Review by Win Wiacek

This significantly bulkier final Archive edition completes the Seven Soldiers of Victory appearances from the 1940s, with comics legend Roy Thomas this time providing the introduction.

Unusually for a 1940s series, all six stories are by the same creative team of writer Joe Samachson, also responsible for Volume 2, and new artist, Argentinian Arturo Caseneuve. He also drew the solo adventures of Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy and the Vigilante, and adapts well to adding Crimson Avenger, Green Arrow and Shining Knight to his portfolio.

The effective formula remains as established by Mort Weisinger in the Soldiers’ first outing, wherein the heroes meet to assess a many-headed threat before heading off individually to handle a portion of the problem solo, only reuniting to tackle the final foe together.

However, Samachson surprises by deviating slightly from the template for the opener as a conglomeration of five gangsters hiding out in a swanky underworld resort get to talking about the heroes they have fled from, and are overheard by a sixth. Disguise artist Mr. X boasts he can outwit any and all of Seven Soldiers and a substantial amount of money is wagered.

It’s followed by an exotic adventure in the Pacific as the Seven Soldiers search for a missing museum expedition, where Samachson again messes with formula by teaming Crimson Avenger with Speedy. It’s followed by Green Arrow with Vigilante, Stripesy and Wing, and the Shining Knight with the Star-Spangled Kid. Next up is the fall of hardened racketeer Handsome Harry as he misplaces his talismanic chapeau in ‘The Hard-Luck Hat!’

Crotchety Croesus Weldon Darrel then issues ‘The Million Dollar Challenge!’ to the Seven Soldiers, offering that princely sum to charity in return for their participation in an eccentric five-way treasure hunt. Unfortunately it occurs in an area populated by bandits. ‘Trophies of Crime!’ opens in an art museum where an odd assortment of mementoes donated by the Seven Soldiers hints at incredible feats of skulduggery, and we discover how they were collected.

The short reign of the Seven Soldiers of Victory ends with a fabulous flight of fantasy that ranged them against ‘The Bandits from the Books!’ Scientific paragon Dr. Wimsett has discovered a process to bring fictional characters to life. Samachson revels in delivering the likes of Falstaff, Humpty Dumpty and Uriah Heep.

Frantic fantasy would also have been the theme of the next adventure had there been one, but Leading Comics abruptly transformed into a cartoon animal comedy anthology. The changeover was so sudden that Samachson’s Seven Soldiers script had already been completed, and it offers a wondrous glimpse of what might have been. Moreover when Paul Levitz rediscovered the script in 1974, it was adapted in Adventure Comics. It’s a true shame room couldn’t be found to include that saga here too.

As engaging as these stories are, 1945 was the last readers would see of the Seven Soldiers of Victory until Len Wein revived them to meet the Justice League in the early 1970s. Find that story in Justice League of America: The Bronze Age Omnibus Volume One.