Seven Soldiers of Victory The Land of Magic Chapter 6

Adventure Comics #442 (Dec 1975)

title: "Gnome Man's Land"

writer: Joe Samachson

art: Jose Luis Garcia Lopez & Mike Royer
editor: Joe Orlando

cover: Jim Aparo (signed)

Synopsis: 

The Vigilante appears in the Land of Magic smack-dab in the middle of a war between gnomes. He offers to try to mediate the conflict. The Gnufs believe that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, but the Foophs insist that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The Vigilante is unable to explain to them that they are saying the same thing! Unconvinced, the gnome armies attack each other.

Still wanting to prevent bloodshed, the Vigilante tries roping the gnomes. However, they shrink out of his lasso. When he tries to shoot warning shots at them, they stretch out of harm's way. Flabbergasted, he turns to look at the rest of the battle-field, where he is shocked to see that the gnomes are only trying to scare each other. They are not using their weapons at all! But they ARE angry that an interloper has come into their land and tried to make them do anything by force, so two gnomes change their bodies around to capture and drag the Vigilante to a dungeon.

The Vigilante is unable to break free of his jail cell, but as he marvels at how the gnomes were able to stretch and change their shapes, he, too, is able to change. Playing around with his new abilities, he is soon free of his imprisonment and heading back to the battle-field.

As he approaches the battling gnomes, intent on scaring each other, he turns into a huge house-fly. He then reverts back to normal, and confronts the two warring generals again, where he orders all the assembled gnomes to sing their principles in chorus.

As soon as they do, they all realize that they are, in fact, saying the same thing.
Using his newfound control over the shape of his body, the Vigilante dives into a crack in the earth, heading back to Earth.

Commentary: 

The most important thing about this chapter is that it was pencilled by the then-unknown Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (praise be his name) and inked by Jack Kirby's later/last inker, Mike Royer. That means that this issue's art is beautiful. Of course, the story is another silly episode, where the reason for the fighting, the method of fighting, and the resolution of the fighting are all totally illogical. Did I mention that the art is beautiful?

Not having read a lot of Vigilante solo adventures, I don't know what I was expecting but from the "fish out of water" i.e. "country mouse in the city" type of character he is, I was hoping for more horses, or cows, or western trappings. It was always disappointing to me that the Vigilante didn't meet up with some Paul Bunyon or other mid-western legend type character(s) in the Land of Magic. Oh, well.

Although the final appearance of the Seven Soldiers in Leading Comics #14 was the group's last appearance, it was NOT the end for the Vigilante. In fact, the Vigilante made his debut in Action Comics #42 and stayed as a back-up feature in that book for 150 non-interrupted issues! He bowed out 13 years later, after his appearance in Action Comics #198 (Nov 1954). This is almost as long a career as Green Arrow and Speedy.

The Vigilante is alone as the only Soldier to get a solo series again in the '70s, as he appeared in five issues of World Finest Comics (#s 244~248) in 1977.

Just as a reminder, besides the Vigilante, the other Seven Soldiers of Victory were the Crimson Avenger, Green Arrow and Speedy, the Shining Knight, and the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy. Considered an unofficial (honorary?) Soldier was the Crimson Avenger's partner, Wing.

This story has not yet been reprinted. Therefore, I gladly reproduce the six page story here it its entirety, exactly as it appeared in its comic-book form.

Be back tomorrow for Chapter 7, the thrilling conclusion!