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* ShortRunners: The Soldiers were the main feature in Leading Comics for only 14 issues. The book was quarterly, so that was only a three and a half year run.
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* SuperheroSobriquets: the Wizard Archers, the Western Waddy, the Larruping Lariateer, etc.
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* TrickArrow
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* ColorCharacter: The Green Arrow and the Crimson Avenger.
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* SuperheroPackingHeat: Vigilante
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* CaptainGeographic: The Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy have an American flag motif for their costumes.
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* CoolCar: The Arrowplane and the Star Rocket Racer.
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* SuperTeam: The second one ever created, though they're not nearly as well know as the Justice Society.
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* SeriesContinuityError: The Shining Knight's magic armor protects him from ''bullets'' in early stories. Later on, he's knocked unconcious from blows to the head. How is this possible?
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* BadLuckCharm / HatOfPower: In Leading Comics #11, gangster Handsome Harry loses what he considers to be his lucky hat. However the narration continually refers to it as an unlucky or evil hat, and bad things happen to everyone that finds it or comes in contact with it over the course of the story.
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* '''Vigilante''': Greg Sanders, singing cowboy, who adopted the identity of the Vigilante after he brought his father’s killers to justice. Sanders is an excellent hand to hand fighter, trick shooter, sharpshooter, horseman and motorcycle rider, and an expert with the lariat.
to:
* '''Vigilante''': Greg Sanders, Sanders (later Saunders), singing cowboy, who adopted the identity of the Vigilante after he brought his father’s killers to justice. Sanders is an excellent hand to hand fighter, trick shooter, sharpshooter, horseman and motorcycle rider, and an expert with the lariat.
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* '''The Crimson Avenger''' (his sidekick Wing is, oddly, not counted as a member of the team)
* '''Vigilante'''
* '''The Star Spangled Kid''' and his adult sidekick '''Stripesy'''
* '''ComicBook/GreenArrow''' and '''Speedy'''
* '''Shining Knight'''
* '''Vigilante'''
* '''The Star Spangled Kid''' and his adult sidekick '''Stripesy'''
* '''ComicBook/GreenArrow''' and '''Speedy'''
* '''Shining Knight'''
to:
* '''The Crimson Avenger''' (his sidekick Wing is, oddly, not counted Avenger''': Lee Travis, newspaper publisher by day and crime-fighter by night who battles crime with his fists and with his crimson gas gun. His chauffeur '''Wing''' acts as a his sidekick, and is the unofficial eighth member of the team)
team.
*'''Vigilante'''
'''Vigilante''': Greg Sanders, singing cowboy, who adopted the identity of the Vigilante after he brought his father’s killers to justice. Sanders is an excellent hand to hand fighter, trick shooter, sharpshooter, horseman and motorcycle rider, and an expert with the lariat.
* '''The Star SpangledKid''' Kid''': Wealthy Sylvester Pemberton, secretly fighting crime with the aid of his acrobatic skills and hand to hand combat prowess. He and his adult sidekick '''Stripesy'''
'''Stripesy''' have a series of codes worked out for their various fighting maneuvers, and a mechanical car named the Star Rocket Racer that can change into a jet.
* '''ComicBook/GreenArrow''' and'''Speedy'''
'''Speedy''': The Golden Age Oliver Queen and Roy Harper differ in many details from the modern version of these characters, but they are still incredibly talented archers and use this talent to fight crime.
* '''ShiningKnight'''
Knight''': Sir Justin, a knight of King Arthur, was given by Merlin a suit of magical armor that would protect him from all harm, and a magical sword that would cut through anything. Merlin also gave Justin’s horse wings and the ability to fly. Justin was frozen for centuries and revived in the 1940s, where he applies his honor as a knight to fighting crime in the present day.
*
* '''The Star Spangled
* '''ComicBook/GreenArrow''' and
* '''Shining
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* MasterOfDisguise: Mr. X, the man of a thousand faces, who bets some other crooks that he can beat all of the Seven Soldiers. Each of them seperately pick up some of his tells, and in the end band together to track him down and capture him.
to:
* MasterOfDisguise: Mr. X, the man of a thousand faces, who bets some other crooks that he can beat all of the Seven Soldiers. Each of them seperately pick up some of his tells, even though they never see his true face during his crimes, and in the end band together to track him down and capture him.
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Their adventures would follow a standard format: the team would meet in the first chapter of each issue, split up and fight the mastermind's henchmen for five chapters, then unite at the end to defeat the main villain. Criminal mastermind The Hand was responsible for the team's formation, after which they dealt with such criminals as the Black Star, Dr. Doome, and the Sixth Sense. The team appeared in the first 14 issues of Leading Comics, but the series ended when Leading changed to an all-humor format with issue 15.
to:
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** The entire team was a FishOutOfTemporalWater when they were brought back in JLA #100. The Star-Spangled Kid angsts about being out of his own time in the All-Star Comics revival of the 70s, though he adjusts fairly quickly.
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** The entire team was a FishOutOfTemporalWater when they were brought back in JLA #100. The Star-Spangled Kid angsts about being out of his own time in the All-Star Comics revival of the 70s, though he adjusts fairly quickly. Poor Wing is a DeadSidekick, having sacrificed himself to defeat the Nebula Man.
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* {{Sidekick}}: Two sidekicks are official members of the team, while a third is an unofficial member.
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* MasterOfDisguise: Mr. X, the man of a thousand faces, who bets some other crooks that he can beat all of the Seven Soldiers. Each of them seperately pick up some of his tells, and in the end band together to track him down and capture him.
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* LineOfSightName: Qwewq. Look at the first three letters of a QWERTY keyboard.
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* AHouseDivided: The Copperhead attempts to turn the team against each other during a hunt for lost Incan gold, and for a while it works, until the various team members work out just what's going on.
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* DivideAndConquer: The Copperhead attempts to turn the team against each other during a hunt for lost Incan gold, and for a while it works, until the various team members work out just what's going on.
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* AHouseDivided: The Copperhead attempts to turn the team against each other during a hunt for lost Incan gold, and for a while it works, until the various team members work out just what's going on.
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* HeroicSacrifice: Wing sacrificed his life to end the threat of the Nebula Man, a battle that scattered the other Seven Soldiers all through time, until the combined Justice League and Justice Society were able to rescue them.
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* NonPoweredCostumedHero: Everyone on the team, except for Shining Knight.
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* NonPoweredCostumedHero: Everyone on the team, except for Shining Knight.Knight.
* NotQuiteDead: The Hand, who was thought to be killed at the end of Leading Comics #1. He turns up as the villain in Justice League of America #100, thirty years later, having lost his hand in that original accident rather than being killed.
* NotQuiteDead: The Hand, who was thought to be killed at the end of Leading Comics #1. He turns up as the villain in Justice League of America #100, thirty years later, having lost his hand in that original accident rather than being killed.
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* '''Shining Knight''': In the age of King Arthur Dragonhead, young Sir Ystin (pronounced Justin) and the flying horse Vanguard invade the mysterious Castle Revolving belonging to the Sheeda to kill their queen and recover one of the Seven Imperishable Treasures, the Cauldron of Rebirth. In order to ensure its safety, Ystin tosses the cauldron out of the castle and escapes, but ends up in modern times due to Castle Revolving's time traveling capabilities. After coming to terms with the loss of Camelot and all of it's knights, Ystin goes forth to search for a way to end the Sheeda. Meanwhile, Vanguard, who was separated from his rider, is found by a mob boss, who is placed in a mysterious cauldron when ever he dies...
to:
* '''Shining Knight''': In the age of King Arthur Dragonhead, young Sir Ystin (pronounced Justin) and the flying horse Vanguard invade the mysterious Castle Revolving belonging to the Sheeda to kill their queen and recover one of the Seven Imperishable Treasures, the Cauldron of Rebirth. In order to ensure its safety, Ystin tosses the cauldron out of the castle and escapes, but ends up in modern times due to Castle Revolving's time traveling capabilities. After coming to terms with the loss of Camelot and all of it's its knights, Ystin goes forth to search for a way to end the Sheeda. Meanwhile, Vanguard, who was separated from his rider, is found by a mob boss, who is placed in a mysterious cauldron when ever he dies...
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** For [[DramaticIrony additional punch]], their heroic identities were idealized versions of adult jobs: magician, actress, gangster, mechanic and quarterback.
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** For [[DramaticIrony additional punch]], their heroic identities were [[TragicDream idealized versions versions]] of adult jobs: magician, actress, gangster, mechanic and quarterback.
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* GrowingUpSucks: The absolutely horrible fate of the Newsboy Legion, see TearJerker. (Also probably a metaphor of the transition from TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks to TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks).
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* GrowingUpSucks: The absolutely horrible fate of the Newsboy Legion, see TearJerker. (Also probably a metaphor of the transition from TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks to TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks). TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks).
** For [[DramaticIrony additional punch]], their heroic identities were idealized versions of adult jobs: magician, actress, gangster, mechanic and quarterback.
** For [[DramaticIrony additional punch]], their heroic identities were idealized versions of adult jobs: magician, actress, gangster, mechanic and quarterback.
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* OldHeroNewPals: The Star-Spangled Kid ends up a member of the JSA and wielding Starman's gravity rod after the Seven Soldiers are rescued from being lost in time by the JLA and JSA.
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* OldHeroNewPals: The Star-Spangled Kid ends up a member of the JSA and wielding Starman's gravity rod after the Seven Soldiers are rescued by the JLA and JSA from being lost in time by the JLA and JSA.time.
