Scarlet-and-Gold Spandex Skilled Soldiers

As the world was heading once more into a war that would grip the globe, a plethora of powerless protectors debuted.

Rip Jagger was a mere sergeant on a southern Pacific island on Earth-Four, when he encountered a band of Asian freedom fighters fighting against their Japanese occupiers. Once Rip completed his training and adopted the alias of Judomaster, he rejoined the armed forces and proved a valuable agent against the Axis young partner named Tiger. 

On Earth-Two at the same time but in the United States, newspaper publisher Lee Travis and his chauffeur Tiger used their own considerable fighting abilities as Crimson Avenger and Wing. Both on their own as well as members of Law’s Legionnaires and All-Star Squadron, they were exemplary mystery men among their peers.

Similarities? Definite love of red and yellow... not very common among the superhero set. Physically adept heroes equipped with various small weaponry. Mentors to junior partners. 

During the latter 1940's, each was pulled from their own time and awoke in a modern age decades later without having aged a day, standing alongside their fellow mystery men. While Travis succumbed to fatal exposure to radiation during his time-tossed adventure in the early 1980's, leading to his early demise, Jagger seemingly was thrust from his native time period into the mid 1980s during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Perhaps he reunited with his former protegee Tiger, who as a seasoned adult became the martial arts mentor of Eve Eden. Eden, the daughter of a prominent United States Senator and of royalty from a shadow dimension, was secretly the government agent known as Nightshade. Tiger's doppleganger Wing had himself given his life to save his mentor Lee and his Legionnaires allies durinr their final mission.

In 1954, aspiring comic book publisher Charlton purchased the rights to several prominent characters from the expiring Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.

Justice Journalists: Green Arrow and Crimson Avenger

At the start of their careers, both Oliver Queens were virtually identical. Each were wealthy playboys, without much drive in their lives, until stranded in remote locales where they trained in the art of archery. They adopted wards named Roy Harper, whom they teamed up with in the costumed crusaders known as Green Arrow and Speedy. True, their origins were different, Oliver of Earth-One was trapped on an island and Oliver of Earth-Two was stranded on a mesa... and the teams they joined were also dissimilar as Oliver-One joined the Justice League and Oliver-Two joined Law's Legionnaires. Still they were mirror images.

And then, each faced drastic life changes. Oliver-One lost his fortune and became a newspaper columnist at the Daily Star*. Oliver-Two was lost in time and returned a recluse. At this point, the former adopted a new costume and a new attitude towards life, fighting for the underserved in society. In this, Oliver-One now reflected the demeanor of Oliver-Two's long-time fellow Legionnaire teammate, the Crimson Avenger*.

Lee Walter Travis was a wealthy publisher of the Globe-Leader, originally located in New York City. Seeing that reporting about injustice wasn't enough, he adopted a mask/cape/fadora with specialty gas-gun as the Crimson Avenger. During this period, he and his trusted chaffeur and friend Wing battled crime as well as attempt to elevate conditions of those discriminated against. In this, he became in spirit his world's version of the new Green Arrow of Earth-One**.

Interestingly, a rich friend of Travis' named Wesley Dodds was also inspired to become a masked man, the Sandman. He too, like the Avenger and like the Arrow, were said to operate in "New York City", although decades later it was revealed he actually lived in York City... a smaller metropolis also on the east coast. It’s logical, then, that this "York City" would have also had other heroes in their midst... like Avenger and like Arrow, perhaps. Thus, this York City with its newspaper the Globe-Leader was the Earth-Two analogue of Star City and its newspaper the Daily Star on Earth-One***.

* Both worlds had their own Daily Star and their own Daily Planet/Globe-Leader newspapers, although on Earth-One and Earth-Two they were in different cities. 

** The Earth-One counterparts of Lee Travis aka Crimson Avenger as well as his partner Wing How were the dynamic duo of the Kryptonian bottled city of Kandor on Earth-One, Ak-Var aka Flamebird and his partner Von-Zee aka Nightwing.

*** A similar number of adventures where chronicled of both the Earth-One Green Arrow during his journalist columnist phase as were those of the Earth-Two Crimson Avenger within the pages of Detective Comics.

