Base of Operations: New York City
First Appearance: Leading Comics #1 (Winter 1941-42)

History: In the late Summer of 1941, the criminal mastermind known as the Hand learns that he is gravely ill and has less than a month to live. He pledges to make the world remember him long after he is gone by giving his greatest unused plans to other criminals to execute for him. He gathers five villains together, "the Hand's Five Fingers", then challenges certain heroes to stop them. Prof. Merlin battles the Spider, the Needle battles the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, Red Dragon battles the Shining Knight, Big Caesar battles the Crimson Avenger and Wing, and the Dummy battles the Vigilante and Billy Gunn. When the criminals are all defeated, the Hand decides to kill the heroes himself, and invites them to his home, which is filled with traps. The Hand then learns that a means of curing him has been found. He is more determined than ever to defeat the heroes so he can stay out of prison. At the conclusion of their confrontation, the villain aims his lightning-ray machine at the heroes, but the Vigilante shoots the machine down, apparently killing the Hand. The heroes decide that they work well together and resolve to officially form a team. The Crimson Avenger wants to limit Wing's exposure to danger because he has a very promising future, so he refuses to allow Wing to join. The heroes form the Seven Soldiers of Victory (a.k.a. the Law's Legionnaires), with Wing as an unofficial eighth Soldier.

In late October 1948, in the city of St. Louis, just after Sylvester Pemberton's 22nd birthday, the Seven Soldiers of Victory gather for what will be their final adventure. They have been contacted by the Spider about a coming menace. Stripesy takes one look at the plans that the Spider had sent over and whips up the nebula rod. The device is a lightning rod of sorts, gathering nebuloid-energy from space, which can then be channeled against any opposing nebula threat. They wonder how the Spider got the plans in the first place and mention that they think he is shifty. The Spider arrives, visibly weak. He tells his teammates that their old enemy, the Hand, is in the process of creating a living entity of cosmic energy, with the power of twenty atomic bombs. He plans to unleash it's power in St. Louis. The Spider explains that he contacted the Soldiers, over the All-Star Squadron or the Justice Society, because he had to get help from a group he could count on. After looking over the nebula rod, the Spider collapses, dropping a map of the Hand's hideout. The Crimson Avenger tells Wing, who is not an official team member, to stay behind and get medical help for the Spider, while the Soldiers check out the hideout. Shortly after they leave, Billy Gunn arrives. He had been doing intensive background checks on the Spider after hearing the Vigilante's growing suspicions. He tells Wing the whole thing is a set up. Billy Gunn is suddenly shot through the neck with an arrow. The killer, the Spider, holds a key piece to the nebula rod in his hand. Wing attacks and knocks the Spider out, taking the critical component from him. The Soldiers find the Nebula Man and engage him in battle. The Crimson Avenger grabs the nebula rod and runs towards the creature. Wing then arrives, telling his friends that Billy Gunn is dead, and that they have been betrayed by the Spider. The Crimson Avenger stabs the Nebula Man with the rod. The resulting explosion teleports them all to the other side of the world, to the Himalayas. Wing grabs the nebula rod, inserts the missing piece, and attacks the Nebula Man once again. The resulting blast destroys the enemy, but kills Wing, and sends the rest of the team into the timestream. Monks at a nearby monastery, who witnessed the battle, bury the young hero, unaware that the energy of the Nebula Man was absorbed into Wing's broken form. They mark the grave with a tombstone with the epitaph "Here In Honored Glory Lies An Unknown Soldier Of Victory Who Died That His World Might Live".

10 years ago, Dr. Fate and the rest of the Justice Society summon the Justice League. A cosmic hand has appeared around the Earth, created by a madman who calls himself the Iron Hand. If the Earth does not hand over control of the planet to him within 48 hours, the Iron Hand will command the cosmic hand to crush the Earth. Fate's mystic crystal reveals an image of a tombstone in the Himalayas, referring to "An Unknown Soldier Of Victory". Dr. Fate, Zatanna, and Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt summon Oracle, a mystical being of great power. Oracle tells them of the Nebula Man, a creature that threatened the world in 1948. The Seven Soldiers of Victory had been beaten back by the entity, but they arose anew with a new weapon. One of their number sacrificed his life to use it to it's full effect. Oracle explains that the heroes were lost in time in the resulting explosion. Everyone present who even remembered the Soldiers assumed that they had simply retired in '48. Oracle agrees to direct the heroes down six time-corridors.

The Crimson Avenger arrives in Mexico at the height of the Aztec reign, approximately five centuries in the past. A glowing rock, a piece of the Nebula Man, steals his memory and imbues him with energy powers. He comes to believe he is the Sun God, Huitzilopochtli, and becomes King of the Aztecs. The silver age Atom, Elongated Man, and Dr. Fate arrive and try to save the Crimson Avenger, but he blasts them with his new power. After a short fight, the Atom knocks the Crimson Avenger unconscious. The heroes find a strange glowing rock and destroy it. The Crimson Avenger regains his memory and loses the energy powers. The heroes are then magically retrieved.

