Squadron Supreme
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The Squadron Supreme is a team of comic book superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe, a thinly disguised version of DC Comics' Justice League of America. After appearances in the 1970s, the Squadron Supreme appeared in its own 12-issue limited series, written by Mark Gruenwald.
The Squadron Supreme exist only in the Earth-712 continuity; they do not exist in the "mainstream" Marvel continuity Earth-616. However, evil counterparts of the Squadron Supreme, known as the Squadron Sinister, do exist in Earth-616.
From 2003 to 2005, Marvel published the 18-issue Supreme Power series, which presented an out-of-continuity re-imagining of the Squadron Supreme, spending several issues on their origins with a more "realistic" bent. The series is written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Gary Frank. In March of 2006, Supreme Power moved to the normal Marvel imprint under the name of its predecessor, Squadron Supreme, with a new first issue.
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[edit] Early history
While writing the Marvel comic book The Avengers, writer Roy Thomas—a longtime fan of DC Comics' Justice Society of America—paid homage to those characters by having The Avengers face a group of villains loosely based on the JSA's successors, the Justice League of America. Thus, in The Avengers #70 (November 1969) the Avengers faced the Squadron Sinister, four villains based on Superman, Batman, The Flash and Green Lantern.
Two years later, reportedly through an unofficial collaboration between the writers of the two comics, both The Avengers and Justice League of America featured stories in which their heroes encountered heroic versions of the other company's characters. So, in Justice League of America #87 (February 1971), those heroes encountered the Champions of Angor, comprising characters based on Thor, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Yellowjacket. Meanwhile, The Avengers #85-86 (March-April 1971), featured the first appearance of the Squadron Supreme, a group of heroes in a parallel universe. This Squadron included heroic versions of the four members from the Squadron Sinister, plus several other characters. The Squadron Sinister turned out to be a copycat of the Squadron Supreme, created in the "real" world by the Grandmaster with the express purpose of battling the Avengers.
There were very close analogues to many of the primary DC superheroes, but since they were given different names and costumes (yet astonishingly similar backstories) Marvel Comics could maintain plausible deniability. This was one of the industry's biggest in-jokes. However, the writers of the storylines containing the Squadron Supreme did not take the characters as a joke, and they treated these characters with great respect; they effectively allowed Marvel writers to write JLA stories.
The Squadron appeared very few times in Marvel titles during the 1970s, most notably in The Avengers #141-144 & 147-149 (November 1975-July 1976; #145-146 were fill-in issues) in which the Squadron and their United States were being dominated by the Serpent Crown.
Members of the Squadron Sinister also occasionally appeared in the main Marvel Universe, but rarely as a group. During 1970s appears in Thor (vol.1) #280 (February 1979), Avengers Annual #8 (1978) and Marvel Two-In-One #67 (September 1980).
[edit] The Utopia Project
[edit] Synopsis
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The Squadron's next major appearance was in The Defenders #112-115 (October 1982-January 1983), in which the Squadron and the nations of Earth-712 were under the mental domination of the Overmind, a telepathic alien. The Defenders travelled to their world and helped free them. However, the defeat of the Overmind left the planet in a post-apocalyptic state.
Author Mark Gruenwald built on this situation in a lengthy storyline comprising Squadron Supreme #1-12 (September 1985-August 1986) and Captain America (Vol. 1) #314 (February 1986), illustrated by Bob Hall, John Buscema, Paul Neary and Paul Ryan.
In this series, the Squadron decides that they have the knowledge, wisdom and power to make the world a better place, and decide to implement a project to turn their world into a Utopia. Nighthawk resigns in protest, believing that the Squadron should serve and not rule.
Inspired by Power Princess's homeland of Utopia Isle, a perfect society of women based upon Wonder Woman's Paradise Island, the Squadron begins its own Utopia Project, an attempt to restore stability to the United States through use of their superhuman powers.
Over the course of the next year, the Squadron reveals their secret identities, institutes a program of behavior modifications in the US prisons (ie, mind control), enforces a strict gun control policy, and work on creating medical technology to bring the dead back to life.
Despite significant results in restoring stability to the United States, the Squadron Supreme meets constant resistance and tragedy. Golden Archer is thrown off the team for using the Squadron's 'B-Mod' machinery to force Lady Lark to love him. The Amphibian quits in disgust over the practice of behavior modification and vows never to return to land. Nuke goes on a rampage after his parents die from cancer that his own radiation powers have induced, and dies battling Doctor Spectrum.