Whatever Happened to Crimson Avenger... and Law's Legionnaires

When Lee Walter Travis decided to adopt the alter ego of Crimson Avenger, he stepped outside his comfort zone as a wealthy newspaper publisher and into the world of costumed crimefighting. As a member of Law's Legionnaires... also known as the Seven Soldiers of Victory, he and his sidekick Wing had several adventures alongside his teammates. The last was a monumental clash with the alien Nebula Man, which caused Lee and the other Soldiers except Wing to be sent to various past centuries. Now in ancient Mexico, Travis became amnesiac and believed himself to be the ruler of its native people. This effect, along with new superhuman powers, were caused by exposure to a fragment of the Nebula Man. When the Justice Society and Justice League retrieved the Legionnaires, returning them to the 20th century to battle their old foe the Iron Hand, Lee discovered that his dear friend Wing sacrificed his life to destroy Nebula Man.

After a brief retirement, in 1980 Lee resumed his heroic career as Crimson Avenger defending Metropolis, while in his professional career he had moved his newspaper the Daily Globe-Leader to that city and renamed it the Daily Planet. However, the next year, Travis learned that he was succumbing to an incurable condition brought on by the Nebula radiation. Deciding to have one final adventure, Crimson Avenger swung from the balcony of his hospital room, saving a lad named Umberto who fell from his mom's apartment window. Then, the Avenger arrived at his original destination, a tanker in distress due to crooks seizing it for its experiemental chemicals onboard. After subduing them and freeing the vessel's crew, he ordered them to abandon ship and flee on its lifeboat while he piloted the volatile vessel out of theharbor. By doing so, the Avenger saved countless citizens on the shores surrounding Metropolis Bay, and seemingly died.

However, due to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Travis at the instant prior to his perishing was jettisoned from this time period to that of four years in the future. There, equipped with scuba gear he had donned to escape the ship once it cleared the harbor, he ended up arriving on a world now encased in an energy dome along with countless cities from across the Multiverse. 

Now residing with the city and its inhabitants on a new world named Telos, Avenger and his teammates protected Metropolis from various threats for an entire year before the dome collapsed. The ruler of this world sought to pit inhabitants of various cities against one another, and this involved the Crimson and some of his fellow Legionnaires battling the invader hordes of the Antimatter Universe of Qward known as the Thunderers. 

Ultimately, the Qwardians prevailed against the remained Legionnaires, with both Crimson Avenger and his teammate Vigilante dying after being overwhelmed by superior numbers of Thunderers. Prior to this, Stripesy succumbed to pneumonia, while his partner Star-Spangled Kid was heavily involved with Infinity Inc. who were fighting off a different attack on Metropolis led by Jonah Hex and his warriors of the future.

Perhaps the most tragic losses, however, were those of the Battling Bowmen, as Green Arrow and Speedy died back on Earth-Two in the waning hours of the Crisis, as they tried to save cartoonist/reporter Scribby Jibbet from a time-displaced pterodactyl, Instead, the pair fell to their death during this valiant effort, leaving it to the sole remaining active Legionnaire the Shining Knight to come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, on Earth-S and Earth-Four, the Earth-One Green Arrow and Speedy were battling an army of villians invading these parallel planets. Both of them, unlike their counterparts, survived.

Towards the end of the Convengence event, Shining Knight invited Scribby to join him as a new Legionnaire in place of his fallen comrades. As the journalist was chronicling his adventures on this alien world under the dome, he witnessed as Metropolis and all that resided within its border was returning once more to Earth-Two. During this transition, he noted that memories of the past year on Telos were fading away, as reality was once more being restored.

Now back on Earth-Two, the fallen Legionnaires Vigilante's body was found on the streets of Metropolis, surrounded by the city's new conquerors from the Antimatter Universe. And in a cemetary, a grave marked for Pat "Stripesy" Dugan left a mystery as to what happened to fell this strong Soldier. Sadly, the final selfless sacrifice of Crimson Avenger would be left untold, as memories faded from the collective conscience of man.

Those heroes remaining, such as Shining Knight and Scribby as well as Superman, Power Girl and others would undoubtedly have vanquished the Thunderers, sending them back to Qward. This then left those in Metropolis to rebuild their city once more, which had been devastated by natural disasters of the Crisis and warfare on planet Telos.

