Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #30: The All-Star Squadron
"While Tokyo-3 proved to be the epicenter of humanity's conflict with the otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels', as well as the growing presence of superpowered individuals, its sibling city Tokyo-2 was not without its own examples of this particular phenomenon, and was the case even after the Angels were defeated and the dueling world-ending conspiracies of SEELE and Gendo Ikari were thwarted. Such an example came from the Azabu-Juban suburb of the Minato ward of Tokyo-2, where Setsuna Meioh (proprietor of a fortune-telling parlor who succeeded Nimue Iwudu as the seer Madame Xanadu) experienced a vision that caused her to bring together the other residents of the Empire Victorian house she lived with: mystically-empowered partners Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh (the present-day reincarnations of 20th century supernatural detective Doctor Occult and his partner Rose Psychic, respectively), and their ward Hotaru Tomoe (also known as the magical heroine Raven). Once they all met in the living room of the house, Setsuna outlined her vision, detailing how one of Japan's greatest sins of World War II-as well as one of the worst sins committed against Japan-would be coming back to haunt the country in the present day, and that they would need to assemble a group as powerful as their allies in the Justice League (a team of superheroes made up of certain women and teen girls directly or peripherally involved with NERV, the since-dissolved U.N. special agency formed to fight the Angels) to better combat this threat. To that end, Setsuna unveiled a selection of special tarot cards that would guide them to the ones they needed to bring together. Once done, the quartet made their way all over Azabu-Juban, where they eventually located the six individuals the cards had indicated. Each of the six, as it turned out, were late middle school-aged teen girls, most of whom attended the same school together, all of whom had recently secretly taken up a masked crimefighting persona. The sextet consisted of the following:
Usagi Tsukino, the well-meaning yet underachieving, accident-prone 'crybaby' of the group, who had to get over those personality quirks of hers as she developed her gravity-manipulation powers and her ability to induce 'lunar vertigo' in others. With these abilities (as well as being able to change her blonde hair to a purple color when powered-up), and inspired by her grandfather's past as an astronaut for the Japanese space program, she adopted the alias of Moon Maiden.
Naru Osaka, Usagi's best friend since childhood, who after being inspired by her nisei granduncle's stories of his childhood heroes and stumbling upon the research notes and materials left to him by them, took up the mantle of the metallic high-flying ace known as the Bulleteer.
Ami Mizuno, the 'class brain' of the group, who came into her hydrokinetic powers after learning of her nisei-born aunt Miya Shimada's past as a metahuman agent of Imperial Japan-turned-Allied hero of WWII, adopting her aunt's codename Tsunami as she sought to further make up for the actions Miya Shimada was coerced into taking.
Rei Hino, a shrine maiden-in-training who, while practicing her fire-reading, accidentally made contact with the spirit of a WWII-era American volcanologist named Danette Reilly; sensing potential in the girl, Reilly's spirit used their connection to bestow upon Rei both her magically-imbued pyrokinetic and flame-generation abilities, and the superheroic identity she had worn during the war, transforming Rei into the new Firebrand.
Makoto Kino, orphaned years earlier after her parents were killed in a plane crash, only to be adopted and raised by independently-wealthy writer and archaeologist (as well as former masked vigilante) Peter Cannon (himself an orphan) with the help of his longtime aide and friend Tabu. Trained by them into something of a young 'renaissance woman' using the same techniques and knowledge passed down to him by Himalayan monks, Makoto decided to honor her adoptive father's efforts by taking up his discarded alter-ego, Thunderbolt.
Minako Aino, the well-traveled 'artsy' girl of the group, who in spite of being as athletic and strong as Makoto possessed teleportation, telekinetic, and telepathic powers, with the latter including her ability to create an 'aura' of trust and confidence within the people around her; increasing the power level could manifest the feeling of love in others. Her initial work as a crimefighter, which mostly saw her diffuse intense situations using her telepathy, inspired the press to give her the alias of 'Faith', for her somehow being able to inspire such in both herself and others.
Once Setsuna and the others had brought them together, with it being the first time any of the six had realized who each of them were under their masks (save for Usagi and Naru, who'd told each other immediately after starting out), the girls were informed about the threat they'd been assembled to fight against: a small army led by one of the deadliest agents of wartime Japan, the infamous Dragon King. Long thought to be deceased, the Dragon King had instead been in hiding for decades, increasing his lifespan after experimenting with reptilian DNA and increasing his knowledge of mysticism, all while covertly assembling forces that would enable him to launch an uprising that would pave the way for him to take control of Japan, and from there set out to conquer the rest of the world.
