| Seven Soldiers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Cover toSeven Soldiers of Victory Vol. 4 (2007, TPB), art byDoug Mahnke. | |||
| Publication information | |||
| Publisher | DC Comics | ||
| Schedule | Monthly | ||
| |||
| Formats | Original material for the series has been published as a set oflimited series. | ||
| Genre | |||
| Publication date | April 2005 – December 2006 | ||
| Number of issues | 30 | ||
| Main character(s) | Shining Knight Manhattan Guardian Zatanna Klarion the Witch Boy Mister Miracle Bulleteer Frankenstein Sheeda | ||
| Creative team | |||
| Writer(s) | Grant Morrison | ||
| Artist(s) | J. H. Williams III Simone Bianchi Cameron Stewart Ryan Sook Frazer Irving Pascal Ferry Yanick Paquette Doug Mahnke Freddie Williams II | ||
| Reprints | |||
| Collected editions | |||
| Volume 1 | ISBN 1-4012-0925-4 | ||
| Volume 2 | ISBN 1401209750 | ||
| Volume 3 | ISBN 1401209769 | ||
| Volume 4 | ISBN 1401209777 | ||
Seven Soldiers is a 2005–2006comic book metaseries written byGrant Morrison and published byDC Comics. It was published as seven interrelatedmini-series and two bookend issues.[1] The series features a new version of theSeven Soldiers of Victory fighting to saveEarth from theSheeda. The series has been interpreted as "an extended metafictional treatise on the writing and reading of comic books in general and the superhero genre in particular".[2]
Seven Soldiers started off as a different project which evolved over time. According to Morrison:
I started off in 2002 with the idea to do aJLA spin-off called JL8, which featured a bunch of C-list characters getting together as a DC analogue of theAvengers orUltimates. Guardian was in from the start as myCaptain America guy, Mister Miracle wasThor, theDemon was theHulk, Zatanna was theScarlet Witch and so on.... I worked on the material for the next two years to turn it into the Seven Soldiers concept as it finally emerged.[3]
The metaseries is bookended bySeven Soldiers #0 and #1, with art byJ. H. Williams III.[4] The rest was made up of seven mini-series:[5]Shining Knight with art bySimone Bianchi,[6]Manhattan Guardian with art byCameron Stewart,[7]Zatanna with art byRyan Sook,[8]Klarion with art byFrazer Irving,Mister Miracle with art byPascal Ferry andFreddie Williams II,Bulleteer with art byYanick Paquette, andFrankenstein with art byDoug Mahnke.
In the first issue of this story (which was part of a two-issue framework for the project), theVigilante gathers together a new Spider (called "I, Spyder" and apparently the son of the original), Gimmix (the estranged daughter ofMerry, the Girl of a Thousand Gimmicks), a new Boy Blue, Dyno-Mite Dan (owner of two "working fakes" imitations of the explosive rings ofT.N.T. andDan the Dyna-Mite), and the Whip (granddaughter of theGolden AgeWhip). The team sets out to battle the Buffalo Spider (later on, theSheeda are betrayed by Spyder inSeven Soldiers of Victory #1 in another nod to the original), only to be killed during an event known as the Harrowing.
The seven miniseries follow seven other characters with indirect connections to the first group, each with their own art styles, genres, and character arcs. A central part of Morrison's idea for the current series is that, although the seven characters in question are each a part of the same struggle, they never actually meet (although there are references to each other in the various titles). Thus, the team is actually not a team.
An explanation for this is presented inManhattan Guardian andZatanna. In the first, a man named Ed Starsgard (Baby Brain) tells Guardian that the Sheeda have been attacking humanity in periodic waves, taking everything of value (physical and mental) and leaving behind just enough for the survivors to rebuild for next time. It is prophesied that the Sheeda will eventually be stopped by seven soldiers, so they target teams of seven, including theUltramarine Corps and theJustice League of America (JLA: Classified #1–3). However, because the Seven Soldiers have never met, they stand a chance of doing the job.
