The Seven Soldiers of Victory

• First published 1941

The master criminal known as The Hand learns he is terminally ill. He gathers together five other criminals (Big Caesar, the Dummy, the Needle, Professor Merlin, and the Red Dragon) to commit crimes across the U.S. as the Hand's Five Fingers. The Hand challenges the five criminals' enemies (the Crimson Avenger, the Vigilante, the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, the Green Arrow and Speedy, and the Shining Knight) to try and stop them. The heroes defeat the Hand's Five Fingers, and the Hand himself is apparently killed. Deciding they work well together, the heroes form the Seven Soldiers of Victory.