From that point on, Setsuna and her cohorts trained the six girls to work together as a team, which allowed them to get to know one another better and become good friends in the process. When their training was completed, Setsuna gave them one last thing for morale-a moniker for their band of heroes, one with a long-storied legacy behind it. As context, Setsuna then gave them a world history lesson: following the United States' entry into World War II after the Pearl Harbor attack, then-U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt drafted "Article X", which asked all American masked crimefighters and superhuman adventurers, including those who made up the legendary Justice Society of America and the Seven Soldiers of Victory, to join forces as a single wartime organization, in the vein of what many labor organizations at the time had done. Together, this supergroup defended freedom across the world from the Axis Powers; Ami's, Rei's, and Naru's predecessors had been among those brought under the banner of this team. With confidence, Setsuna then bestowed upon the girls that team's name: the All-Star Squadron.
The newly-dubbed All-Star Squadron's first encounter with the superwomen of Tokyo-3 would take place a month and a half before the day of the prophesized attack by the Dragon King, as both the Squadron and some members of the Justice League (in their civilian identities) investigated strange happenings involving a nightclub called The Studio, owned by internationally-famous fashion model Sabrina Sultress, nicknamed the 'Satin Satan' by industry insiders. That nickname couldn't have been farther from the truth, for Sultress was in fact possessed by the extradimensional demoness Sataroth, aiming to bring her army of underlings to Earth by luring young men with significant physical prowess to the club and transforming them into metallic-esque mannequins, ideal vessels for her underlings to occupy. Both teams were investigating without any idea the other was doing the same; for the Squadron, it was somewhat personal, as one of the young men being lured in by Sultress/Sataroth was Usagi's boyfriend, Mamoru Chiba. Before either team (now in their costumed identities) could make a move on the club, they caught sight of each other and were unexpectedly spurred into battling one another. The fights were made up of Moon Maiden vs. Supergirl (former NERV Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley-Sohryu); Bulleteer vs. the Flash (former Evangelion pilot Mari "Illustrious" Makinami); Tsunami vs. Aquagirl (young Atlantean warrior Nadia); Firebrand vs. Firestorm (former NERV computer techs Satsuki Ooi and Kaede Agano); Thunderbolt vs. Batgirl (secretly heiress and classmate of the pilots Mayumi Yamagishi); and Faith vs. Ms. Martian (the ex-pilots' classmate and class rep Hikari Horaki). Of the face-offs, only Thunderbolt and Batgirl were able to break away from the heightened tension and emotional state their combined clash seemed to be under, thanks to their respective honed levels of mental discipline. Seeking out the cause of the frenzy, the two traced it to a solitary figure observing the events from a nearby rooftop, and proceeded to catch them by surprise. The figure turned out to be Sultress's 'silent partner' in her endeavors, in the form of a supervillainous empath named Roger Hayden, who had taken up the name (as well as magical emotion-manipulating mask) of an old foe of the Justice Society called the Psycho-Pirate. Stubbornly maintaining their willpower, Batgirl and Thunderbolt were able to knock out Psycho-Pirate and confiscate his mask, which undid the antagonistic effect on each of their respective teammates. A few more members of the Justice League (chiefly Green Lantern (former NERV tactical director Misato Katsuragi), Zatanna (former NERV tech Maya Ibuki), and Wonder Girl (former Evangelion pilot Rei Ikari (nee Ayanami)) then arrived on the scene, as did Setsuna and Raven. Once the differences between the two groups were settled, their combined forces raided the club and stopped Sultress and her silvery soldiers, in spite of the possessed woman's considerable magical might. Once her minions were dealt with and their victims returned to normal, Zatanna and Firebrand (the latter utilizing some of her skills as a Shinto priestess) were able to exorcise Sataroth from Sultress, banishing her from the Earthly plane. In the wake of this incident, both teams vowed to remain in touch, with the League being informed of the forthcoming return of the Dragon King.