Power Princess's husband is murdered by a Hyperion imposter. Hyperion is blinded. Tom Thumb dies of cancer. Nighthawk goes to Earth-616 to ask the Avengers for help in stopping the Utopia Project, but the Avengers say no. US citizens rebel and riot against the violation of their rights imposed upon them by the Utopia Program and in the climactic confrontation between the Squadron Supreme and America's Redeemers, both sides suffer a number of casualties.
[edit] Aftermath
The series has since been collected as a trade paperback. This series was well-promoted and fairly popular, and the fact that Marvel Comics was publishing a series which was at best a thinly-veiled shadow of the Justice League was occasionally commented on, although no legal action occurred.
The series has been considered a precursor to Watchmen and Kingdom Come in its portrayal of superheroes and the implications of their power. The primary plot element of the series, superheroes going perhaps too far to solve the world's problems, has been used often in the years after the series was completed in such books as The Authority and Superman: Red Son as well as in the TV series, Justice League with the Justice Lords.
It is widely held to have been Gruenwald's magnum opus: after his sudden death in 1997, he was cremated, and his ashes were blended with the ink used to print the first collected edition of the series (subsequent printings of the collected edition have been ash-free).
Following this series, Gruenwald wrote the graphic novel, Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe, a Crisis-analog in which the Squadron, reeling from the climax of their Utopia Program, must contend with a huge creature which seems bent on destroying the universe.
[edit] Exile and return
In the 1990s, the Squadron Supreme became trapped in the main Marvel Universe immediately following the events of their graphic novel. They had a number of adventures there, most of which involved Gruenwald's cosmic adventurer Quasar (appearance at least on issues #13-17, #28-29, #50-56 (vol.1)). While living in the Project Pegasus base under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Kappelhoff, the Squadron eventually encountered the Avengers once more, in The Avengers (Vol. 3) #5-6 (1998) and Avengers Annual 1998, in which the Squadron fell under the mental influence of Kappelhoff.
The Squadron Supreme were led to believe that the Avengers were mere duplicates of those killed by Onslaught and engaged them in two massive battles. Kappelhoff was then revealed to be the Corruptor, who was in turn on the payroll of Imus Champion. When the Corruptor's duplicity was revealed, the two teams became allied and fought to a close victory against Champion. At the end of the battle, the Avengers were able to find a machine in Champion's private collection that would allow the Squadron to return to their home world.
This was followed by the one-shot Squadron Supreme: New World Order (1998), in which the remaining original Squadron members discovered that their world had become dominated by large, domineering corporations (using the Squadron's own Utopia technologies) and reunited to return things to normal. However, the Squadron was not seen again until Exiles #77-78, as part of the "Worlds Tour" storyline. The timeline-traveling Exiles followed Proteus to the Squadron's world, only to be placed on trial by the Squadron. Heather Hudson, the new Timebroker, showed each team the other's history, then revealed that the new government had rigged the election with worldwide vote fraud.
The Squadron Supreme and the Exiles stormed the Directorate and transmitted the truth all over the world on how they rigged the election. Afterwards, Power Princess managed to convince Hyperion to allow her to join the Exiles in pursuit of Proteus. The Exiles were reluctant to let any of them come with them, but Power Princess convinced them to let her go with them to the next stop on the Worlds Tour: the Dystopia of Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect, where the Hulk is a supervillain known as the Maestro.
In Exiles (starting from #38 to #45) appears also a psychopathic version of Hyperion as member of time traveller group Weapon X.
[edit] New Squadron Sinister
A seemingly new Hyperion appeared in the pages of New Thunderbolts (first published appearance on the final page of #15, first issue-length appearance in #16), amidst an apparent regrouping/reunion of the Squadron Sinister. This new Hyperion and a new, female incarnation of Squadron member Doctor Spectrum broke into the Thunderbolts' warehouse headquarters intending to either recruit or kidnap the two remaining original Squadron Sinister members, Speed Demon (originally known as the Whizzer, and at the time a member of the Thunderbolts) and Nighthawk (who was a member of the original Squadron Sinister and later member of the Defenders). In the end, Speed Demon quit the Thunderbolts to join Dr. Spectrum while Nighthawk was offered membership on the Thunderbolts by Songbird. However, Nighthawk later leaves after learning the Thunderbolts had used him for his money and ends up joining the new Squadron Sinister as well.
