He pencilled the Badger #38, half an issue of X-Force over layouts by Rob Liefeld, and a Wonder Man story in Marvel Super-Heroes (1990) #4.

I kind of thought he should have gone the reverse route, with Axis Amerika being Marvel pastiches, as he did with the DC ones in Invaders.  Granted, that was done in Freedom Fighters, for the unofficial crossover, the the Crusaders groups fighting each company's team (Quality pastiches fighting the Invaders and Marvel pastiches fighting the Quality bunch, at DC).

Roy had also done the Teutonic gods route in Invaders, in the first couple of issues.

Young All-Stars #3



Flying Fox gets the cover this time. He is a member of the First Nations of Canada; so, of course, he is given a red skin color.

*Sigh*

I suppose I should be happy that Tsunami was only given an orange color and not a yellow. Had Fury been a male Greek character, instead of female, I suppose the character would have been tan, with black hair and a beard. Since she was female, we of course got blond as that is such a common hair color in Mediterranean Greece. I suppose every Celt has red hair. Oh, wait, Danette Reilly, a red head. Yup!

End of gripe.

Creative Team: Roy & Dann Thomas-writers, Brian Murray & Howard Simpson-pencils, Malcolm Jones III-inks, Jean Simek-letters, Carl Gafford-colors
Murray pencils the first 15 pages and Simpson the rest.

Synopsis: Fury and her armored cleavage face down Axis Amerika...



...who are fighting the All-Stars...



Fury points at Ubermensch and says, "You're the one I want...."



Ubermensch then discusses Thetans and auditing, but Fury isn't interested, so they trade punches. Amazing Man protects Dr Midnite from Usil's arrows and it turns out he was also at the 1936 Olympics and wants revenge, even though he is Italian, not German. He fires an exploding arrow that actually takes Amazing Man down. Horned Owl takes down both Tarantula and Sandman, after they make fun of his name (in English). Fleidermaus tries blinding Sandy, but he still kicks his but, putting him one up on his boss/mentor. Sea Wolf once again shows his attraction to the ladies, as he attacks Hawkgirl, then fends off Firebrand. He suckers her into bursting a water pipe which extinguishes her, but is too busy gloating to catch Flying Fox's entrance. Foxy zaps him with some kind of light, then an illusion of himself, before KO-ing him. Gudra takes on both Hawks and fires her spear at Hawkgirl...



...but Shining Knight intercepts it with his own mystic sword (everybody in Camelot had a mystic sword, it came with your Round Table Decoder Ring). He also drops off Iron Munro, who stops Usil with a flick of his finger, eliciting a "Mama Mia!" before his lights get put out...



Pasta fazool!

Ubermensch spots Munro and falls in love and swats away Fury so that he can play with the muscled pretty boy...



Munro gets knocked down, but he gets up again....you're never gonna keep him down...



Ubermensch trips his Fascist League Communicator and they beat a hasty retreat. They all climb into a flying saucer and disappear, just as Green Lantern turns up, with Tsunami and Neptune Perkins (still sounds like he should be hosting programming on A&E, in the mid-90s). GL assesses the situation and Sandy lets loose with a racial slur (though pretty common in the period, right down to newspaper headlines and newsreels and cartoons), until Sandman tells him to simmer down and confesses that his leg is probably broken. Iron Munro starts hitting on....er, complimenting Fury and she goes off on him....



Hell hath no woman like a Fury patronized! Munro introduces himself to the other newbies and pretty much comes off as a complete @$$. Everybody things everything is coll now, until Sir Justin harshes the vibe be relating that TNT s dead and Libby now feels like she sent him to his death, since she dispatched him to Colorado. Johnny comforts her and Munro relates that Dyna-Mite is okay, at a hospital. Hawkman usurps Liberty Belle's authority and sends her off to the showers while he takes over. Everybody starts asking about the rookies.

Later, Dan the Dyna-Mite hitches a ride with FDR, who is coming to the Perisphere to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to TNT, in front of the assembled All-Star Squadron...


