But, who were these mighty guardians of good? Who were this great group of true-blue heroes? Well, quite simply, they were Marvel's answer to the Justice League. First appearing in Avengers #85 (February 1971), they were created by Roy Thomas and the late John Buscema. They would make various appearances over the years, and the team would get a couple miniseries.
This is where the late Mark Gruenwald stepped in. Known for his love of continuity and trivia (which is something I greatly admire about the man, and I do think more writers at the Big Two should follow his example more in that aspect), Gruenwald's comics career was made at Marvel. However, his favorite superhero team was the Justice League. Sadly, the Gru, as he was known, never got to write the JLA themselves. I imagine this is why the Squadron Supreme appealed to him so much.
Gruenwald also another opportunity with this miniseries. He wanted to do something different with the Squadron. Many superhero teams reacted to crimes, but they never attempted to attack the causes of crime and actually make things better. It was a noble cause, but it would clash with the individual rights of people, and it was something Gruenwald wanted to explore. The temptations of the power this ersatz Justice League had to truly reshape their world for the better.
Continuity would give Gru the big chance to explore this with the Squadron. In Defenders #112-114 (October-December 1982), the Defenders and the Squadron Supreme save their native world, Earth-712, from the Over-Mind and Null the Living Darkness, but Earth-712 is left in ruins. It provided the perfect launching point for the mini that Gruenwald considered his magnum opus. So, let's dive in.
I do admit, I like the cover here, the Squadron Supreme charging into action, with Nighthawk looming in the background. It does show some foreshadowing when it comes to the story in the book, based on Nighthawk's position. However, I wished that the cover showed the Squadron in their old costumes, not the new ones they take up in the mini. Yeah, I get that the creative probably wanted to show off the new looks of the Squadron, but I think it would've been a nice surprise.
"The Utopia Principle"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Bob Hall
Inker: John Beatty
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Christie Scheele
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-In-Chief: Jim Shooter
The story begins with Hyperion, the Superman of the group, trying to stop a large object from falling to Earth.
However, Hyperion realizes he can't save the object, and has no choice but to help it crash down to Earth. Hyperion, with great effort, manages to guide the falling object down to splash into the ocean. Hype has to rest, as the object's great weight taxed even his power. He then gets the thumbs up from Amphibian, the Aquaman analogue of the Squadron, showing he landed in the right place.
The Whizzer and Dr. Spectrum, the Squadron's Flash and Green Lantern analogues, arrive to help get the object out of the ocean. Whizzer and Amphibian push on the satellite, while Hyperion and Dr. Spectrum pull on it thanks to Spectrum's ability to create energy constructs.
The object is revealed to be the Squadron's satellite headquarters. It's a nod to the time in the JLA comics when the League had a satellite headquarters, although at the time of this miniseries, the JLA was in the Detroit-era. The nod is also continued by the fact that the Squadron's roster in this miniseries is a nod to the League roster of that era, which was pretty big.
Doctor Spectrum laments that they couldn't get to the satellite sooner so they could have saved it, but Hyperion remarks that maybe it was meant to crash down on them, much like recent events have already brought ruin to the Squadron's world. Whizzer reminds the other heroes that they have a meeting with the other members of the Squadron, and they rush off.
Elsewhere, Power Princess, the Wonder Woman analogue, and Nuke, the Firestorm analogue, are flying towards what appears to be a robbery in progress. They're joined by Cap'N Hawk (the Hawkman analogue) and Arcanna (the Zatanna analogue).
Hawk commands the thieves drop their stolen goods. However, the thieves reveal that they're just starving people who want some food. Hawk then tells them he didn't see anything, and the Saudron will let them take the food in the trucks. They're shot at by some military men. Arcanna and Hawk protect the truck while Power Princess and Nuke deal with the shooters. Power Princess tries to calm them down, but the soldiers still fire. Nuke loses his temper, and blasts their guns and jeep.
Over the Midwestern US, Tom Thumb (the Atom analogue), Golden Archer (the Green Arrow analogue), Nighthawk (the Batman analogue), and Lady Lark (the Black Canary analogue), flying in an aircraft. They lament how bad things have gotten, but Tom Thumb and Lady Lark are optimistic. They believe things will get better in time.