_________________

Interestingly, the counterparts of the Crimson Avenger and Wing, Flamebird and Nightwing, had a similar eventuality. For years, they resided with their fellow Kryptonians within the shrunken bottled city of Kandor, kept safely inside the Earth-One Superman's Fortress of of Solitude. After a series of adventures wherein Superman and Jimmy Olsen adopted the aliases of Nightwing and Flamebird, a Kandorian version of Gotham City's Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin, scientist Van-Zee and his assistant Ak-Var borrowed these costumes for their own crimefighting escapades.

Eventually, Superman and Supergirl were able to restore Kandor and its citizens to their normal height, on a planet orbiting a red sun known as Rokyn. On this world, the former Kryptonians no longer had superhuman powers, and revealed that this world shifted between universes from time-to-time. As such, Nightwing and Flamebird along with their city were kept in a transitory state, much as the Earth-Two city of Metropolis, between universes... only Rokyn's shifting state wasn't temporary as were those of the cities on Telos.

Fantastic Four Supports Seven Soldiers

Shortly after an their adventure alongside the Justice Society of America, wherein they assisted them in recovering their fellow All-Stars missing since the golden age of mystery men, the Justice League returned to Earth-One. That is, all save three Leaguers who remained on Earth-Two, who were tasked with what Hawkman said was: “helping the Seven Soldiers adjust to the world of the present”! Why?

In the early 1950’s, the Seven... also known as Law's Legionnaires, gathered together for one final case as a group. On that occasion, atop the Himalayas, they along with their unofficial eight member Wing, battled the Nebula Man monster. Assembling a Nebula Rod that destroyed the create, a side effect was Wing's death, while his teammates were sent to various past time periods. From these eras, various members of the JLA and JSA retrieves the Legionnaires, bringing them back to the 20th century although decades after they disappeared. Thanks to their reappearance, the Soldiers were able to save Earth-Two!

Undoubtedly, the Society also aided the Soldiers in their transition from the 50’s to the 70's. However, those three Leaguers: Aquaman, Atom and Black Canary; these three had special purpose that necessitated their temporary presence in that alternate universe.

At least one of the Soldiers was given one-on-one assistance by a Socialite, as Starman took an immediate interest in his fellow stellar superhero, Star-Spangled Kid. In fact, when he later broke his leg, Starman lent the Kid his Cosmic Rod to use. And it would be this device, along with his knowledge of the Nebula Rod, that helped the Kid create his Cosmic Converter Belt.

The Legionnaire known as Shining Knight would have little difficulty readjusting to a new decade, as he had previously experienced a frozen sleep that lasted over a thousand years removed from his native time in Camelot. He and his flying steed Winged Victory simply acclimated to yet another new time period.

Apparently, although sent to save Star-Spangled Kid from the prehistoric past, something drew Aquaman's attention toward the Legionnaire referred to as the Vigilante. Perhaps with his telepathic abilities, the marine marvel was able to perceive some melancholy in the cowboy crusader. One thing they both had in common were beloved sidekicks who were surrogate sons, that they had grown distant from. While the emotional rift between Aquaman and his young partner Aqualad eventually mended, at the time of this tale it was still a fresh wound.

And if history parallels on both Earths, then this Vigilante would soon discover the tragedy that befell his sidekick Stuff. On Earth-One, after that Vigilante returned from a mysterious years-long absence, he learned of the death of his world's Stiff., who had been murdered by his arch-enemy the Dummy.

Honorary League member Metamorpho would have had a positive influence on Stripesy, the senior partner of the Kid. The Element Man would no doubt encourage Stripesy into settling down into a normal life and get married, something Metamorpho longed to do if ever cured from his inhuman condition. Stripesy later mentioned that he retreated into a new life with a wife and son on the other side of the United States... retiring from heroics… something he wasn’t inclined to do before meeting his new League acquaintance.

The Atom had first encountered Legionnaire Crimson Avenger in ancient Mexico, when the hero was under the influence of a fragment of the Nebula Man. Radiating with power from the radioactive rock, Crimson Avenger had battled Atom as well as Elongated Man and Doctor Fate, until they defeated him and he regained his senses. However, there was undoubtedly a concern as to the physical effects of Avenger's close proximity to the alien substance, which Atom sought to investigate using his scientific knowledge and experience with dangerous white dwarf radiation.

And indeed, his concern was borne out, as the Crimson while traveling the world as Lee Travis, discovered he now had cancer. With time running out, he resumed his costumed career for one final adventure. Sadly, if Atom discovered the root cause, he was unable to prevent the resulting effect.

