Appearing in "Earth Shall Overcome!"
Featured Characters:
- Guardians of the Galaxy 🢒 (First appearance)
- Charlie-27 🢒 (First appearance)
- Major Vance Astro 🢒 (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Martinex 🢒 (First appearance)
- Yondu 🢒 (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- U.L.E. Federation
- Space Militia
- Jovians
- Charlie-26 (Charlie-27's father)
- Pluvians
Antagonists:
- Brotherhood of Badoon (First appearance)/Badoon Empire
- Saturnian Hound-Hawk (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Robot servants
- unnamed Centauri-IV colonists (Only in flashback)
- Betina Marsh (First appearance) (Video Phone) (Only in flashback)
- Einstein (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
- Humans (Main story and flashback)
- Badoon
- Centaurians (First appearance)
Locations:
- Earth-691 (Years 1988 and 3007)
- Sol
- Centauri-IV (First appearance) (Unnamed) (Only in flashback) (Planet where Astro landed)
- Moons of Centauri-IV (Only in flashback)
- New New York
- New Paris (Mentioned)
- New Moscow (Mentioned)
- New Nome (Mentioned)
Items:
- A-Suit (Charlie-27's suit)
- High-intensity Harkovite
- Bio-Tronics
- Memory Probe
- Psyke-Disc
- Yondu's Bow
- Yaka Arrow
Vehicles:
- UC C-57D
- Badoon ships
- Tele-Tran
Events:
Concepts:
- Einsteinian Physics (Mentioned)
- Harkovian Physics (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "Earth Shall Overcome!"
Charlie-27 returns from a six-month mission to discover that his home planet of Jupiter has been completely enslaved by the evil Badoon. He knows that he wouldn't stand a chance against them on his own, so he teleports to other worlds to find help. First, he joins forces with Martinex on the planet Pluto. Then together they travel to planet Earth, where Vance Astro and the Centaurian Yondu have just escaped from Badoon forces themselves. When Vance and Yondu encounter Charlie-27 and Martinex, they briefly mistake them for more Badoon guards and a misunderstanding fight ensues. However, soon enough they realize that they are all fighting for the same side and a new super-team is born... the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Appearing in "Courage"
Sub-Mariner Comics #36
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Byrrah
- Husky sled-dogs
Other Characters:
Races and Species:
Locations:
Synopsis for "Courage"
Sub-Mariner Comics #36
At the age of ten, Namor is goaded into going up to the surface to brave a blizzard by his step-cousin Byrrah. Namor takes Byrrah up on the challenge and goes exploring the Antarctic wastes in the blizzard. However he soon begins to succumb to the cold and passes out. He is woken up by the approach of huskies that were left away behind during the last scientific exploration.
The huskies attack Namor, but the boy surprises himself by being able to fight them off with his bare hands. Namor then returns to Atlantis to tell his mother about his enhanced strength.
Appearing in "Wave of Destruction!"
All Winners Comics #21
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Future Man
- Madame Death
- Pacific Pirates
Races and Species:
Synopsis for "Wave of Destruction!"
All Winners Comics #21
The Sub-Mariner arrives in China where he gets a telegram informing him of Captain America, Bucky and Whizzer's victory over Future Man. As Namor searches for signs of the Future Man, he hears a SOS being radioed by a ship at sea being attacked by pirates. Namor swims out to the ship and attacks the pirates.
As Namor fights, the battle is being watched by Madame Death and Future Man. Madame Death promises Future Man that she will recruit the pirates to assist them on their next mission. They interrupt Namor's fight by dropping a dark bomb on the vessel and with a submarine help the pirates escape. Namor dives into the water and follows after them. Aboard the sub, Madame Death and Future Man secure the pirates assistance with their next plan.
Getting the pirates to put on diving suits, Future Man leads them across the ocean floor. Their passage is witnessed by a mermaid who finds Namor and brings Namor to them. He arrives just as the pirates are preparing to launch a special torpedo made by Future Man that will cause a massive tsunami and wipe out the entire continent of Asia.
Namor attacks and easily defeats the pirates, impressing Future Man enough to offer Namor a place by his side. When Namor refuses, Future Man knocks him out with a mental bolt and then has the pirates tie the hero to the torpedo and launch it. Namor is freed by fish that swim up and chew through the rope. Namor then disarms the torpedo and swims off as it harmlessly smashes into a reef. While Namor is busy rounding up the pirates, Madame Death and Future Man flee the scene to attempt their next plan.
Appearing in "The Living Dead!"
All Winners Comics #21
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Future Man
- Madame Death
- living mummies
Races and Species:
Synopsis for "The Living Dead!"