They discover a massive inferno raging due to a gasline. Nighthawk wants to let it burn as they aren't able to deal with it, but there's another problem. There are natural gas tanks nearby, and if the fire reaches them, the city will go up in flames. Nighthawk and Thumb go to shut off the tanks while Archer and Lark go see if they can do something to stop the advance of the fire. Archer and Lark find a water tower, and the Archer is hit with inspiration. He fires some arrows at the tower, causing water to blast from it, dousing the vicinity. Despite that, the fire is getting closer, and Lark sends the signal.
Nighthawk and Thumb get the signal. There are still three tanks to shut off, and Thumb decides to try and shut them down. The plant goes up, but Tom Thumb manages to escape. The plant is a loss, but they managed to prevent things from getting worse. The group then arrive in a mountain, where the rest of the Squadron are waiting. With that, the meeting begins.
Hyperion believes the Squadron themselves should take the blame for how the world crumbled into shambles. Nuke quickly states that the whole thing was the Overmind's fault, because he took control of the Squadron's minds and made them do the dictator bit. Nuke kind of has a point. Yes, the Squadron Supreme did take over the world and become dictators, but they were acting as unwilling agents of a malevolent force. It's not really their fault. I do get the Squadron's guilt, but really, it wasn't their fault.
Nighthawk is especially down about it, as he wanted to help the world in a different way. He recalls his retirement from crime-fighting to become a Congressman, then President. He then recalls when the Overmind took control of him and the Squadron, with only Hyperion being able to escape.
Then they remember the Overmind using them to set up a dictatorship and a nuclear arsenal to attack other worlds.
Nuke and Arcanna remind the Squadron that Hyperion and the Defenders were able to stop the Overmind and free them from his control.
Whizzer reveals he traveled the world thanks to his super-speed and he saw horrors: violence, starvation, the world had fallen into chaos.
The Squadron feel they have lost a lot of their credibility as heroes and that simply telling people that an evil being controlled them would do nothing to help things. I doubt it could make anything worse, personally. I mean, in a superhero universe, are heroes getting mind-controlled really that implausible?
Anyway, Power Princess says they're being rather defeatist about the whole thing, which is an opportunity to show her origins a bit. She comes from Utopia Isle, a island that was isolated from humanity from centuries.
Her people were the Utopians, a civilization that new no racism, discrimination, war, or crime. They built an advanced world when humans were still in caves. The utopians were descended from humans who were experimented on by the Kree. So, yeah, the Utopians were the Earth-712 version of the Inhumans. Which does make me wonder, did the Utopians ever discover the Terrigen Mists? Based on the brief glimpse we get of them, I don't think they have.
Hyperion then talks about his origin, which essentially is Superman's. He's starting to think that maybe he could do more to help, that his parents told him not to live up to his full potential. There's also a flashback to the Squadron's formation, with an interesting thing to note.
See the Skrull there? He's called Skymax, the Skurllian Skymaster. He's essentially the Martian Manhunter analogue of the Squadron. This is only appearance here. I'm serious. In the whole mini, he is not seen again, nor even mentioned.
Hyperion suggests that the group use their power to remaking the ruined world into a Utopia, actively try to solve the world's problems, abolish war and crime, cure disease, feed the world, that kind of thing.
However, one Squadron member is against this idea: Nighthawk.
He fears that such a course of action will lead the Squadron down a bad path, and that a such a thing should not be handed to humanity. Instead, they should earn their Utopia. The group put it to a vote.
The vote is ten to two, the only holdouts being Nighthawk and Amphibian. Amphibian agrees to go along with the Squadron's plan despite his reservations, but Nighthawk can't. His conscience drives him to resign from the Squadron. Nuke mocks him and says he's leaving because he's jealous the Squadron may accomplish the goals Nighthawk could not in his presidency. Hyperion tells him to essentially shut up. Dr. Spectrum suggests the group unmask, as their new roles will leave them no more room for secret identities and Arcanna suggests that they warn their loved ones before they do this.
This part of the comic is one I really like because it really gave us little glimpses of the Squadron's personal lives, and showed they weren't just pastiches of the JLA. It was a step in showing they were unique characters in their own right. They may have been inspired by the JLA archetypes, but they are not the JLA.
