“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
-Lord Acton (1834-1902)
Before Marvel Comics soiled its relationship with Joseph Michael Straczynski (commonly referred to by comic fandom as JMS), the former Babylon 5 scribe revamped Marvel’s nearly forgotten Squadron Supreme into something incredible. This new inception began with the 18-issue Supreme Power, wherein JMS presented us with a “realistic” view of how the presence of super-powered beings would affect our world. As the reader can probably guess from my inclusion of Acton’s words (which heavily inspired JMS), this vision is a bleak one.
Supreme Power centers around the life of Mark Milton (alias Hyperion), the first superhuman to arrive on the planet Earth. Sent to our planet from another, Mark can fly, is incredibly strong, has a sort of “flash vision” and is nearly invulnerable (sound familiar?). Unlike everyone’s favorite Kryptonian, however, Mark was discovered and raised by the United States government from infancy, and drilled in a very different view of truth, justice, and the American way. The government had aimed at creating the most powerful living weapon. Unfortunately for them, they succeeded.
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While Hyperion is sent on various government missions, he begins to encounter more people like himself: from the energy projecting Dr. Spectrum to the mysterious Princess Zarda. While pursuing the murderous superhuman Michael Redstone, Hyperion teams up with the powerless (but well stocked) Nighthawk and the speedster Blur, who become two of the series’ most important supporting characters. Nighthawk warns Hyperion that he is being manipulated by his superiors, and upon the revelation of all the lies that the government had been telling him for years, Mark finally calls it quits. Nearly swayed by Zarda’s honeyed words concerning his superiority to humanity, Mark spares the world his wrath due to his friendship with Blur (indeed, probably the only person Mark can call a friend). Nevertheless, when the U.S. tries to blackmail Hyperion by releasing word of his otherworldly heritage, Milton does not hesitate to give Antartica a heavy pummeling from space (a 10.0 on the Richter scale) to emphatically convey “leave me alone.”
Supreme Power is, in my opinion, the modern Watchmen. As the heroes of Alan Moore’s dismal world were based off of the Charlton Comics characters that DC had recently acquired, so is Supreme Power often jokingly referred to as “JMS Creates the DC Universe” due to the original Squadron Supreme consisting of analogues of classic DC characters. However, the resemblance is deeper and more allegorical than simple character similarities. Hyperion’s presence on Earth is what directly leads to the rise of more super-powered humans (something explored more in the Supreme Power: Hyperion miniseries), just as Superman’s creation more or less “caused” superhero comics. Both Supreme Power and Watchmen deal with superheroes in a more realistic world, but there is a key thematic difference: in Watchmen, the presence of superheroes influence the government and culture, creating an alternate timeline, whereas the timeless archetypes of Hyperion and co. are corrupted by the harsh truths of the real world; rather than altering our world they are forced into it. Finally, just as Gibbons’ artistic style was the perfect vehicle for Moore’s ideas, the fusion of story and art between JMS and the critically acclaimed Gary Frank is nothing short of exquisite.
While Supre
me Power will undoubtedly leave you wanting more, the furthest I would go from the main title is the Hyperion spin-off miniseries. Like many of JMS’s projects at Marvel, editorial mandates and such brought the decline of the JMS-penned Squadron Supreme ongoing series, which ended after only 7 issues. Ultimate Power, a crossover with Marvel’s highly successful Ultimate line, didn’t even use the Supreme Power-based Squadron Supreme; rather, the original Squadron Supreme was used. Even so, the original Squadron Supreme was altered to make it slightly more like JMS’s newer version (this is where you stop saying that comics aren’t that confusing). Unless you are a die-hard fan of JMS like I am and don’t mind reading unfinished stories, Supreme Power is more than enough to satisfy your hunger for a dark tale of super-heroics. Supreme Power is available in either three trade paperbacks or two oversized hardcovers, the second of which also contains the Supreme Power: Hyperion miniseries. Keep in mind that this was published under Marvel’s MAX imprint, and therefore there is a good helping of violence, explicit language, and other mature themes.