(minus the absent Cdr Steel and the Freedom Fighters, who broke away, but with Mekanique there)

FDR says that the All-Stars are considered part of the military, by Act of Congress, thus making TNT eligible for the Medal of Honor (not the Congressional Medal of Honor, as Roy and many others mistakenly call it). Dan accepts the award and Howard Simpson apparently had no idea what it looked like or what the presentation box looked like, since he just draws a gold box with a laurel wreath. Dan accepts the award and goes off to blubber on Libby's injured shoulder. Hawkman calls out the rookies and introduces them to the President. Tsunami then speaks up and Roy tries to retcon the internment of Japanese Americans with Tsunami's speech and has FDR pass the buck that it's his advisors calling for it and he will consider what she says before he implements such a thing. Uh-hunh.

The rookies are given provisional status as All-Stars and will be sent on a war bond drive tour. Sandy agrees to go so he can keep an "eye on the 'Jap' spy." Starman shares his cynicism, since James Robinson isn't writing this. Star Spangled Kid maintains his status as a full-fledged member, though Dyna-Mite and Sandy are lumped in with them. Stripesy cracks a joke about it and the Kid makes him wash the car (he is the chauffeur). Axis Amerkia listens via a "bug", planted in the meeting chamber.

Thoughts: Well, the All-Stars get whooped by Axis Amerika, but saved by a bunch of rookies who are now the Pee-Wee League All-Stars. More or less, Roy is following the trend of youth-oriented superhero teams, like the X-Men (at first, though less so as time wore on), the Teen Titans (especially the "New" version), the Legion of Superheroes, the New Mutants and they would be followed by Marvel doing the same thing with the New Warriors. First problem is why anyone should care about a bunch of rookies who are fill ins for established characters, to fulfill a role that few beyond Roy seem to think is necessary. For me, this is one of the reasons why Young All-Stars never quite had the fan base that the All-Star Squadron had (at least, initially). People had a connection to some of the All-Stars and Roy threw in some interesting lesser known characters and built them up. He's trying the same thing here, but with a different mission statement. Before, he wanted to explore the wartime activities of the JSA and the other mystery men. He would use past continuity; but, he was creating new stories. Now, he is creating new characters to replace one that were altered by Crisis but were still top dogs, for DC (well, except maybe Aquaman). Roy seemed to feel they needed replacements. It's debatable. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were pretty much honorary members of the JSA, since they had solo books. The other characters were the heart and soul of the title. Batman is easily removed as there are other masked vigilantes in that era and his stories are fairly timeless; so, you can just slot them into the past of the modern post-Crisis Batman. Superman and wonder Woman are trickier, as Wonder Woman (the earth-2 version) was given a daughter and that character was not wiped out in Crisis. so, she needed a mom; but, nothing much else was crying out for a 1940s Wonder Woman, except maybe Paula von Gunther, who was a Nazi spy (though retconned into being coerced into working for the Nazis, despite a pretty sadistic personality in her earlier stories). You can still have a JSA without a "secretary." So, Roy creates a Golden Age Fury. Okay, that works.

Superman is a bit different. He is supposed to be the first superhero. He inspires everyone else. So, you need a new "first superhero." Crimson Avenger, as the first masked hero at DC, got slotted into that role. So, is there any other need for a Golden Age Superman? There are other super strong characters, so why a new one? Well, Roy's justification is that he wants those old Superman stories to still count, but needs a substitute. Is that really necessary? No; but, Roy's idea will become an interesting twist on the idea of a Golden Age Superman, by giving us the guy who inspired the character in the first place (well, one of them, as there were a few inspirations). So, at least Roy has somewhere to go, here. Do we really need or even want a Golden Age Aquaman?

