The prototype for the Invaders, the
All-Winners Squad, created by publisher
Martin Goodman and scripter
Bill Finger, was a comic book feature published in the
Golden Age with only two appearances, in
All Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946) and #21 (Winter 1947; there was no issue #20). This team had much of the same membership as the Invaders, but had its adventures in the post–
World War II era, the time that their adventures were published. This group was also notable as its members did not entirely get along, prefiguring the internal conflicts of the
Fantastic Four in the 1960s.
World War II The Invaders team first appeared in flashback stories set during
World War II, and comprised existing characters from
Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel. Originally,
Captain America (Steve Rogers), his sidekick
Bucky Barnes, the original android
Human Torch ("Jim Hammond"), the Torch's sidekick
Toro (Thomas Raymond) and
Namor were together as heroes opposing the forces of
Nazism. When these superheroes saved
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from
Master Man, Churchill suggested that they should become a team, known as the Invaders. The Invaders fight the
Axis powers over the world until eventually finding themselves in
England, where they meet James Falsworth, the original
Union Jack. He joins the team and provides them with a base of operations in England. Eventually, Falsworth's children Brian (
Union Jack) and Jacqueline (
Spitfire) become members. The team later adds
Miss America (Madeline Joyce) and super-speedster the
Whizzer (Bob Frank), during a battle with the
Super-Axis. Later, against the threat of the Battle-Axis, the team is assisted by the
Blazing Skull and the
Silver Scorpion. The team continues to fight against several threats, (including a Nazi occupation of
Atlantis and the emergence of
HYDRA backed by the time-travelling
Baron Strucker) and faces an emotional trauma with the apparent deaths of Captain America and Bucky in a
drone aircraft's explosion near the end of World War II, as first described in
The Avengers #4 (March 1964). After the war's end, several members—including the second
Bucky and Captain America (respectively, Fred Davis and William Naslund, formerly the superhero known as the
Spirit of '76)—created a new team, the All-Winners Squad. When that team dissolves, Marvel
retroactively changes the continuity ("retcon") of several members, having them join
Citizen V's
V-Battalion. After the Invaders' introduction in the pages of
The Avengers, the team appeared in its own try-out title,
Giant-Size Invaders #1 in 1975, followed by the ongoing series;
The Invaders later that year, and a single
Annual in 1977. Issues #5–6 of the series introduced another retroactively changed World War II team, the
Liberty Legion, in a two-part story arc, "The Red Skull Strikes", interlaced with another two-part story in
Marvel Premiere #29–30.
New Invaders In 2004, a new Invaders team was created in the four-issue story arc "Once an Invader...", beginning with
The Avengers (vol. 3) #82, written by
Chuck Austen. The revived team was
spun off into its own title,
The New Invaders, running 10 issues (August 2004 – June 2005) beginning with issue #0. It was written by Allan Jacobsen with artwork by C. P. Smith. The new team consisted of the
Blazing Skull (Mark Todd), a flame-generating girl named Tara, former
Liberty Legion member
Thin Man (Bruce Dickson),
U.S. Agent (John Walker, a.k.a. Captain America),
Union Jack (Joey Chapman) and returning members Namor and Spitfire. Later, the android the
Human Torch joins the team, feeling an affinity for Tara, revealed as an android herself. The Invaders are also assisted by former
Golden Age hero the
Fin and his Atlantean wife Nia, although they did not officially join the team. They are formed by the supposed
U.S. Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk—in actuality the
Red Skull—who coerces the Thin Man into gathering this new team, which the Skull intends to use for his own goals. The new Invaders eventually learn of the plan, however, and thwart it. The apparent "death" of the android Human Torch came as a result of the betrayal of the Skull-planted Tara. The majority of the members quit the team after this incident.
Avengers/Invaders signing a copy of
Avengers/Invaders at
Midtown Comics Grand Central in Manhattan The 2007 12-issue crossover series
Avengers/Invaders saw the original WWII team of
Captain America,
Bucky,
Namor, the
Human Torch, and
Toro brought to the present-day
Marvel Universe by the
Cosmic Cube, which had fallen into the hands of the demon
D'Spayre. His use of it to draw on the grief generated by Captain America's death had unintentionally caused it to grant the wish of those who wished for his return. Upon arriving in the present day, the Invaders battled the
Thunderbolts and
The Mighty Avengers, believing them to be Nazi agents. Eventually, the Invaders came to trust the Avengers teams (both Mighty and
New versions) and agreed to go back to where they belonged. The teams collected the Cosmic Cube and an American soldier who traveled into the future with the Invaders. However, the soldier took it upon himself to steal the Cosmic Cube and save his dead friends in the past. This triggers an alternative reality to emerge where most of the Avengers are wiped from time.
Doctor Strange manages to send the Invaders and the surviving members of the Avengers into the past before being wiped from time himself. In the past, the soldier raised his dead friends and healed a dying Union Jack. The soldier then attempted to destroy the Nazis with the Cosmic Cube, but lost it when he was attacked by
Red Skull's henchmen. The Red Skull I later came into possession of the Cosmic Cube and transformed the world into one made in his own image. Elsewhere, the Invaders and the Avengers arrived in the past, but found that it had dramatically changed. The Avengers took up identities of Golden Age characters so that they could fit into the past without giving the Red Skull too much information about the future:
Luke Cage as the
Black Avenger,
Iron Man as
Electro,
Ms. Marvel as
Black Widow,
Spider-Man as the
Challenger,
Spider-Woman as the
Silver Scorpion, and
Wolverine as Captain Terror. The
Wasp uses her powers to stay hidden from sight. They end the Red Skull's reign of terror and restore the original timeline. At the end of the series, Toro is revived after Bucky acquires the Cube. His story is continued in the eight-issue limited series
The Torch, which deals with the resurrection of the original Human Torch. In the series, the two
Golden Age heroes battle the
Mad Thinker and the Inhuman Torch.
Invaders Now! In September 2010, Marvel launched
Invaders Now!, a miniseries starring
Captain America (Bucky Barnes), the original
Human Torch,
Namor,
Steve Rogers,
Spitfire, and
Toro. The Invaders are all reunited by the original
Vision and
Union Jack to face a resurfaced threat from World War II. This threat manifests as a disease that mutates those infected, causing horrible deformation, granting superhuman strength, and driving the victim insane with pain and rage. Those infected are driven to attack and thereby infect others. In World War II this pathogen was created by
Arnim Zola, as his last project before suffering wounds which necessitated his consciousness being transferred into a robot. To contain the plague, the Invaders had to kill the entire population of a village in the Netherlands, including some who had been infected, but had not yet transformed. In this miniseries, the infection reappears in the modern era.
All-New Invaders In 2014, Marvel launched a new series written by
James Robinson and starring Captain America who is eventually replaced by
Sam Wilson,
Winter Soldier, the original
Human Torch, and Namor. A Japanese heroine named Radiance (the granddaughter of
Golden Girl) joins the team during the book's second arc, and the daughter of
Iron Cross joins in issue # 10.
Invaders (vol. 3) In January 2019, Marvel launched a new series written by
Chip Zdarsky that saw original members
Steve Rogers, the
Winter Soldier, and the
Human Torch reunite to stop Namor, who has become a global threat and mentally unstable. ==Collected editions==