Appearing in this issue:
Our Heroes, Full Members of the Team:
PLAYBOY, Jack Diamond, charismatic head of Diamond Industries, instant expert and unofficial team leader. (Blake Hindman)
Rebel, super strong, flying spokesman for Black Label cigarettes. (Daniel Shiu)
Probationary Members:
54-40, powered armor hero seeking to clear his father's name. (NPC this issue)
Introducing:
Jet-Man, high flying, high tech super-hero armed with his electric gun and EMP missiles. (Played by Paul Patino.)

Against the Invisible Empire
Cover: A man in a white hood holding a smoking flame thrower, behind him a burning cross draped with a burning American flag. Splashed across is the words "Against the Invisible Empire". In a yellow circle in the bottom right hand corner is a head and shoulders shot of a man in powered armor surrounded by the words, "Introducing Jet-Man!"

Opening page: August in NYC. Young Billy (secret identity of Kid Comic) is on a cross-country trek in a station wagon with his family to see the Grand Canyon. Rebel has just returned from Hollywood and the filming of Rebel: the Untold Story.⁽¹⁾ Torch is away on "personal business". Jack has been contacted (separately) by both President Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, expressing concern about Dr. King's proposed March on Washington (in which probationary Hero Inc member X will be participating in along with the Lion of Judah and the Harlem Renaissance-man).

Jack and Rebel in from of the window overlooking New York, Rebel holds the latest issue of Variety (headline: "Rebel does Boffo Box Office"). Rebel turns to Jack, "Jack, what does 'boffo' mean?"

Jack replies, after a slight pause, "Very good."

Meanwhile, a man in a hat and trench coat arrives and asks Janice (the receptionist) if he can see Jack. Janice buzzes Jack and Jack thinks, "I have to get a way to look at people before they get to my office." Jack goes into his office and tells Janice to send the mystery man in.

The comes into Jack's office and sits down. "Jack, I need you help," he says. The man takes off his hat revealing a huge bruise on the left side of his face. "You don't recognize me, last time we meet I was in armor. I'm 54-40."

Jack hits the intercom, "Rebel, join me in my office. A problem has arisen." Rebel saunters into the office, leaving behind the issue of Variety. Rebel steps in and stands, arms crossed, behind 54-40.

"Jack," continued 54-40, "as you know I have been acting as a vigilante since we worked together to bring in Professor Stahl.⁽²⁾ Trying to rebuilt my father's name as a hero. Recently I had been working with a pair of men who I thought shared my goals, a ex-commando and a wrestler. But it turns out they were just using me, they wanted to get hold of my armor. They are members of the KKK. I should have recognized the signs." He learned forward, "Jack, they want to destroy the March!"

"What!?!" said Rebel, "They have a time device to destroy the month of March, 1964?"

Jack looks at Rebel and says, "I hear that your movie is doing boffo at the box office."

"?" appeared over 54-40's head.

"No," said 54-40, "Doctor King's March on Washington."

"?" appeared over Rebel's head.

"Haven't you been reading the papers?" asked 54-40.

"No," replied Rebel, striking a pose and lighting a cigarette, "I've been too busy promoting my movie, Rebel: the Untold Story."

"Well, that's all well and good," said 54-40, "but we have less than a week to find and stop them from destroying the March."

"54-40 and I could go to where the armor was stolen and I can see if I can track them from there," said Rebel.

"Good idea. I'll see what I can find out about these people from here," said Jack opening one of the desk drawers and handing Rebel a wrist radio. "Use this if you need to get in touch with me."

Meanwhile, Jat-Man prepares for patrol, suiting up piece by piece. Once done ("All systems green"), he takes to the air with a roar of jets.

Rebel and 54-40 head off to the Lower East Side. Where they enter into 54-40 apartment just in time to be ambushed by a squad of five white supremacists armed with M3A1 'grease gun' SMGs. Their leader says, "54-40, we had such high hopes for you and then we find you consorting with this race traitor." He then fires a burst from his SMG that misses Rebel but shoots out one of the apartment's windows. Entirely by coincidence, at that very moment, Jet-Man's patrol path took him by that very window. (Don't you love the comics?)

Between the three heroes, the five thugs went down very quickly. Jet-Man used his EMP missile to take down the last three which also fried Rebel's wrist radio. The captured thugs were taken back to the Heroes Inc HQ. Where they were questioned with Jack playing the 'good cop' and Rebel the 'bad cop'. One of the lesser thugs broke and revealed the plans for a big meeting that night, Rebel got the password from the chief thug (by dangling him off the edge of the Empire State Building) of "Booth was right". They turn the thugs over to the NYPD and make a plan to investigate the meeting. Rebel and 54-40 (with new wrist radios) will go into the meeting and Jack and Jet-Man would wait outside until needed.

Rebel and 54-40 easily slip into the meeting, held in an old warehouse. Where they see the ring leaders of the group: White Hood, ex-paratrooper and leader of the mission group, armed with a flame thrower and pistol. Might, big wrestler. Lynch, specialist in rope use. And the mock 54-40 armed with an M-14 rifle.

Rebel staged a diversion by accusing one of white supremacists of being an FBI agent and "discovering" the wrist-radio on him. While the thugs were distracted, Jack and Jet-Man moved onto the roof and Jet-Man opened the attack by electro-blasting Lynch. The fight was surprisingly short and one-sided. The villains rolled OK, but the heroes rolled exceptionally well.

Scenes of note: Two of the thugs actually hitting Jet-Man with their SMGs (once even causing damage). Jack surviving a successful charge from Might and then putting him down with one punch (54 Stun on ten dice!), got a two page splash in the comic. The final scene of the fight was the real 54-40 taking down the mock 54-40 with a single shot from his .45 automatic.

The heroes wrapped up the villains and their thugs turning them over to the NYPD (after 54-40 reclaimed his armor). 54-40 told Jack, "If you every need me, I'll be there. I owe you one."

Jack's final comment on the villains, "If there is one thing I hate more that European Nazis, it is American Nazis."

Later Jack thought to himself and then expressed to Billy, "I had been slightly wary of Doctor King's message. Wondering if the noble cause he was espousing was perhaps fraying the fabric of American society. But I now begin to see that if men like these members of the Invisible Empire oppose him, then what he is doing must somehow be right."

Final page: Doctor King giving his "I have a Dream" in Washington, the text scrolling down the left side of the page. Behind Doctor King is X, Lion of Judah and the Harlem Renaissance-man. Further back, in the shadow of the statue of Lincoln, are the proud and thoughtful faces of Jack Diamond, Kid Comic, Jet-Man, Rebel, Torch of Liberty and 54-40 (OK, well you can't see 54-40's face but you know . . .).

Forward to Issue Six

Back to Champions Campaigns

1. See "Rebel Special - Rebel: the Untold Story".

2. See "New Minutemen" Issue 1.