Supreme Power
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Supreme Power is a comic book limited series published under Marvel Comics' MAX imprint from 2003 to 2005. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and pencilled by Gary Frank, it is eighteen issues in length. It features the rebooted version of the superhero team Squadron Supreme (with the individual members loosely based on the characters from DC Comics' Justice League), set in the Supremeverse (also referred to as Earth-31916 in the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: Alternate Worlds 2005). In March 2006, Supreme Power was relaunched as Squadron Supreme under the traditional Marvel imprint.
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[edit] Characters
These are equivalent to the main characters from the Squadron Supreme limited series.
[edit] Superhumans
The first issue of Supreme Power dealt with the character:
The later issues introduced:
- Nighthawk (based on the Golden Age Batman, showing little remorse over killing or maiming criminals).
- The Blur (based on the Flash).
- Doctor Spectrum (based on Green Lantern).
- Zarda (based on Wonder Woman).
- Amphibian (based on Aquaman).
- Redstone (based on the Golden Age Superman, lacking only the ability to fly. His villainous actions and hatred for Hyperion also invites comparison to Bizarro and/or Ultraman).
- Tom Thumb (based on the Atom, but Straczynski's version has yet to demonstrate the ability to alter his size).
Other characters have since made their debut, most of them in the Supreme Power: Hyperion limited series:
- Arcanna (based on Zatanna, but Straczynski's version has more in common with Scarlet Witch).
- Emil Burbank (based on Lex Luthor).
- Nuke (based on Firestorm and Captain Atom).
- Shape (Straczynski's version is most akin to the Blob).
- Inertia (No DC Comics or Marvel Comics counterpart).
Supreme Power: Nighthawk limited series:
In Squadron Supreme Vol. 2:
- The Voice (very loosely based on Brainwave).
- Five unnamed African super-humans (No DC Comics or Marvel Comics counterpart).
[edit] Non-powered
- Doctor Bill Steadman, leading scientist and member of Project Hyperion. A friend of Doctor Spectrum who led the investigation into the crash-landing rocket, Power Prism and the retro virus that caused several people, including Amphibian, the Blur, Arcanna, Emil Burbank, Nuke, Shape and Inertia, to develop superpowers.
- General Casey, Head of Project Hyperion and friends with Mr. & Mrs. Milton. He was in the Vietnam War, dies after attempts to destroy Hyperion by using 20 "daisy-cutter" bombs.
- General Richard Alexander, current commanding officer of the Squadron Supreme. He took control after General Casey's death. He has a daughter and granddaughter.
- Jason Scott, Washington Herald reporter. Currently functions as a pawn to publish information to further the US government's or Hyperion's agenda.
- Mason Milton and Elizabeth Milton, two secret government trained foster parents who raised baby Hyperion and posed as a perfect happly married couple. The government faked the death of his foster parents to increase Mark's dependence on the government. The real names of Mason and Elizabeth Milton had not been given in the book.
- Abigail Stewart, Blur's single mother, who raised him after his father died. The two lived on a farm for several years.
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Supreme Power
[edit] Part I: Contact (#1–6)
The story begins with the origin of Hyperion, which parallels Superman's somewhat, with a baby in a rocket crash-landing on Earth and being saved by a couple, until the Government intervenes, abducting the alien baby and raising him with the objective of turning him into a super-soldier, under a project headed by General Casey and Dr. Bill Steadman. Hyperion grows up in a controlled environment, but doesn't enjoy the confinement.
Other characters are soon introduced, starting with the Blur, a youthful farm boy living with his single mother, whose speed powers are unexplained; Amphibian, a freakish baby girl left to die in the ocean, but who manages to survive under the oceans after her mother committed suicide when she was born and her father went insane; Nighthawk, a child who saw his parents murdered as victims of a hate crime; Princess Zarda, apparently a Greek goddess who sleeps in a mausoleum; and Dr. Spectrum, an army colonel specialized in black ops, who is called in to test a crystal-shaped weapon taken from Hyperion's ship, absorbing it into his skin and lapsing into a coma.
After Hyperion's first field missions as the Government's secret weapon, Washington Herald reporter Jason Scott learns of his existence, and the government outs him as a state-sponsored superhero to prevent a media exposé. This prompts the Blur, originally an urban myth called the "Atlanta Blur", out of hiding as a corporate icon, while Nighthawk begins acting as a vigilante who solely preys on those criminals whose victims are African-American. After Hyperion's foster parents' deaths are faked to increase Mark's dependence on the Government, he meets Nighthawk and the Blur. Dr. Spectrum wakes up from his years-long coma.