And finally, there was Black Canary, a native of Earth-Two. She would perhaps feel inclined to help Vigilante, whom she helped save from the old west. However, she would've instead sought out the Legionnaires' ace archers, Green Arrow and Speedy. And given her recent history with her adopted world's versions of the pair of bowmen, one can see why this is a logical choice for her.

Throughout the years, the romantic relationship between Canary and the Earth-One Arrow usually involved her being the voice of reason, given his stubborn and opinionate point of view on life. This made him a better man, and would carry over with his adopted ward.

That ward, Speedy, had succumbed to drug abuse and addiction, despite having a storied career alongside his mentor and as a member of the Teen Titans. Canary in her Dinah Lance identity helped the lad recover over time.

Now on her home world of Earth-Two, Dinah saw a more mild and reserved Green Arrow, and a very frightened Speedy given his experience in ancient Greece when he temporarily lost his grip on humanity. 

She seemed a stabilizing influence, as the pair retired to reclaim their lives as Oliver Queen and Roy Harper. While the Earth-One Oliver and Roy had lost the fortune that supported them, causing them to live more modest lives and persist in their masked escapades... this wasn't the case for the Earth-Two pair. Those two ex-Legionnaires never acclaim resumed their more famous alter egos, aside from the occasional reunion with their teammates and during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Although Roy felt torment later during the Crimson Avenger's funeral due to their displacement in time, he did not revert to substance abuse as had his cosmic twin. Instead, he dealt with the harsh realities life had presented him with. The Teen Titan Roy, also at a funeral, felt some indignation for the abandonment of his former guardian Oliver, and would once more become Speedy in order to prove that he had regained control of his life once more.

Fawcett's Finest: Just Journalists

Ken Wyman and Lee Travis each were born into lives of privilege, yet this did not styme their thirst for either adventure or justice. While Ken was a journalist of the Carterville Daily Blade, Lee was the publisher of the Daily Globe-Leader. Ken rejected his inheritance yet Lee embraced it. Still, each became even more than typical men. Adopting the costumed aliased of Devil's Dagger and the Crimson Avenger, Ken and Lee used domino masks and capes to conceal their secret identities. Ken used a stiletto, Lee his gas gun and crimson smoke.

While Dagger helped protect a wartime Earth-S and the Avenger a wartime Earth-Two, decades later it would be Flamebird who along with Nightwing would fight crime in the bottled city of Kandor on Earth-One. As for the doppleganger of Wyman's butler, this would be the Crimson's partner and chauffeur Wing How.

Colorful Creepy Crusaders Cause Chaos

Albert Elwood was a scientist on Earth-One who simply wanted to mimic the comic book legend of the original Crimson Avenger. However, the real Avenger existed on Earth-Two, decades prior.  Nevertheless, that man, who was newspaper publisher Lee Travis, inspired a number of imitators on both his world and that of Albert's. These Avengers were pale shadows of the true Crimson, although he had a man who was attired similarly in the Kandorian known as Ak-Var. As Flamebird, Ak was the partner of Nightwing, secretly scientist Van-Zee. The two, like Lee and his sidekick Wing, were second only to Batman and Robin as dynamic duos on their respective worlds.

Elwood created various devices for his crime fighting which gave him both a variety of awesome abilities and awful results. Albert's weaponry included a flying remote control car, a gun that shoots rings of fire, inflates matter and projects Kryptonite. And each only wore the full faced mask, flowing cape and body-wide spandex once before retiring for good. However, while trying to defeat the criminal Octopus Gang, this Crimson Avenger was more a nuisance than an ally of Superman and Batman. Meanwhile, the Gang's leader recruited one of his own men into pretending to be the Avenger.

On Earth-Two, an invitation to the Seven Soldiers of Victory to uncover a secret stash of gold worth one billion dollars was issued by a Mister Milton. This wealthy man sought to learn the mystery as to the gold's whereabout using maps that would lead the Soldiers into Latin America. However, a number of imitators to these heroes also showed up, including three men dressed as the Crimson Avenger. Traps set by Milton scared them away.

In the end, Elwood was able to assist the World's Finest team in defeating the crooks, including the crooked Crimson, and then promptly retired as he realized he was out of his depth as a costumed crimefighter.

