Charlton VS Mighty MLJ

Monday, May 23, 2011

Cosmic Crusaders: New Sentinels of Justice

When Americomics acquired the superhero properties from the then defunct Charlton Comics, the publisher quickly moved to assemble a team to spotlight these heroes as a team, something novel from this group of good guys and gal. So in 1983, the Sentinels of Jusice debutted and appeared exactly once before being shelved until they were integrated into the DC Comics Multiverse in 1985. Meanwhile, the aspiriing publisher guided by editor/writer Bill Black found it a prime opportunity to ride the crest of modest success  of the original Sentinels, modeling a new team after the originals yet with distinct differences.
One such divergent doppleganger in the Americomic-verse was Stardust, which according to  Wikipedia was originally "Dr. Mara, a top scientist and political dissident from the female-dominated planet Rur. Looking for a weapon to use against the invading Kronons, Mara revives the hibernating Earth hero Captain Paragon and attempts to enlist his help in the battle. While trying to convince Captain Paragon to help, Mara accidentally enters the Stellar Erg Implanter, which gives her super powers."
Mixing elements of Captain Atom and Captain Lancelot Strong, aka the silver age Shield over at Red Circle Comics,  Mara empowered superheroines in a manner unheard of either on Earth-Four or Earth-MLJ, making her unique among her peers who mirrored their Charlton and Archie templates. Her teammates would harken back to our featured players here on this blog...

3 comments:

Jeremy A. Patterson said...

There were TWO Sentinels of Justice teams that did not involve the Charlton heroes! Stardust was part of the first team.

The second team came along in the 1990s and utilized revived Golden Age heroes from the public domain!

J.A.P.

Doppelgänger said...

You are correct sir! Give that man a prize!

Jeremy A. Patterson said...

Here is the fact file for Sentinels of Justice Mark III:

The 'New Sentinels of Justice' (The mid-1980s group) was cancelled after six issues. Oddly enough, the last two issues were part of a crossover storyarc with Femforce, basically a way for AC to spike up sales for 'Sentinels' by crossing it over with the then-popular Femforce. The Sentinels of Justice next appeared in the three-issue mini-series 'The Armageddon Factor', which was an epic event for AC. Then came Femforce #17, which saw the group disband basically to free up Nightveil and Stardust to join the Femforce!

Meawhile, in the pages of 1987's 'Femforce: Out of the Asylum' #1, which featured a man named Dr. Jonathan Weir, who is probing the mind of a woman named Darkfire. The end of the special reveals a big bombshell: It turns out that Dr. Weir was housing dozen of Golden-Age heroes that have fallen to the pulic domain, sleeping, waiting for the day they would be needed again. It led to Femforce #19, in which a woman with a jet-pack shows up at Tara's rooftop party. The woman is Jet-Girl, female companion of the Golden Age hero Rocketman. Jet Girl tells Tara about Dr. Weir. Dr. Wier sends Cat Man, The Avenger, Captain Flash, and The Green Lama to fight the Femforce, but Stardust manages to find Dr. Weir, revealing it to be a misunderstanding, with Rocketman in tow! It ends with reveal of the menace that the GA heroes were revived for... the Black Shroud!

To be continued...