Honor Guard (Astro City)
The Honor Guard are a superhero team that feature in Astro City.
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History
The Honor Guard were a team of superheroes founded in 1959 by Max O'Millions to combat the Legions of Midnight. Its original roster also included the Silver Agent, Starwoman, Leopardman and Kitkat, the first N-Forcer, and the first Cleopatra. The Bouncing Beatnik and the Old Soldier assisted Honor Guard on its second case, but did not become members. After defeating the villains, the group decided to stay together as Honor Guard. At the time, most people were not sure if the group would stay together very long. Shortly afterwards, the team allied with the Bouncing Beatnik and the Old Soldier to prevent Shirak the Devourer's worshipers from establishing a portal through which their master could invade Earth's dimension. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2) Their first big clash with Pyramid happened a few weeks after that, when the organization tried to capture NASA's first team of astronauts that constituted the Mercury project. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #1)
For most of its history, Honor Guard appears to have maintained an active membership of seven members. Kitkat seems to have been replaced by the Mermaid early on, and Max by El Hombre by 1964. During the next few years Hummingbird and Mirage took the places of Leopardman and Starwoman. The Living Nightmare was also a member at some point before November 1972, though it is uncertain whether this was before or during the period of El Hombre's membership. By April 1973, at the time of El Hombre's downfall, the Black Rapier and Starfighter had taken the places of Cleopatra (I) and the Silver Agent. It has not been revealed what new member was brought in to fill the vacancy left by El Hombre's disgrace; possibly the Living Nightmare again, as he was apparently once more a member again sometime in the 1970s and is known to have served on two separate occasions.
The roster from at least 1995–1998 consisted of Beautie, the Black Rapier, Cleopatra (II), M.P.H., the N-Forcer, Quarrel (II), and Samaritan. The Black Rapier served as leader. This team was shown working with Winged Victory and the Gentleman, but these did not become members.
By 1995, the team's main roster consisted of the Black Rapier, Samaritan, Quarrel, MPH, the modern day Cleopatra, the N-Forcer, and Beautie. This line-up would remain relatively stable for many years to come. In 1997, the world witnessed the Enelsian Invasion in which Honor Guard played a major role in repelling the aggressive aliens. Despite the public's near paranoid distrust of the superhero community, the heroes never gave up on the world. When the brunt of the Enelsians attack on Astro City was unleashed, most of the group was positioned to defend the city, alongside a vast horde of other heroes. Working together, they staved off the attack and with the help of Augustus Furst's technical weaponry , the heroes went on the offensive, eventually ending the alien threat.
The cosmic entity Thunderhead later manifested where he made threats against the world leading to members of the Honor Guard joining the likes of the First Family and Astro City Irregulars in stopping him. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v2 #1)
By the 2010s the roster had expanded beyond the previously customary seven members. The core membership by 2013 consisted of the Assemblyman, Beautie, the Black Rapier, Cleopatra II, the Gentleman, Hummingbird II, M.P.H., the N-Forcer, Quarrel II, Samaritan, Winged Victory, and new member Wolfspider. Membership changes since have included the loss of the Black Rapier and Quarrel II, both of whom retired in 2015, the addition of American Chibi as a "detached" member, and the 2016 return to membership of the Living Nightmare. Samaritan has served as leader since the departure of the Black Rapier.
By 2013, long time holdouts, Winged Victory and the Gentleman had joined the team, as well as newcomer Wolfspider. That year, the team thwarted Lord Volcanus's take-over attempt on the surface world and fought Kroseth the Invader. Joined by the Assemblyman, they also laid siege to the Skullcrushers' hidden HQ in Ecuador. Members were finally able to get inside when the Assemblyman created a portal by homing in on the ID badge of Honor Guard employee Marella Cowper, who was within. Long time chairman, the Black Rapier announced his retirement and soon after Quarrel stepped away as well. In the following years, American Chibi was granted a membership and The Living Nightmare has rejoined the ranks for a third and hopefully permanent time.
Overview
In appearance, the Honor Guard were the world's foremost team of superheroes. They were considered the world's greatest heroes both old and new. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2) Members of the Honor Guard are known as Honor Guardsmen. Over the years, the membership of Honor Guard had changed in response to various needs and goals.
While originally based in Astro City, as the group became more and more involved with global and other worldly endeavors, the team moved its base of operations to a floating headquarters. Honor Guard's Headquarters is a cloaked flying base that is usually located somewhere over the American Midwest. It is invisible from the ground and too most aircraft. It brims with advanced technologies, including cloaking technology, shielded armor made of high density, heavily reinforced alloyed metals including it's sensors which make sure that it moves out of the way of any other aircraft. The Techsperts managed to break into once, but security upgrades were made and the former supervillain Steeljack has been the only person or group that has managed to since then. Their floating base was noted to moves to different places each month.
It contains a meeting room, as well as a trophy room featuring memorabilia and trinkets from past cases and adventures. There is a technology center(complete with an extraterrestrial-alien detector) and other areas necessary for controlling and maintaining this all important headquarters.
The Honor Guard also maintained an emergency call centre that was a complex and highly sophisticated organization for gathering intelligence information, screening incoming emergency calls and monitoring world crisis situations.
At the top of the Astrobank Tower, there was an emergency beacon that could be used to contact the heroes when they were needed. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v2 #1)
Members
- Max O'Millions : a human male who wore a red tuxedo and had been the founder of the superhero team. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2)
- Cleopatra : a black female superhero who had been one of the founding members of the team. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2)
- Leopardman : a masked male feline crime fighter who had been one of the founding members of the team. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2)
- Kitkat : a masked female feline crime fighter who was the sidekick of Leopardman and had been one of the founding members of the team. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2)
- N-Forcer :a male superhero who had been one of the founding members of the team. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2)
- Silver Agent :
- Starwoman : a female superhero who had been one of the founding members of the team. (Kurt Busiek's Astro City v1 #2)
- Samaritan : a human from the 35th century who came from a time when the Earth was dying and was part of a mission to go into the past to alter history where during the journey he was exposed to the empyrean fire that gave him superpowers.
- Assemblyman :
- American Chibi :
Notes
- The Honor Guard were created by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross where they made their first appearance in Astro City v1 #1 (August, 1995).
Appearances
- Astro City v1: (1995)
External Links
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