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* OldHeroNewPals: The Star-Spangled Kid ends up a member of the JSA and wielding Starman's gravity rod after the soldiers are rescued from being lost in time by the JLA and JSA.
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* OldHeroNewPals: The Star-Spangled Kid ends up a member of the JSA and wielding Starman's gravity rod after the soldiers Seven Soldiers are rescued from being lost in time by the JLA and JSA.
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* OldHeroNewPals: The Star-Spangled Kid ends up a member of the JSA and wielding Starman's gravity rod after the soldiers are rescued from being lost in time by the JLA and JSA.
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* BreakoutCharacter: Frankenstein appeared in both ComicBook/FinalCrisis and ComicBook/BlackestNight, got his own Flashpoint mini-series and has his own title coming up after the reboot. Sir Ystin also appears in Demon Knights.
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* BreakoutCharacter: Frankenstein appeared in both ComicBook/FinalCrisis and ComicBook/BlackestNight, got his own Flashpoint mini-series and has had his own title coming up for a while after the reboot. Sir Ystin also appears appeared in PaulCornell's Demon Knights.
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* ArcNumber: In ''Victory'', it's seven, of course. #0 [[LampshadeHanging even has a character note how important the number seven seems to be]]. It's the equivalent of Morrison smacking the reader upside the head and going "Oi! Pay ''attention''!" The things you need to pay attention to are stuff like [[spoiler:Zatanna's "-Anonymous" meeting. Notice how there are ''eight'' people there. The eighth is Misty.]]
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* ArcNumber: In ''Victory'', it's seven, of course. #0 [[LampshadeHanging even has a character note how important the number seven seems to be]]. It's the equivalent of Morrison smacking the reader upside the head and going "Oi! Pay ''attention''!" However, it's also ''eight'', [[FridgeBrilliance just like the way there were actually eight people in the original Seven Soldiers.]] The things you need to pay attention to are stuff like [[spoiler:Zatanna's "-Anonymous" meeting. Notice how there are ''eight'' people there. The eighth is Misty.]]]] Sevens-that-are-actually-eights recur throughout the story.
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** The entire team was a FishOutOfTemporalWater when they were brought back in JLA #100. The Star-Spangled Kid angsts about being out of his own time in the All-Star Comics revival of the 70s, though he adjusts fairly quickly.
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[[quoteright:258:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ssov1_7238.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:258:The unsung Seven Soldiers of Victory... Stripesy and Wing are off fighting for the last slot.]]
The very first super hero team in Franchise/TheDCU was the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica. Following the success of that team, a second was created, named the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Much like the Justice Society, the Seven Soldiers were heroes from several DC anthology comics. The Seven Soldiers was made up of:
* '''The Crimson Avenger''' (his sidekick Wing is, oddly, not counted as a member of the team)
* '''Vigilante'''
* '''The Star Spangled Kid''' and his adult sidekick '''Stripesy'''
* '''ComicBook/GreenArrow''' and '''Speedy'''
* '''Shining Knight'''
Their adventures would follow a standard format: the team would meet in the first chapter of each issue, split up and fight the mastermind's henchmen for five chapters, then unite at the end to defeat the main villain. Criminal mastermind The Hand was responsible for the team's formation, after which they dealt with such criminals as the Black Star, Dr. Doome, and the Sixth Sense. The team appeared in the first 14 issues of Leading Comics, but the series ended when Leading changed to an all-humor format with issue 15.
Years later in the [[TheSeventies 1970s]], during the celebration of the 100th meeting of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (i.e. [[MilestoneCelebration the 100th issue]]), the League is summoned to Earth-Two by the JSA in order to help them combat a giant ethereal hand. They summoned a mysterious Oracle for help, who revealed that [[RetCon the Seven Soldiers had died fighting an entity called The Nebula Man which was created by their arch-foe, the Hand.]] Because of the similarities between the giant hand and the Nebula Man, it was concluded that the team who defeated the Nebula Man would be needed. However, in the Soldiers' final battle they were apparently erased from existence and no one could remember who they were. The Oracle explained that following the defeat of the Nebula Man, the seven of the eight heroes were scattered in time, with the last one having perished during the battle. The JSA and JLA traveled through time to recover the Soldiers and help them build a new Nebula Rod, while they were opposed by the giant hand's creator. The villain turned out to be the Hand, now calling himself the Iron Hand. It was eventually revealed that the fallen hero, The Unknown Soldier of Victory, was Wing who had to sacrifice himself to use the Nebula Rod and defeat the Nebula Man. Knowing that whoever used the Nebula Rod would have to die, the android hero, ComicBook/RedTornado, stole the rod and sacrificed himself to destroy the hand.
Then the ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths happened. PostCrisis, the Soldiers still existed, more or less. Because the original team were all [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] heroes, their history had to be changed: Green Arrow and Speedy were never on the team, Vigilante's sidekick Stuff the Chinatown Kid was officially a member and Vigilante's mentor Billy Gunn was present but was never a member, and the final member was an archer called Alias The Spider. The Spider was really a villain working with the Iron Hand and sabotaged the Nebula Rod, killed Billy Gunn and attempted to kill Wing. The Soldiers still succeeded, Wing died, the Soldiers were scattered through time (But this time Vigilante was found ''after'' he spent twenty years in the Old West).
[[SeriousBusiness There never was a second Seven Soldiers team, made up of Batgirl, Blackhawk, Metamorpho, Mento, Deadman, Adam Strange, and a new Shining Knight who gathered together only once...]]. ''That'' team only met up in an {{Elseworlds}} story. The true successors of the Seven Soldiers of Victory 'formed' much more recently, [[WordOfGod about one week before]] the events of ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis...
[[quoteright:248:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ssov2_5548.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:248:Their teamwork focuses less on the "team" and more on the "work" part.]]
!!Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Seven Soldiers''
The "Seven Soldiers" maxi-series, written by Creator/GrantMorrison, started in 2005 and ended in 2006. With two bookend issues, the bulk of the series was comprised of seven four issue miniseries, each one focusing on each one of the titular seven members. This series is notable in that [[spoiler:'''none''' of the members of the team ever meet each other (with one or two exceptions)]].
The series starts with the son of the original Spider, Thomas Dalt AKA "I, Spyder", visiting Slaughter Swamp outside of Gotham City, and encountering the "Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp" who have chosen him for a certain task. Meanwhile, an about to retire Greg Saunders AKA Vigilante (who was later revealed [[spoiler:to be finally submitting to his werewolfism]]) creates a new Seven Soldiers of Victory team, made up of Spyder, a new Boy Blue, Merry the Gimmick Girl (called Gimmix), Dyno-Mite Dan, and the Whip to defeat a giant spider that was supposed to have been destroyed during Saunders' tenure in the old West. The team kill the spider, but in turn are decimated by the mysterious Sheeda, lead by the Neh-Buh-Loh Man, who have come to destroy the world in "The Harrowing".
Each of the miniseries focuses on each member:
* '''ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}''': After the events of ComicBook/IdentityCrisis came to light and an incident in which she was indirectly responsible for the deaths of several of her friends and the release of a mysterious shape-shifting demon, ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} has lost all confidence in herself. But after meeting a mysterious young girl who asks to be her apprentice, Zatanna begins to travel down a path to learn the secrets of her father's legacy and regain her resolve. However, she soon discovers that her new apprentice is not entirely what she seems...
* '''Shining Knight''': In the age of King Arthur Dragonhead, young Sir Ystin (pronounced Justin) and the flying horse Vanguard invade the mysterious Castle Revolving belonging to the Sheeda to kill their queen and recover one of the Seven Imperishable Treasures, the Cauldron of Rebirth. In order to ensure its safety, Ystin tosses the cauldron out of the castle and escapes, but ends up in modern times due to Castle Revolving's time traveling capabilities. After coming to terms with the loss of Camelot and all of it's knights, Ystin goes forth to search for a way to end the Sheeda. Meanwhile, Vanguard, who was separated from his rider, is found by a mob boss, who is placed in a mysterious cauldron when ever he dies...
* '''Klarion''': In the underground Puritan village of Limbo Town, lives the young Witch-Boy Klarion. After the discovery of a Sheeda rider, the elders of the village announced the sealing of the only gate to the upper "High Market", much to the frustration of Klarion who dreamed of seeing the outside world. Upon seeing the elders turning into a vile monster, Klarion escapes and eventually makes his way to the surface world of New York City. Being approached by a mysterious man named Melmoth to join a gang of childish thugs to steal a giant drill, one Klarion eventually discovers is to be used to enslave Limbo Town...
* '''Manhattan Guardian''': Jake Jordan is going through a rough patch in his life: he's been fired from his job as a police officer after a nervous breakdown and his fiance, Carla, holds no respect for him. After his future father-in-law points him to a job for the mysterious "Manhattan Guardian" newspaper, the paper's founder, Ed Stargard, hires Jake as their "in-house superhero". While being the Manhattan Guardian has brought Jake out of his funk, multiple tragedies occur during the job, and Jake goes to confront Stargard. Upon meeting Stargard in person for the first time, Jake is told the story of the Newsboy Legion of Nowhere Street and their encounter with the Sheeda...
