The Mighty Crusaders, published by Mighty Comics Group (Archie Comics) brought together their super heroes into a powerful crime fighting team. Jerry Siegel penned the scripts, Paul Reinman & Mike Sekowsky, the art with Joe Giella & Frank Giacoia handling the inking.
The Shield, Black Hood (my personal favorite Crusader), The Comet, Fly Man & Fly Girl were the super heroes to band into the new team (first appearance in Fly Man #31). The Archie series mixed typical superhero fare with high camp. They had me hooked with a team book, I've always enjoyed the team books.
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| Panels from the first issue! |
The Mighty Crusaders #1
During the official formation of the Mighty Crusaders, the heroes are attacked by five aliens and their leader, The Brain Emperor.
The Eraser comes out of retirement to finish a job he thought he'd completed years ago: the elimination of the Shield. This story reveals that the current Shield is really the son of the original Shield.
The Mighty Crusaders #2
The Mighty Crusaders learn that a giant space drill is headed for earth, but are unable to stop it. At the last second, the drill is destroyed by the villainous Inferno.
After saving the earth, Inferno takes it over, with a willing populace. Fly Girl leaves the Crusaders and joins up with Inferno only to learn about his true malevolence.
The origin of the Comet.
The Mighty Crusaders #3
After battling evil duplicates of themselves, the Mighty Crusaders attempt to defeat the Deathless Smiler, even as one of them is suspected of being a traitor.
Origin of Fly Man, which explains his metamorphosis from Fly into Fly Man. It also accounts for his new size changing abilities.
The formation of the Mighty Crusaders inspires other heroes to come out of retirement and petition for membership.
Features a revival of over a dozen MLJ super characters. The story is told in 4 parts.
The Mighty Crusaders and two new super teams called the Ultra Men and the Terrific Three battle the Nameless One and his agents codenamed D.E.M.O.N. The Spider learns that the Nameless One has captured all of the heroes and invades his headquarters determined to kill the heroes himself. But the Spider inadvertently frees the heroes from their peril.
The spy group "A.U.N.T.I.E." is a parody of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. Three part story.
The Mighty Crusaders #6
The Mighty Crusaders bungle up training and stakeouts for the CIA, FBI, the Secret Service and local police.
The Mighty Crusaders are captured by the Maestro and subjected to some dangerous tests. Finally, after passing the tests, the Maestro offers the Crusaders positions in his organization called T.R.I.U.M.P.H.
Steel Sterling battles a man capable of creating monsters.
This is a continuation of the first part of the reprint in Fly Man #39.
The Black Hood and The Shield battle a giant named Hammerhead.
The origin of Fly Girl as Metal Witch attacks.
More recently came the Mighty Crusaders: Origin Of A Super Team trade paperback.
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| First issue from the marvelous eighties series! |
I've always loved the team book, one of the earliest I remember enjoying, when it originally came out, was The Avengers #27. Great stuff!
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| They still did it right in the eighties, how can you go wrong with covers by Toth, Infantino & Nino & Sternako? |
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| Illustration by the great Irv Novick! |
Live Large My Friends!
Thank You!
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| Another Rudy Nebres illustration! |
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| Later came Liefeld! |
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| The eighties saw the release of some action figures! |
My favorite super hero team! If only Archie would reprint these issues.
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