We see Hyperion meeting a woman named Lonni (Basically Hype's Lois Lane). He tells her about his dual identity as Mark Milton, and they can't be together because of their being different species. Whizzer meets his wife and children in a special shelter he built for them. Dr. Spectrum returns to his trailer home and calls his girlfriend. Cap'N Hawk goes back to his parents' home and learns his father (once a superhero called American Eagle) had died of a heart condition, and the two didn't get a chance to reconcile. However, Hawk's father left him a letter expressing his pride in him following in his footsteps, no matter what identity he took...and a new costume for him.
Zarda comes home to her now-elderly husband, Howard Shelton. They met during WWII, and had been together ever since.
This scene with Zarda helps show the deconstructionist nature of this mini-series. It makes sense that a man she loved for (at this time) four decades would age whereas she doesn't (or at least very slowly), thanks to her Utopian nature.
Amphibian goes to the water and meets some dolphins. Golden Archer and Lady Lark return to their apartment and find it ransacked. Archer even finds a dead body. In a bit of a heartbreaking moment, Nuke goes to a hospital, and meets his parents, who are suffering from cancer. He decides not to tell them his secret, as he doesn't want to burden them further. And in a happier moment, Arcanna reunites with her husband and children. Tom Thumb flies out to the destroyed satellite, and finds Aida, the supercomputer that was part of the old satellite. He really adores the heavily-damaged Aida. Really show the depths of just how lonely Tom Thumb feels.
The scene then shifts to Nighthawk driving home. He returns to his mansion and dons his old costume, only for Hyperion to come knockin'.
Hyperion and Nighthawk start talking. Hype regrets that Nighthawk would never get the chance to show how great a President he could've been thanks to the Overmind, and he hopes that despite their differences on how to help the ruined Earth-712, they can still be friends. Hyperion then flies off. Nighthawk is left racked with indecision, and decides that the Squadron's plans must be stopped.
He goes down to a hidden vault, and pulls out a chunk of Argonite, a radioactive substance that is one of the few things that can harm Hyperion. I wonder if this is where the Superman writers got the idea to have Superman entrust Batman with a piece of Kryptonite. Despite his wondering if he has the willingness to use it to kill Hyperion, he carves a bullet out of it.
The next day, Nighthawk in his civilian identity of Kyle Richmond is getting ready to make a address before the American people. He has the gun in his hand, the Argonite bullet loaded.
The world that can tunes in as Kyle Richmond steps down from the Presidency. Hyperion prepares to make his speech about how the Squadron will fix the world in one year. Nighthawk prepares to fire the gun...
...but he can't do it. He can't find it in himself to but a bullet in his friend's back. Hyperion vows that the Squadron will fix all the world's problems in one year. If they can't, they will willingly step down from the authority they've been given to do so. They then unmask, revealing their new costumes, and Nighthawk vows to find another way to stop the Squadron Supreme.
Issue number 1 of Squadron Supreme is a very strong start to the mini. Yeah, it did have plenty of recapping, but unlike the last comic I looked at (Marvel Fanfare #10) the recapping did not dominate the issue.
This issue is freakin' packed with stuff, and I mean in the good way. We get to see all the members get some spotlight, which with a team this big (this Squadron has 12 members), is tough to pull off. Gru not only does it, he makes it look easy. And we also get a glimpse of a couple of the Squaddies' origins, so that's pretty neat. This issue was fun to read through.
Bob Hall does good art here, but his art here is t its best when he's doing up-close shots, and it does suffer slightly when he is required to do distance. Maybe it's the inking? It's not a major complaint, but it's just something I noticed.
Still, if you find this in the back issue bins, I implore you, get it. Get all twelve issues. Hunt down the trade. Fun fact: The original trade was printed with ink that had Mark Gruenwald's ashes in it. I imagine it is a bit of a collector's item, but it was reprinted in 2013. I highly recommend it. This mini needs more love.
Next month, we'll take a look at issue 2, where the Squadron starts on their plan to fix the world, and the tragedy starts...
In the meantime, considering what happened recently, I'm feeling the need to look at a comic featuring a certain Sentinel of Liberty...
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