On the prophesized day, determining that the target of the attack by Dragon King's forces would be the capitol building in the heart of Tokyo-2, the All-Star Squadron quickly made their way there and intercepted the approaching army, where they soon dispatched a number of the Dragon King's troops. It was then that they got a good look at not only the Dragon King himself, but the more elite members of his inner circle accompanying him. These consisted of his own empowered, deadly fighter of a daughter Shiv; Prince Daka, another agent of wartime Japan also given extended life thanks to the Dragon King's methods; Kung, the 'assassin of a thousand claws' who could shape-shift into various animals, and another wartime agent brought back to life through mystic means; and the Ketsueki Senshi (or 'Blood Soldiers'), a group of metahuman assassins who had previously worked for the Yakuza. After dealing with the rest of the more lower-level 'grunts' of the army, the Squadron took the fight to the Dragon King himself and his inner circle, assisted by the timely arrival of the Justice League and their ally, the new Shining Knight (college sophomore Utena Tenjou). A few of the heroes had something of a stake in the fight on a more personal level: for Firebrand and Shining Knight, the Dragon King was the one who killed Danette Reilly, Rei's predecessor and the lover of Utena's predecessor, Sir Justin of Camelot; for Tsunami, Prince Daka had borne a grudge against her aunt Miya (the original Tsunami) after she turned on him during a mission they were on in 1942 over his ruthlessness and lack of honor.
The battle between the combined forces of the Squadron and the League and the 'neo-Imperial' forces proved to be intense, but thanks to the former's determination and teamwork, the Dragon King and Shiv were sent fleeing, while the rest were apprehended. While one aspect of Setsuna's prophecy had come to pass, the other made itself known as Kung proved difficult to restrain. The mystic process that had returned him to life had also bonded him to the angry ghosts of those who had died in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII, which enabled Kung to take on a powerful form resembling the dragon god Ryujin. The heroes appeared to be outmatched, only for their salvation to come when the League's uneasy ally, the Spectre (whose current host was late lead scientist and founding NERV member Naoko Akagi), arrived to take on the pseudo-Ryujin. The heavenly Spirit of Vengeance grappled with Kung, until she was able to forcibly separate him from the souls of the bombing victims, which were then sealed in a mystically-enhanced 'energy coffin' created by Green Lantern, Zatanna, and Doctor Fate (founding NERV scientist Yui Ikari) until they could be properly laid to rest and pass on. Kung and the remaining members of Dragon King's circle were then taken into custody pending their trial, which for Prince Daka would take place at the Hague.
From that point on, the new All-Star Squadron was given auxiliary membership in the Justice League. A year later, the League and the Squadron made a trip to the United States at the invitation of the reorganized Justice Society of America, where the Squadron, in particular, were given a tour of what remained of the original Squadron's wartime headquarters in the Trylon and Perisphere, structures originally constructed for the 1939 New York World's Fair. Later, during the event known as the 'Secret Crisis', while guarding one of a number of objects of great power being sought by heroes from the world of the Justice League's alternate-universe counterparts the Avengers, the All-Star Squadron found themselves facing off with one such group of heroes allied with the Avengers: the superpowered girls baseball team known as Slammers, Inc."
*Author's Note(s)*
The theme for this 'wave' of allies and antiheroes is centered around 'team effort', marking the first entries in my entire series that feature hero teams of more than three people. For the DC half of the 'wave', I decided to follow up on a thread mentioned in my previous entry centered around Raven by depicting a decidedly different take on a beloved WWII-set DC team. I don't exactly know what gave me the idea for such a mash-up-maybe it's got something to do with my first-time viewing of the VIZ dub of Sailor Moon-but somehow the thought of turning the girls who normally become the Inner Senshi (plus Usagi's normal best friend Naru) into a modern version of the All-Star Squadron just seemed like a fun prospect. Of the six, three were in fact Squadron members in the comics, with Firebrand (Reilly) being one of the most iconic of the 'main' team'; the original Bulletman and Bulletgirl being added to the roster in the Post-Crisis era; and Tsunami being a member by way of her membership in the group's 'junior division', the title team of The Young All-Stars. As for the thought process behind who got what mantle...
Usagi's was a no-brainer, since (as the old English theme song goes) she is the one called Sailor Moon. Said mantle comes from Laura Klein, introduced in October 2000's JLA 80-Page Giant #3, where like fellow DC creation Triumph (or Marvel creations the Sentry and Voyager) was retconned into being a member of an earlier incarnation of the Justice League. Moon Maiden's background, which included a hidden ancient city on the moon, definitely parallels the Moon Kingdom background of the Sailor Senshi. Usagi's hair turning purple when powered-up is my little in-joke over hers and Misato Katsuragi's mutual seiyuu, Kotono Mitsuishi.