* '''[[FrankensteinsMonster Frankenstein]]''': The "Spawn of Frankenstein" himself. After fighting against the evil machinations of [[spoiler:Dark Melmoth]], Frankenstein (The Monster, who is shown to have taken his creator's name) goes into a deep slumber for many years. Upon an invasion of a high school by the Sheeda, Frankenstein revives to continue his work. After coming across his foe on Mars, Frankenstein discovers [[spoiler:that Melmoth is the former Sheeda King trying to defeat his wife and that Frankenstein partially owes his existence to him]]. After defeating his foe in a [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome particularly spectacular manner]], Frankenstein is inducted into the mysterious agency, S.H.A.D.E. who send him on a mission to stop the Sheeda-affiliated Neh-Buh-Loh Man...
* '''Bulleteer''': Alix Harrower is an average woman, married to a MadScientist husband, Lance. Lance is attempting to create a new metallic superskin [[IJustWantToBeSpecial to become a superhero]] so he could live out his [[PerverseSexualLust fantasy life]] with his wife [[spoiler:or hook up with a superchick he met online]]. Unfortunately he JumpedAtTheCall, covering himself with his superskin, accidentally does the same to his wife, and [[KarmicDeath dies in the process]]. Alix, who survives by a mere fluke, manages to stumble into the life of a C-list superhero while trying to deal with the husband's death and infidelity. All the while, she [[IJustWantToBeNormal only really wants to be normal]]...
* '''Mister Miracle''': Shilo Norman, one-time apprentice to the New God Scott Free, is doing pretty good for himself; he has achieved great fame as a master escape artist, just like his mentor. When attempting his greatest stunt yet, escaping a miniature black hole, he encounters the mysterious Metron in the event horizon, who desires to test him. Suddenly he finds himself in an alternate version of his own life, dealing with the problems of his fame while encountering people strangely similar to Kirby's ComicBook/NewGods... particularly one Mr. [[LouisCypher Dark Side]]... [[spoiler:This series is frequently considered a Stealth Pilot for ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.]]
!!Other Media:
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' had a ShoutOut to the original team in the episode "Patriot Act": The Shining Knight, Vigilante, Stargirl, STRIPE, the Crimson Avenger (sans sidekick Wing), Green Arrow and Speedy are the {{Only One}}s who can stop a GeneralRipper hopped up on SuperSerum.
----
!!Pre-Crisis Seven Soldiers provides examples of:
* AllUpToYou: Good thing Speedy picked up that time travel device, or else the entire team would have remained in the past, where Dr. Doome tried to trap them. Score one for the sidekick.
* {{Anthology}}: Leading Comics, despite being a team book, is composed of a collection of short stories by different authors and artists. The actual team sections are usually confined to the opening and closing chapters of each issue, though there are occasional exceptions.
* AsianSpeekeeEngrish: Wing talks like this.
* BadassNormal: Most of the [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] team were simply well-trained humans with a few gimmicks. The Shining Knight, however, had a magical sword, magical armor, and a flying horse provided by Merlin.
* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Shining Knight's magical armor which protects him from all harm.
* {{Cowboy}}: Greg Saunders was a singing cowboy in his SecretIdentity.
* CrazyPrepared: The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy have their fighting maneuvers worked out ahead of time, and codes assigned for each one, which they'll call out in the middle of a fight.
* DominoMask: The Crimson Avenger, Green Arrow and Speedy all wear tiny domino masks. Vigilante has a bandanna tied over his nose and mouth, which is probably marginally more effective as a disguise. The Star Spangled Kid wears a cowl, while Stripesy doesn't bother with a mask of any sort, oddly.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Sir Justin, the Shining Knight, who was originally a knight for King Arthur before being trapped in suspended animation for a few centuries.
* FollowTheLeader: The Golden Age team was created by Mort Weisinger and Mort Meskin when they saw how successful the Justice Society had been.
* GenreShift: Leading Comics switched to the "funny animals" format in Summer 1945. That was the end of the Seven Soldiers.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Golden Age team has the distinction of being one of the very few superhero teams deliberately assembled by a villain! The Hand, believing he was dying, recruited five criminals (his "fingers") to pull off spectacular thefts he'd planned. And just to show off how perfect his plans were, the Hand sent invitations to five mystery men and their sidekicks to futilely try to stop the crimes. You can guess how it worked out.
** What's even more hilarious in hindsight is that the Hand lived to a ripe old age (till a week before ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis in ''The Bulleteer'') and he was killed by Greg Saunders (Vigilante) who was, of course, one of the heroes he had summoned.
* HyperCompetentSidekick: Stripesy often seems smarter and more prepared than the Star-Spangled Kid.
* KnightInShiningArmor: Shining Knight
* LegionOfDoom: The origin story possibly had the first comics Legion of Doom, called 'the Hand's Five Fingers' and made up of five foes of Soldiers members using plans given by the Hand.
* LetsSplitUpGang:
** The formula for the ''Leading Comics'' stories goes as follows:
*** The first chapter (of [[LuckySeven seven]]) features everyone together and sets up the overall story;
*** The next five chapters feature an individual member of the team going through his side of the story (Speedy, Stripesy and Wing, all being sidekicks, are paired up with Green Arrow, the Star-Spangled Kid and the Crimson Avenger);
*** The final chapter unites the team for the finale.
* LostWorld: While hunting for lost treasure in the Andes, Crimson Avenger and Wing discover a hidden Inca City whose inhabitants still hold a grudge against the Spanish and still live like it's the 1600s.
* LoveRedeems: Happens to the Sixth Sense's hired henchman whose hearing has been amped up. He's so taken by the music of the person whose gem he's supposed to steal that he falls for her and turns against his employer.
* MilestoneCelebration: The return of the original Seven Soldiers was in ''Justice League of America #100''.
* NonPoweredCostumedHero: Everyone on the team, except for Shining Knight.
* OhCrap: The moment that Dr. Doome realizes the team is on to him.
-->'''Dr. Doome:''' ''The Shining Knight? But that means... the Seven Soldiers of Victory are after me!''
* OlderSidekick: The Star Spangled Kid and Vigilante both have a sidekick that's older than they are. The Kid has Stripesy and Vigilante has Billy Gunn.
* OneExtraMember: The original Seven Soldiers were ComicBook/GreenArrow and Speedy, Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, Vigilante, Shining Knight, and the Crimson Avenger and Wing. Wing, the Avenger's sidekick/chauffeur, was the "unofficial eighth soldier", even though there were two sidekicks as full members. When ComicBook/GreenArrow was removed from the line-up PostCrisis, and replaced with the sidekickless Alias the Spider, Vigilante's sidekick Stuff, the Chinatown Kid was added, so Wing was ''still'' the unofficial eighth soldier.
* TimeTravel: How Dr. Doome recruits "the greatest villains in history" to be his henchmen, such as Napoleon or Genghis Khan. Thankfully, the possibility of TemporalParadox due to removing these figures from history is avoided since Doome gives them a device that allows them to return to their own time if plans go awry. So every one of them escape when the Seven Soldiers defeat them and history is preserved.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The Shining Knight speaks this way.
!!Modern day Seven Soldiers provides examples of:
* AbusivePrecursors: Inverted. [[spoiler: [[MindScrew They're from THE FUTURE!]]]]
* AlliterativeName: Helen "Sky-High" Helligan
** Sally Smart, alias Sally Sonic, [[spoiler:alias Sara Smart]]
* ArcNumber: In ''Victory'', it's seven, of course. #0 [[LampshadeHanging even has a character note how important the number seven seems to be]]. It's the equivalent of Morrison smacking the reader upside the head and going "Oi! Pay ''attention''!" The things you need to pay attention to are stuff like [[spoiler:Zatanna's "-Anonymous" meeting. Notice how there are ''eight'' people there. The eighth is Misty.]]
* AuthorAvatar: Nobeard of the Subway Pirates who bedevil the Manhattan Guardian is unilaterally considered a rendition of Morrison himself. Nobeard's archrival Allbeard thus represents Morrison's hated enemy Creator/AlanMoore. Since Morrison is writing the story, Nobeard is the one who wins. ...Except for the subtext that [[spoiler:Nobeard got exposed to radioactive material and got fatal cancers all in his body]]. But yeah, he came out of the fight ''alive...''
** According to WordOfGod, [[spoiler: The Seven Unknown Men are all the authors who wrote themselves into DC Comics - meaning, of course, Morrison is among them (though not for Nobeard; he literally appeared as himself in ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'')]].
* {{Badass}}: Frankenstein, to a deliberately immense extent. He has been described as "making SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}} look like [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]]".
* BadassNormal: The Guardian follows this trope, as does Sky-High Helligan.
* BigBad: The Sheeda in Morrison's series, led by [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Gloriana Tenebrae]]. [[BiggerBad However, they're not necessarily the Big Bad in each character's individual series]]. In fact, most of the series have their own {{Big Bad}}s.
** Zatanna: Zor, who is something of a ManBehindTheMan to the Sheeda.
** Shining Knight: Gloriana Tenebrae.
** Klarion: Melmoth
** The Manhattan Guardian: None, though he leads the charge against the Sheeda's armies in in the meta-series's final issue
** Frankenstein: Melmoth for the first two issues, then the Neh-Buh-Loh Man in the final issue.
** Bulleteer: Sally Sonic
** Mister Miracle: Mr. [[ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} Dark Side]], also the BiggerBad of the meta-series.
* {{Bifauxnen}}[[spoiler:/SweetPollyOliver: The Shining Knight in Grant Morrison's maxi-series.]]
* BishonenLine: The Nebula Man actually becomes ''smaller'' when he returns as the Neh-Buh-Loh Man; he's clearly seen towering over the Soldiers in ''Justice League of America #100''.
