Back in February,
Captain America director Joe Johnston shocked comic fans by stating that a six-member strong team called The Invaders will be featured in the entire second half of the film. The Invaders, originally known as the All-Winners Squad, was a team of super powered heroes who fought alongside the Allied Forces during World War II. Courtesy of Marvel, here's a more detailed description:
"Originally, Captain America (Steve Rogers), his sidekick Bucky (James Barnes), the original android Human Torch ("Jim Hammond"), the Torch's sidekick Toro (Thomas Raymond), and Namor the Sub-Mariner were together as heroes opposing the forces of Nazism. When these superheroes saved the life of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from Master Man, the thankful Churchill suggested that they should become a team, known as the Invaders. The Invaders fought the Axis Powers over the world until eventually finding themselves in England, where they met Lord James Montgomery Falsworth, the original Union Jack. He joined the team and provided them with a base of operations in England. Eventually Falsworth's children Brian (Union Jack) and Jacqueline (Spitfire) became members. The team later added 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 added the Blazing Skull and the Silver Scorpion to its roster.
The team continued to fight against several major threats, and faced 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."
Since the team will be made up of six members, and the roles of Captain America and his sidekick Bucky have already been confirmed and cast, we are left with four open slots. Questions regarding character-film rights have been the most prevalent concern and have left fans on the fence about which characters they would like to see included in the movie.
Before you cast your lot in, take a look at these brief bios of the Invaders members that were around during World War II and how they tie into the story. I didn't include any of these hero's sidekicks (i.e. Toro, Namora) since there are already eight members to choose from:
Namor the Sub-Mariner
Namor was born the first known Homo Sapien - Homo Mermanus hybrid; his father being American seaman Leonard McKenzie while his mother, Fen, was a Princess of Atlantis. The young prince grew up with a short, nasty temper and a hostile attitude toward surface-dwellers, whom he blamed for the near-destruction of Atlantis. When Thakorr, Emperor of Atlantis, discovered men in diving suits near the underwater city, he assumed they were advance scouts for an invasion force causing the fiery Sub-Mariner to launch frequent pre-emptive attacks against humanity, causing untold destruction throughout New York City and leading him into confrontation with the original Human Torch. When Nazi troops attacked Atlantis, however, Namor joined the Allied cause alongside Captain America and his fellow Invaders.
Because of his unusual genetic heritage, the majority of his observed superhuman powers come from the fact that he's a hybrid of Human and Atlantean DNA. Namor possesses a fully amphibious physiology suited for extreme undersea pressures, superhuman strength, speed, agility, durability, flight, and longevity. Namor has the ability to survive underwater for indefinite periods, and specially developed vision which gives him the ability to see clearly in the murky depths of the ocean.
The Human Torch
The Human Torch was an android created by Professor Phineas T. Horton for scientific purposes. At a press-conference unveiling, however, Horton's creation burst into flames when exposed to oxygen, and, with human-like sentience, personality, and awareness, rebelled against his creator. Public outcry led to the Torch's being sealed in concrete, which Horton did until he could find a way to control the android's flames, though he eventually escaped due to a crack that let oxygen seep in. While the Torch then inadvertently caused parts of New York City to burn, he eventually learned to control his flame and vowed to help humanity. During World War II Jim helped allied forces and the Invaders fight the Axis powers. Near the end of the war, Jim came face-to-face with Adolf Hitler and killed him with his bare hands.
He has the ability to envelop his body in fiery plasma without harm to himself and to utilize this heat energy for various effects, including flight, formation of fiery shapes and energy releases in the form of heat blasts, similar to the heat-pulse of a nuclear warhead.
Union Jack
During World War I, Lord Montgomery Falsworth was recruited by the British army to become one of the first public superhero champions: Union Jack. His superiors decided to create a guise that would strike terror in enemy hearts as well as rally troops-- by having Falsworth appear as a personification of the British national flag. After the war was over, Union Jack was retired, and Falsworth settled back into life at Falsworth Manor and began to raise his family. During World War II, Baron Blood returned to the countryside near Falsworth Manor to begin a new reign of terror. After the Human Torch saved his doughter, Jacqueline's life, he was inspired to don the Union Jack identity to fight alongside the Invaders against Baron Blood. After a battle that left his paralyzed, he passed the Union Jack mantle off to his son, Brian.
Brain Falsworth, while imprisoned earlier by the Nazi Party, shared a cell with a German scientist who tried to recreate the super-soldier formula that created Captain America. Since he did not want his experiment fall into Nazi hands, he gave the only sample to Brian, who drank the solution and found his strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes enhanced to peak-human levels. He fought alongside his sister, Jacqueline Falsworth, in the Invaders.
