All-Winners Comics #21
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAll-Winners Comics #21 is the second and final Golden Age appearance of the All-Winners Squad — Timely/Marvel's first superhero team, assembled from previously solo stars Captain America, the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the Whizzer, and Miss America. The issue introduced two new villains to the Marvel universe, Future Man and Madame Death, in a globe-spanning, seven-chapter story that structurally echoed DC's Justice Society format in All-Star Comics but pivoted from wartime enemies toward science-fictional threats reflective of the post-war atomic age. As the final bow of the Squad in their original era, #21 closes the short-lived but historically pivotal experiment that predated the Avengers by nearly two decades and established the template of Timely's biggest characters operating as a unit. Decades of Marvel retconning — from Roy Thomas's Invaders to Steve Englehart's Captain America continuity — all trace directly back to the two issues anchored by this one.
In "Menace from the Future World! [Chapter 1]," Future Man's desperate plan to summon an army of futuristic warriors from a distant era puts the All-Winners Squad on the defensive—until a twist of fate sends his ship hurtling uncontrollably back through time, cutting off his call for reinforcements. Written by Otto Binder and illustrated with dynamic energy by Syd Shores, this 1946 adventure blends sci-fi suspense with classic superhero action, all wrapped in a striking cover by Shores.
In "Menace from the Future World! [Chapter 1]," Cap rallies the All-Winners Squad against a terrifying new threat: Future Man, a mysterious figure from a distant era who’s arrived in the 20th Century with a chilling mission. With the help of Madame Death and her ruthless gang, he’s begun carving a path toward a future where humanity is erased—leaving the team to confront a danger that defies time itself.
In "The Green Plague!" from All-Winners Comics #21, Cap and Bucky race across central Europe, tracking Future Man and Madame Death to a hidden laboratory where they're preparing to unleash a deadly weapon—germs from a future world unknown in their time. With the fate of countless lives hanging in the balance, the duo must stop the villains before their horrifying plan can be completed.
In "Murder in Slow Motion!" from All-Winners Comics #21, Madame Death and Future Man journey to Diablo Crater in South America, where they join forces with the Stiletto Gang. With a mind-control device and a mysterious Slow-Down Machine, Future Man sets his sights on the Whizzer, turning the tide of battle by freezing time itself—leaving his enemies helpless in a world that moves too slowly to react.
In "Wave of Destruction!" from All-Winners Comics #21, Namor tracks a mysterious threat to the China coast, only to find the Pacific Pirates—modern raiders wielding a submarine—caught in a web of deception. Drawn into a sinister plot orchestrated by Madame Death and Future Man, the pirates are forced to aid in a plan to unleash a devastating tidal wave across Asia.
In "The Living Dead!" from All-Winners Comics #21, Miss America races across the African sky, her eyes locked on a terrifying sight: a caravan under siege by mummies brought back to life. These reanimated figures, animated by Future Man’s twisted "life battery," move as a relentless army, spreading across the continent with no regard for the living souls beneath them.
In "Flames of Fury!" from All-Winners Comics #21, Future Man ignites a massive forest fire across North America, using a simple incendiary bomb to lure the Torch and Toro into a trap. His plan hinges on diverting the heroes long enough for him and Madame Death to ally with desert badmen, who provide them with Uranium-235—enough to forge an atomic match capable of burning anything made of atoms.
In "War between the Worlds!", Future Man’s desperate bid to summon an army of future warriors armed with Neutronic Bombs is cut short when the All-Winners Squad strikes first—only for a twist of fate to lock his ship’s controls on a course far into the past, leaving the threat of those future invaders stranded in time.
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When Timely wanted to publish a second All-Winners Squad story in late 1946, there was no standing title available under that name: the series had nominally continued as the teen-humor one-shot All Teen Comics #20 after issue #19. The solution was a common Golden Age publishing workaround — Timely retitled the just-canceled Young Allies Comics (which had ended with its own #20 in October 1946), producing All-Winners Comics #21 and skipping the number 20 entirely in the All-Winners sequence. The story 'Menace from the Future World' was scripted by Otto Binder (of later Shazam fame) and edited by Stan Lee, with art shared across seven chapters by Al Avison, Vince Alascia, Syd Shores, and the pseudonymous Charles Nicholas; the cover was penciled by Avison and inked by Nicholas. After this issue, the All-Winners title became the humor comic Hedy De Vine Comics with #22, and the Squad never returned in an original Golden Age story.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Second and last Golden Age appearance of the All-Winners Squad, Timely/Marvel's first superhero team, whose only other Golden Age outing was All-Winners Comics #19 (Fall 1946).
- First appearances of two villains: Future Man (a time traveler from one million AD seeking to colonize and exterminate 20th-century humanity) and Madame Death (a contemporary crime boss who allies with him).
- The story is titled 'Menace from the Future World' and is scripted by Otto Binder, with Stan Lee as editor; art is divided across seven chapters by Al Avison, Vince Alascia, Syd Shores, and Charles Nicholas (a pseudonym), with the cover by Avison and Nicholas.
- The issue exists because Timely retitled the just-canceled Young Allies Comics — a common cost-saving practice of the era used to avoid new postal registration fees — skipping issue #20 in the All-Winners sequence entirely.
- The team roster in #21 features Captain America (retroactively established as William Naslund, later Jeff Mace — not Steve Rogers), Bucky (Fred Davis), the Human Torch, Toro, Sub-Mariner, Miss America, and the Whizzer.
- The story follows the Justice Society of America structural model from All-Star Comics: a threat is introduced, each hero is dispatched to a different continent to address a piece of it, and the team reunites for a final confrontation.
- Reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes #17–18 (November 1968 and January 1969), giving Silver Age readers their first exposure to the Squad's second adventure; later collected in Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners Vol. 4 (2011).
- The All-Winners Squad was subsequently retconned as the post-war successor to the Invaders (created by Roy Thomas in the 1970s) and as the founding inspiration for the V-Battalion (introduced in 2001); Future Man and Madame Death were revisited in the All-Winners Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 (2009).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (1968), Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (1969), Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners Comics #4 (2011)
Key issues in All-Winners Comics
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