[edit] The Squadron universe and its counterparts
The Squadron's world was initially only referred to as Earth-S, in reference to the naming conventions of the pre-Crisis DC multiverse. The Marvel Encyclopedia Vol. 6: Fantastic Four named Earth-S as Earth-712, following the numbering convention established when the main Marvel Universe was named as Earth-616. This numbering was confirmed in the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Alternate Worlds 2005, which also named the Earth of Supreme Power as Earth-31916.
In the Earth X sequel miniseries Paradise X: Heralds, another counterpart of Hyperion was recruited to X-51's cross-timeline team of Heralds. This Hyperion had survived a government-initiated nuclear holocaust following the Utopia Program. The aforementioned Official Handbook designated his timeline as Earth-1121.
[edit] Team roster
[edit] Early Squadron members
| Squadron members | JLA counterparts |
|---|---|
| Hyperion | Superman |
| Nighthawk | Batman |
| Power Princess | Wonder Woman |
| Whizzer | Flash |
| Doctor Spectrum | Green Lantern |
| Amphibian | Aquaman |
| Skymax, the Skrullian Skymaster | Martian Manhunter |
| Golden Archer (originally named Hawkeye, later named Black Archer) |
Green Arrow |
| Lady Lark (later named Skylark) |
Black Canary (Skylark also analogous to Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl) |
| Tom Thumb | Atom (loose adaptation) |
| Blue Eagle (originally named American Eagle; also called Cap'n Hawk) |
Hawkman |
| Arcanna / Moonglow | Zatanna |
| Nuke | Firestorm |
[edit] Institute of Evil members in the Squadron
The Institute of Evil was an assemblage of the Squadron's arch-foes, analogous to the Secret Society of Super-Villains. There is some speculation as to whether or not Mark Gruenwald had a particular DC character in mind when he created each of them. Lamprey does seem to be the most obvious reference. The rest are obscure at best.
- Ape-X (somewhat reminiscent of Gorilla Grodd)
- Lamprey (Hyperion's foe, loosely based on Parasite)
- Shape (sometimes associated with Plastic Man)
- Doctor Decibel (Lady Lark's foe)
- Quagmire (Dr. Spectrum's foe)
- Foxfire
[edit] Nighthawk's America Redeemers
Nighthawk then formed a group called the America Redeemers from unknown superhumans and former supervillains. Analogous to the Batman and the Outsiders. Most if not all had no DCU counterparts.
[edit] Other Squadron universe characters
A handful of other heroes and villains were seen in the Squadron series and elsewhere, most of whom were also directly analogous to specific DC characters.
- Bollix and the Rustler (Whizzer's foes, the latter based on Terra-Man)
- Brain-Child (Avengers #85-86) (possibly based on Brainwave)
- Cerebrax (based on Brainiac; Master Menace's android servant)
- Master Menace (based on Lex Luthor - whereas Luthor is bald, Menace's hair will not stop growing)
- Professor Imam (based on Doctor Fate; the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-S)
New World Order also mentioned a number of other unseen characters with DC Universe analogues, such as the Erl King (a Swamp Thing analogue).
[edit] Bibliography
They have appeared in the following:
- The Avengers #85-86 (March-April 1971, reprinted in Supreme Power Vol. 1, 2005 ISBN 0-7851-1369-X)
- The Avengers #141-144 & 147-149 (November 1975-July 1976; #145-146 were fill-in issues)
- The Defenders #112-115 (October 1982-January 1983)
- Squadron Supreme (tpb, 352 pages, 2005 ISBN 0-7851-0576-X) collects:
- Squadron Supreme #1-12 (limited series, September 1985-August 1986)
- Captain America (Vol. 1) #314 (February 1986)
- Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe (tpb, 240 pages, 2006 ISBN 0-7851-2091-2) collects:
- Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe (graphic novel, hardcover, 1989 ISBN 0-87135-598-1)
- Thor #280 (1989)
- Avengers #5-6 (June 1998)
- Avengers/Squadron Supreme Annual '98
- Squadron Supreme: New World Order (September 1998)
- Exiles #77-78, 81
