Spirit of '76 (Marvel)

The Spirit of '76 is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

William Naslund

The Spirit of '76 left America in 1942 and took up residence in Great Britain to serve as a member of the Crusaders, a British team of superhumanly powerful champions who intended to battle Nazis. The Spirit of '76 was the sole American member of the team and the only one who lacked superhuman abilities. The Crusaders had been recruited and organized by a man known as Alfie, whom they believed to be a representative of the British government or military. In fact, however, "Alfie" was an agent of Germany who had organized the Crusaders in order to discredit the Invaders, another team of superhuman champions opposing the Nazis. He also was plotting assassinate King George VI of Great Britain at the christening of a new British battleship. (Invaders v1 #14) "Alfie" convinced the Crusaders that the Invaders were actually Nazi agents, and the two groups clashed at the christening. However, the Invaders exposed and thwarted the assassination plot, and the Crusaders realized they had been duped. The Crusaders broke up as a team. (Invaders v1 #15)

In December of 1943, time displaced American soldier Paul Anselm returned from the future with the Cosmic Cube in order to restore to life his dead friends who were gunned down by Nazis in Italy. However, the Cube ended up in the hands of the Red Skull who used it to reshape reality so that the Nazis ruled to the world. The Spirit of '76 was among many heroes who were slain by the Skull and impaled on a massive wall of dead heroes. (Avengers/Invaders v1 #10) The Skull was later opposed by the Invaders and the time travelling New Avengers and Mighty Avengers. During the course of the battle, the Cube returned to the hands of Paul Anselm who used it to resurrect Nasland and all the other fallen heroes who then attacked the Skull. With the Skull defeated, reality was restored to normal and William's memories of the event were erased. (Avengers/Invaders v1 #12)

Spirit of '76 resurfaced again in the spring of 1945, joining Captain America, and the Patriot on a mission to sneak inside Berlin during Allied air raids in order to capture Hitler's secret lock box. They were joined by the original Red Guardian, whom the Spirit was at odds due to their differences in political ideologies. Despite this, the quartet of heroes chased after the Red Skull to stop him from escaping with the lock box. While Spirit, Patriot, and Red Guardian kept back Nazi forces, Cap and Red Skull battled it out in a bunker while bombs dropped from above. Cap managed to escape with the lock box, while the Skull was seemingly killed. (Captain America Annual v1 #13)

Notes

• The Spirit of '76 was created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins where he made his first appearance in Invaders v1 #14 (March, 1977).

Appearances

• Invaders v1: (1977)

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.