MARVEL COMICS: Team America

Marvel Universe in the Media

Marvel once again team-up with Ideal to produce a comic book that would highlight a toy lineup. Thunderiders, originally known as Team America, is a fictional superhero/motorcycle team from Marvel Comics. They first appeared in Captain America #269 (May 1982) as Team America. They were renamed the Thunderiders in Thing #27.

WHAT WE KNOW:
Captain America writer J. M. DeMatteis described Team America as "another one we kind of got forced into doing." The month following their May 1982 preview appearance in Captain America, the team's monthly self-titled series launched. It was canceled with Team America #12 (May 1983).

ZZZ

The mothers of James McDonald, Wolf, Winthrop Roan Jr., Leonard Hebb and Luke Merriweather were exposed to mutagenic agents by the terrorist organization HYDRA as part of an experiment known as Project: New Genesis. HYDRA hoped to create mutant children which could later be trained as super-agents. The project was apparently unsuccessful for all test subjects other than these five.

ZZZ

The Team America comic books were based on a toy line by Ideal Toys. The Team America toy line was an attempt by Ideal to replace their successful Evel Knievel toy line after Knievel served six months for battery in the late 1970s, and it used many of the same molds and designs.