At the end of Flashpoint Beyond, DC fans got an interesting tease about “The Thirteen”, a group of characters that had been held outside of the time stream and, as the Time Masters discovered, had been reintegrated into DC history — particularly the Golden Age in the 1940s. It’s an intriguing list: The Golden Age Mr. Miracle, Betsy Ross, Molly Pitcher, Ladybug, Salem the Witch Girl, Cherry Bomb, John Henry Jr., The Golden Age Red Lantern, Judy Garrick, The Harlequin’s Son, The Golden Age Aquaman, Quiz Kid, and The Golden Age Legionnaire.
But while Flashpoint Beyond left readers with a lot of questions about The Thirteen, this week’s The New Golden Age #1 offers up full details about these mysterious figures, offering readers full Who’s Who style profiles of these characters ahead of the upcoming Justice Society of America. Here’s a breakdown of The Thirteen.
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The New Golden Age #1 is on sale now.
Golden Age Red Lantern
Vladmir Sokov became Russia’s first superhero after Russia’s Red Labs created a red lantern and ring that tapped into the Crimson Flame that acted very similarly to Alan Scott’s Green Lantern. Red Lantern became arch enemies with the Green Lantern, though the two did team up once to take on Nazis. In the early 1950s, Vladmir’s baby daughter inherited the power of the Crimson Flame which led to her being taken by Red Labs. Red Lantern was presumably killed trying to rescue his daughter, though his body, ring, and lantern were never recovered, and his daughter’s fate is unknown.
Salem The Witch Girl
Salem Rula Nader is the daughter of an Armenian American immigrant and a woman who fled Limbo Town, but the girl is abandoned by her parents as a small child, leaving her to inherit her mother’s Limbo Town Curse. She lived alone on the streets of Boston until Doctor Fate took her in to protect her in 1940 and became his sidekick. Like many of the sidekicks, Salem disappeared and has not been seen since.
Quiz Kid
Raghu Seetharaman it turns out is the long-lost sidekick for the Golden Age Mister Terrific, completely with the gimmick of being the Smartest Boy in the World. However, his story is cut short in the 1940s when he disappears trying to solve the disappearance of Molly Pitcher and Betsy Ross.
The Golden Age Legionnaire
There’s actually no information on the Golden Age Legionnaire. Their Who’s Who entry is completely redacted.
Ladybug
Rosibel Rivera is the young sidekick of the hero Red Bee — something that she became by accident after stumbling upon Red Bee’s hideout and ending up exposed to a device confiscated from Professor Pollen that ultimately gave Rosibel her powers. Red Bee was killed, and Rosibel disappeared.
Judy Garrick
Aka The Boom, Judy Garrick is the daughter of Jay Garrick and Joan Garrick and was the teen sidekick to the first Flash. She frequently travelled from her “present” day of 1963 to team up with her father. However, she stopped her visits after she was born on February 14, 1949, and mysteriously no one remembers her birth or existence.
John Henry Jr.
John Henry Irons is the brother of Butter Irons, the grandfather of John Henry Irons II aka Steel. He’s a version of the hero first introduced in Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier.
The Harlequin’s Son
Actor Michael Mayne is the son of Green Lantern Alan Scott’s nemesis Molly Mayne, the Harlequin, though his father remains unknown. A villain he reformed to be a hero, he was offered a place in the JSA but turned it down, though it’s said that he was recently spotted back in action during Dark Crisis helping save the world.
Cherry Bomb
Real name Gloria James, she discovered the identity of the hero Human Bomb and, after he refused to let her team up with him to find her father’s killer, she tried to re-create the experiment that gave Human Bomb his powers, giving herself powers in the process. She ended up taking on the identity of Cherry Bomb and served as his sidekick, but unfortunately, as her powers grew more unstable, had to spend all of her time in a containment suit. She vanished when Human Bomb was trying to cure her of her powers.
The Golden Age Aquaman
His real name is unknown, but it’s noted that he has used the alias of Adam Waterman. The son of two scientists who gave birth to him and raised him in a lab near Atlantis (which altered his physiology), he developed a close relationship with sea life and made headlines fighting Nazis in the early 1940s. He declined an invitation to join the JSA and largely withdrew from the other heroes. He disappeared from the public eye in the 1950s.
Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher
Betsy Ross is Elizabeth “Betsy” Rose while Molly Pitcher is Molly Mabel Preacher. The two were teen sidekicks to the Golden Age Hero Miss America and both vanished at the end of World War II along with the teen hero Quiz Kid, who disappeared investigating their disappearances.
The Golden Age Mr. Miracle
Revealed to be Thaddeus Brown, The Golden Age Mister Miracle is described as being the escape artist who both trained and served as a mentor to New God Scott Free when he arrived on Earth with Scott eventually taking on Thaddeus’ legacy. However, shortly after Thaddeus encountered Scott Free, he was murdered by the gangster Steel Hand, but some — including his son Ted Brown — claim Thaddeus’ death was faked.