Aquaman was one of the rarer instances of DC swiping from another comic company (they usually reserved their swiping for the pulps), as he was their attempt at a Sub-Mariner. He wasn't that big of a figure in the 40s and had a higher profile in the later 40s and after, though was never a real "star." Neptune Perkins isn't much of a substitute, either. He only had 2 appearances, before Roy dropped him into All-Star Squadron and they were in the late 40s, not during the formative years. He really seems to be there to make this more like the more familiar JLA, for modern readers and for someone to be a potential love interest for Tsunami. Dyna-Mite was one half of a mostly derivative team that few remembered then and ended up only getting decent use in the hands of James Robinson, if you ask me. Flying Fox isn't really even a Batman substitute as he has more in common with Hawkman; but, he is ethnic, which helps add to diversity. The name was likely chosen because it is another name for a species of fruit bat; but, said species is not found in North America. Tsunami is there for both gender and racial diversity, while highlighting the treatment of Japanese-Americans during the war, both the internment and the legacy of the Nisei soldiers, like the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Tsunami's plea to Roosevelt feels more like Roy trying to absolve FDR (one of his heroes) of the responsibility of the Executive Order that deprived Japanese-Americans of their civil rights. It is pure hindsight. The feelings would probably be real to a Nisei, and certainly reflect the attitudes of many who volunteered for military service; but, it has such anachronistic atmosphere that it ends up hurting the story. I think Tsunami makes for an interesting character to develop, which opens up all kinds of story possibilities; but, I think those scenes were ill-conceived and reflect the fact that no one could say boo to Roy. A good editor would have challenged this and maybe pushed for Roy to present Tsunami's feelings with more righteous anger or at least a more inspiring defense, rather than what comes across as melodrama.

Roy has set the stage for this new team; but he has a long way to go to make them interesting characters. Right now, my only interest is in the background of Iron Munro, as to where his powers come from. Fury would be more of a mystery, had not Secret Origins provided a background. However, we have hints from it that she doesn't control the power within her, which adds mystery for the future; plus, there is her nightmare of Mekanique fighting the All-Stars. Flying Fox is a blank slate, but, so far, there is not much that intrigues me. he needs a personality and a history. Dyna-Mite is pointless, in my eyes. It will take a lot of character development to make him memorable, for me. James Robinson did that in the Golden Age; but, his version is an underachiever who is lost after the war and is manipulated by Tex Thompson, possibly because his name is so much like TNT's, Tex Thomas. Sandy seems to be set up to be the team a-hole, much like Marv Wolfman did with Kid Flash, in New Teen Titans. Wally got softened a bit, as time wore on; Sandy will need much to make him anything other than a sidekick dumped on the book to be the Puck of the group (to use an MTV's Real World metaphor).

Less it sound like I am trashing the book, I do think the art is good and the action exciting. I do think we still have too little background detail; but, that was becoming the standard for superhero comics. You also have rookie artists, so I'm sure confidence and experience are a factor. Faces still need work. Howard Simpson is no Mike Bair; but, Bair couldn't do a regular schedule. Other artists developed after they had drawn several issues of a book. I think Roy has a plan, though it is less clear than with the early days of All-Star Squadron.

Historical Notes: Roy had to come up with a justification for giving a civilian the Medal of Honor. it is only presented to the military. His rationale is that Congress passed a joint declaration making the All-Star Squadron a branch of the military. If that's the case, shouldn't they fall under the War Department? Several members are already on active duty in the military, which would have been justification enough. All Roy really needed to do was make Tex Thomas a serving soldier, at the time of the battle, like Hawkman or Atom.

The official name of the award is the Medal of Honor, not the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is awarded by the President of the United States, in the name of the Congress of the United States. Nomination for the medal is passed up through the chain of command to the President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. It can be nominated by a member of Congress, for a constituent. It has been awarded after the fact, by Act of Congress, after review of circumstances, as int he cases of 7 African Americans who served in WW2 and were awarded the Distinguished service Cross, but passed over for the Medal of Honor, despite acts that would have awarded a white man the medal. the same was true of Asian-Americans during the war, resulting in 22 medals, including 20 for members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, including Sen. Dan Inoue. Those awards were made in 2000, wel after the film The Karate Kid presented Mr Miyagi as a recipient. The film The Next Karate Kid presented Mr Miyagi as attending a ceremony for the 442nd, with Sen Inoue speaking. however, the film was done in 1994, befor the Medal of Honor had been awarded to any member of the unit.

This is what the Medal would have looked like, in 1942 (assuming TNT would be awarded the Army version)...



