The Mighty Crusaders - Origin Of A Super-Team!

MLJ Publications which became Archie Comics has been relentlessly trying to revive their Golden Age superheroes (with some Silver Age additions) for decades. MLJ created the first patriotic superhero in the Shield, months before Captain America. They followed that with many others such as the Black Hood, the Comet, the Hangman, Steel Sterling, and others. Then in the 50's they hired Simon and Kirby to bring the heroes back and we get a new and different Shield and The Fly. Eventually Jaguar is added to the mix in the 60's. But when the Silver Age superhero boom hit Archie didn't want to be left out. So not only did they create tongue-in-cheek superheroes in Riverdale such as Pureheart the Powerful and Captain Hero, they converted The Fly into Fly Man and that comic became a launching pad for a full and chaotic revival of nearly all of their Golden Age heroes.

In the pages of Fly Man #31 (technically still an issue of the long-running The Fly series) the mega-powerful Fly Man is battling his foe The Spider and is having a hard time despite a cavalcade of powers. So help shows up in the form of the Shield, the Black Hood and the Comet. These three heroes are helpers but they also prove prone to bickering and that bickering became a signature element of this batch of Archie heroes. The Spider is actually the character who came up with the name "Mighty Crusaders". 

The next issue (which had actually been officially retitled Fly Man) finds the heroes assembled on a remote island with Fly Girl along to decide if they should form a team when they are attacked by the giant Doomballah. This menace had been sent by Eterno the Tyrant, a newly revived menace who once terrorized Atlantis. Later Eterno sends Stoneface to menace them and the team defeats him only to find some repose in a comic book convention where they will blend in. Then Eterno turns some folks there into menaces and they have to fight their way out. They eventually defeat Eterno but by the end of the mag are still bickering about the name of their supposed team. 

The team is back in the next issue of Fly Man to battle The Destructor. A blurb on the cover signals the imminent debut of the The Mighty Crusaders comic. Inside the team are assisted by two newly revived heroes named The Hangman and the Wizard. But greed gets the better of both of these newbies and they turn on the team and by the end are set up as ongoing menaces for the nascent super team. 

And then in the debut of The Mighty Crusaders it all comes together at last. The Mighty Crusaders battle against the Brain Emperor, a despot from outer space who for a time due to his mind control powers causes the world's populace to lose confidence in their old but new again superheroes. By the end though they prevail and the world hails this team of superheroes onto the stage at long last...again.

All of these four issues which showcase the slow and steady origin of this Archie super squad were written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and drawn by longtime comics hand Paul Reinman.  Siegel's scripts are campy wonders, full of delightful bits of ham-fisted characterization and zany plot twists. And Reinman's artwork has a nifty chunky scratchy energy that makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts. I enjoy the style used on these stories. Eventually nearly all the MLJ heroes will get revived as the series tumbled along for seven issues or so until late 1966 when the whole shebang went up in a cloud of smoke. Decades later Rich Buckler would try again under the Red Circle banner to lift these characters out of obscurity during the direct sales boom of the 1980's. Later still DC would have try and since there have many more attempts to get these heroes out in front of the public. One thing for the folks at Archie, they don't give up and neither do the Mighty Crusaders. They might bicker and moan and kvetch, but they won't give up. 

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