The Winter Guard is a fictional team of Russian superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Winter Guard are noted for being "Russia's answer to the Avengers". Several members of the group formerly belonged to the Soviet Super-Soldiers, the People's Protectorate and the Supreme Soviets. Unlike those teams, which were often adversarial towards other costumed superheroes, the Winter Guard is much more heroic and representative in nature. Unlike other superhero teams, the Winter Guard currently has a rotating pool of candidates to fill one of three roles on the team: Darkstar, Crimson Dynamo and Red Guardian.

Publication history

The Winter Guard first appeared during the Kurt Busiek run of Iron Man in (vol. 2) #9 (October 1998), where they had several guest appearances. They would later appear in Busiek's stint on the Avengers. The team made infrequent appearance in the Marvel Universe until Jeph Loeb brought them to attention in Hulk (vol. 2) #1. The Winter Guard soon appeared in She-Hulk and War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.. David Gallaher brought the team back in Hulk: Winter Guard which first appeared as a Marvel Digital Comic and was later reprinted as a comic book. Gallaher returned to writing the team with a 3-issue limited series called Darkstar and the Winter Guard in 2010.

Fictional team history

The Winter Guard were originally known as The Soviet Super Soldiers and appeared in various comics from the mid-1970s. That name lost meaning following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. The Winter Guard made their debut with that name in Iron Man (vol. 3) #9, and fought alongside the Avengers during both the "Maximum Security" crossover, and the "Kang War". Whilst investigating the murder of the Abomination (who was killed by Red Hulk), Doc Samson, She-Hulk and Thunderbolt Ross encounter the revitalized Winter Guard, consisting of Ursa Major, Red Guardian, Darkstar and the Crimson Dynamo. When She-Hulk points out that Darkstar and Red Guardian were dead, Iron Man tells her that they were replaced with new people. It is unknown if the other members of the team are new as well. After teaming up with War Machine to fight the Skrulls, the team was later seen clashing with She-Hulk and the Lady Liberators – and again with The Presence and Igor Drenkov. This version of the team uses an old alien ship, from the Dire Wraith race, as a headquarters. They were mentioned by Storm as possible back-up while Rachel Summers was investigating in Madripoor. The Winter Guard was apparently destroyed by The Intelligencia, who tested their ultimate weapon The Zero Cannon on the unsuspecting heroes. However they were later seen to have survived. During the "Monsters Unleashed" storyline, the Winter Guard were seen fighting monsters that were attacking Moscow. The Winter Guard is later reassembled with Ursa Major, Crimson Dynamo, Red Guardian, Darkstar, Vostok, Perun, Chernobog and Red Widow.

Members

Their current membership is:

Previous members

Collected editions

Other versions

In other media

Television

Video games

The Winter Guard appear as playable characters in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.