They were supposed to be dead. Heavy gunfire, scathing explosions and screams everywhere. It was 1975 and America had become entrenched in the Vietnam War. Four servicemen, Edison, Haberley, Cohen and Caldecott were among a small platoon decimated along a jungle pass, but instead of being killed, they found themselves lifted into the air by beautiful warrior maidens astride winged horses. It was like something out of a movie, or a fantastic acid trip.

The Valkyrior, or Valkyries, had been ordered to take the four men to Valhalla. Someone had made a mistake. The Asgardians thought that the four men were somehow descendants of Balder the Brave. Loki was implicated in the deception, but whatever the cause, Edison and his men realised they were in danger when they awoke in another world and heard the stories that they were legendary warriors.

Edison knew that when the truth came out they would be killed or sent back to the death which awaited them in the Vietnam jungles. He assessed the situation, judged that their hosts saw they as worthy and honourable, and completely harmless. He used that assumption and ordered his men to steal weapons and mounts and to escape while they were still able. The four military men succeeded in taking possession of mystical weapons left unguarded by their hosts. And they forcibly took winged steeds from the maidens.

Somehow they made it back to Vietnam, where they quickly realised they possessed power undreamt of. Cohen discovered the devastating power of his hammer, laying waste to the jungle and the hidden soldiers. They had become gods amongst men. The military didn't like the fact that Cohen and his men refused to follow orders, and for the next few months the four men lived by their own rules. They had become the Riders of the Storm: Victory, Stormbringer, Epos and Battleaxe.

By the end of 1975 they had realised that their destinies lay beyond what the United States Government wanted. They saw that the young men kept dying and the government kept sending more to replace them. They saw that the soldiers who did return were spurned by the public. It was not honourable.

And so the Riders returned to the United States and began to try and change the world.

They targeted government installations, destroying military production. They targeted the government and its politicians. They became the biggest threat to the United States, a threat which led to the establishment of Sanction.

Over the decades, the Riders have continued being free spirits and have fought for and against the laws of the land. They continue to possess immense power, but their wills are weakening. They are getting old.

And the Asgardians continue to watch and wait.

Retribution will come.

Victor Edison is the only member of the Riders who has made a life for himself outside of the team. He runs a successful arms dealing trade from the United States, as well as running a legitimate business alongside it. As Victory, he is a hardened, world-weary leader. He is gaunt and has become more so with age. He is a patriot but unashamedly against most of what the government has done. He believes the strong should survive and the weak perish. He is remorseless and expects the same level of determination and hardness in his men.

"We have bested Gods, and yet you still think you can beat us?"

Each of the Riders stole a mystical weapon of immense power. The wielder of the weapon is endowed with godlike strength and durability, but as a result of a Valkyrie curse the protection does not work against magic. The curse has also extended to making the four warriors especially vulnerable to all effects of magic, something which the men are well aware of from close encounters overt the years. If an opponent presents himself as being linked to magic, the Riders will relentlessly attack and destroy that individual. Victory stole a large, two handed sword as well as a silver gauntlet, which is able to project ice and cold. Victory assumes the gauntlet belongs to the Ice Giants of Asgard, but has never confirmed his suspicions.

Victory is a gaunt man with a cold stare and deliberate intonation in his speech. A man of few words, he rarely speaks above a whisper, and yet everyone hears him. As a businessman, he favours steel grey suits and sunglasses which he maintains are prescription. His hair is silver and falls to his shoulders. He keeps it in a ponytail in his civilian guise and hidden under a Stars and Stripes bandana as Victory.