The Shining Knight arrives in China, in the 13th century A.D., at the camp of Genghis Khan. Khan's shaman uses his fiery gaze to mesmerize the Knight, making him a willing servant of the warlord. Superman, Metamorpho, and the Sandman arrive, where they meet monks who explain that the invader Temujn, known as Genghis Khan ("The Universal Ruler"), and his legions are being led by an armored god on a winged horse. Metamorpho searches for and locates the Shining Knight. He is surprised when the Knight attacks him. Metamorpho realizes he is somehow under Khan's control, and escapes to tell the others what has transpired. The next day, Khan's hordes attack. On instructions of the Sandman, Metamorpho creates a sleeping gas, incapacitating the invaders. Sandman devises an antidote and gives it to the Knight and his horse. The heroes are then magically retrieved.

Stripesy ends up in ancient Egypt and is enslaved. He works on building the pyramids for a week, until Batman, Starman, and Hourman arrive. The trio are captured, but are freed with the help of Prince Khufu. They rescue Stripesy and escape through Dr. Fate's temporal portal.

The Vigilante winds up in the Old West, circa 1870. Thanks to Johnny Thunder's bumbling, the Vigilante spends about twenty years in the past, but he doesn't really mind. The hero had many adventures alongside such legends as Nighthawk, Madame .44, and Strong Bow. In the late 1880's, he is captured by Indians, who prepare to burn him at the stake. Green Arrow, the silver age Black Canary, and Johnny Thunder locate the Indian village and see the Vigilante's plight. The Vigilante is rescued, and the heroes are magically retrieved.

The Star-Spangled Kid spends a week in a cave in 14,000 B.C., trying to avoid giving the prehistoric people there the flu. He uses quartz and scrap material to construct something that projects a distorted image of himself to the natives. Aquaman, Wildcat, and the golden age Green Lantern arrive and see the frightened people cornering something in the cave. They see the projected image and realize it is the Star-Spangled Kid. The natives attack the heroes, but when Wildcat knocks out the largest of them, the rest retreat. The trio enter the cave and split up into the side-tunnels. Aquaman finds the Kid, but they are swept away by a flash flood. They escape harm, and all are magically retrieved.

Stuff the Chinatown Kid ends up in ancient Greece, approximately 3,000 years in the past. The silver age Flash, Zatanna, and the Red Tornado arrive to rescue him. They find Stuff under the influence of the sorceress Circe. After freeing him from her enchantments, they are magically retrieved.

The heroes all gather back at Justice Society headquarters, albeit more than 40 years after the Soldiers disappeared. Since all the missing Soldiers are accounted for, Johnny Thunder wonders who was buried at the grave site. The Crimson Avenger proudly explains that it was his partner Wing, who bravely and selflessly sacrificed himself to save the world. Mr. Terrific, who traveled to the Himalayas during the rescue missions, tells the Crimson Avenger that holy men from a nearby temple witnessed the battle and laid Wing to rest where he fell. The heroes then explain to the Soldiers that they must rebuild the nebula rod to stop the new nebula menace. The Iron Hand appears and grabs Wonder Woman, pointing his mechanical hand menacingly at her head. The mystery villain is none other than the Hand, the Soldiers' first opponent, who somehow survived death. The villain lost his right hand in that battle, which he later replaced with an artificial one. Using her lightning-fast reflexes, Wonder Woman grabs hold of his iron hand and destroys it. The defeated villain tells the heroes that the controls were in his artificial hand, and that the nebulous hand of the Nebula Man can't be deactivated. The heroes hurry to do the impossible -- build a new nebula rod before time runs out. The rod is rebuilt without any time to spare, but it must be delivered into the heart of the menace, something no human can survive. While the others try to decide who will attempt the suicide mission, the Red Tornado quietly takes the device and slips away. The heroic android stops the menace of the Nebula Man a second time, but not without apparently sacrificing his life. Soon after, the Red Tornado turns up alive and joins the Justice League.

The Seven Soldiers of Victory disband, and it's members go their separate ways, in the hopes of rebuilding the lives that were interrupted so abruptly five decades earlier.

Weapons and Powers: The Crimson Avenger, Wing, the Star-Spangled Kid, Stripesy, the Vigilante, Stuff I, and Stuff II were all highly skilled hand-to-hand combatants. Wing, Stuff I, and Stuff II were all trained in the martial arts. The Vigilante and Billy Gunn were both excellent marksman. The Shining Knight wore enchanted armor which repelled bullets, wielded a magic sword, and rode on a winged horse. The Spider was a skilled archer.