explained inconsistencies in character development, and resolved lingering questions and plot threads. Roy Thomas had used the Marvel Comics series '' Invaders'' in a similar way to address and revise official Marvel fictional history. Several issues of the series offered detailed origin stories of various characters, sometimes with revised details. Characters who had origin issues dedicated to them included Amazing-Man, Starman,

Doctor Fate Doctor Fate (also known as Fate) is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first version was originally created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Howard Sherman, debuting in ''More Fun Comics' ...

, Liberty Belle, Robotman, Johnny Quick, and the Tarantula. The story arc in issues #32-33 detailed how the Freedom Fighters traveled from

to Earth-X, an event indicated in an earlier Justice League story. With so many characters to choose from, the creative team decided to concentrate on "quite promising characters who have been ignored or underplayed for years", instead of only those Earth-Two characters who had popular counterparts on Earth-One. For examples, ''All-Star Squadron'' did not focus much on the Earth-Two versions of Superman and Wonder Woman, nor on the Golden Age version of the Flash, Jay Garrick, whose counterpart Barry Allen was very popular as the Flash of Earth-One. Roy Thomas wrote: "If we lost the original GL, we gained the Earth-Two Robotman; if we dropped Jay (Flash) Garrick, we picked up on Johnny Quick; Liberty Belle could stand in for

till more super-powered ladies came along. We even tossed in an Earth-Two version of the venerable

Plastic Man Plastic Man (Patrick "Eel" O'Brian) is a superhero featured in American comic books first appearing in ''Police Comics'' #1, originally published by Quality Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. Created by cartoonist Jack Cole (artist), Jack Co ...

, whose series in ''

Adventure Comics ''Adventure Comics'' is an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1938 to 1983 and revived from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues (472 of those after the title changed from ''New Adventure Comics''), ...

'' was just folding..." When Rich Buckler left the series after the fifth issue, editor

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine (character), Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel sup ...

hired artist

Adrian Gonzales Adrian Gonzales (1937 – October 23, 1998) was a Filipinos, Filipino comics artist best known for his work on ''All-Star Squadron'', ''Arak (comics), Arak, Son of Thunder'', and ''Super Powers Collection, Super Powers'' for DC Comics. Career A ...

as a replacement and notified Roy Thomas with a note stating "You're going to like Adrian Gonzales". He drew the series for 13 issues, during which the team had a crossover with the ''Justice League of America''. Jerry Ordway, who had inked the series since its start, became the series regular penciler starting with issue #19 (March 1983). He and Thomas then co-created the Infinity, Inc. team, introducing it in ''All-Star Squadron'' #25 (Sept. 1983). ''All-Star Squadron'' #31 (1984) featured the group's first "full roster" general meeting, taking place at their headquarters. The All-Star Squadron HQ was depicted as the Trylon and Perisphere, actual structures in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, constructed for the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The fair included exhibitio ...

. The Perisphere contained the Squadron meeting hall, while the Trylon was retrofitted as an aircraft hangar/vertical launch platform. The All-Star Squadron had a robotic butler named Gernsback, based on the Elektro robots from the fair and named after science fiction publisher Hugo Gernsback. During the 1985-86 series ''

Crisis on Infinite Earths ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' is a 1985 to 1986 American comic book fictional crossover, crossover series published by DC Comics. Written by Marv Wolfman and penciller, pencilled by George Pérez, it was first released as a 12-issue limited ser ...

