Created as a publisher-driven team concept for Timely Comics (the company that would become Marvel), the All-Winners first appeared in All Winners Comics #19 (fall 1946) in a story titled "The Crime of the Ages" (written by Bill Finger). The cover title and in-book references used the unhyphenated name All Winners, while later reference works and Marvel sources use the hyphenated All-Winners Squad. The team was intended as a postwar assemblage of flagship heroes and appeared originally in two Golden Age stories (All Winners Comics #19 and #21, winter 1946/47), later being reprinted in 1960s anthologies and retroactively linked in Marvel continuity to wartime teams (Invaders, Liberty Legion) and to later organizations (V-Battalion).
The Squad is depicted as an assembled grouping of individual costumed heroes rather than a unit with a single uniform. Primary Golden Age membership as shown in the original issues includes Captain America and Bucky (with various continuity substitutions of who donned the Captain America identity in later retcons), the Human Torch (Jim Hammond) and sidekick Toro, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Whizzer, and Miss America. Visual portrayals show each member in his or her individual Golden Age costume as appropriate to the character rather than a team costume.
As a team the All-Winners function as a collaborative crimefighting unit confronting large-scale criminal, science-fiction, and time-based threats. Individually (as attributable from Golden Age portrayals cited in sources): Captain America acts as the patriotic costumed leader/skillful combatant role (with the Captain America identity filled by different individuals across retcons); Human Torch (Jim Hammond) is an android with flame-based powers and is accompanied by his flame-powered youth sidekick Toro; Namor the Sub-Mariner is an aquatic royal figure with super-strength and aquatic abilities; the Whizzer is a super-speedster; Miss America is presented as a superhuman heroine. The team's documented foes include the Nazi spy Isbisa and the time-traveling Future Man and Madame Death, and narrative retcons note confrontations that led to injuries and changes in the Captain America identity (e.g., William Naslund being fatally injured by the android Adam II in 1946).
Weaknesses
- otherNo folkloric weaknesses specified in primary sources; canonical setbacks include member injury, identity substitution, and team disbandment/limited original publication
Wards
None recorded.
3-D Man
3-D Man is a Marvel Comics superhero identity associated with a 1950s-era origin in which the body of Chuck Chandler can materialize in three-dimensional existence when activated by his brother Hal via a pair of glasses. The mantle was later assumed by Delroy Garrett (formerly Triathlon) in modern continuity.
5 Ronin
5 Ronin is a 2011 Marvel Comics five-issue limited series that reimagines five Marvel superhero archetypes as rōnin (masterless samurai) in a fictionalized post‑Sekigahara feudal Japan. The work places Wolverine, Hulk, Punisher, Psylocke, and Deadpool analogues into period roles to explore displacement, revenge, and identity in an era of political upheaval.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel
An Elvish hymn in Sindarin addressed to Elbereth (Varda) from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. Presented in The Lord of the Rings and later musical and dramatic adaptations, the hymn functions as devotional poetic language that evokes Elvish reverence for the star-kindler rather than an independent supernatural agent.
A.R.G.U.S.
A.R.G.U.S. is a fictional clandestine United States government agency in the DC Comics universe that investigates, contains, and manages superhuman, meta-human, and supernatural incidents and assets. Introduced in The New 52 continuity, it functions as an institutional actor providing intelligence, logistical support, covert task forces (notably Task Force X / the Suicide Squad), and a dedicated magic division across comics and media adaptations.
Abin Sur
Abin Sur is a fictional extraterrestrial Green Lantern from the planet Ungara in DC Comics. A former history professor turned Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814, he discovered and investigated a prophecy tied to the "Blackest Night," died wounded on Earth and chose Hal Jordan as his ring-successor, and was later reanimated as a Black Lantern in the Blackest Night storyline.
