Comments on: Some Seven Soldiers Links and Suggested Readings

By: ninjawookie

ninjawookie — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 05:28:12 +0000

here it is anyway.

http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/7Soldiers/7Soldierswrap_Morrison.html

By: MarkAndrew

MarkAndrew — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 09:38:47 +0000

Thanks guys! I’m gonna head to the Michigan State University comic art collection in the next couple of days and see if I can find all the tie-ins you suggested so I can read ‘em for myself. I’ll probably toss-up a couple of reviews.

And see if I can’t get an exact issue number on the Swamp Thing books that egh mentioned. (If I don’t have them myself.)

I DO have the First Issue special Atlas book, though. Although I remember it being pretty crappy. But I’ll see if there’s any direct connections.

By: J. Kevin Carrier

J. Kevin Carrier — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 05:49:04 +0000

Matthew E: I don’t think there’s any connection. In Seven Soldiers, “Aurakles” is Earth’s first superhero, empowered in prehistoric times by the New Gods. His name is a pun on both “Oracle” and “Hercules”. He also reminds me of Kirby’s character Atlas, who appeared in FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL #1.

A couple of other minor tie-ins: WORLD’S FINEST #209 features Superman and Hawkman fighting “The Tempter”, the same demon that Zatanna and Misty are shown fighting in ZATANNA #2. And WORLD’S FINEST #214 has Superman and Vigilante fighting a werewolf. There’s nothing in the story that indicates that Vigilante was “infected”, but it’s proximity to the other WF issue makes me suspect that this is where Morrison got the idea from.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 18:45:35 +0000

I’d add Leading Comics #1, reprinted in Seven Soldiers of Victory Archives #1: the first appearance of the original Seven Soldiers, as well as the Hand.

Zatanna’s quest for her father’s books mirrors the Gardner Fox-written stories she originally appeared in back in the ’60s in which she was looking for Zatara himself, collected in “JLA: Zatanna’s Search.”

And yes, Solomon Grundy is historically Cyrus Gold.

By: Matthew E

Matthew E — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 18:41:13 +0000

I haven’t been keeping up with Seven Soldiers. But are the Aurakles the same ones from Batman and the Outsiders?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 17:53:55 +0000

Not to be that guy, but here's a link to my writeup on issue 1, which then links to my posts about the whole series. It's got some slightly different stuff than the above links, so it might be worth adding up there.

By: Dean S.

Dean S. — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:59:57 +0000

I think I’m the only one who thought the Seven Soldiers was boring. Granted I only read the first couple of issues of the first three or four miniseries but I couldn’t keep my interest up, and dropped it and decided not to try the other miniseries. I think Grant Morrison is way overrated and the only thing he wrote that I ever liked was Animal Man. But I guess I’m in the minority.

By: egh

egh — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:23:56 +0000

Was Solomon Grundy somehow tied to the zombie-workers in Klarion? I don’t know anything about his origin, but I noticed that in Veitch’s Swamp Thing (maybe around issue 66 or 67) Grundy is led to the same Slaughter Swamp from Seven Soldiers.

By: moose n squirrel

moose n squirrel — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:28:19 +0000

People keep acting as if the big problem of Seven Soldiers #1 is that it’s confusing, which is rather strange to me – it’s perfectly understandable so long as you’ve read all of the previous issues, and in fact most of the issue is concerned with slowly and painstakingly explaining to the reader what’s going on. The problem is that this doesn’t actually make for a satisfying read. Plot points are introduced and reintroduced just moments before being dispatched, characters show up for a handful of panels before being rushed offstage, and hardly anyone gets enough page time to feel like they’ve got a decent enough motivation to be doing what they’re doing.* The comic feels cold and distant, which is all the more bizarre when you consider how lively and interesting most of these characters were in their actual miniseries. Maybe in Morrison’s original umpteen-zillion page script there was room enough to convince me that Klarion wants to be the Sheeda King, or to give Frankenstein a satisfying send-off, or to make Mr. Miracle’s subplot feel like it fit with the rest of the story, or to make me give a damn at all about “Aurakles,” but as it was, Seven Soldiers #1 as a story was readily comprehensible yet strangely lifeless.

*The exception here is obviously Shining Knight, who benefits from having a relatively straightforward origin with one of the clearest connections to the Sheeda plot.

By: ninjawookie

ninjawookie — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:34:25 +0000

After finishing reading the whole series again, it seems that the first issues of 6 of the seven series (excluding Mister Miracle) were self contained at least in the first two issues.

I’m very thankful you posted this since I needed some things to be clarified as Barlebith has no been updated yet.