Spitfire
During World War II, Jacqueline Falsworth bravely served in Britain’s Home Guard. During an air raid attack on London, she had less to fear from the bombing, however, than from the vampire Baron Blood, who attacked her. She was saved by the android Human Torch, who drove the vampire off. Jacqueline invited the Torch and his team, the Invaders, to dinner at the Falsworth Mansion. Her father, Lord Falsworth, then revealed to family and company of his career during World War I as Union Jack and volunteered the use of his mansion as a base of operations for the Invaders. The Invaders saved Jacqueline from baron Blood again, but Jacqueline had been drained of too much blood by the vampire. She was rushed to a hospital and received a blood transfusion from the Human Torch. She soon discovered that the transfusion of the Torch's android blood, plus the foreign enzymes introduced into her bloodstream by Baron Blood's bite, combined to give her super-human speed.
She possesses the ability to run at lightning-fast speeds, with reflexes and reactions, coordination, agility, and endurance to match. When she runs, a trail of non-damaging fire appears behind her. Her skin is also hardened to withstand the rigors of such speed, providing a type of body armor.
Thin Man
In the 1930s, scientist and explorer Dr. Bruce Dickson attempts to climb Mount Kalpurthia in the Himalayas. There, he encounters the lost civilization of Kalahia, which possessed extremely advanced technology. The Kalahian people expose him to a mutagenic substance which alters his body to give him the same physical abilities as they had: eternal youth, and tremendous physical resilience and flexibility, including the ability to become "thin", or rather, flat. Dickson learns much of their advanced technology, and falls in love with Olalla, daughter of the Kalahians' leader. He and his new love travel to the outside world and and he joins the superhero team The Invaders alongside Captain America, the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and others.
He is able to convert the mass of his entire body into a highly malleable state at will, enabling him to stretch, deform, expand, or compress all or any part of his body into any shape. He can absorb the impact of a projectile shot at him or of any concussive force, within certain unknown limits, by deforming his body. When underwater he can resist intense water pressure to a superhuman extent for a period of minutes. He can become nearly two-dimensional, while his limbs can effectively become blades in the process.
Blazing Skull
Mark Anthony Todd was a pacifist and freelance reporter in the 1930s. On his fist assignment Todd was sent to Japan were he found a race of super-intelligent Skull-Men. They accepted Todd and taught him their occult secrets. Todd then went to Germany where he joined an Anti-Nazi movement. However, h was captured by Nazi agents and was brought before Adolf Hitler. He somehow managed to escape and traveled to London where he saved Winston Churchill's life from Nazi mercenaries. Todd then returned to the United States and resumed his reporter job with the Daily Globe. Still using the guise of Blazing Skull he joined the Invaders to battle the Axis powers behind enemy lines.
Due to being trained by the Skull Men, Blazing Skull is immune to fire. He also possesses superhuman strength, a regenerative healing factor, and the ability to turn his flesh invisible, giving him the appearance of a walking skeleton. Through concentration, he gains the ability to project and expel flame.
Miss America
Socially aware teenager Madeline Joyce was born in Washington, D.C. She was the niece and ward of radio mogul James Bennet, who was sponsoring Professor Lawson, a scientist claiming to have gotten superpowers through a device that had been struck by lightning. Joyce, secretly tampering with the contraption during a thunderstorm that night, herself gained the ability to fly and great strength after lightning similarly struck, knocking her unconscious. After the United States became engaged in World War II, she became a member of the Invaders, fighting alongside Captain America and Bucky, the original Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and the Whizzer.
Madeline Joyce has the ability to levitate herself through psionic means. By using her levitation ability in connection with her super strength to carefully "leap" from one surface to another. She can attain any height at which she could still breathe (approximately 20,000 feet). She could use this power for about 2 hours before mental fatigue would force her to rest.
The Whizzer
Robert Frank was on a trip in Africa with his father, Dr. Emil Frank, when he was bitten by a cobra. Dr. Frank saves Robert by a transfusion of mongoose blood, and soon discovers that he has developed super-speed
[ Note: WTF?]. Frank then decides to fight crime and eventually accepts the offer of Invaders member Bucky Barnes to join the team.
Robert Frank has the ability to move at superhuman speed and has superhuman reflexes. He can create cyclones by running in circles, and can run up walls and across water. He has learned a unique, self-taught fighting style which exploits the ability to move at superhuman speeds.
[Unfortunately, the last Invaders member from that era, Silver Scorpion, was such an obscure and minor character that the only information Marvel has on her is this: her name is Elizabeth Barstow and she was granted honorary membership into The Invaders.]
Information and images courtesy of Marvel.com
MPP - Well, since you can only vote once in these polls I'd say that the four characters with the most votes by the end of the week win slots on the team.