| All-Winners Squad | |
|---|---|
 All Winners Comics #19 (fall 1946). Cover artists unconfirmed, possiblyAl Avison andAl Gabriele. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | All Winners Comics #19 (fall 1946) |
| Created by | Bill Finger (writer) Vince Alascia Al Avison Bob Powell Syd Shores (artists) |
| In-story information | |
| Member(s) | Captain America Bucky Human Torch Toro Sub-Mariner Whizzer Miss America Blonde Phantom Angel |
TheAll-Winners Squad is asuperhero team appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. The company's first such team, itfirst appeared inAll Winners Comics #19 (fall 1946), published by Marvel predecessorTimely Comics during the period fans and historians call theGolden Age of Comic Books.[1]
While the cover title and in-book references to the team have no hyphen, Marvel's website version ofThe Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Teams 2005 lists the team name as the hyphenated "All-Winners Squad",[2] as do the print version and independent sources.[3][4]
The All-Winners Squad was created for Marvel predecessorTimely Comics in 1946, during theGolden Age of Comic Books.[5] It consisted ofCaptain America and sidekickBucky; theHuman Torch and sidekickToro; theSub-Mariner; super-speedster theWhizzer; andMiss America.[6]
While the super-team made only two Golden Age appearances—inAll Winners Comics #19 (fall 1946) and #21 (winter 1946; there was no issue #20)[4]—it reacquired fan interest upon their being reprinted by Marvel during the 1960sSilver Age of Comic Books.
Thefirst appearance of the All-Winners Squad, titled "The Crime of the Ages", was written byBill Finger. The 43-page story, split into seven chapters, waspencilled variously byVince Alascia,Al Avison,Bob Powell, andSyd Shores, andinked by Avison, Alascia, Powell,Allen Bellman,Al Gabriele, andDon Rico.[4] In this story, the team fought the Nazi spy Isbisa.[7]
The second outing, "Menace from the Future World", was written byOtto Binder. The 43-page, seven chapter story was penciled by Alascia, Avison, Shores, and the pseudonymousCharles Nicholas also known as Chuck Nicholas, and inked by Alascia, Avison, Gabriele, Nicholas, and Shores.[4] This story involved the machinations of Madame Death and the time-travelling Future Man.[7]
Timely and Marvel editor-in-chiefStan Lee recalled in 1999:
I suspect that [Timely's publisher] Martin Goodman was the guy behind the All-Winners Squad. It's not the type of title I'd have made up. I think he simply must have said to me one day, 'I wanna do a book featuring the Torch, Toro, C.A., etc.—and let's call it the All-Winners Squad.' In which case I woulda just gotten the stuff together and sent it out. But honestly, although I can remember the title, I can remember nothing else about it.[8]
Latter-day fans during theSilver Age of Comic Books were introduced to the team via reprints 20 years later, with their tale inAll-Winners Comics #19 being reprinted inFantasy Masterpieces #10 (Aug. 1967) andAll Winners Comics #21 being reprinted inMarvel Super-Heroes #17–18 (Nov. 1968 & Jan. 1969). Thirty years after this, the entirety ofAll Winners Comics #19 was reprinted asTimely Presents: All-Winners (hyphen sic; title per reprint indicia), also known asTimely Comics Presents All Winners Comics (title per reprint cover) (Dec. 1999).
The All-Winners Squad has beenretconned as the post-war continuation of theInvaders andLiberty Legion (twoWorld War II-era teams created by Marvel in the 1970s) and as the inspiration for theV-Battalion (a post-war superhero team created by Marvel in 2001).
The team was reintroduced inWhat If? #4 (Aug. 1977), analternate universe umbrella series. Acanonical portion of the story reveals that whenCaptain America/Steve Rogers andBucky were presumed dead in 1945,U.S. PresidentTruman asked William Naslund, the patriotically costumed World War II hero theSpirit of '76, to assume the Captain America role, with a young man named Fred Davis as Bucky. They continue to serve in the same roles after the war with the All-Winners Squad, until theandroidAdam II fatally injured Naslund in 1946.
After Naslund's death, Jeff Mace, the Golden AgePatriot, took over as Captain America, with Davis continuing as Bucky; however, Davis was shot and injured in 1948 and forced to retire. Mace teamed with Betsy Ross, the superheroineGolden Girl, and sometime before 1953 gave up his Captain America identity to marry her. Mace developed cancer and died decades later.[9]
The Liberty Legion, created in 1976 but whose adventures are set inWorld War II, included two future members of the All-Winners Squad: theWhizzer andMiss America.
The All-Winners Squad madeflashback appearances inThe Sensational She-Hulk #22 (Dec. 1990), working alongside theBlonde Phantom,[4] inAll Winners Comics 70th Anniversary Special (2009) andCaptain America: Patriot (2010).
More recently, the All-Winners Squad made aflashback cameo appearance inThe Marvels #1 (June 2021), flying over French Indochina in 1947. The team shown included only Sub-Mariner, Human Torch, Toro and Miss America and was featured only in a single panel.
