STAR-SPANGLED KID & STRIPE

Name: Star-Spangled Kid
Secret Identity: Sylvester Pemberton, Jr.
Status: Hero
Base of Operations: New York City
Group Affiliation: Law's Legionnaires AKA The Seven Soldiers of Victory
Occupation: College Student
Known Relatives: Sylvester Pemberton, Sr. (father), Gloria Pemberton (mother)
Height: 5' 8" Weight: 136 lbs.
Eyes: Blue Hair: Black

Powers and Abilities: Possessing no actual superpowers, Star-Spangled Kid uses his cosmic converter belt to give him enhanced strength and speed, as well as the ability to fly and project energy blasts. Without the belt, he is a superb athlete and hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained by Stripe himself.

Name: Stripe
Secret Identity: Patrick Dugan
Status: Hero
Base of Operations: New York City
Group Affiliation: Law's Legionnaires AKA The Seven Soldiers of Victory
Occupation: Head of Research and Development for Pemberton Industries
Known Relatives: None
Height: 6' 1" Weight: 210 lbs.
Eyes: Blue Hair: Red

Powers and Abilities: A self-taught engineer, Stripe is a genius with mechanics, having invented many of the devices used by himself and the Star-Spangled Kid. He is also an excellent boxer and wrestler, with plenty of brawn to back up his brains.

History: In 1940, Pemberton Industries was leading the way in mechanical and commercial development, with many government contracts to its credit. Pat Dugan felt it would be the perfect place for him and applied to work in their research division, figuring that his innovative design ideas would make them overlook his lack of formal education. Instead, they assigned him to the motor pool...and even worse, they saddled him with the job of chauffeuring the boss’s son around. The situation wasn’t exactly ideal for thirteen-year-old Sylvester, either, who was tired of his overprotective parents sheltering him from anything that might give him even a minor scrape -- he saw the burly Dugan as just a bodyguard in disguise. The two of them begrudgingly made the best of the arrangement, all the while looking for a way out of it. But all that changed one day, when Pat was driving his young charge to the movies -- a patriotic film was playing, and a pro-Nazi group had gathered outside, starting a riot. Without a word, Dugan and Pemberton leapt into the fray, taking down the Nazis and holding them at bay until the police arrived. After that incident, they each saw the other in a different light, and the friction between them disappeared. They also both felt that, just as the Nazis saw themselves as representing Germany, someone should step up to represent America -- a living symbol of the flag that people could look up to. So the two of them decided to do just that, creating costumed identities modeled after the American flag and setting out to fight their country's enemies as the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripe.

Originally working alone, the duo soon began crossing paths with other "mystery men" of the time. One such encounter led to a brief partnership with astronomer Ted Knight (see Starman) who helped Dugan create a device called the cosmic converter belt -- using similar technology to Starman's own cosmic rod -- to give his younger partner an edge over their opponents. Not long after that, near the end of 1941, the Kid and Stripe joined up with five other heroes to take down a secret organization called the Iron Hand. With the shadow of World War II looming over the United States, these seven heroes later decided they could serve their country best as a team instead of individually, and formally banded together as the Law's Legionnaires (see The Seven Soldiers of Victory), defending their home soil as many of the more powerful heroes went overseas to fight the Axis powers.

As the years passed and the war ended, Pat and Sylvester worked together less and less: the young man had moved on to college so as to better prepare for the day when he inherited Pemberton Industries, while his mentor had finally made some headway in the company himself, eventually becoming in charge of research and development. There were still times, however, when one would put out a call to the other, and they'd both suit up and take on whatever evils were thrown their way. Sadly, it all came to an abrupt end in 1948, when the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripe disappeared while on a mission with the Law's Legionnaires. The circumstances of their disappearance, as well as the fates of the rest of the Soldiers, remains a mystery to this day.