title: "Land of Magic!"
writer: Joe Samachson
art: Dick Dillin & Tex Blaisdell
editor: Joe Orlando
Synopsis:
At a premiere showing of a new film starring the celebrated Seven Soldiers of Victory, the film's producer, John Shoman, makes his introduction. The film begins with the Seven Soldiers (and honorary member Wing) coming together in their hidden head-quarters. Oddly, each Soldier was contacted differently and ordered to attend.
As they discuss who or how they could each have been contacted in such unique ways, a young man named Willie Wisher suddenly appears. He announces that he has extraordinary powers, and he intends to send the Soldiers on an adventure for his amusement. He then wishes for John Shoman and a film crew to record the adventures, and they magically appear.
When Green Arrow taunts Willie that there is no such place as "the land of magic," Willie decides on the spot to send them there.
Commentary:
Commentary:
As mentioned yesterday in the "prelude" to this post, this story was written in 1945 but was not published until 30 years later! Paul Levitz, who was then an assistant to Adventure Comics editor Joe Orlando, found this script by former Seven Soldiers writer Joe Samachson and was enough of a Golden Age fan to want to publish it. DC then commissioned six artist teams to draw this unpublished script. Here's the editorial blurb that appeared in Adventure Comics #438:
This story "reads" very much like a Golden Age story. Some of the vocabulary, such as "newsreels" and reference to "on the stage" dates it somewhat. On the other hand, the classic super-hero format never goes out of style: the heroes converge, go out to find (or in this case, are sent to) a menace, and then re-converge in the finale. What's not to love?
There's not much to say about this first chapter. Things happen so quickly, there isn't any time for reasoning or logic. Of course, if the setting is magical, logic is going to go right out the window, anyway, above and beyond the "because Golden Age comics" reasoning....! (Keep that in mind as we continue on in this series---!)
Just as a reminder, the Seven Soldiers of Victory were the Crimson Avenger (DC's first masked crime-fighter), Green Arrow and Speedy, the Shining Knight, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and the Vigilante. Considered an unofficial (honorary?) Soldier was the Crimson Avenger's partner, Wing.
This story "reads" very much like a Golden Age story. Some of the vocabulary, such as "newsreels" and reference to "on the stage" dates it somewhat. On the other hand, the classic super-hero format never goes out of style: the heroes converge, go out to find (or in this case, are sent to) a menace, and then re-converge in the finale. What's not to love?
There's not much to say about this first chapter. Things happen so quickly, there isn't any time for reasoning or logic. Of course, if the setting is magical, logic is going to go right out the window, anyway, above and beyond the "because Golden Age comics" reasoning....! (Keep that in mind as we continue on in this series---!)
Just as a reminder, the Seven Soldiers of Victory were the Crimson Avenger (DC's first masked crime-fighter), Green Arrow and Speedy, the Shining Knight, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, and the Vigilante. Considered an unofficial (honorary?) Soldier was the Crimson Avenger's partner, Wing.
This story has not yet been reprinted. Therefore, I gladly reproduce the four page story here it its entirety, exactly as it appeared in its comic-book form.
Be back tomorrow for Chapter 2 starring The Shining Knight!
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