InZatanna, a ghost remarks that there are too many coincidences in the story and it feels like there is a "mystery string tying it all together". It eventually emerges that the Seven Unknown Men ofSlaughter Swamp are driving the Seven Soldiers to stop the Sheeda.
In an interview, Grant remarked that this series of stories (which he calls a "megaseries", also known as a metaseries), takes place afterInfinite Crisis.Dan DiDio has stated that, after careful consultation with Morrison, the series is now considered to take place a week beforeInfinite Crisis.
The comicSeven Soldiers of Victory #1 was originally scheduled for release on April 1, 2006, but was delayed and eventually released on October 25.
After undergoing various trials and tribulations in their own miniseries, the soldiers eventually take part in the climactic battle against the Queen of the Sheeda in New York, each affecting different parts of the battle without having any idea of the larger picture.
The climactic sequence is initiated by Zatanna casting a spell: "Seven Soldiers Strike!" This is the final push the universe required to move the soldiers into position.
After travelling into the future kingdom where the Sheeda live,Frankenstein takes Castle Revolving, the Queen's time-travelling floating kingdom, to present-day New York so that the Queen can be brought to justice by the paranormal special ops groupS.H.A.D.E. Once Castle Revolving arrives, theShining Knight—who had chased the queen to the future—successfully attacks the Queen, severely injuring her and leaving her open to an attack by supporting characterI, Spyder, who shoots an arrow into her and knocks her down to the New York streets below.
There, theManhattan Guardian has rounded up thousands of New Yorkers into a militia that is successfully fighting off the Sheeda invasion. At approximately the same time,Bulleteer comes tearing down the street in her car, hoping to take her critically ill nemesis, Sally Sonic, to a hospital. Sally, utterly insane, attacks Bulleteer, who loses control of her vehicle and crashes into the Queen. Guardian arrives on the scene, but Bulleteer is the only survivor.
Prior to all of this,Klarion, who had drilled up into New York from hidden caves beneath the city, had stolen a magic die from Misty, Zatanna's sidekick. Together with his own die, the two dice comprise Fatherbox, one of the lost treasures of the ancient superheroAurakles. Klarion had then traveled up to Castle Revolving. With the Sheeda Queen dead, Klarion uses a binding spell on Frankenstein, forcing him to pilot the ship back into the future. Thus, Klarion becomes the "traitor" that was prophesied.[9] However, by doing so, he also stopped Misty, the Sheeda princess, from becoming the new Queen and being obligated to continue the cycle of destruction to save her people.
Finally,Mister Miracle confrontsDark Side in his club. There, Dark Side explains that he gave Earth to the Sheeda in return for them giving himAurakles, the primordial superhero. Mister Miracle offers himself in exchange for Aurakles' freedom and Dark Side accepts. Once Aurakles is freed and Mister Miracle is shackled, Dark Side shoots him through the head, thus making him the soldier that was prophesied to die.[10] Mister Miracle is later seen emerging alive from his own grave, "escaping death".
The series won the 2006Eisner Award for "Best Finite/Limited Series".[11]
The series has been collected into fourtrade paperbacks:
| # | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN | Reprints | ||||
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| 1 | Volume 1 | DC Comics[12] | 2006 | ISBN 1-4012-0925-4 | Collects The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:
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| 2 | Volume 2 | DC Comics[13] | 2007 | ISBN 1-4012-0975-0 | Collects The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:
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| 3 | Volume 3 | DC Comics[14] | 2006 | ISBN 1-4012-0976-9 | Collects The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:
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| 4 | Volume 4 | DC Comics[15] | 2007 | ISBN 1-4012-0977-7 | Collects The reprinted material is, in whole or in part, from:
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Note: The full title of all volumes listed here start with "Seven Soldiers of Victory:".
In 2010-11, the series was collected into two hardcover volumes, the first of which contains the same content as the first two trade paperbacks, while the second contains the same content as the latter two paperbacks. In 2018, all thirty issues were compiled into a single, 792-page omnibus.