* BlessedWithSuck: Bulleteer. Alix didn't want to be a superhero, her husband did. She was perfectly happy with a normal life, and after she received her powers she had to quit her job as a special needs teacher, then discovered her husband's second life and in a fit of despair tried to commit suicide by running until she hit something strong enough to kill her.
* BookEnds: Morrison's issue #0 ends with [[spoiler: the deaths of Greg Saunders's team of Soldiers]]; the conclusion in issue #1 ends with [[spoiler: the resurrection of the one slain Soldier, Mister Miracle.]]
* BreakingTheFourthWall: All over the place in Morrison's version, as is his wont, but most apparent in the two scenes where [[spoiler: Zatanna]] directly addresses the reader.
** TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: [[spoiler: Inverted, as it's implied the reader helps save the day.]]
* BreakoutCharacter: Frankenstein appeared in both ComicBook/FinalCrisis and ComicBook/BlackestNight, got his own Flashpoint mini-series and has his own title coming up after the reboot. Sir Ystin also appears in Demon Knights.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Morrison's Bulleteer made a number of [[TheCameo cameos]] in other stories after hers ended. The catch? [[WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain She quit superheroing in the last issue of her series.]] It's most egregious when she appears in an incarnation of the Justice League seen in the series ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo''...[[TheyJustDidntCare a series co-written by Morrison himself!]][[note]]One can FanWank an in-story explanation - Morrison's Seven Soldiers is confirmed by WordOfGod to take place one week before ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', so she could have gotten {{Cosmic Retcon}}ned[[/note]]
** Incidentally, Morrison himself considers the ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' comic version of Klarion to be this. Why? Because he thought that version - best known for introducing himself as "Klarion... Bum, Bum, Bum... The Witch Boy!" - was silly.
* CaptainColorbeard: The Subway Pirates in ''Manhattan Guardian'' - though their names are [=Nobeard=] and [=Allbeard=], more all around descriptions.
* CelestialBody: The Nebula[=/=]Neh-Buh-Loh Man. In Morrison's series it's explained that [[spoiler: he was originally a miniature universe named Qwewq.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: I, Spyder]]'s revamp in the 0 issue becomes very important in the conclusion.
* ContinuityPorn: ''Victory'' references an absurd number of minor characters throughout DC history.
** To give an example: Zor is actually an existing character, appearing in a story from ''More Fun Comics #55'' as a one-shot villain for ComicBook/TheSpectre. [[ViewersAreGeniuses But who would know that?]] [[note]]Unless you're a ComicBook/DoctorFate fan - that issue was his first appearance. If you're curious about what happened, Zor saves some criminals from the Spectre, he introduces himself as a spirit that goes around causing evil, they fight, Spectre finds he can't win because Zor is older than him (this is before certain {{retcon}}s), Zor disguises himself as the Spectre's human identity and kidnaps his girlfriend, Spectre asks for help from God, Spectre arrives at Zor's castle, gets paralyzed by Zor's paralysis ray, and finally tricks Zor into getting paralyzed himself.[[/note]]
* {{Cowboy}}: Greg Saunders was a singing cowboy in his SecretIdentity.
* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: The Guardian was sponsored by a newspaper.
* DeathByDespair: The method of attack of one Sheeda weapon, a sentient [[EldritchAbomination ...thing...]] that torments it victims with painful truths much like a [[GreekMythology Harpy]].
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: for 22 pages. Seven Soldiers #0 follows a team of fairly unlikable Z-list heroes who [[spoiler: all die at the end, at the hands of the newly introduced main threat.]] The story of the real protagonists starts after this.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The panel where Lance's smartware begins to spread to Alix and the look on her face.
** It should be noted that the artist for ''Bulleteer'' purposefully drew Alix, Sally Sonic, and every other female heroine in poses reminiscent of supermodels in just about every panel.
* EldritchAbomination: Nebula/Neh-Buh-Loh Man, for starters. The flesh-eating Martian mantis-horses, and many of the Sheeda's 'pets', also probably count.
* {{Expy}}: The Newsboy Army are an InUniverse one for classic Creator/JackKirby characters the Newsboy Legion, where the Guardian character originated.
* TheFairFolk: The Sheeda were stated to be based on, and In-Universe source of the stories about, the Unseelie Court.
** FairyTaleMotifs: Gloriana is the WickedStepmother [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Evil Queen]], Misty Kilgore is Literature/SnowWhite, and the Neh-Buh-Loh Man is TheWildHunt and other fairy tale huntsmen [[spoiler: including the one from Snow White.]]
* {{Familiar}}: Teekl and the other draaga of Limbo Town act as these to their owners.
* {{Fanservice}}: Zatanna goes through a few of her old costumes in ''Victory'', ''all'' of which are sexy. She says she "likes to look good".
* {{Fetish}}: Bulleteer's husband, in-canon, had a superhero fetish. [[FandomNod It turns out that he wasn't exactly unique...]]
* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler:The Sheeda Queen deliberately attempts to kill any superhero team with seven members. The only reason she doesn't do it to the 'right' Seven Soldiers is that the soldiers never actually meet and form a team.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: The Terrible Time Tailor, an alias of Zor, imposes one on the members of the Newsboy Army.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Gloriana Tenebrae, The Queen of Terror, is right up there among Morrison's biggest monsters, and very scary indeed. (Not that her husband was much better...)
* GrowingUpSucks: The absolutely horrible fate of the Newsboy Legion, see TearJerker. (Also probably a metaphor of the transition from TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks to TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks).
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: As revealed in an issue of ''Bulleteer'', Boy Blue [[spoiler: summoned the Sheeda on the Iron Hand's behalf in #0 by blowing his horn]]; thus he unwittingly ensures that he's one of [[spoiler: their first victims]].
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The first team let the archer, ''Alias The Spider'' on their team (PostCrisis). Now, Spider was a villain who tried to kill the team (he nearly succeeded too) and managed to get away with his "heroic" reputation intact. Now to be fair, '''no one''' knew Spider was evil until he struck and this info couldn't be shared since the Soldiers were either lost in time or dead. [[Comicbook/{{Starman}} He even tricked the Jay Garrick Flash and the Shade until he made his move, but that time he didn't get away]].
** The Greg Saunders team in the newer maxi-series did this too; hell they hired ''I, Spyder'', the son of the original! [[spoiler:Sheeda Queen Gloriana made the same mistake]]. Not to mention [[spoiler:the "new" Little Boy Blue who summoned the Sheeda to decimate the team]]. It's subverted in the case of [[spoiler: I, Spyder]], who only turns traitor at the end and thereby helps destroy [[spoiler: Gloriana]].
* HyperlinkStory: Morrison's series.
* IronicEcho: One of these connects Morrison's version with the RetCon regarding how the 1940s iteration ended, to wit, [[spoiler: the Spider's betrayal of the 1940s team]] is matched and inverted by [[spoiler: I, Spyder betraying Gloriana and thus helping the newer Soldiers defeat her.]]
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: A standard aspect of Morrison's stories but this is probably the best and most deliberate example besides ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles''.
* KnightInShiningArmor: The Shining Knights, of course.
* LegacyCharacter: Bulleteer (based on Bulletman and Bulletgirl), the Manhattan Guardian (based on Guardian and the Newsboy Legion) and Mr Miracle. Shining Knight is an odd case (she's from ''before'' the original) and it's not clear if Klarion is meant to be the same character as the 1970s Klarion or what. And ''all'' of the Vigilante's ill-fated team.
** SpinOffspring: The short lived incarnation of the Seven Soldiers of Victory in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' #0 included the Whip III, granddaughter of the Whip II (a NewOldWest Franchise/{{Zorro}} wannabe) and great-great-granddaughter of the Whip I (an [[{{Western}} Old West]] Zorro wannabe); I, Spyder, son of the original [=7SoV=] member (and traitor) Alias the Spider; and Gimmix, daughter of Merry the Gimmick Girl and, therefore, niece of the first Star-Spangled Kid, who was also an original [=7SoV=] member. In ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' #1, the Bulleteer turns out to be directly descended from [[spoiler: Aurakles, the world's first superhero.]]
** WordOfGod is that Klarion is intended to be the same character as from [[ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} The Demon]] comics, [[spoiler: though from an earlier point on the timeline. After conquering the Sheeda, he uses Castle Revolving to go back in time to the 70s comics.]] However, it doesn't appear that any writer other than Morrison was aware of this, based on his subsequent appearances post-[=7SoV=].
* LetsSplitUpGang: The Grant Morrison series was simply the ''Leading Comics'' formula, but on a grander, more epic scale.
* MeaningfulRename: When the original Seven Soldiers returned in the ''Justice League'' story, the Hand renamed himself the Iron Hand. In Grant Morrson's version, the Nebula Man now calls himself the Neh-Buh-Loh Man while the Oracle's name [[spoiler: turns out to be a corruption of "Aurakles".]]
* MindScrew: The Morrison version, as to be expected.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: The Bride
* {{Necromancer}}: All of the residents of Limbo Town use necromancy as a way to survive, which makes [[spoiler: controlling Frankenstein]] an easy task for Klarion.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted as [[spoiler: Sheeda Queen Glorianna discovers Justin's gender by smelling "the blood of the womb."]]