[edit] Part II: Powers and Principalities (#7–12)
The NSA removes custody of Project Hyperion from the military, unhappy with his public status. Hyperion starts acting more independently, discovering that he's being used as a decoy for American black ops around the world, and fights Dr. Spectrum on foreign soil. The two fight a long battle, doing considerable damage to the surrounding landscape and inadvertently killing the local wildlife, and Hyperion touches the crystal by accident and is given memories of his journey to Earth. After Spectrum is defeated, Hyperion tries to learn his origins from his superior, General Clancy, who attempts to destroy him with a new weapon specifically designed to kill him. Amphibian is first spotted by humans, whom she kills in self-defense. Later she finds and helps Dr. Spectrum at the bottom of the sea, where he is healing after his fight with Hyperion.
Princess Zarda wakes up and finds the injured Hyperion, healing him in the light of the sun. She alludes to having similar origins and powers to Hyperion's, explaining she was waiting for him for two-thousand years, and they have a mission to colonize and conquer the planet, but her memories seem mixed up. After separating, Zarda goes on a rampage, disregarding human life and private property. Nighthawk finds a super-human serial killer who preys on black prostitutes and goads the Blur and Hyperion to help him stop the murderer.
Spectrum and Dr. Bill Steadman discover the scientist currently in charge of Hyperion's project has created a retro virus based on Hyperion's DNA, which has been grafted to military convicts who volunteered as human guinea pigs. One of those test subjects tore out an entire prison wall with his bare hands, as was the super-powered serial killer, who escaped captivity with other test subjects and is at large and out of control.
[edit] Part III: High Command (#13-18)
Hyperion, Nighthawk, and the Blur have formed an uneasy partnership in order to capture the super-human serial killer. After finding him a fight is started that slaughters thirty five humans and destroys or badly damages private property. Doctor Spectrum shows up and takes Michael Redstone, the super-human serial killer, into custody, to a prison originally made for Hyperion.
General Richard Alexander is appointed head of the government's super-human program and attempts to bring Hyperion back under government control and track down the other super-humans the Government made. Hyperion, Nighthawk and the Blur break up over a political disagreement. After learning of his extraterrestrial origin and the Government's propaganda, Hyperion declares himself outside the system.
Doctor Spectrum is ordered to look for and capture Amphibian for the government, after a picture showing her killing the first humans who spotted her is revealed to the media. Spectrum learned she killed them in self-defense, and after capturing her and giving her the name "Kingsley Rice", he starts a romantic relationship with her. Later, he meets Princess Zarda who attempts to remove the power prism and retrieve her memories. But before that can happen, she is attacked by Amphibian in retaliation for harming Spectrum. Later, Zarda kills a woman and steals her identification.
General Alexander makes a final attempt to sway Hyperion back into the government's fold. When he refuses, he leaks information to journalist Jason Scott that Hyperion is an extraterrestrial. Alexander then drafts all existing super-humans into the army's super-human program. Hyperion vows to stop it and warns the Blur about it.
[edit] Spin-offs
Doctor Spectrum: Full Spectrum is a six-part limited series written by Samm Barnes, exploring the character's origins and his relationship to the crystal weapon that is the source of his power, as he lapsed into a coma and it was absorbed into his skin. This series was launched while Supreme Power went on hiatus after issue #12.
Two more spin-off limited series were also published, namely the five-issue Supreme Power: Hyperion and the six-issue Supreme Power: Nighthawk. The first deals with the U.S. government's attempts to capture and contain Hyperion with the use of a newly assembled superpowered team, while in the second Nighthawk is pursuing an escaped serial killer. Supreme Power: Nighthawk takes places before Hyperion's first meeting with Nighthawk while Supreme Power: Hyperion takes place after issue #18 of Supreme Power.
Saga of the Squadron Supreme is a one-shot written by Michael O'Connor who retells the events of Supreme Power in one issue.
Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk is a four-issue written by Marc Guggenheim and Pencilled by Paul Gulacy that will start publication in January 2007. Hyperion and Nighthawk go head to head in Darfur, Africa.
[edit] Squadron Supreme (vol.2)
[edit] The Pre-War Years (#1-6)
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The US military creates two teams of super-powered agents, one for international/public missions and one for covert operations. Mark informs Jason Scott of the project and gives him a list of the super-humans working for the government. The US President gives a press conference and announces that Hyperion, Blur, Doctor Spectrum, Zarda, Amphibian, Tom Thumb, Arcanna, Emil Burbank, Nuke, Shape and Inertia will be operating as the Squadron Supreme.
