Project Superpowers is a comic book limited series published by Dynamite Entertainment beginning January 2008. It was co-plotted by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross, with scripts by Jim Krueger, covers by Alex Ross, and interior art by Doug Klauba and Stephen Sadowski for issue #0, and Carlos Paul for the remainder of the series. Ross is also art director, which includes sketched pages, color guides, and redesigns of most of the characters. There was a new series in 2018 with Rob Williams as the writers and Sergio Davila as the artist. A new series called Project Superpowers: Fractured States will debut in April with writers Ron Marz, Andy Lanning and artist Emilio Utrera. Another series called Scarlett Sisters with Women in Red, Lady Satan and Miss Masque is scheduled for September 2022.
The series resurrects a number of Golden Age superheroes originally published by companies including Fox Comics, Crestwood Publications, and Nedor Comics, many of whom are in the public domain, including the protagonist, Fighting Yank. Setting The story is set in a present-day world that is different from our own; it is implied that the absence of the world's heroes allowed the United States to become a virtual dictatorship, with the Dynamic Forces corporation manipulating world events for the sake of order and profit. The Police Corps consists of armored officers who show no mercy, wars are being waged for nothing more than business reasons, and even free speech is heavily restricted. In addition to all this, a terrorist movement called "The Claw" (which may or may not be related to the Golden Age villain of the same name) is active around the world. It is into this setting that the released heroes first emerge.
Plot Chapter One "Last Gleaming" (issue #0) Bruce Carter III, formerly the World War II-era hero Fighting Yank, is now an elderly man. As he sits quietly in his home, thinking and wrestling with his regrets, he's confronted by an apparition. Carter mistakes the ghost for that of his colonial-era ancestor, a spirit which guided and advised him throughout his WWII adventures. The ghost, shrouded in an American flag, is instead an amalgamation of the spirits of patriots, heroes, and martyrs who fought and died for their country. The apparition has come to accuse Carter of betrayal and warn him of his impending death. Carter flees from The American Spirit (for that is the name of this Dickensian apparition). Through a series of flashback sequences, Fighting Yank's WWII backstory is explored. In a meeting between an unidentified general, Fighting Yank, Green Lama, Black Terror, The Flame, and "Big Blue" (1), it is revealed that Adolf Hitler has come into possession of a mystical object which is the original source of all the world's evil: Pandora's Box (actually an urn) described in the ancient Greek myth. Bruce Carter in his guise as The Fighting Yank, is tasked by the U.S. Government to parachute into Nazi Germany and steal the urn. Pandora's urn introduced evil into the world, but also released hope; while the Axis powers are the representatives of that evil, the 1940s "mystery men" are conversely the embodiment of hope. The mystical creatures released when the urn was opened are visible as physical entities when special goggles (invented by Alan Oppenheimer and other atomic scientists) are worn. Yank puts on the goggles and is immediately attacked by the creatures. After he removes the goggles, Yank's "spirit guide" (the ghost of his colonial-era ancestor, Bruce Carter I) tells him that since hope was the last thing released from the urn the only way to reimprison its evil is to first trap his fellow mystery men within it.
Fighting Yank attempts to convince his allies to enter the urn voluntarily, but they refuse. Carter determines to imprison them one at a time. Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the mystery men are in Kokura, Japan, the intended target of the second atomic bomb. Their purpose is to stop the bombing by obtaining a Japanese surrender. Instead of surrendering, the Japanese army attacks the heroes, resulting in a large-scale battle. The U.S. military, in the mistaken belief that the resulting dust and debris are cloud cover obscuring the city, switch the target city to Nagasaki. Meanwhile, Carter takes advantage of the confusion to trap The Flame within the urn; it was necessary to imprison The Flame first as his power would help the other mystery men survive within the urn.
The Flame is presumed killed, ironically, by the fires of Kokura. The Fighting Yank imprisons Flame Girl after The Flame's memorial service. In the years following World War II, Carter continues to imprison his fellow mystery men, one by one, including the newer heroes which spring up after the war. One of the few heroes to escape this fate is The Green Lama, who returned to Tibet immediately after The Flame's memorial.
Now, in Carter's twilight years, The American Spirit has come to indict Carter for this betrayal. Carter's ancestor arrives to argue with The American Spirit, to convince Carter that he did indeed do the right thing. The patriotic apparition counters with a catalogue of the world's ills which have occurred since the mystery men were imprisoned in the urn: the rise of Dynamic Forces, a mega-corporation that plays on the world's greed and sloth by offering material creature comforts to the masses; a fascist police forces that cows the population and keeps them in line; a zombie army made from the decomposing bodies of America's dead military men, sent to the Middle East to fight on the government's behalf, forced to battle and be reconstructed over and over endlessly, while the soldiers' souls languish in limbo. The American Spirit argues: "How can you say you've done anything to stop or contain evil?...All you've done...is to stop those who might have helped keep this from happening".
Carter makes his decision. He asks The American Spirit what he must do to make amends. The answer lies in Tibet; despite his advanced age, Carter must journey there and seek counsel from The Green Lama, even though Carter suspects that Green Lama will kill him for what he's done.