* OneExtraMember: In the conclusion of Morrison's version, [[spoiler: I Spyder]] acts as an unofficial "eighth soldier" and helps defeat the villain. Given that [[spoiler: he]] was remade by the Seven Unknown Men, this was probably the whole point of the character both in and out of universe.
* OfCorsetsSexy: Zatanna
* PaintingTheMedium: There's a sequence in ''Victory'' where Zatanna and a few friends go through another dimension, and the scenery shifts to compensate. The panels become ''cubes'', for starters, and--it's remarkably difficult to describe.
** [[spoiler:During Zatanna's fight with Zor, he eventually starts ''ripping apart other panels'', and Zatanna defeats him by falling through the empty space on the page so she can ''beat him to the future''.]] Immediately following that, [[spoiler:she tries to ''reach out of the comic itself'', through a window to the Seven Unknown Men bordered with gears, typewriter heads, and colored ink.]]
* APirate400YearsTooLate: The Subway Pirates
* PoorCommunicationKills: The Iron Hand spends decades hating Greg Saunders, the original Vigilante, and even orchestrates the coming of the Sheeda and [[spoiler: the deaths of Saunders's new Seven Soldiers team]] in the mistaken belief that Saunders was a racist after hearing him refer to one of the Hand's henchmen as "your kind." In fact, Saunders had recognized that said henchmen was a werewolf because [[spoiler: Saunders was too]].
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: Morrison's ''Seven Soldiers'' had something of a prologue in ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA Classified #1-3]]'' (collected in the trade paperback ''JLA: Ultramarine Corps''), which introduced the Sheeda and the Neh-Buh-Loh Man (well, ''re''introduced in the latter's case).
** Mister Miracle's story is one for ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.
* ProphecyTwist: In Morrison's series, "The spear that was never thrown". [[spoiler: It turns out to refer to Aurakles's descendants. One of them is Alix Harrower[=/=]Bulleteer, who delivers the final blow to Gloriana Tenebrae when she accidentally rams her with a car while struggling with Sally Sonic for control of the vehicle.]]
** There is a prophecy that the Sheeda will be defeated by a group of seven soldiers, so they pragmatically look out for groups of seven and either eliminate them or [[VillainExitStageLeft run away when they can't win]] (as they did when they fought the Justice League). [[spoiler: But no-one said the seven soldiers had to be part of a single group.]]
* RetCon[=/=]RememberTheNewGuy: That whole thing about the Nebula Man? That was created wholesale in ''Justice League of America #100'', along with the Oracle character. Grant Morrison's series helped fill in the blanks through a bit of ArcWelding.
* ShoutOut: Bulleteer's fight with Sally Sonic involved the two beating each other with Alix's refrigerator. The entire ''Bulleteer'' miniseries seemed to be a nod towards WomenInRefrigerators, as Alix is a woman whose entire life has become one tragic mistake because of her husband, same said for Sally Sonic.
** Melmoth is named after ''Literature/MelmothTheWanderer''
* SpiritualSuccessor: Has one in ComicBook/DemonKnights, which amongst other things [[spoiler:reintroduces the cyclic nature of Camelot, as well as the Seven Soldiers version of Shining Knight fighting with six other bad-asses to stop someone from misusing a grail. Sound familiar?]]
* StockUnsolvedMysteries: Morrison's Seven Soldiers has a rather unique solution to famous 16th-century mystery of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony missing colony of Roanoke Island]].
* StockingFiller: Zatanna
* TakeThat:
** Zachary Zor might be this to Alan Moore. He takes Zatanna and turns her into a similar, but DarkerAndEdgier character with a different name and consistently talks about his beard. It should also be noted that Alan Moore wrote the story that killed Zatanna's father.
--->'''Zor:''' ''It's a magnificent beard and you know you want one!''
*** Alternatively, Zor could represent the readers themselves, as we often see events from his visual perspective (and we, like him, are always on the outside looking in) and one of the Seven Unknown Men comments on how he bet Zor didn't think he could bleed. This could apply to the READER not knowing he could bleed in a comic.
*** Unless, of course, he's Creator/WarrenEllis - he certainly talks like him.
** At one point in the Grant Morrison series, Frankenstein says that "madmen have said that the meek shall inherit the earth". [[{{Jesus}} Guess where]] [[Literature/TheBible that saying originally came from?]]
* TimeAbyss: The Nebula Man is three billion years old. The Sheeda [[TimeyWimeyBall may or may not count]], but Aurakles is certainly another.
* TotalPartyKill: [[spoiler: Issue #0 sees Greg Saunder's team get completely wiped out.]]
* TraumaCongaLine: See ''Bulleteer''.
* WarriorPoet: Frankenstein can lengthily quote [[Literature/ParadiseLost Milton]] or Literature/TheBible even - or especially - in the middle of combat.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It actually happens to quite a few characters at the end of Grant Morrison's series. Klarion's fate is entirely WordOfGod and was [[CanonDiscontinuity likely ignored by later writers]]. Frankenstein was last seen under Klarion's control, which seems entirely ignored in his subsequent appearances (in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', [[CosmicRetcon though the former may be justified]]). The worst offender is Misty Kilgore - she just (metaphorically) vanishes from the story, and has subsequently undergone ChuckCunninghamSyndrome.
* WhipItGood: ''Victory'''s LegacyCharacter The Whip (3). She even has a sexy, impractical costume.
** She actually lampshades this, calling herself a superhero fetishist.
* WholePlotReference: Misty Kilgore's backstory is a retelling of the "Literature/SnowWhite" tale.
* WitchSpecies: Klarion along with all the other residents of Limbo Town due to being of [[TheFairFolk Sheeda]] [[HalfHumanHybrids descendant]].
* YouFightLikeACow: "You have a ''stupid'' hat!"
* ZergRush: Frankenstein at one point has to fight off a huge horde of [[KillerRabbit vicious, chemically-maddened woodland critters.]] There are enough that their combined body masses add up to several tons, which mean that when they all pile on they don't so much hurt him as bury him.
----
[[caption-width-right:258:The unsung Seven Soldiers of Victory... Stripesy and Wing are off fighting for the last slot.]]
The very first super hero team in Franchise/TheDCU was the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica. Following the success of that team, a second was created, named the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Much like the Justice Society, the Seven Soldiers were heroes from several DC anthology comics. The Seven Soldiers was made up of:
* '''The Crimson Avenger''' (his sidekick Wing is, oddly, not counted as a member of the team)
* '''Vigilante'''
* '''The Star Spangled Kid''' and his adult sidekick '''Stripesy'''
* '''ComicBook/GreenArrow''' and '''Speedy'''
* '''Shining Knight'''
Their adventures would follow a standard format: the team would meet in the first chapter of each issue, split up and fight the mastermind's henchmen for five chapters, then unite at the end to defeat the main villain. Criminal mastermind The Hand was responsible for the team's formation, after which they dealt with such criminals as the Black Star, Dr. Doome, and the Sixth Sense. The team appeared in the first 14 issues of Leading Comics, but the series ended when Leading changed to an all-humor format with issue 15.
Years later in the [[TheSeventies 1970s]], during the celebration of the 100th meeting of the Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica (i.e. [[MilestoneCelebration the 100th issue]]), the League is summoned to Earth-Two by the JSA in order to help them combat a giant ethereal hand. They summoned a mysterious Oracle for help, who revealed that [[RetCon the Seven Soldiers had died fighting an entity called The Nebula Man which was created by their arch-foe, the Hand.]] Because of the similarities between the giant hand and the Nebula Man, it was concluded that the team who defeated the Nebula Man would be needed. However, in the Soldiers' final battle they were apparently erased from existence and no one could remember who they were. The Oracle explained that following the defeat of the Nebula Man, the seven of the eight heroes were scattered in time, with the last one having perished during the battle. The JSA and JLA traveled through time to recover the Soldiers and help them build a new Nebula Rod, while they were opposed by the giant hand's creator. The villain turned out to be the Hand, now calling himself the Iron Hand. It was eventually revealed that the fallen hero, The Unknown Soldier of Victory, was Wing who had to sacrifice himself to use the Nebula Rod and defeat the Nebula Man. Knowing that whoever used the Nebula Rod would have to die, the android hero, ComicBook/RedTornado, stole the rod and sacrificed himself to destroy the hand.
Then the ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths happened. PostCrisis, the Soldiers still existed, more or less. Because the original team were all [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] heroes, their history had to be changed: Green Arrow and Speedy were never on the team, Vigilante's sidekick Stuff the Chinatown Kid was officially a member and Vigilante's mentor Billy Gunn was present but was never a member, and the final member was an archer called Alias The Spider. The Spider was really a villain working with the Iron Hand and sabotaged the Nebula Rod, killed Billy Gunn and attempted to kill Wing. The Soldiers still succeeded, Wing died, the Soldiers were scattered through time (But this time Vigilante was found ''after'' he spent twenty years in the Old West).
[[SeriousBusiness There never was a second Seven Soldiers team, made up of Batgirl, Blackhawk, Metamorpho, Mento, Deadman, Adam Strange, and a new Shining Knight who gathered together only once...]]. ''That'' team only met up in an {{Elseworlds}} story. The true successors of the Seven Soldiers of Victory 'formed' much more recently, [[WordOfGod about one week before]] the events of ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis...
[[quoteright:248:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ssov2_5548.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:248:Their teamwork focuses less on the "team" and more on the "work" part.]]