Fatal Five & Futurite Foes

The 30th century was a prosperous time to life, with advanced technology and overall peaceful conditions. And yet, at times it was also the most dangerous of times, with alien incursions and supervillains threatening the stability of societies across the galaxy. Perhaps the most dangerous of these was the Fatal Five, a quintet comprising the deadliest criminals of their era, matched by their doppelgängers a universe away, known as the Futurites.

When the Sun-Eater entity entered the solar system of Earth-One, with the ability to extinguish its sun, the Legion of Super-Heroes knew they needed assistance in helping them to eliminate this threat. Due to this, the Legion inadvertently created their greatest adversaries, save for perhaps their opposite numbers the Legion of Super-Villains (and singular threats in the Time Trapper, Mordru, and Pulsar Stargrave). But who were these five fearsome foes?

• Tharok - cybernetic leader with weaponry built into his metallic shell!
• Mano - a mutant with a death-dealing hand which can dissolve worlds!
• Persuader - armored wielder of the Atomic Axe cutting all it faces!
• Validus - telepathic superhuman giant mutant emitting mental lighting!
• Emerald Empress - owner of the powerful Emerald Eye of Ekron!

Meanwhile, on 30th century Earth-Two, the time traveling tyrant the Light sought assistance in achieving his goals of world conquest. After humbling defeats in the 20th century versus his arch-enemy Starman, and then another loss when opposed by Starman’s teammate the Spectre on planet Ultima a thousand years later, the Light recruited four powerful minions known as the Futurites. Heralding from a toxic world, the cruel quarter wore protective gear over their massively powerful bodies which enabled them to be virtually invincible.

Meanwhile, on 30th century Earth-Two, the time traveling tyrant the Light sought assistance in achieving his goals of world conquest. After humbling defeats in the 20th century versus his arch-enemy Starman, and then another loss when opposed by Starman’s teammate the Spectre on planet Ultima a thousand years later, the Light recruited four powerful minions known as the Futurites. Heralding from a toxic world, the cruel quarter wore protective gear over their massively powerful bodies which enabled them to be virtually invincible.

Bringing the Futurites back with him to 1941, the Light and his lethal lieutenants nearly crippled the United States of America, until Starman ascertained their weakness and exposed one of their number to his era’s planetary atmosphere. The remaining rogues absconded with the Light’s time machine, leaving him being to face capture.

In the 1970s, the Iron Hand threatened Earth-Two with his massively powerful Nebula Hand, even causing some of his old foes in the Seven Soldiers of Victory (sword-wielding Shining Knight, the half-centaur archer Speedy and the energy emitting Crimson Avenger) to turn evil for a brief period. Decades earlier, the Hand formed his “Five Days Fingers of the Hand”, consisting of Professor Merlin, Red Dragon, the Needle, the Dummy and Big Caesar who battled the Soldiers.

While Iron Hand and his enemies had other counterparts on Earth-One (see their individual entries), the fact that he assembled a similarly empowered group to oppose a Legion, Law’s Legionnaires, is a remarkable parallel!

Wonderful Wingmen and Crimson Crusaders Seek Justice on Worlds not their Own

Van-Zee was a scientist living in the bottled city of Kandor, the last surviving city of Krypton-One that had been kept within the walls of Superman's Earth-One Fortress of Solitude. After a brief foray as Superman himself, as he was that hero's lookalike, Van-Zee married and alongside former Phantom Zone convict Ak-Var adopted the aliases of Nightwing and Flamebird.

Lee Walter Travis was a wealthy newspaper publisher in New York City who, along with his assistant Wing How, fought crime on Earth-Two during the early days of the 1940's as Crimson Avenger and Wing. Eventually, both became members of Law's Legionnaires or Seven Soldiers of Victory, and thereafter the All-Star Squadron.

While outside the bottle environment of Kandor, both Nightwing and Flamebird would you Kryptonian level powers, in their home city they relied on flight belts and weaponry in their utility belts. As for the Crimson and Wing, they used ropes and other gadgetry such as red smoke, although on occasion each possessed the power of the nebula energy from their foe Nebula Man.

For Van and Ak, a new life awaited them and the other Kandorians on the trans-dimensional world known as Raokyn, while Lee and Wing faced timeless limbo and death respectively following their class with Nebula Man alongside their allies.