The Fightin' 5 are a

Charlton Comics Charlton Comics was an American comic-book publishing company that existed from 1945 to 1986, having begun under a different name: T. W. O. Charles Company, in 1940. It was based in Derby, Connecticut. The comic-book line (comics), line was a divi ...

Special Forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

paramilitary team, similar to

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

' Blackhawks. They debuted in ''Fightin' 5'' #28 (July 1964), and were created by

Joe Gill Joseph P. Gill (July 13, 1919 – December 17, 2006)Social Security Death Inde ...

and Bill Montes.

Publication history

The ''Fightin' 5'' comic started in July, 1964 with issues #28 (continuing the numbering of the 1959 Charlton series ''Space War''), and ran until #41 in January 1967. After the cancellation, the characters starred in a backup feature in ''

Peacemaker Peacemaker or The Peacemaker may refer to: Individuals and groups * UN Peacemaker, a project of the UN to support international peacemakers and mediators * Peace makers, a list of contemporary individuals and organizations involved in peacemaki ...

''. Toward the end of the original series, the team took on a disastrous mission which resulted in the death of Irv, while team leader Hank lost an eye and arm. During the Peacemaker run the team added an ex-

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

agent named Sonya to the group, and Hank was relegated to the role of tactician and organizer. From 1981 to 1982, Charlton committed to a partial reprint of the series, running from issue #42 through issue #49. When the Charlton Comics Group was dissolved, the trademark and indica of these characters was purchased by Canadian publisher Roger Broughton. Broughton issued one reprint series, under the title ''The Power of Five''.

Fictional team biography

These five men were recruited by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

in the fall of 1963, during the height of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. This team consisted of five commandos, their initials spelling out, "FIGHT". The five undertook missions around the world fighting international terrorists, despotic rulers, and thwarting

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

agents. They wore bright blue

BDU The ''Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote'' or BdU (Eng: "Commander of the U-boats") was the supreme commander of the German Navy's U-boat Arm (''Ubootwaffe'') during the First World War, First and Second World Wars. The term also referred to the Comm ...

's with

red beret The red beret is a military beret worn by many artillery, military police, paramilitary, commando, and police forces and should not be confused with the maroon beret worn by airborne troops all around the world. Artillery Red berets are worn by ...

s. They usually flew around in a modified

Convair B-58 The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...

Hustler Supersonic Bomber and used many different military-use weapons systems as well as

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

-like gadgets to accomplish their missions.

Membership

*FF1: Frenchie the Fox - A rather stereotypical

French American French Americans or Franco-Americans () are Citizenship of the United States, citizens or United States nationality law, nationals of the United States who identify themselves with having full or partial French people, French or French Canad ...

and ex-

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

underwater An underwater environment is a environment of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a Water, body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characteristics of the ...

demolitions expert. *FF2: Irv "The Nerve" David - A decorated former

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i commando, member of

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

and

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a wikt:private eye, private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. ...

. *FF3: Granite Gallero - A former mercenary and weapons expert. *FF4: Hank Hennessey - A career

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

Captain in the

and

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

veteran. *FF5: Tom-Tom - A former

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

References

Charlton Comics superheroes Charlton Comics titles Comics characters introduced in 1964 War comics {{comics-stub