!!Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Seven Soldiers''
The "Seven Soldiers" maxi-series, written by Creator/GrantMorrison, started in 2005 and ended in 2006. With two bookend issues, the bulk of the series was comprised of seven four issue miniseries, each one focusing on each one of the titular seven members. This series is notable in that [[spoiler:'''none''' of the members of the team ever meet each other (with one or two exceptions)]].
The series starts with the son of the original Spider, Thomas Dalt AKA "I, Spyder", visiting Slaughter Swamp outside of Gotham City, and encountering the "Seven Unknown Men of Slaughter Swamp" who have chosen him for a certain task. Meanwhile, an about to retire Greg Saunders AKA Vigilante (who was later revealed [[spoiler:to be finally submitting to his werewolfism]]) creates a new Seven Soldiers of Victory team, made up of Spyder, a new Boy Blue, Merry the Gimmick Girl (called Gimmix), Dyno-Mite Dan, and the Whip to defeat a giant spider that was supposed to have been destroyed during Saunders' tenure in the old West. The team kill the spider, but in turn are decimated by the mysterious Sheeda, lead by the Neh-Buh-Loh Man, who have come to destroy the world in "The Harrowing".
Each of the miniseries focuses on each member:
* '''ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}''': After the events of ComicBook/IdentityCrisis came to light and an incident in which she was indirectly responsible for the deaths of several of her friends and the release of a mysterious shape-shifting demon, ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} has lost all confidence in herself. But after meeting a mysterious young girl who asks to be her apprentice, Zatanna begins to travel down a path to learn the secrets of her father's legacy and regain her resolve. However, she soon discovers that her new apprentice is not entirely what she seems...
* '''Shining Knight''': In the age of King Arthur Dragonhead, young Sir Ystin (pronounced Justin) and the flying horse Vanguard invade the mysterious Castle Revolving belonging to the Sheeda to kill their queen and recover one of the Seven Imperishable Treasures, the Cauldron of Rebirth. In order to ensure its safety, Ystin tosses the cauldron out of the castle and escapes, but ends up in modern times due to Castle Revolving's time traveling capabilities. After coming to terms with the loss of Camelot and all of it's knights, Ystin goes forth to search for a way to end the Sheeda. Meanwhile, Vanguard, who was separated from his rider, is found by a mob boss, who is placed in a mysterious cauldron when ever he dies...
* '''Klarion''': In the underground Puritan village of Limbo Town, lives the young Witch-Boy Klarion. After the discovery of a Sheeda rider, the elders of the village announced the sealing of the only gate to the upper "High Market", much to the frustration of Klarion who dreamed of seeing the outside world. Upon seeing the elders turning into a vile monster, Klarion escapes and eventually makes his way to the surface world of New York City. Being approached by a mysterious man named Melmoth to join a gang of childish thugs to steal a giant drill, one Klarion eventually discovers is to be used to enslave Limbo Town...
* '''Manhattan Guardian''': Jake Jordan is going through a rough patch in his life: he's been fired from his job as a police officer after a nervous breakdown and his fiance, Carla, holds no respect for him. After his future father-in-law points him to a job for the mysterious "Manhattan Guardian" newspaper, the paper's founder, Ed Stargard, hires Jake as their "in-house superhero". While being the Manhattan Guardian has brought Jake out of his funk, multiple tragedies occur during the job, and Jake goes to confront Stargard. Upon meeting Stargard in person for the first time, Jake is told the story of the Newsboy Legion of Nowhere Street and their encounter with the Sheeda...
* '''[[FrankensteinsMonster Frankenstein]]''': The "Spawn of Frankenstein" himself. After fighting against the evil machinations of [[spoiler:Dark Melmoth]], Frankenstein (The Monster, who is shown to have taken his creator's name) goes into a deep slumber for many years. Upon an invasion of a high school by the Sheeda, Frankenstein revives to continue his work. After coming across his foe on Mars, Frankenstein discovers [[spoiler:that Melmoth is the former Sheeda King trying to defeat his wife and that Frankenstein partially owes his existence to him]]. After defeating his foe in a [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome particularly spectacular manner]], Frankenstein is inducted into the mysterious agency, S.H.A.D.E. who send him on a mission to stop the Sheeda-affiliated Neh-Buh-Loh Man...
* '''Bulleteer''': Alix Harrower is an average woman, married to a MadScientist husband, Lance. Lance is attempting to create a new metallic superskin [[IJustWantToBeSpecial to become a superhero]] so he could live out his [[PerverseSexualLust fantasy life]] with his wife [[spoiler:or hook up with a superchick he met online]]. Unfortunately he JumpedAtTheCall, covering himself with his superskin, accidentally does the same to his wife, and [[KarmicDeath dies in the process]]. Alix, who survives by a mere fluke, manages to stumble into the life of a C-list superhero while trying to deal with the husband's death and infidelity. All the while, she [[IJustWantToBeNormal only really wants to be normal]]...
* '''Mister Miracle''': Shilo Norman, one-time apprentice to the New God Scott Free, is doing pretty good for himself; he has achieved great fame as a master escape artist, just like his mentor. When attempting his greatest stunt yet, escaping a miniature black hole, he encounters the mysterious Metron in the event horizon, who desires to test him. Suddenly he finds himself in an alternate version of his own life, dealing with the problems of his fame while encountering people strangely similar to Kirby's ComicBook/NewGods... particularly one Mr. [[LouisCypher Dark Side]]... [[spoiler:This series is frequently considered a Stealth Pilot for ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.]]
!!Other Media:
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' had a ShoutOut to the original team in the episode "Patriot Act": The Shining Knight, Vigilante, Stargirl, STRIPE, the Crimson Avenger (sans sidekick Wing), Green Arrow and Speedy are the {{Only One}}s who can stop a GeneralRipper hopped up on SuperSerum.
----
!!Pre-Crisis Seven Soldiers provides examples of:
* AllUpToYou: Good thing Speedy picked up that time travel device, or else the entire team would have remained in the past, where Dr. Doome tried to trap them. Score one for the sidekick.
* {{Anthology}}: Leading Comics, despite being a team book, is composed of a collection of short stories by different authors and artists. The actual team sections are usually confined to the opening and closing chapters of each issue, though there are occasional exceptions.
* AsianSpeekeeEngrish: Wing talks like this.
* BadassNormal: Most of the [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] team were simply well-trained humans with a few gimmicks. The Shining Knight, however, had a magical sword, magical armor, and a flying horse provided by Merlin.
* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: Shining Knight's magical armor which protects him from all harm.
* {{Cowboy}}: Greg Saunders was a singing cowboy in his SecretIdentity.
* CrazyPrepared: The Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy have their fighting maneuvers worked out ahead of time, and codes assigned for each one, which they'll call out in the middle of a fight.
* DominoMask: The Crimson Avenger, Green Arrow and Speedy all wear tiny domino masks. Vigilante has a bandanna tied over his nose and mouth, which is probably marginally more effective as a disguise. The Star Spangled Kid wears a cowl, while Stripesy doesn't bother with a mask of any sort, oddly.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Sir Justin, the Shining Knight, who was originally a knight for King Arthur before being trapped in suspended animation for a few centuries.
* FollowTheLeader: The Golden Age team was created by Mort Weisinger and Mort Meskin when they saw how successful the Justice Society had been.
* GenreShift: Leading Comics switched to the "funny animals" format in Summer 1945. That was the end of the Seven Soldiers.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Golden Age team has the distinction of being one of the very few superhero teams deliberately assembled by a villain! The Hand, believing he was dying, recruited five criminals (his "fingers") to pull off spectacular thefts he'd planned. And just to show off how perfect his plans were, the Hand sent invitations to five mystery men and their sidekicks to futilely try to stop the crimes. You can guess how it worked out.
** What's even more hilarious in hindsight is that the Hand lived to a ripe old age (till a week before ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis in ''The Bulleteer'') and he was killed by Greg Saunders (Vigilante) who was, of course, one of the heroes he had summoned.
* HyperCompetentSidekick: Stripesy often seems smarter and more prepared than the Star-Spangled Kid.
* KnightInShiningArmor: Shining Knight
* LegionOfDoom: The origin story possibly had the first comics Legion of Doom, called 'the Hand's Five Fingers' and made up of five foes of Soldiers members using plans given by the Hand.
* LetsSplitUpGang:
** The formula for the ''Leading Comics'' stories goes as follows:
*** The first chapter (of [[LuckySeven seven]]) features everyone together and sets up the overall story;
*** The next five chapters feature an individual member of the team going through his side of the story (Speedy, Stripesy and Wing, all being sidekicks, are paired up with Green Arrow, the Star-Spangled Kid and the Crimson Avenger);
*** The final chapter unites the team for the finale.
* LostWorld: While hunting for lost treasure in the Andes, Crimson Avenger and Wing discover a hidden Inca City whose inhabitants still hold a grudge against the Spanish and still live like it's the 1600s.
* LoveRedeems: Happens to the Sixth Sense's hired henchman whose hearing has been amped up. He's so taken by the music of the person whose gem he's supposed to steal that he falls for her and turns against his employer.
* MilestoneCelebration: The return of the original Seven Soldiers was in ''Justice League of America #100''.
* NonPoweredCostumedHero: Everyone on the team, except for Shining Knight.
* OhCrap: The moment that Dr. Doome realizes the team is on to him.
-->'''Dr. Doome:''' ''The Shining Knight? But that means... the Seven Soldiers of Victory are after me!''
* OlderSidekick: The Star Spangled Kid and Vigilante both have a sidekick that's older than they are. The Kid has Stripesy and Vigilante has Billy Gunn.