'', Earth-Two and Earth-One, along with some other realities, merged into a new, unified reality with a revised history. The heroes of World War II now existed in the same timeline as modern heroes, simply operating at an earlier time. While it was not a major problem to establish that certain characters such as the Golden Age Flash (a man named Jay Garrick) and the later Flash (a man named Barry Allen) could co-exist and both operate during different time periods, this explanation did not work for heroes with direct counterparts. Golden Age heroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman,

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

, Robin, and Green Arrow all of whom had the same secret identities, same basic origin stories, and largely similar supporting casts as their modern day counterparts. For this reason, these particular Golden Age heroes, and some others, had to be removed from the history of the new, unified timeline. This also meant the canon of several recent ''All-Star Squadron'' stories was now questionable, since the Golden Age versions of those same heroes made multiple appearances in the series. To clear the slate after ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' and re-launch the franchise, ''All Star Squadron'' ended with issue #67 and the series was succeeded by '' Young All-Stars''. Since then, the All-Star Squadron has appeared in sporadic stories published by DC Comics. Article X was used again during the crossover ''

Final Crisis "Final Crisis" is a crossover storyline that appeared in comic books published by DC Comics in 2008, primarily the seven-issue miniseries of the same name written by Grant Morrison. Originally DC announced the project as being illustrated solely ...

'' when Earth's superheroes needed to unite against the forces of Darkseid and the evil New Gods. In a 2025 interview, Thomas said of ''All-Star Squadron'' that "I always say two things. One is that was my favorite comic of all time to write, above '' Conan'', '' Avengers'', or anything, because it combined the superheroes and the history, two of my great passions. And the other thing is that ... there is a possibility that if it hadn't been for that damn ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' ... we might have kept going, we'd be right up to three or four hundred issues by now."

Fictional history

On the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

gathered available superheroes—including members of the

, Freedom Fighters, and solo heroes—at the White House. He asked them to band together for the war as the All-Star Squadron to battle sabotage and keep the peace on the home front during

. The rationale for not using the Squadron in combat situations in the European or

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

Theaters of War was that

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

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

, Green Lantern,

and others) who crossed into territory held by the

. At the time, many of the Justice Society members had been captured by the time-travelling villain Per Degaton with the help of JSA foes he had pulled back in time, but the available heroes were asked to first guard against a potential attack on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...

. Degaton himself used some stolen Japanese planes with hypnotized troopers to launch such an attack on San Francisco, hoping to change history by making the United States fight to a stalemate against Japan, enabling him to take over the world, 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. Due to Per Degaton going back in time after the JSA were freed they forgot his involvement, though the events were not wiped. America's entry into the war caused several of the members of the JSA to enlist, or be drafted in their civilian identities. These included

Alan Scott Alan Ladd Wellington Scott is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, and the first character to bear the name Green Lantern. He fights evil with the aid of his mystical ring, which grants him a variety of powers. H ...

, Starman,

, The Atom and Johnny Thunder. In the pages of " The New Golden Age", the Prime-Earth version of the All-Star Squadron is revealed to exist as the bio for the Golden Age Aquaman mentions that he was briefly a member of this group. Mister Terrific also mentioned that the All-Star Squadron was once helped out by the Golden Age Legionnaire (later revealed to be a younger version of Mordru who wants to avoid the path of evil).''Justice Society of America'' Vol. 4 #9. DC Comics.

Creators

Writers

* Roy Thomas – #1–67 (Sept. 1981–March 1987); ''Annual'' #1–3 (1982–84) * Gerry Conway – #8–9 (April–May 1982) (

Steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

section only) * Paul Kupperberg – #41, 44 (Jan. 1985, April 1985) *

Mike Baron Mike Baron (born July 1, 1949) is an American comic book writer and novelist. He is the creator of ''Badger (comics), Badger'' and the co-creator of ''Nexus (comics), Nexus'' with Steve Rude. He is also well known as the first writer on Marvel Co ...