The blue neck ribbon was added in 1944 and became standard. Also, there was a different appearance for the Navy version, awarded to Navy and Marine Corps personnel. The presentation box for military medals is black, with a hinged lid, with the medal resting inside. I have never seen one for a Medal of Honor; so, I do not know if it had any special decorations.

Roy makes Tsunami's plea sound like Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of Japanese-Americans, was not yet in force, but the story is set in April, 1942 and the order was issued on February 19 and evictions of Japanese-Americans from Military zones had already begun, in March. Thus, Roosevelt would have already put things in motion and Tsunami's plea is pointless. Thus, Roy's attempt to depict Roosevelt as conflicted makes him look like a liar, to Tsunami. In reality, much of the work related to the internment had been delegated to Secretary of War Stimson; but, Roosevelt had already shown that politics could trump personal feelings in his support for civil rights actions. Later on in the war, Interior Secretary Ickes lobbied for the release of Japanese-Americans, but Roosevelt did not pledge support until after the election.

July 1945:

Italy declared war on Japan, as the US turns it's eyes on the invasion of the Japanese home islands. Also in Italy, 54 prisoners are murdered by members of the Italian Resistance, as fascist sympathizers, despite the end of the war. Similar events would occur in formerly occupied countries over the next couple of decades, though not on such a scale. Many former collaborators were humiliated and ostracized, if not outright murdered. In France and Holland, women who consorted with German soldiers had their heads shaved and clothes torn off and were further humiliated. The mini-series band of Brothers depicts the men of Easy Company witnessing Dutch women receiving this treatment, at Eindhoven and Paul Verhoeven's film, Black Book, features scenes of similar treatment, including to the heroine, a Jewish woman (portrayed by Carice van Houten, of Game of Thrones) who was placed with a German officer, in charge of security, by the Dutch resistance.

In the UK, the General Election sees results drawn out, due to voting from overseas. The election was held on July 5, but the winners were not confirmed until July 26. In a stunning defeat, the Conservative Party was defeated by the Labor Party and Winston Churchill resigned and Clement Attlee became the first Labor prime Minister with a majority in the House of Commons, as previous Labor PMs had headed coalition governments. The election boiled down to the future of the UK, post-War, as well as Conservative policies in the 1930s, before the war. Labor won in a landslide, as Churchill's support on domestic issues was far weaker than on war issues. After the early bombing of London, Churchill received angry responses from groups while touring the damage. Many feared a return to high unemployment after the war, under the Conservative Party and voted Labor, as Attlee was seen by many as more competent on domestic issues. The Conservative Party lost 189 seats in the House of Commons. Churchill was personally admired by voters on both sides, due to his war record; but, the Party was criticized for its actions in the 1930s, including appeasement. The Labor Party had supported Appeasement of Hitler; but, the Conservatives who were the ruling party, took the blame for its failure. Churchill didn't help matters when he attacked Attlee in a radio broadcast, stating he would need a "gestapo" to enforce his proposed social reforms. Attlee had been part of Churchill's wartime cabinet and seized upon the gaff as a blatant example of the difference between Churchill as a wartime Prime Minister and a peacetime. Labor also proposed a sweeping legislative platform to overhaul social conditions within the country, pushing for full employment, social security, nationalized healthcare, and state-sponsored education. These platforms were extremely popular with working class voters, who had suffered greatly through the Depression and sacrificed during the War. Churchill would return to power after winning the General Election of 1951.

On July 16, at 5:29 am, in the New Mexico desert, a new sun was born and died.....



The Trinity Test was the culmination of the Manhattan Project, as a device, known as "The Gadget" was detonated, unleashing the explosive force of radioactive materials. It was the first "atomic bomb." Two types of military bombs had been designed and developed, known as Fat Man and Little Boy. Fat Man was an implosion device, with a plutonium core, while Little Boy was a gun-type fission device, which used Uranium-235 for nuclear fission, after Plutonium-239 proved to have issues with the previous Thin Man gun-type design.