* OneExtraMember: The original Seven Soldiers were ComicBook/GreenArrow and Speedy, Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, Vigilante, Shining Knight, and the Crimson Avenger and Wing. Wing, the Avenger's sidekick/chauffeur, was the "unofficial eighth soldier", even though there were two sidekicks as full members. When ComicBook/GreenArrow was removed from the line-up PostCrisis, and replaced with the sidekickless Alias the Spider, Vigilante's sidekick Stuff, the Chinatown Kid was added, so Wing was ''still'' the unofficial eighth soldier.
* TimeTravel: How Dr. Doome recruits "the greatest villains in history" to be his henchmen, such as Napoleon or Genghis Khan. Thankfully, the possibility of TemporalParadox due to removing these figures from history is avoided since Doome gives them a device that allows them to return to their own time if plans go awry. So every one of them escape when the Seven Soldiers defeat them and history is preserved.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The Shining Knight speaks this way.
!!Modern day Seven Soldiers provides examples of:
* AbusivePrecursors: Inverted. [[spoiler: [[MindScrew They're from THE FUTURE!]]]]
* AlliterativeName: Helen "Sky-High" Helligan
** Sally Smart, alias Sally Sonic, [[spoiler:alias Sara Smart]]
* ArcNumber: In ''Victory'', it's seven, of course. #0 [[LampshadeHanging even has a character note how important the number seven seems to be]]. It's the equivalent of Morrison smacking the reader upside the head and going "Oi! Pay ''attention''!" The things you need to pay attention to are stuff like [[spoiler:Zatanna's "-Anonymous" meeting. Notice how there are ''eight'' people there. The eighth is Misty.]]
* AuthorAvatar: Nobeard of the Subway Pirates who bedevil the Manhattan Guardian is unilaterally considered a rendition of Morrison himself. Nobeard's archrival Allbeard thus represents Morrison's hated enemy Creator/AlanMoore. Since Morrison is writing the story, Nobeard is the one who wins. ...Except for the subtext that [[spoiler:Nobeard got exposed to radioactive material and got fatal cancers all in his body]]. But yeah, he came out of the fight ''alive...''
** According to WordOfGod, [[spoiler: The Seven Unknown Men are all the authors who wrote themselves into DC Comics - meaning, of course, Morrison is among them (though not for Nobeard; he literally appeared as himself in ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'')]].
* {{Badass}}: Frankenstein, to a deliberately immense extent. He has been described as "making SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}} look like [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]]".
* BadassNormal: The Guardian follows this trope, as does Sky-High Helligan.
* BigBad: The Sheeda in Morrison's series, led by [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Gloriana Tenebrae]]. [[BiggerBad However, they're not necessarily the Big Bad in each character's individual series]]. In fact, most of the series have their own {{Big Bad}}s.
** Zatanna: Zor, who is something of a ManBehindTheMan to the Sheeda.
** Shining Knight: Gloriana Tenebrae.
** Klarion: Melmoth
** The Manhattan Guardian: None, though he leads the charge against the Sheeda's armies in in the meta-series's final issue
** Frankenstein: Melmoth for the first two issues, then the Neh-Buh-Loh Man in the final issue.
** Bulleteer: Sally Sonic
** Mister Miracle: Mr. [[ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} Dark Side]], also the BiggerBad of the meta-series.
* {{Bifauxnen}}[[spoiler:/SweetPollyOliver: The Shining Knight in Grant Morrison's maxi-series.]]
* BishonenLine: The Nebula Man actually becomes ''smaller'' when he returns as the Neh-Buh-Loh Man; he's clearly seen towering over the Soldiers in ''Justice League of America #100''.
* BlessedWithSuck: Bulleteer. Alix didn't want to be a superhero, her husband did. She was perfectly happy with a normal life, and after she received her powers she had to quit her job as a special needs teacher, then discovered her husband's second life and in a fit of despair tried to commit suicide by running until she hit something strong enough to kill her.
* BookEnds: Morrison's issue #0 ends with [[spoiler: the deaths of Greg Saunders's team of Soldiers]]; the conclusion in issue #1 ends with [[spoiler: the resurrection of the one slain Soldier, Mister Miracle.]]
* BreakingTheFourthWall: All over the place in Morrison's version, as is his wont, but most apparent in the two scenes where [[spoiler: Zatanna]] directly addresses the reader.
** TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: [[spoiler: Inverted, as it's implied the reader helps save the day.]]
* BreakoutCharacter: Frankenstein appeared in both ComicBook/FinalCrisis and ComicBook/BlackestNight, got his own Flashpoint mini-series and has his own title coming up after the reboot. Sir Ystin also appears in Demon Knights.
* CanonDiscontinuity: Morrison's Bulleteer made a number of [[TheCameo cameos]] in other stories after hers ended. The catch? [[WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain She quit superheroing in the last issue of her series.]] It's most egregious when she appears in an incarnation of the Justice League seen in the series ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo''...[[TheyJustDidntCare a series co-written by Morrison himself!]][[note]]One can FanWank an in-story explanation - Morrison's Seven Soldiers is confirmed by WordOfGod to take place one week before ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', so she could have gotten {{Cosmic Retcon}}ned[[/note]]
** Incidentally, Morrison himself considers the ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' comic version of Klarion to be this. Why? Because he thought that version - best known for introducing himself as "Klarion... Bum, Bum, Bum... The Witch Boy!" - was silly.
* CaptainColorbeard: The Subway Pirates in ''Manhattan Guardian'' - though their names are [=Nobeard=] and [=Allbeard=], more all around descriptions.
* CelestialBody: The Nebula[=/=]Neh-Buh-Loh Man. In Morrison's series it's explained that [[spoiler: he was originally a miniature universe named Qwewq.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: I, Spyder]]'s revamp in the 0 issue becomes very important in the conclusion.
* ContinuityPorn: ''Victory'' references an absurd number of minor characters throughout DC history.
** To give an example: Zor is actually an existing character, appearing in a story from ''More Fun Comics #55'' as a one-shot villain for ComicBook/TheSpectre. [[ViewersAreGeniuses But who would know that?]] [[note]]Unless you're a ComicBook/DoctorFate fan - that issue was his first appearance. If you're curious about what happened, Zor saves some criminals from the Spectre, he introduces himself as a spirit that goes around causing evil, they fight, Spectre finds he can't win because Zor is older than him (this is before certain {{retcon}}s), Zor disguises himself as the Spectre's human identity and kidnaps his girlfriend, Spectre asks for help from God, Spectre arrives at Zor's castle, gets paralyzed by Zor's paralysis ray, and finally tricks Zor into getting paralyzed himself.[[/note]]
* {{Cowboy}}: Greg Saunders was a singing cowboy in his SecretIdentity.
* CorporateSponsoredSuperhero: The Guardian was sponsored by a newspaper.
* DeathByDespair: The method of attack of one Sheeda weapon, a sentient [[EldritchAbomination ...thing...]] that torments it victims with painful truths much like a [[GreekMythology Harpy]].
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: for 22 pages. Seven Soldiers #0 follows a team of fairly unlikable Z-list heroes who [[spoiler: all die at the end, at the hands of the newly introduced main threat.]] The story of the real protagonists starts after this.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The panel where Lance's smartware begins to spread to Alix and the look on her face.
** It should be noted that the artist for ''Bulleteer'' purposefully drew Alix, Sally Sonic, and every other female heroine in poses reminiscent of supermodels in just about every panel.
* EldritchAbomination: Nebula/Neh-Buh-Loh Man, for starters. The flesh-eating Martian mantis-horses, and many of the Sheeda's 'pets', also probably count.
* {{Expy}}: The Newsboy Army are an InUniverse one for classic Creator/JackKirby characters the Newsboy Legion, where the Guardian character originated.
* TheFairFolk: The Sheeda were stated to be based on, and In-Universe source of the stories about, the Unseelie Court.
** FairyTaleMotifs: Gloriana is the WickedStepmother [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Evil Queen]], Misty Kilgore is Literature/SnowWhite, and the Neh-Buh-Loh Man is TheWildHunt and other fairy tale huntsmen [[spoiler: including the one from Snow White.]]
* {{Familiar}}: Teekl and the other draaga of Limbo Town act as these to their owners.
* {{Fanservice}}: Zatanna goes through a few of her old costumes in ''Victory'', ''all'' of which are sexy. She says she "likes to look good".
* {{Fetish}}: Bulleteer's husband, in-canon, had a superhero fetish. [[FandomNod It turns out that he wasn't exactly unique...]]
* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler:The Sheeda Queen deliberately attempts to kill any superhero team with seven members. The only reason she doesn't do it to the 'right' Seven Soldiers is that the soldiers never actually meet and form a team.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: The Terrible Time Tailor, an alias of Zor, imposes one on the members of the Newsboy Army.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Gloriana Tenebrae, The Queen of Terror, is right up there among Morrison's biggest monsters, and very scary indeed. (Not that her husband was much better...)
* GrowingUpSucks: The absolutely horrible fate of the Newsboy Legion, see TearJerker. (Also probably a metaphor of the transition from TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks to TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks).
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: As revealed in an issue of ''Bulleteer'', Boy Blue [[spoiler: summoned the Sheeda on the Iron Hand's behalf in #0 by blowing his horn]]; thus he unwittingly ensures that he's one of [[spoiler: their first victims]].