All Winners Comics #21
Miss America is flying over Egypt as she patrols Africa to try and find a sign of Future Man and Madame Death. She suddenly spots an army of mummies attacking a caravan and comes to their rescue. She attacks the mummies and they flee back to a pyramid where Madame Death and Future Man are hiding out and using another device from the future to reanimate the corpses of the ancient Egyptians to invade Africa with an army of the dead.
Miss America arrives and after fighting off the mummies again, she attacks Madame Death, prompting her and Future Man to flee deeper into the pyramid. Miss America destroys Future Man's device and follows after them but is trapped in an air tight passage to die. Future Man's astral form enters the room to mock her, but makes the mistake of pointing out a statue in the room which is really a secret switch to escape. When Miss America attempts to capture the two villains, they both reveal that they are merely astral forms and vanish.
As Miss America leaves she hopes the Human Torch and Toro succeed in defeating their foes.
Appearing in "Flames of Fury!"
All Winners Comics #21
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Future Man
- Madame Death
- desert gang of badmen
Races and Species:
Synopsis for "Flames of Fury!"
All Winners Comics #21
After getting a telegram from the others informing them of their success, the Human Torch and Toro pace around their apartment waiting for Future Man to show his hand.
Aboard an airship over Canada, the Future Man informs Madame Death that he is going to create a distraction for the Torch and Toro while they carry out their plot elsewhere. He starts a massive forest fire in a logging camp to draw the two heroes out.
As the Human Torch and Toro go to lend a hand to stop the fires in Canada, Future Man and Madame Death travel to the Southern United States. There they have one of their minions create an Atomic Match, a device that can burn the very atoms of anything and they literally set the desert on fire. Back in Canada the Torch and Toro finish their job and hear a radio report about he fire down south.
They rush to the desert and see that there is a massive fire that cannot be put out by water because it burns the very atoms of the water as well. Immune to the flames while they are using their powers, the Torch and Toro soon realize that the fire cannot burn through its own ashes and they succeed in dousing the flames with the ash, foiling Future Man's plot again.
As Future Man's astral form fades away he warns the two flaming heroes that he has a Neutronic Bomb that he will set off and wipe out the entire Earth.
Appearing in "War Between the Worlds!"
All Winners Comics #21
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
Races and Species:
Synopsis for "War Between the Worlds!"
All Winners Comics #21
The All-Winners Squad reunite in the United States and begin trying to learn where Future Man's time ship is hidden. They all recount their various missions and the common factor to all of them was a strange black cloud that was in the vicinity wherever Future Man struck.
Captain America then sends Miss America, the Torch and Toro out to find the black cloud. They locate it over a desert and fly inside, spotting Future Man's ship within. Realizing they have been spotted, Future Man tries to flee, but the Torch and Toro melt the ship causing it to crash in the desert just as the Whizzer, Captain America, Bucky and the Sub-Mariner arrive.
Inside, Miss America knocks out Madame Death, while the Torch and Toro destroy Future Man's time radio, preventing him from contacting his invasion force from the future. Future Man then decides to return to the future. When he begins activating his time engine, Captain America orders a full retreat. As the heroes exit the time device fades away, however Future Man realizes to his horror that the time machine has been tampered with and they are being hurtled uncontrollably back in time. While in the present, Captain America explains that during the battle he disabled the ships ability to travel forward in time.
With the battle over, the heroes return home confident that with Future Man's defeat no more invaders from the year one million AD will attempt to terrorize the present.
Notes
- The Guardians of the Galaxy story is reprinted in Astonishing Tales #29.
- Charlie-27 mentioned Karsus in an expression. It is unknown if it a planet, person or deity.
Trivia
- The title of the story and the song Vance teaches the Guardians at the end is a variation on We Shall Overcome, a key anthem of the US civil rights movement.
- The Guardians' story is picked up next in Marvel Two-In-One #4, with the Guardians themselves reappearing in the following issue.
- This story was retold in Guardians of the Galaxy #26, with Starhawk manipulating the formation of the Guardians behind the scenes.
- Jupiter is portrayed as a planet with solid ground and a breathable atmosphere in this issue when in reality it is a gas giant. In Defenders #26, it is clarified that the Jovians live in floating cities with domes that keep out the poisonous atmosphere.
- The maximum speed of Major Astro's ship is stated to be one million miles per hour. Since the distance to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, is 25.67 trillion miles, Astro's voyage should have taken 25,670,000 hours. Divided into days of 24 hours each, that would have been 1,069,583.3 days, a period of over 2,920 years. So how did his ship reach Centauri-IV in only 1,018 years?