After the Squadron is formed, the government asks the team members to sign identification and non-disclosure forms. Three days later, it is learned that the nano-virus that was released from Hyperion's ship has spread worldwide. An African general named John M'Butu, a fast-rising tribal leader gifted with a powerful psychic suggestion ability and calling himself the Voice, is leading a genocidal campaign in the Salawe region of Uganda. The US government identifies him as a super-human after he survives an assassination attempt. The team is sent to the region "to take him out".
Early in the fight, Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum and Amphibian are affected by M'Butu's power to control anyone who hears his voice. M'Butu commands the trio to hunt down their comrades. Zarda immediately notices that there is another voice in Hyperion's head and not the One True Voice.
Zarda manages to free Doctor Spectrum by calling to the voice within the Power Prism, which takes control of Spectrum, and frees Hyperion. Amphibian attacks Burbank, who attempts to defeat her with a powder of his own design, but she is saved by Doctor Spectrum just in time. Burbank reveals that he has developed counter measures to defend himself from everyone on his team, except for Hyperion and Doctor Spectrum.
Blur then meets five unnamed African super-humans, who claim that three of them have killed M'Butu. The other two inform the rest of the Squadron that America armed M'Butu with weapons to rule Uganda in the first place, since the United States couldn't afford to see a peaceful united Africa with a growing economy. The five super-humans tell the Squadron to leave, stating that "Africa is now off-limits".
After the end of the mission, the Squadron are then ordered to take down insurgents in Ilam Province in Iran. During this mission, codenamed "Long Walk", Stanley Stewart wonders if the team is doing the right thing. Inertia then stumbles across a little girl whose mother and older sisters were raped by four of the insurgents. Emil asks the girl to identify the men. After identifying them, Inertia tracks them down, buries them up to their necks in the sand and hands the little girl an improvised club-the girl then kills them.
In China, Redstone agrees to work for the Chinese government for authority, money and the chance to fight Hyperion, Nighthawk and the Blur again.
After the end of "Long Walk", the team is given rest and recreation time. Stanley Stewart goes home to see how his mother is doing and invites Kyle Richmond to join the Squadron, but Richmond declines the offer. Emil Burbank is at the conference to act as a bodyguard. Doctor Spectrum is briefing the joint chiefs and their staff on the details of "Long Walk". Mark Milton and Claire Debussy give a press conference of the "Long Walk" mission. At the interview, Mark Milton meets Redstone and a fight starts.
[edit] Turnabout (#7-12)
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In the latest issue of Squadron Supreme, Redstone and Hyperion fight resulting in the deaths of many innocent bystanders. Hyperion attempts to suffocate Redstone by flying him into orbit, but Redstone has prepared a nuclear weapon stolen from a submarine that had sunk in the Norwegian Sea. The bomb will explode if it does not receive a signal from him every 5 minutes. Redstone insists Hyperion let himself be beaten to death or the device will be triggered. Hyperion is blinded by Redstone's flash vision and Redstone's rampage takes the lives of many citizens. Zarda arrives to save Hyperion but he insists she dispose of the bomb (which she does, possibly at the cost of her own life). Finally Blur forcibly recruits Nighthawk to aid in the battle and the three heroes confront Redstone. The story is to be continued.
[edit] Ultimate Power
Ultimate Power is a nine-issue comic book limited series that takes place in the Ultimate Marvel Universe (known as Earth-1610), tying that universe into the (second) Supreme Power universe (known as Earth-31916). 1
[edit] Differences between Supreme Power and Squadron Supreme
While the Squadron Supreme had started off as Justice League knock-offs and had moved in different directions thanks to the work of the late Marvel editor and writer Mark Gruenwald, JMS brought Supreme Power back to its JLA roots, in order to put a different spin on the team's individual members.
The original Squadron debuted as a fully-formed regular superhero team. When their origin was revealed, they all had previous experience as solo superheroes. This hasn't happened in Supreme Power, which didn't focus on much superhero material, and where the characters didn't act as a regular supergroup would.
In the third arc, however, Hyperion, Nighthawk and the Blur formed an uneasy partnership. After a fight, the three broke up. In the Supreme Power: Hyperion limited series, the Government assembles a team, made up of Shape, Arcanna, Nuke and Emil Burbank, to capture Hyperion.
It was established in the pages of Quasar that Hyperion I is an Eternal from his dimension. The alien origin in Supreme Power may contradict it, but until now it is still an open plot point, as the runaway ship Hyperion was jettisoned from could have been escaping from Earth.
Nighthawk, the Whizzer, and Black Archer have been changed from Caucasian to African-American. The Whizzer's name has also been changed to the Blur (a name taken from Marvel's DP7 series). Nighthawk is still a wealthy industrialist, but the Blur was transformed from a suburban family man into a youthful farm boy living with his mother.