– #43 (March 1985) * Dann Thomas – #46, 51, 53–55 (June 1985, Nov. 1985, Jan. 1986–March 1986)

Artists

– #1–5, 36 (Sept. 1981–Jan. 1982, Aug. 1984); ''Annual'' #3 (1984) *

– #6–18 (Feb. 1982–Feb. 1983); ''Annual'' #1 (1982) * Don Heck – #8–9, 65 (April–May 1982, Jan. 1987) (

section only for #8–9) *

– #19–26, 29 (March 1983–Oct. 1983, Jan. 1984); ''Annual'' #2–3 (1983–1984) * Richard Howell – #27–28, 30, 40 (Nov. 1983–Dec. 1983, Feb. 1984, Dec. 1984); ''Annual'' #3 (1984) * Rick Hoberg – #31–35, 38–39 (March 1984–July 1984, Oct. 1984–Nov. 1984); ''Annual'' #3 (1984) * Arvell Jones – #37, 41–46, 50–55, 58–60, 67 (Sept. 1984, Jan. 1985–June 1985, Oct. 1985–March 1986, June 1986–Aug. 1986, March 1987) * Keith Giffen – ''Annual'' #3 (1984) *

Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editing, editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are ...

– ''Annual'' #3 (1984) * Don Newton – ''Annual'' #3 (1984) * Martin Nodell – ''Annual'' #3 (1984) *

George Pérez George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' and ''The Avengers (c ...

– ''Annual'' #3 (1984) * Todd McFarlane – #47 (July 1985) * Mike Harris – #48–49, 61 (Aug. 1985–Sept. 1985, Sept. 1986) * Mike Clark – #51, 56–57, 60 (Nov. 1985, April 1986–May 1986, Aug. 1986) * Tony DeZuniga – #62 (Oct. 1986) * Michael Bair – #63 (Nov. 1986) * Wayne Boring – #64 (Dec. 1986); ''Annual'' #3 (1984) * Alan Kupperberg – #66 (Feb. 1987)

Cover artists

* Rich Buckler – #1, 3–6, 36 (Sept. 1981, Nov. 1981–Feb. 1982, Aug. 1984) * Joe Kubert – #2, 7–18 (Oct. 1981, March 1982–Feb. 1983) * Jerry Ordway – #19–33, 50, 60 (March 1983–May 1984, Oct. 1985, Aug. 1986); ''Annual'' #1–2 (1982–83) * Rick Hoberg – #34–35, 37–39 (June 1984–July 1984, Sept. 1984–Nov. 1984); ''Annual'' #3 (1984) * Arvell Jones – #40–44, 46, 52, 55, 58–59, 64–66 (Dec. 1984–April 1985, June 1985, Dec. 1985, March 1986, June 1986–July 1986, Dec. 1986–Feb. 1987) * Tim Burgard – #45 (May 1985) * Todd McFarlane – #47 (July 1985) * Mike Harris – #48–49, 61–62 (Aug. 1985–Sept. 1985, Sept. 1986–Oct. 1986) * Mike Clark – #51, 53–54, 56–57 (Nov. 1985, Jan. 1986–Feb. 1986, April 1986–May 1986) * Michael Bair – #63 (Nov. 1986) * Tom Grindberg – #67 (March 1987)

Editors

– #1–20, ''Annual'' #1 (Sept. 1981–April 1983) * Roy Thomas – #21–67, ''Annual'' #2–3 (May 1983–March 1987)

Associate/assistant editors

* Mike W. Barr #1–9 (Sept. 1981–May 1982) * Carl Gafford #10–16, ''Annual'' #1 (June–Dec. 1982) * Nick Cuti #17–29, ''Annual'' #2 (Jan. 1983–Jan. 1984) * Janice Race #32–58, ''Annual'' #3 (April 1984–June 1986) * Barbara Randall #59–61 (July–Sept. 1986) * Greg Weisman #62–67 (Oct. 1986–March 1987)

Collected editions

References

External links

*
''All-Star Squadron'' biography at DCUGuide.com
{{Justice Society of America 1981 comics debuts 1987 comics endings Comics characters introduced in 1981 Characters created by Roy Thomas Comics by Gerry Conway Comics by Paul Kupperberg Comics by Roy Thomas DC Comics titles Defunct American comics Earth-Two Fictional World War II veterans Justice Society of America United States-themed superheroes DC Comics set during World War II