Absolute Green Lantern (tradition)
A modern comic-book reinterpretation in DC's Absolute Universe in which a giant green lantern-shaped vessel appears above Evergreen, Nevada, generates an impenetrable green dome, judges townspeople and sends the judged into the Lantern to await further adjudication in OA (Omega‑Alpha). The story reframes Green Lantern mythos as cosmic/religious horror with an "Enlightenment Spectrum" of flames (Qard, Rao, Sur, Aur) stewarded by Oans such as Abin Sur.
Absorbing Man
A fictional Marvel Comics character (Carl "Crusher" Creel) whose body acquires the physical properties of materials or energies he touches. Debuting in Journey into Mystery #114 (March 1965), created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he is presented as a mortal supervillain/occasional antihero who challenges heroes such as Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man, and the Avengers.
Ace West
Ace West (Wallace Daniel "Ace" West) is a contemporary American comic-book character in DC Comics continuity, a young speedster who channels the metaphysical Speed Force and occupies legacy-hero roles such as Kid Flash and Ace. Introduced in New 52-era stories as a biracial reinterpretation of Wally West and later retconned in DC Rebirth as a distinct Wallace West, son of Daniel West (Reverse-Flash), he appears across present-day and alternate/future timelines and participates in team and sacrifice narratives tied to the Speed Force.
Acheron
Acheron is a mythological river of the Ancient Greek Underworld, portrayed in classical literature as a boundary or entrance to Hades across which the dead are conveyed. It is also a real river in Epirus whose landscape and nearby cult sites (notably a Necromanteion) were mapped onto the literary river; later Western authors use Acheron metonymically for Hell or the infernal realm.
Achilles and Patroclus
A central heroic dyad in the Homeric Trojan War tradition: two mortal Greek warriors whose close bond—portrayed as deep companionship in the Iliad—drives key events of the epic when Patroclus' death provokes Achilles' rage, return to battle, and the slaying of Hector.
Acoetes
Acoetes is a proper name applied to multiple mortal figures in classical Greco‑Roman mythic narratives. Most famously, an Acoetes is a fisherman who recognizes and testifies to the divinity of Bacchus/Dionysus and recounts how blasphemous sailors were transformed into dolphins; other bearers of the name appear as a Trojan genealogical figure (father of Laocoön), an aged former squire of Evander, and a frightened soldier in Statius' Thebaid.
Adam X the X-Treme
A fictional Shi'ar–human mutant hybrid from Marvel Comics, created in the 1990s X-Men milieu. Portrayed as a genetically engineered offspring tying the Summers mutant bloodline to Shi'ar royalty, he appears in Earth- and Shi'ar-centered storylines and exhibits both Shi'ar physiology and a mutant heat/blood ability.
Community Record
- [1]All-Winners Squad — Wikipedia. Wikipedia: "The All-Winners Squad is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics... first appeared in All Winners Comics #19 (fall 1946)..."wiki
- [2]All Winners Comics — Wikipedia. Wikipedia article on the anthology series in which the team's stories were published (issues #19 and #21).wiki
- [3]Future Man (All-Winners Squad foe) — Marvunapp. Appendix entry detailing the Future Man antagonist from the All-Winners story "Menace from the Future World."other
- [4]Isbisa (All-Winners foe) — Marvunapp. Appendix entry noting Isbisa as the antagonist in "The Crime of the Ages" (All Winners Comics #19).other
- [5]Rip Jagger's Dojo: The All-Winners Squad!. Fan/essay commentary on the team's composition and Golden Age appearances, used for corroboration of membership and reprint history.other
- [6]The Golden Age Human Torch — International Hero. Profile confirming Human Torch (Jim Hammond) and Toro as Golden Age characters and members of team-ups including All-Winners.other
- [7]Miss America — International Hero. Profile confirming Miss America's Golden Age appearances and membership in team stories.other
- [8]Marvel Masterworks / What If? All-Winners Comics Vol. 4 (reference). Reference to reprints and collections that preserved and later circulated the All-Winners stories.other