Though the U.S. government has coined the name "Power Princess" for Zarda to use in promoting the Squadron Supreme, she does not refer to herself by that name or act like a superhero, contradicting her origins as a peace ambassador and World War II superhero. She has alluded to similar origins to Hyperion, while in the Squadron Supreme limited series, she was a native of Utopia Island, equivalent to DC's Themyscira. She also has the ability to steal the features and/or life force of regular humans.
Amphibian has been turned from a superpowered human male into a humanoid female with fish-like physical characteristics. She is barely able to talk, instead communicating via telepathy and has no grasp on civilized behavior. Thus far, the only one she can, or will, speak to is Doctor Spectrum.
Michael Redstone, based on the Native American character Redstone from the Squadron Supreme maxi-series, was introduced in Supreme Power. A convicted serial murderer who volunteered for medical experimentation to have his sentence reduced, he was injected with DNA taken from the vents in Hyperion's ship and as a result, gained powers nearly equivalent to those of Hyperion. When Redstone escaped using these powers, an unspecified number of other surviving experimentees escaped with him. These other escapees may eventually account for the other characters from the Squadron Supreme limited series that have yet to be seen. The character Tom Thumb was also seen in one of his flashbacks as one of the other experimentees.
The first issue of the Supreme Power: Hyperion limited series introduced new versions of Arcanna, Nuke, the Shape and Emil Burbank. Arcanna was introduced as a scientist with the ability to perceive and influence parallel quantum dimensions. The Shape possesses powers similar to the X-Men villain Blob. Emil Burbank has yet to develop the armored suit his previous incarnation wore. Nuke's powers and essential character remain unchanged, though this incarnation's family is already dead via radiation poisoning.
Later in the Hyperion limited series, Blue Eagle, Skylark, a female Lamprey, and two unidentified individuals, possibly Moonglow and Haywire, were shown as a part of the alternative future Hyperion's team.
In issue one of Squadron Supreme, we meet Edith Freiberg, an Army private who has the ability to manipulate already-existing kinetic energy. She was also briefly seen in Supreme Power #18, where - as in Squadron Supreme #1 - she had just trashed a bar. Her Squadron codename is Inertia.
A Martian Manhunter pastiche is missing in both Squadron Supreme and Supreme Power. However, a Skrull known as Sk'ym'x, or, alternatively, Skymax the Skrullian Skymaster, was shown in flashbacks of the original maxi-series, as well as the Squadron Supreme: New World Order one-shot, to occupy the Manhunter's place. (It is a possibility that the being Joe Ledger encounters in his comatose dream state is a Supreme Power version of Skymax.) Also absent is Professor Imam, a Doctor Fate analogue who played a minor role in the Squadron Supreme maxi-series. Neither has been slated to appear in the current series.
New versions of Squadroners Thermite, Dr. Decibel, Quagmire, Foxfire, Mink, Pinball or Remnant have yet to appear in the book.
Unlike the Squadron Supreme limited series, which gives a nod to its DC Comics inspiration with the use of fictional names for U.S. cities and states, Supreme Power and the Squadron Supreme ongoing series take place in the "real" world. In terms of Marvel's parallel dimensions in which the chief world is Earth-616, the original Squadron Supreme's world is Earth-712 and Straczynski's stories are set on Earth-31916.
[edit] Bibliography
They have appeared in a number of editions and reprints:
- Supreme Power Vol. 1 (MAX imprint) #1-18 (August 2003-August 2005) collected as:
- Contact (tpb collects #1-6, 144 pages, 2004 ISBN 0-7851-1224-3)
- Powers and Principalities (tpb collects #7-12, 144 pages, 2005 ISBN 0-7851-1456-4)
- High Command (tpb collects #13-18, 144 pages, 2005 ISBN 0-7851-1474-2)
- Supreme Power (hardcover, collects #1-12 and Avengers #85-86, 352 pages, 2005 ISBN 0-7851-1369-X)
- Doctor Spectrum: Full Spectrum (MAX imprint) #1-6 (August 2004-March 2005, tpb, 144 pages, 2005 ISBN 0-7851-1586-2)
- Supreme Power: Nighthawk (MAX imprint) #1-6 (September 2005-February 2006, tpb, 144 pages, July 2006 ISBN 0-7851-1897-7)
- Supreme Power: Hyperion (MAX imprint) #1-5 (September 2005-January 2006, tpb, 120 pages, July 2006 ISBN 0-7851-1895-0)
- Saga of the Squadron Supreme
- Squadron Supreme Vol. 2 (Marvel Knights) #1- (March 2006-ongoing) collected as:
- Pre-war Years Voume 1 (collects #1-6, 168 pages, November 2006 ISBN 0-7851-2282-6)
[edit] External links