"The Rumors of My Demise..." (issue #1) In New York City, atop the Dynamic Forces skyscraper headquarters, Dynamic Man and Dynamic Woman look down upon the city. Godlike, they regard humanity as little more than the ants they appear to be from atop their glass and steel eyrie. As Bruce Carter, the former Fighting Yank, struggles through the snows of Tibet, he is beginning to realize that he has been badly misled by the ghost of his ancestor and namesake, that his ancestor might well be a traitor with his own hidden agenda. Reaching Shangri-La, Carter is greeted by Tsarong, Green Lama's manservant, who takes him to his master. Jethro "Jet" Dumont, the Green Lama, who has apparently not aged since the 1940s, greets Carter warmly. Carter confesses to Lama that he's trapped all of their former allies inside Pandora's Urn, and is surprised by Lama's nonchalance at the revelation.
Lama explains to Carter and The American Spirit that he's discovered the power of the "meta-natural" world. It has provided him with new abilities, one of which he immediately demonstrates. Leafy vines suddenly spring up from the ground and engulf the trio; when the vines peel away, they find themselves in New York City. The American Spirit tells Carter that Pandora's Urn will be found in the possession of Dynamic Man, a former ally who, like the Green Lama, wasn't "chosen" to be trapped in the urn.
At Dynamic Forces headquarters, Carter and Green Lama are ushered into the presence of the Dynamic Family who, like Jet Dumont, have also not aged. Dynamic Man is the caretaker of numerous artifacts, mystical and otherwise, left over from the dark days of World War II. Lama asks if Carter may see the urn. Dynamic Man makes to hand the urn to Carter but deliberately drops it instead. With surprising agility for one so elderly, Carter makes a diving catch. Carter himself breaks the urn open and is surprised when nothing happens. Dynamic Man laughs as he informs the duo that he'd had the urn exorcised, while Dynamic Woman hints that the Family may be something more/other than human. Then the Family members grab Carter and Green Lama and throw them down an elevator shaft, despite the fact that the Lama can fly. The elevator car, its cables cut, hurtles down at them; Lama smashes through it and the heroes exit onto the rooftop. Carter puts on his power cloak and mask to again become The Fighting Yank.
The Dynamic Family attacks the heroes on the rooftop, while hundreds of Dynamic Forces employees rush into the fray. Suddenly another mystery man bursts through the rooftop and comes to the aid of Yank and Lama. He is The Black Terror, who has determined that no one but he should have the privilege of killing The Fighting Yank as revenge for Terror's decades-long imprisonment in the urn. During the fight, Black Terror accidentally punches Dynamic Man too hard and discovers, to everyone's surprise, that Dynamic Man is actually a robot. The robot responds by hurling Black Terror from the rooftop. Cat-like, Black Terror lands on his feet on the sidewalk below, cratering it in the process. The Terror then shakes his fist at the rooftop and howls in rage: "OK, Bruce, Fighting Yank gets a reprieve – I'm not going to kill you until after I kill Dynamic Man!"
"...The Whites of Their Eyes" (issue #2) Mystery men of the 1940s, released from Pandora's Urn, are popping up all over the globe. A red-and-blue clad, boomerang wielding figure emerges from the fabled sewers of Paris in time to see a street riot in progress.
Meanwhile, in New York City, the Fighting Yank and the Green Lama fight for their lives against the robotic Dynamic Family and their mechanical hordes. The Black Terror claws his way back up the side of the skyscraper and rejoins the fray, but seems just as concerned with the fate of his kid sidekick Tim (Kid Terror) as he does with the struggle at hand. Now that they know their opponents are robots instead of flesh and blood, the heroes battle with furious abandon. With a massive rumbling, huge trees and vines suddenly sprout from the heart of the Dynamic Forces headquarters; the Green Lama is using his meta-natural abilities to transport himself and his allies away from the lopsided fight.
In Paris, the mysterious stranger saves a law enforcement officer from the rioters, taking down a few members of the mob in the process. After their escape it's revealed that the officer is a woman who identifies the mob as a group of terrorists and herself as Justine. The stranger remains ever silent.
Back in Shangri-La after their escape from the Dynamic Family, the heroes discuss what they've experienced. The American Spirit is of the belief that the urn's destruction has released the imprisoned mystery men who are likely to reappear randomly around the globe. The Black Terror continues to threaten Fighting Yank's life, while the ghostly Bruce Carter I continues to try to sway his descendant away from The American Spirit.
War is being waged in the Middle East. The United States has replaced its traditional human soldiers with the F-Troop: the reanimated corpses of soldiers killed in previous wars. The war's goal is to destroy the world's petroleum source, which will prompt industrialized nations to switch to a new synthetic fuel created and monopolized by Dynamic Forces. Not coincidentally, Dynamic Forces also controls the U.S. military and is fighting the war with the undead F-Troop soldiers which are also Dynamic's patented creation. Acting as a pair of thorns in Dynamic's side are the heroes Samson (possessed of superhuman strength and the ability to repel ballistic missiles) and The Scarab (clad in powered stealth armor), who meet and join forces to battle the F-Troop.