One of the main pieces of the Crisis On Infinite Earths, was that heroes from different times and places were able to meet up and work together.
Only a few of the crossovers took advantage of that revolutionary idea by using heroes from history, and here are the two of them, as they teamed up with some fiery super heroines of the 1980s!
The Crisis Comes To 1942
There was a little pre-crossover set up in
All-Star Squadron #54 (February, 1986) by
Roy Thomas,
Danette Thomas,
Mike Clark,
Alfredo Alcala,
Arvell Jones and
Vince Colletta, all under a cover by
Mike Clark, with the honorary members of the JSA (in 1942, including
Flash, Batman, Green Lantern and Hourman) all coming back to put the final touches on Mr. Mind's early
Monster Society of Evil, including Oom, who you can see attacking the
Perisphere, the headquarters of the
All-Star Squadron.
All that so that Firebrand (Danette Reilly, the second Firebrand, a heroine who was related to the original Firebrand who later joined the
Freedom Fighters, but she also had flame powers which she had gotten during the formation of the All-Star Squadron) could go on a mission to Cape Canaveral.
Speaking with
Nuklon and the 1985 version of the
Golden Age Atom, Firebrand got assigned to check out Cape Canaveral, home of the Space Shuttle program at the time (as well as Terri Rothstein, who was Nuklon's mom and Firebrand's goddaughter).
So, Firebrand ended up leading a team composed of heroes from history including Don Caballero (a man from Spain who welded his blade, El Captain), the Roving Ranger (Jeff Graham, a Texas Ranger), the Trigger Twins (Walt and Wayne, two men who pretended to be one sheriff - this batch all premiered in
All-Star Western #58 of April-May, 1951); the Silent Knight (Brian Kent, apprentice knight who fought villainy in secret), the Golden Gladiator (Marcus, a former Roman shepherd and slave who became a warrior after winning a bout and getting a golden helmet) and the Viking Prince (Jon, a Scandinavian hero of the 10th Century, these three all premiering in
Brave and the Bold #1 of August-September, 1955); the Black Pirate (Jon Valor of 16th Century Europe, who premiered in
Action Comics #23 of April 1940, and his son, Justin Valor), Miss Liberty (Bess Lynn who nursed soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and first appeared in
Tomahawk #81 of July-August, 1962), and Valda (the iron maiden of Frankland in the 8th Century, who premiered in
Arak Son Of Thunder #3 in November, 1981).
This group approached Cape Canaveral in Florida in 1985, to find it besieged by American Indians of old...including Super-Chief (Flying Stag, also known as Saganowhana, leader of the Wolf Clan who gets super powers from a meteor in
All-Star Western #117 of February-March 1961 and used them for the next two issues as well, to be later pulled out for massive team-ups, more on which in later columns....). For now, to the next issue and more guests!
Crisis At Canaveral
All that set up for
All-Star Squadron #55 (March, 1986) by
Roy Thomas,
Danette Thomas,
Arvell Jones,
Vince Colletta and
Tim Burgard (with cover by
Arvell Jones and
Tony DeZuniga)!
Firebrand and history's heroes battle the displaces native Americans (including a few more comic related ones, including Strong Bow of the Misty Mountains from an America before Columbus had landed who had premiered in
All-Star Western #58 of April-May, 1951 - the issue that took over the numbering from the Golden Age JSA home of
All-Star Comics) and Arak Red-Hand (shaman of the Quontauka tribe of the 8th Century who premiered in
Warlord #48 in August, 1981, and had 50 issues of his own written by
Roy Thomas).
All these time tossed characters (including Cyclotron, who was Terri Rothstein's now deceased father) had been gathered to fight the Ultra-Humanite (a foe of the Golden Age Superman... ....now in the body of a giant mutated white ape).
The heroes were eventually successful stopping the Ultra-Humanite, left wondering how the greater Crisis would go (all the while the Golden Age Sandman had his adventure on an alternate Uranus).
A Long Night's Journey Into Day
A much simpler adventure happened in
Fury Of Firestorm #42 (December, 1985) by
Gerry Conway,
Rafael Kayanan,
Ian Akin and
Brian Garvey (with a cover by
Rafael Kayanan and
Dick Giordano, featuring the stars of the issue, Firehawk/Lorraine Reilly and Wonder Girl/Donna Troy, as Firestorm was busy during the Crisis).
A little later in the Crisis On Infinite Earths (if time has any meaning), New York found itself split into multiple time zones, in which were lost Terry Long (Wonder Girl's husband) and former Senator Walter Reilly (Firehawk's dad).
Lorraine Reilly was a young woman who was helping her father, when she was taken by the 2000 Committee, and subjected to tests that turned her into an approximation of Firestorm (without an attached other person) in
Fury of Firestorm #17 (October, 1983).
Still new to the hero game, and giving herself a new costume in
Crisis On Infinite Earths #9 (December, 1985), she and Wonder Girl went off to check on their relatives in Manhattan, to find it a time tossed city.
Wonder Girl got injured fighting an octopus and being hit by a cannonball (it really wasn't Donna's day), so Lorraine had taken her to the locals to get aid, finding themselves in the Revolutionary War, and getting help from Tomahawk (frontiersman who worked with General Washington...
....Tom Hawk had his adventures from
Star-Spangled Comics #69 of June, 1947 to
Star-Spangled Comics #130 of July, 1952, and some issues of
World's Finest Comics, as well as 130 issues of
Tomahawk from 1950 to 1970, before the title became his sons for 10 issues, but he was there as his older self).
The ladies helped Tomahawk and his assistant, Dan Hunter, fight the British forces, but had no luck finding the men they were looking for.
These three 1980s tales (and more) were reprinted in the
Crisis On Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Edition Volume 1 of 2018, and serve as a nice introduction of past heroes (some of whom had been seen before in JLA/JSA crossovers as well, tales which had occurred in the past, but will be covered in the future!).
