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X-SQUAD

Membership: At least 20 (names unrevealed)  

Purpose: Protect and follow the orders of Gideon Mace, including carrying out Project: Alpha (a.k.a. Operation: Cage)

Affiliations: Burgundy (loose), Gideon Mace

Enemies: Power Man (Luke Cage), police

Base of Operations: Chicago, USA

First Appearance: Power Man I#43 (May, 1977) (seen); Power Man I#45 (July, 1977) (named)

Characteristics/Skills/Weaponry: Gideon Mace's X-Squad soldiers have all been recruited from discharged ("zealous") soldiers and veterans of the U.S. Army, disillusioned with the U.S. Government's alleged less aggressive stance internationally. They all wear the same distinctive uniform and each carries a sidearm. They have been trained in Mace's advanced weaponry (such as guns with explosive bullets and anti-personnel bazookas with explosive proximity rockets) and their combat skills honed with instruction in all forms of martial arts. Each is prepared to kill. Of note is that they are all ethnically white.

 

History:

(Power Man I#44 (fb) - BTS) - The megalomaniac Gideon Mace recruited a small army of soldiers from discharged soldiers and veterans of the U.S. Army. They were newly uniformed and trained in Mace's new weaponry with their hand-to-hand combat skills sharpened in all forms of martial arts in Mace's Chicago skyscraper headquarters. They were each drilled in the layout of Mace's base with its hidden cavities from which to shoot in case of attack.

(Power Man I#43) - Mace's accomplice Burgundy brought his foe, the heroic adventurer Luke Cage, to Mace's penthouse, where Mace was protected by his X-Squad soldiers.

(Power Man I#44) - X-Squad soldiers bound Cage's wrists in titanium cable and pushed him along as Mace showed him his operations with X-Squad soldiers testing new weaponry and training in martial arts. Cage refused Mace's recruitment pitch and broke free, escaping by jumping through a window and used a clinging soldier to break his fall. Mace was later alerted that Cage was with Burgundy and took his X-Squad soldiers with him to recapture Cage. Knocked unconscious by Mace, Cage was carried away by X-Squad soldiers and strapped to a (secretly fake) cobalt bomb guarded by two X-Squad soldiers as part of Mace's strategy to hold Chicago ransom and seize control.

(Power Man I#45) - Mace and his private militia all returned to his base. Mace watched as a now renegade Burgundy tried to convince police of Mace's bomb plot. Law enforcement rallied to find the bomb and Cage, having escaped, raced to confront Mace at his skyscraper. X-Squad soldiers failed to stop him and a brawl saw Mace fall down an elevator shaft. Thinking him dead, Cage demanded the soldiers scatter with the threat that he would pound them if he saw them holding a weapon again.

 

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman, Lee Elias, Alex Nino.

I'm guessing at least some of these men wandered off to become henchmen to other criminals (or possibly even Hydra). The fluid loyalty of henchmen is mentioned in Howard Chaykin's outstanding one-shot Spider-Man: Marvel Snapshots.

Profile by Grendel Prime.

CLARIFICATIONS:
X-Squad has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Power Man I#45, p18, pan1 (main image)
Power Man I#45, p10, pan2 (single, headshot)
Power Man I#44, p1 (shooting anti-personnel bazooka)

Appearances:
Power Man I#43 (May, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer & editor), Lee Elias (pencils), Alex Nino (inks)
Power Man I#44 (June, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer & editor), Ed Hannigan (script), Lee Elias (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks)
Power Man I#45 (July, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer & editor), Lee Elias (pencils & inks)

Last updated: 10/04/2021
Last updated: 10/04/2021.

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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