The Hero Alliance is a fictional

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

team of

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

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 ...

es in an eponymous series mostly published by companies associated with

David Campiti David Campiti (; born May 9, 1958) is an American animation producer, comic book writer, talent agent, and packager. He was deeply involved with a number of comics publishers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Eternity Comics, Pied P ...

, including his own

Innovation Publishing Innovation Publishing (also known as Innovation Books and the Innovative Corporation) was an American comic book company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was co-founded by David Campiti in 1988 after writing a business proposal and raising ...

. The group was created by writer Kevin Juaire and artists

Ron Lim Ronald Lim (born 1965) is an American comic book artist living in Sacramento, California. He is best known for his work for Marvel Comics on their various "cosmic" titles, most particularly the ''Silver Surfer'' (vol. 3) series. Biography Lim' ...

(pencils), Mike Witherby (pencils),

Bart Sears Bart Whitman Sears (born 1963) is an American comics artist, toy and packaging designer and author, known for his work on such books as ''Justice League Europe'', '' Legends of the Dark Knight'', ''X-O Manowar'', ''Turok'', '' Violator'', ''The He ...

(inks), and Rick Bryant (inks).

Publication history

Hero Alliance first appeared in a 1986 "

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

" by

Pied Piper Comics Pied Piper Comics was a short-lived American comic book publishing company that operated from 1986 to 1988. The company was founded by Mark L. Hamlin and Roger McKenzie, with writer/editor David Campiti playing a major role. Origins According t ...

in ''Pied Piper Graphic Album'' #1 — ''Hero Alliance''. The team's adventures continued directly into a ''Hero Alliance'' vol. 1, issue #1, published by the short-lived publisher Wonder Comics in 1987. The original set of stories were reprinted — with minor edits and additional pages — as a three-issue

limited series In the field of comic books, and particularly in the United States, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is finite and determined ...

by Campiti's

in 1989. Innovation then released a regular series, written by David Lawrence, which ran for seventeen issues from 1989 to 1991, plus an

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and a ''

Justice Machine The Justice Machine is a fictional team of superheroes originally created by Mike Gustovich and appearing in comic books from many small publishers in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to Gustovich, writers Jenny Isabella and Mark Ellis have als ...

'' crossover in 1990. The regular series was followed by four issues of ''Hero Alliance Quarterly'' released from 1991 to 1992, and the series concluded with a ''Hero Alliance Special'' in 1992. In the early 1990s, Campiti published a newsletter announcing that further adventures of ''Hero Alliance'' would be published by

Extreme Studios Awesome Comics or Awesome Entertainment (also known as Awesome-Hyperwerks when briefly joined with Hyperwerks Entertainment) was an American comic book studio formed in 1997 by Rob Liefeld following his expulsion from Image Comics, a company he ...

and drawn by Glass House Graphics artists, but no comics ensued.

Characters

Hero Alliance

Victor: A character similar to

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 ...

, he withdraws from the Guardsmen when he becomes disappointed by the new membership's lack of heroic standards. He regards the Golden Guardsman as his mentor and role model, and after the current Guardsmen are all killed, his guilt at writing them off leads him to try to establish a similar mentoring role over the less experienced and powerful heroes all around him. In his secret identity, he is the owner of a chain of fitness centers and a former bodybuilding champion. Kris (Golden Guard): Daughter of the original Golden Guardsman, she inherits his superhuman strength and is targeted for murder by her brother, jealous that she had inherited powers and he apparently hadn't. Although she adopts a version of her father's costume early on she takes a while to adopt a version of his pseudonym, superheroing for a while just as "Kris". Sentry: A Batman

pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...

, he keeps his powers (or lack thereof) a secret. Hover: A telekinetic who loses the use of his legs in action and has to fly to get around outside of a wheelchair. Tawny Winters: An empath, her appearance alters to become the perfect woman for everyone who sees her. Gossamer: A woman with the power of intangibility over herself and anyone with whom she has contact. Gemini +: A pair of identical twins who possess super strength shared between them, and a force field that operates only when they are in close proximity to each other; it is their capture of Sepulchre and the unimpressed reactions of the other heroes to their feat that leads to Sepulchre's confession to having killed the Guardsmen. Bob is an obnoxious loudmouth, and his brother Steve is apologetic for Bob's behavior.

Antagonists

Sepulchre: Self-confessed murderer of the Guardsmen (by planting bombs in their headquarters), Sepulchre is up until that point regarded as a minor, easily defeated villain. He is later revealed as a knife-wielding serial killer who has never been caught. Apostate: Growing up apparently without powers, Kris' brother develops a resentment against his father and sister because his father lavished attention on his presumed successor as a superhero. He steals his father's helmet, which apparently has electrical powers, and uses it to kill the old retired superhero, as well as another randomly encountered hero named Predator, and tries to kill his sister and Victor. He later learns his electrical powers are innate and the helmet is simply a psychological crutch. StarCorp Man is sponsored by a major corporation. Out of ethical concerns, his abilities are linked to an "empathic limiter" that causes him to experience pain equal (or at least proportional) to any he inflicts using these granted powers, to encourage restraint. This control method backfires when he begins to develop a psychological addiction to the induced sensations.

Bibliography

* ''Pied Piper Graphic Album'' #1 — ''Hero Alliance'' (a.k.a. ''Hero Alliance: The End of the Golden Age'') TPB (

, Dec 1986) * ''Hero Alliance'' vol. 1, #1 ( Wonder Comics, 1987) * ''Hero Alliance: The End of the Golden Age'' #1–3 (

, 1989) * ''Hero Alliance'' vol. 2, #1–17 (Innovation, 1989–1991) * ''Hero Alliance Annual'' #1 (Innovation, 1990) * ''Hero Alliance &

: Identity Crisis'' #1 (Innovation, 1990) * ''Innovation Spectacular'' #1 (Innovation, 1991) — featuring Hero Alliance * ''Sentry Special'' #1 (Innovation, 1991) — featuring Hero Alliance's Sentry * ''Hero Alliance Quarterly'' #1–4 (Innovation, 1991–1992) * ''Hero Alliance Special'' #1 (Innovation, 1992)

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* (Wonder Color) * (Pied Piper) * (Innovation) * (Innovation) * (Innovation) * (Innovation) * (Innovation) * (Innovation) * {{gcdb series, id=4567, title=Hero Alliance Special (Innovation) 1985 comics debuts Innovation Publishing titles Superhero comics