Naru I mainly bumped up as an 'ascended extra' because, as with the author of the Sailor Moon/Ranma 1/2 crossover fanfic "No Chance for Fate", it's a sad fate for her canon self to just fade into the background as the manga and anime progressed, so I wanted to avoid that. Whereas Tribun turned her into "Sailor Ceres", here I opted to make her successor to Bulletman and Bulletgirl, with some of the powerset of the comics Bulleteer, Alix Harrower (and without the tragic elements of same). I thought it would add more to Naru's character if she had an underlying intelligent side to her that enabled her to recreate the means that gave the two Bullets their powers, and then some.
With Ami, it was more than just a play on her name being part of the word 'tsunami'. I made her a relative of the original Tsunami to further the connection that would explain her water-based powers, and also add a bit of family drama in her history. Speaking of, she's primarily now sporting just water powers and no ice ones (unlike her canon self).
Rei's was a simple enough-given her spiritual 'part-time job', it wouldn't be much of a stretch for her to somehow make contact with the spirit of Danette Reilly. As for Danette somehow passing on her powers to Rei, well...chalk it up to 'comics logic' is all I can say. Anyway, Rei definitely made sense as the new Firebrand given her canon designation as the Senshi of Fire.
Makoto is probably the most reinvented of the six, given how in-canon she's more of the Senshi's 'bruiser' with electrical powers. Also in-canon, following her being orphaned, she had to fend for herself, resulting in a need to be self-sufficient. With my take, I averted some of that by essentially giving her the 'Dick Grayson treatment'. At first, I thought of Makoto, given her martial arts background, becoming the SWOE version of another Charlton-turned-DC character in Judomaster, but I didn't want to discount the Sonia Sato version. That's what led me to picking another Charlton character with a bit more notoriety, since Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt was the inspiration for Watchmen's Ozymandias. Having Peter Cannon train Makoto into a prodigy could let one explore a Makoto more levelheaded and intelligent than her canon self, as well as more secure in her femininity without going to great lengths to prove so. (Plus, her being the new Thunderbolt (despite the lack of electrokinesis) made sense considering in canon, she is the Senshi of Thunder.)
Minako's was the one I scratched my head a bit on, considering I couldn't think of a DC character who paralleled the powerset of the Senshi of Love. But then I started thinking, love is a mental element, so I started looking into DC heroes with mental abilities, which led me to Faith, introduced in 2002 as a member of Batman's 'contingency team' during the JLA story arc "The Obsidian Age". The 'calming aura' element of her telepathic powers ultimately cemented my decision to make Minako the SWOE Faith.
The villains chosen for this entry were based on a need for a credible enough threat that required the formation of a new All-Star Squadron, and what better than an old Squadron foe like the Dragon King, whose profile got raised in recent years thanks to his presence in the Stargirl TV series; of course, where there's the Dragon King, his daughter Shiv isn't far behind. Prince Daka's an interesting case in that, while he did appear in the All-Star Squadron comic, he originated four decades earlier as the main villain of the 1943 Batman movie serial (unfortunately played in a bit of yellowface by J. Carroll Naish). Kung came from Gerry Conway's run as writer of Wonder Woman in the early 80s, where he also fought the All-Star Squadron alongside the Miya Shimada Tsunami under the command of Prince Daka. The Blood Soldiers first appeared in issue 11 of the post-Infinite Crisis volume of Justice Society of America, where Sonia Sato also debuted; the Spectre's fight with the Ryujin-shaped Kung is lifted from that same volume's 28th issue. The non-'neo-Imperial' villain of this piece, the Satin Satan, is notable in that she's the first villain Firestorm fought after joining the Justice League of America; given her background and overall gimmick, she definitely sounded like a Sailor Moon villain. (Speaking of, I could picture my fic's take on her as resembling Queen Beryl, with Sataroth based on Metallia.) I threw the Pyscho-Pirate into the mix as a means for the League and the Squadron to initially clash before teaming up.
To handle the visual side of things (seen in my DeviantArt gallery), I again turned to the talentedKitt-Fishy. Since they were responsible for the great work on the Raven piece this spawned from, it was only fair I enlist them to bring my vision for the All-Star Squadron to life. They did a great job with the costume designs and tweaks I suggested, as well as borrowing some of the posing from the Squadron's entry in DC's Who's Who, as rendered by the great Jerry Ordway. (Usagi's is lifted from Green Lantern/Alan Scott's, Rei's from Danette Reilly's, Ami's being all original, Makoto's coming from Commander Steel's, Minako's from Liberty Belle's, and Naru's being based on Johnny Quick's.) On another note, expect a supplemental follow-up detailing the origins of each Squadron member in the near future.