Squadron Supreme #1-8

Squadron Supreme #1-8

Originally released in 1985

Written by Mark Gruenwald

Art by Bob Hall (#1-5, 8), Paul Ryan (#6), John Buscema (#7)

Squadron Supreme is Marvel's deconstruction of superheroes, releasing a few months before Watchmen. (Though it's less known by comparison) The Squadron Supreme is traditionally Marvel's send-up of/homage to the the Justice League - there's Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), Power Princess (Wonder Woman), Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern), the Whizzer (the Flash), Amphibian (Aquaman), Golden Archer (Green Arrow), Lady Lark (Black Canary), Blue Eagle (Hawkman), Tom Thumb (the Atom), Arcanna (Zatanna), and Nuke (Firestorm). Some are more obvious than others. (There's also a thirteenth member, Skrullian Skymaster, a Martian Manhunter reference who's mentioned but absent)

Much like the regular Justice League, they get mind controlled on a regular basis. In the aftermath of the latest incident, where they were controlled and used to take over the world, America is worse than ever - the economy's in the toilet, ordinary people have turned to stealing food to survive, and arson is a regular occurrence.

Things are even worse in the rest of the world, and if the alien that controlled the team hadn't taken Earth's nukes and put them on the moon to target other alien civilizations (before Hyperion stopped him and the team dismantled the nukes), there would likely be no world left to save.

In a twisted look at the phrase "with great power comes great responsibility", Hyperion decides that his adoptive parents were wrong about him not using his powers to change the course of history - they have great powers, so it's their responsibility to use their powers to make the world a better place by any means necessary. Hyperion suggests that they use their abilities and knowledge to make the world into a utopia where crime, hunger, and even death are no longer concerns.

Nighthawk is the lone dissenter, questioning what will happen if people don't accept the Squadron's utopia, so they put it to a vote. An overwhelming majority vote in favour of Hyperion's plan, and they agree that to regain the world's trust and to make it so they can focus on the task at hand, they will publicly unmask and reveal their identities, though they'll inform their loved ones first.

In contrast to the awkwardness of Hyperion's conversation, Power Princess has it much easier since her husband already knows her identity, though their relationship comes with its own problems.  Her husband is basically Steve Trevor, having met Power Princess during World War 2 and gotten her interested in seeing the outside world, but it's been forty years since then.  They love each other as much as they did when they first met, but he's in his seventies and wheelchair-bound while she hasn't aged a day, which would presumably raise some questions for those unaware about their history since he looks old enough to be her grandfather.

Amphibian was the only other person aside from Nighthawk to vote against Hyperion's proposal, since he seemingly wants to stay as far away from the troubles of the surface as possible.  Nuke has problems on top of the state of the world and the possibility of revealing his secret identity - both of his parents have cancer.

In his civilian identity as President Kyle Richmond, Nighthawk intends to resign the presidency, with Hyperion overhearing his plans and meeting with him to discuss making it a joint announcement about the Squadron's utopia plan.  After Hyperion leaves, Nighthawk thinks it over and decides that in order to save the world, he will have to kill Hyperion, pre-dating Batman v. Superman and even The Dark Knight Returns by bringing this universe's Batman and Superman equivalents into conflict.

Kyle can't go through with it, however, as Hyperion finishes his speech, vowing to eliminate society's problems within a year of that day and saying that the Squadron will voluntarily give up their authority over the world if they can't accomplish this.  While it's for benevolent reasons, Nighthawk still has misgivings as the Squadron Supreme have basically become dictators over the entire world.  And all of this is just in the first issue!

It raises some interesting ethical questions, though having read this series before, I know that one phrase that sums the whole thing up is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."  The Squadron wants to make the world a better place, but they feel like the best way to do so is to take control of it and forcefully turn it into a utopia, and things only escalate from there.

Nuke learns that his parents are specifically suffering from radiation poisoning, and after a meeting with Tom Thumb confirms that his radiation output has increased, he asks Tom to cure cancer.  Tom Thumb is generally an overlooked member of the team despite his genius intellect, so he's not used to people making personal requests of him beyond the needs of the team, but that's a problem that even he doesn't think he can solve, though he says he'll try.

Unfortunately, Nuke doesn't give him a lot of time - a little over a week later, Nuke's parents have taken a turn for the worse, and he's hoping that Tom can make the cure as soon as possible.  Tom had built a time machine before, so he goes to the 40th century to make a deal with the devil - specifically with the Scarlet Centurion, an alternate version of Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror.

The Scarlet Centurion's price, weakening Hyperion so that the Centurion can defeat him later, is too high, so Tom refuses the Panacea Potion that is offered to him.  Returning to the present, Tom admits that he can't cure cancer in a week, and Nuke lashes out, irrationally blaming his parents' impending death on Tom Thumb.

Doctor Spectrum is sent to find Nuke, though he doesn't know where to look.  Tom Thumb gives him a tip that Nuke's parents were sick, so Spectrum goes to Nuke's hometown and discovers that they passed away.  Finding Nuke's younger brother, who's a huge Doctor Spectrum fan, Spectrum tracks Nuke down to the cemetery where Nuke's parents were buried.  Mad with grief, Nuke flies off in a rage to track down Tom Thumb and make him suffer, or even kill him.