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The first team let the archer, ''Alias The Spider'' on their team (PostCrisis). Now, Spider was a villain who tried to kill the team (he nearly succeeded too) and managed to get away with his "heroic" reputation intact. Now to be fair, '''no one''' knew Spider was evil until he struck and this info couldn't be shared since the Soldiers were either lost in time or dead. [[Comicbook/{{Starman}} He even tricked the Jay Garrick Flash and the Shade until he made his move, but that time he didn't get away]].
** The Greg Saunders team in the newer maxi-series did this too; hell they hired ''I, Spyder'', the son of the original! [[spoiler:Sheeda Queen Gloriana made the same mistake]]. Not to mention [[spoiler:the "new" Little Boy Blue who summoned the Sheeda to decimate the team]]. It's subverted in the case of [[spoiler: I, Spyder]], who only turns traitor at the end and thereby helps destroy [[spoiler: Gloriana]].
* HyperlinkStory: Morrison's series.
* IronicEcho: One of these connects Morrison's version with the RetCon regarding how the 1940s iteration ended, to wit, [[spoiler: the Spider's betrayal of the 1940s team]] is matched and inverted by [[spoiler: I, Spyder betraying Gloriana and thus helping the newer Soldiers defeat her.]]
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: A standard aspect of Morrison's stories but this is probably the best and most deliberate example besides ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles''.
* KnightInShiningArmor: The Shining Knights, of course.
* LegacyCharacter: Bulleteer (based on Bulletman and Bulletgirl), the Manhattan Guardian (based on Guardian and the Newsboy Legion) and Mr Miracle. Shining Knight is an odd case (she's from ''before'' the original) and it's not clear if Klarion is meant to be the same character as the 1970s Klarion or what. And ''all'' of the Vigilante's ill-fated team.
** SpinOffspring: The short lived incarnation of the Seven Soldiers of Victory in Creator/GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' #0 included the Whip III, granddaughter of the Whip II (a NewOldWest Franchise/{{Zorro}} wannabe) and great-great-granddaughter of the Whip I (an [[{{Western}} Old West]] Zorro wannabe); I, Spyder, son of the original [=7SoV=] member (and traitor) Alias the Spider; and Gimmix, daughter of Merry the Gimmick Girl and, therefore, niece of the first Star-Spangled Kid, who was also an original [=7SoV=] member. In ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' #1, the Bulleteer turns out to be directly descended from [[spoiler: Aurakles, the world's first superhero.]]
** WordOfGod is that Klarion is intended to be the same character as from [[ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} The Demon]] comics, [[spoiler: though from an earlier point on the timeline. After conquering the Sheeda, he uses Castle Revolving to go back in time to the 70s comics.]] However, it doesn't appear that any writer other than Morrison was aware of this, based on his subsequent appearances post-[=7SoV=].
* LetsSplitUpGang: The Grant Morrison series was simply the ''Leading Comics'' formula, but on a grander, more epic scale.
* MeaningfulRename: When the original Seven Soldiers returned in the ''Justice League'' story, the Hand renamed himself the Iron Hand. In Grant Morrson's version, the Nebula Man now calls himself the Neh-Buh-Loh Man while the Oracle's name [[spoiler: turns out to be a corruption of "Aurakles".]]
* MindScrew: The Morrison version, as to be expected.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: The Bride
* {{Necromancer}}: All of the residents of Limbo Town use necromancy as a way to survive, which makes [[spoiler: controlling Frankenstein]] an easy task for Klarion.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted as [[spoiler: Sheeda Queen Glorianna discovers Justin's gender by smelling "the blood of the womb."]]
* OneExtraMember: In the conclusion of Morrison's version, [[spoiler: I Spyder]] acts as an unofficial "eighth soldier" and helps defeat the villain. Given that [[spoiler: he]] was remade by the Seven Unknown Men, this was probably the whole point of the character both in and out of universe.
* OfCorsetsSexy: Zatanna
* PaintingTheMedium: There's a sequence in ''Victory'' where Zatanna and a few friends go through another dimension, and the scenery shifts to compensate. The panels become ''cubes'', for starters, and--it's remarkably difficult to describe.
** [[spoiler:During Zatanna's fight with Zor, he eventually starts ''ripping apart other panels'', and Zatanna defeats him by falling through the empty space on the page so she can ''beat him to the future''.]] Immediately following that, [[spoiler:she tries to ''reach out of the comic itself'', through a window to the Seven Unknown Men bordered with gears, typewriter heads, and colored ink.]]
* APirate400YearsTooLate: The Subway Pirates
* PoorCommunicationKills: The Iron Hand spends decades hating Greg Saunders, the original Vigilante, and even orchestrates the coming of the Sheeda and [[spoiler: the deaths of Saunders's new Seven Soldiers team]] in the mistaken belief that Saunders was a racist after hearing him refer to one of the Hand's henchmen as "your kind." In fact, Saunders had recognized that said henchmen was a werewolf because [[spoiler: Saunders was too]].
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: Morrison's ''Seven Soldiers'' had something of a prologue in ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA Classified #1-3]]'' (collected in the trade paperback ''JLA: Ultramarine Corps''), which introduced the Sheeda and the Neh-Buh-Loh Man (well, ''re''introduced in the latter's case).
** Mister Miracle's story is one for ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.
* ProphecyTwist: In Morrison's series, "The spear that was never thrown". [[spoiler: It turns out to refer to Aurakles's descendants. One of them is Alix Harrower[=/=]Bulleteer, who delivers the final blow to Gloriana Tenebrae when she accidentally rams her with a car while struggling with Sally Sonic for control of the vehicle.]]
** There is a prophecy that the Sheeda will be defeated by a group of seven soldiers, so they pragmatically look out for groups of seven and either eliminate them or [[VillainExitStageLeft run away when they can't win]] (as they did when they fought the Justice League). [[spoiler: But no-one said the seven soldiers had to be part of a single group.]]
* RetCon[=/=]RememberTheNewGuy: That whole thing about the Nebula Man? That was created wholesale in ''Justice League of America #100'', along with the Oracle character. Grant Morrison's series helped fill in the blanks through a bit of ArcWelding.
* ShoutOut: Bulleteer's fight with Sally Sonic involved the two beating each other with Alix's refrigerator. The entire ''Bulleteer'' miniseries seemed to be a nod towards WomenInRefrigerators, as Alix is a woman whose entire life has become one tragic mistake because of her husband, same said for Sally Sonic.
** Melmoth is named after ''Literature/MelmothTheWanderer''
* SpiritualSuccessor: Has one in ComicBook/DemonKnights, which amongst other things [[spoiler:reintroduces the cyclic nature of Camelot, as well as the Seven Soldiers version of Shining Knight fighting with six other bad-asses to stop someone from misusing a grail. Sound familiar?]]
* StockUnsolvedMysteries: Morrison's Seven Soldiers has a rather unique solution to famous 16th-century mystery of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony missing colony of Roanoke Island]].
* StockingFiller: Zatanna
* TakeThat:
** Zachary Zor might be this to Alan Moore. He takes Zatanna and turns her into a similar, but DarkerAndEdgier character with a different name and consistently talks about his beard. It should also be noted that Alan Moore wrote the story that killed Zatanna's father.
--->'''Zor:''' ''It's a magnificent beard and you know you want one!''
*** Alternatively, Zor could represent the readers themselves, as we often see events from his visual perspective (and we, like him, are always on the outside looking in) and one of the Seven Unknown Men comments on how he bet Zor didn't think he could bleed. This could apply to the READER not knowing he could bleed in a comic.
*** Unless, of course, he's Creator/WarrenEllis - he certainly talks like him.
** At one point in the Grant Morrison series, Frankenstein says that "madmen have said that the meek shall inherit the earth". [[{{Jesus}} Guess where]] [[Literature/TheBible that saying originally came from?]]
* TimeAbyss: The Nebula Man is three billion years old. The Sheeda [[TimeyWimeyBall may or may not count]], but Aurakles is certainly another.
* TotalPartyKill: [[spoiler: Issue #0 sees Greg Saunder's team get completely wiped out.]]
* TraumaCongaLine: See ''Bulleteer''.
* WarriorPoet: Frankenstein can lengthily quote [[Literature/ParadiseLost Milton]] or Literature/TheBible even - or especially - in the middle of combat.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It actually happens to quite a few characters at the end of Grant Morrison's series. Klarion's fate is entirely WordOfGod and was [[CanonDiscontinuity likely ignored by later writers]]. Frankenstein was last seen under Klarion's control, which seems entirely ignored in his subsequent appearances (in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', [[CosmicRetcon though the former may be justified]]). The worst offender is Misty Kilgore - she just (metaphorically) vanishes from the story, and has subsequently undergone ChuckCunninghamSyndrome.
* WhipItGood: ''Victory'''s LegacyCharacter The Whip (3). She even has a sexy, impractical costume.
** She actually lampshades this, calling herself a superhero fetishist.
* WholePlotReference: Misty Kilgore's backstory is a retelling of the "Literature/SnowWhite" tale.
* WitchSpecies: Klarion along with all the other residents of Limbo Town due to being of [[TheFairFolk Sheeda]] [[HalfHumanHybrids descendant]].
* YouFightLikeACow: "You have a ''stupid'' hat!"
* ZergRush: Frankenstein at one point has to fight off a huge horde of [[KillerRabbit vicious, chemically-maddened woodland critters.]] There are enough that their combined body masses add up to several tons, which mean that when they all pile on they don't so much hurt him as bury him.
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