The 509th Composite Group was an Army Airforce formation that was tasked with delivering the bombs. They were activated in December 1944 and consisted of B-29 Superfortress Bombers and C-47 Skytrain and C-54 Skymatster cargo aircraft. Their commander was Col Paul Tibbets. they were deployed to the island of Tinian in June of 1945 and began practice flights and actual combat missions. Meanwhile, The USS Indianapolis (CA-35), which had taken part in the surprise February attack on Tokyo, as a diversion for the Iwo Jima landings, and had participated in the landings at Okinawa, had been in San Francisco, where it had completed an overhaul. It received orders to transport a top secret cargo to Tinian and departed San Francisco on July 16 and set a speed record to Pearl Harbor of 74 1/2 hours, averaging 29 knots. It departed Pearl harbor, unescorted and arrived at Tinian on July 26, offloading the top secret cargo, consisting of enriched Uranium-235 (half the world's existing supply, at the time) and components for assembling the Little Boy bomb. After unloading their cargo, the ship set sail for Guam. After offloading crew whose tours of duty were up and onloading replacements, they set sail for Leyte. On July 30, at 00:15 hours, two torpedoes launched by the Japanese submarine I-58 hit the ship at the bow and amidship, causing massive damage. the ship began listing and was already topheavy, due to new armaments and eventually rolled and sank. 300 of the 1195 crew went down with the ship, while over 900 survived in the ocean, swimming, clinging to wreckage or floating. Of those 900, only 316 would survive. It took 3 1/2 days for a patrol plane to spot the survivors and drop a life raft and a radio transmitter. Rescue planes were launched and a PBY-5A arrived on scene first, loading as many men as it coul carry, including lashing men to the wings. The aircraft could not take off and the men were picked up by by the destroyer escort USS Cecil J Doyle. Because of the practice of assuming capital ships were on station as assigned, unless alerted otherwise, the Indianapolis had not been reported missing. The secrecy of its initial mission had not been a factor, though they were steaming alone to Leyte. The captain survived and was court martialed for failing to zig-zag while steaming, in November 1945. His sentence was remitted by Adm Nimitz and he returned to duty, retiring in 1949. After a 1996 school project by 6th-grader Hunter Scott, an investigation into the events of the sinking was carried out, exonerating the captain, as it was shown that zig-zagging would not have allowed the ship to avoid the fatal torpedo hits.

On July 17, at the Potsdam Conference, President Truman informs Stalin of a new powerful weapon in the American arsenal. Stalin is already aware of the weapon, due to intelligence gained from within the Manhattan Project by Soviet Intelligence. At the conference, a declaration reiterates the Allied position of unconditional surrender of Japan. Previously, via diplomatic channels, Japan had sought to bargain for surrender, under condition that the Emperor retain his role. The Japanese government had undergone changes after the militarists began to lose favor, in the wake of the Allied advance across the Pacific. However, Truman refuses to discuss any terms and authorizes the use of the atomic bombs on July 21.

On July 27, the USAAF drops thousands of leaflets over Aomori, Japan, warning civilians to flee the city. On July 29, the city is firebombed, causing 1600+ deaths and destroying over 18,000 homes.

On July 28, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, with a crew of 3, was en route to Newark Metropolitan Airport and had been cleared for landing, but was advised of zero visibility. The pilot was dioriented by fog and made an incorrect turn near the Chrysler Building, in New York City, and collided with the Empire State building, killing all 3 of the crew and 11 people in the building...

So I did!


Ahh gotcha.  So technically Flying Fox ought to have been the token Asian character?  I guess 'witch doctor' is country-neutral in its racism.


I do recall it all being a bit of a mess.

I think in addition he was, as you pointed out earlier, trying to mimic the New X-Men/New Teen Titans formula, by mixing established characters with new ones.  The problem was that DC's established teen heroes were hopelessly bland (I wonder whether he tried to use Drusilla, the Wonder Girl from the Lynda Carter tv series? or the Quality Comics character Wonder Boy, who might have needed renaming?), and his new ones were entangled in his 'recycling the energy' concept that nobody else cared about.

Honestly, if I were in his position, I don't know how I would have put together a 'Young All-Stars' team.