Doctor Spectrum puts a barrier around Nuke to keep him from blasting radiation all over the countryside and try to talk some sense to him, but Nuke keeps blasting, burning out all of the air inside.  He ultimately dies from the lack of oxygen; Spectrum is briefly tempted to hide the body and claim that he couldn't find Nuke, but he decides to face the consequences, even telling Nuke's brother personally no matter how heartbreaking it may be. (a good bit of development for someone who was a bit of a sleaze up to this point)

On the other hand, Golden Archer doesn't really grow out of being a sleaze. In issue 4, the Squadron unveils their plans for ending crime - a behaviour modification device that will replace any criminals negative tendencies with positive ones, though it can modify someone's behaviour in any way, whether it's getting them to stop bad habits or making them dislike ice cream.  After a brush with death, Golden Archer wants to propose to Lady Lark, but she ultimately turns him down - he doesn't take it well.

Some members of the team had objections to the behaviour modification machine being used on criminals, feeling like it was removing free will, and Amphibian questions if he even wants to be part of the team any more.  However, they agreed to make it voluntarily with immediate parole for those who went through with it.  In contrast, Golden Archer doesn't give Lady Lark a choice - he waits until she's sleeping, douses her with knock-out gas to keep her unconscious, and then forces it upon her without her knowledge, forcing her to fall in love with him when her feelings had previously been fading and she'd started to fall for Blue Eagle instead.

In issue 5, the Institute of Evil (basically the Legion of Doom or the Injustice League) takes Tom Thumb, Golden Archer, and the families of the Squadron hostage, planning to use the behaviour modification machine for their own wicked ends.  The Whizzer, whose wife and kids are among the hostages, doesn't take it well - part of the Squadron's plan was to take away everyone's guns and provide non-lethal alternatives for militaries and law enforcement, but upon finding out that his family is being held hostage, Whizzer grabs a machine gun that's due to be melted down, planning to kill the Institute of Evil.

It doesn't have to come to that, as Tom Thumb put safety precautions in place after, shall we say, recent events to make it so the device wouldn't work on Squadron members.  Tom has an unfortunate tendency to keep secrets - Nuke's parents, his suspicions about Archer, and even his own cancer diagnosis, which he discovered when he took a supposedly healthy tissue sample from himself to compare to the sample from Nuke's parents.  The Squadron was spread too thin, but now they have new members in the form of the former members of the Institute of Evil, who were reconditioned to work with the Squadron.

Blue Eagle is convinced that something is up with Lady Lark's sudden change in behaviour, and he brings it up at the Squadron's meeting, publicly accusing Golden Archer of using it on her.  Rather than trying to get out of it, Golden Archer immediately admits his guilt, leaving the question open of what should be done with him.

He's ultimately expelled from the team, and Lady Lark leaves along with him, as they have no way to undo the brainwashing.  Amphibian has misgivings about this whole thing, feeling like the team handed him a loaded gun by making the behaviour modification machine in the first place, and when the Squadron's base is mostly empty, he makes his feelings on the matter clear before leaving the team and abandoning the surface world entirely.

Issues 7 and 8 focus on Hyperion and Power Princess, but not the Hyperion who's been in the issues up to this point.  Master Menace, a mix of Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom, brings a Hyperion from another universe into his own and convinces him to help destroy the Squadron Supreme.  Once the main Hyperion is sent to a different dimension, the alternate Hyperion takes his place, faking amnesia to justify anything that he's not aware of.

During his time posing as the main Hyperion, alt-Hyperion starts to fall in love with Power Princess, though he's shocked to discover her marriage.  When her husband suddenly has a heart attack, Power Princess is grief-stricken, but after a few weeks, she falls for alt-Hyperion, who forced Master Menace to retreat to another dimension in order to prevent the villain from giving away his secret.

The behaviour modification starts to show its cracks, as it turns out that it works too well.  Doctor Decibel knows that Arcanna is pregnant, and using her magic to hide how far along she is, but he can't refuse something that a Squadron member tells him to do, so when she says she'll be fine, then he has to act against his better judgment and he can't even tell anyone.  Another ex-Institute of Evil member, Lamprey, knows that something is wrong with Hyperion, but saying that would mean betraying a Squadron member, which he literally can't do.

With the help of Master Menace, Hyperion makes it back to Earth, where he rushes to confront alt-Hyperion.  The two Hyperions battle, smashing through that Earth's Mount Rushmore equivalent in the process; as they blast each other with their eye beams, the main Hyperion ultimately triumphs, though he's seemingly blinded by the blasts, with the alt-Hyperion confessing his crimes and his love before he dies.

While I could continue with the series and finish the last four issues, this seems like as good of a spot as any to stop.  I'd highly recommend reading the series and seeing how it ends, as it's definitely worth reading. Having read more about the Justice League since I last read this book, I could feel my stomach drop this time around as I read how the Squadron becomes corrupted despite their good intentions.  I could almost see an alternate universe version of the Justice League going through a similar plot, though it likely helps that the Injustice fighting games do something similar. (the alternate universe Superman is much worse than Hyperion due to a much more personal tragedy driving him to take over the world)  The Squadron gets treated with a real sense of pity here - it's clear that Marvel isn't using this opportunity to mock the Justice League but rather showing a more tragic take on them trying to make the world better instead of preserving the status quo.  It held up just as well as I remembered, or arguably even better than it did when I first read it.