Things are precarious for our heroes of questionable decision making now. Amphibian is the latest team member to leave, wrecking the B-Mod on his way out. Golden Archer is fired, but his brainwashing of Lark is intact. Not only that, but Nighthawk, who was the first Squadron member to quit when this talk of Utopia started, has returned. And whatever reason he’s back for can’t be good. With the B-Mod gone and the team rapidly crumbling, how can the Squadron ever hope to construct their wildly ill-advised Utopia?
What we do this issue is something we haven’t gotten for seven issues, a Hyperion-centric issue. And at the risk of spoilers, we don’t even really get that. Technically speaking.
Written by Mark GruenwaldCover by John Buscema and Jackson Guice
Breakdowns by John Buscema
Finishes by Jackson Guice
Letters by Janice Chiang
Colors by Michael HigginsAs Nighthawk builds a team to defeat the Squadron, Master Menace removes Hyperion from this reality, replacing him with an alternate universe clone.
We open with Nighthawk battling Master Menace while narration explains his origin story, which subverts the traditional Batman origin by making his father a corrupt billionaire. Though, recent interpretations have brought the original’s origins closer to former president Kyle Richmond. But the battle is one-sided, as Nighthawk wishes to recruit Menace. Opening narration explains that he’s agreeing to work with lesser evil to fight the full-on police state the Squadron wants to create. Whether or not this is a step up from just shooting Hyperion on national TV remains to be seen. But this series isn’t exactly built on good decisions.
Doesn’t work out though. Master Menace has his own plan. That involves summoning the evil Hyperion from another dimension. And you can tell he’s evil, because he speaks like a 1940’s film noir villain. He laments his lost love Thundra. And he knows it’s true love because she can “stand up” to his “lovin’” without getting “pulped.” That is actual dialog from that scene. Either way, Evil Hyperion exposits this to Menace, laying out exactly how easily he can be manipulated. Which I personally kind of love. Less than halfway through, this issue has been particularly exposition heavy, by “Squadron Supreme” standards. Turning it on its head totally works.
But what makes it even better is that getting subverted again. Due to some comet and portal related shenanigans, the two Hyperiors get switched out, with the evil twin all of a sudden having “amnesia.” And the team member assigned to help their leader get his memory back is Power Princess, who reminds him more than a little of his dearly beloved Thundra. He falls in love with her. The only problem is she’s been married to a mortal for the past forty years. Also, the whole evil plot to kill the entire team. So alternate Hyperion betrays Menace, then kills Power Princess’s husband. One’s more subtle than the other, with the Superman-pastiche sucking the air out of his lungs, then refilling them after he’s gone. It works. Zarda is heartbroken, but not-Hyperion has a shoulder for her to cry on. She falls for him.
And if you’re wondering what happened to the B-Mod after Amphibian destroyed it, don’t worry. They fixed it off-panel. Apparently it works better than ever now. And of course, all the people who’ve been brainwashed by it speak very highly of their brainwashing. Former Institute member Firefox in particular claims it only dulled her more criminal instincts, so she’s totally cool with it. Trust her! Just because you’re psychologically unable to disobey the Squadron Supreme, doesn’t mean you can’t believe her!
Overall, this series is going in roughly the direction I thought it would now. Though I figured it would be another brainwashing. Even if the Squadron has the absolute best intentions with their “Utopia,” brainwashing clearly exists in their universe, as do other universes. And that’s if the team doesn’t collapse into itself before. Which it’s very much in the process of happening, arguably since issue one. Nighthawk was just a little more willing to do his own dirty work then.
We have a new art team again with this issue! And this time, there’s a Buscema onboard! For as many new teams that have come on in the last six issues alone, the art has been impressively consistent. You haven’t had quite the dramatic style changes that we saw in “Green Goblin” last year’s Binge. Granted, this does still feel very 80s Marvel house style. But that’s not a bad thing in the slightest. If anything, that’s part of what makes the series work. Plus I am not going to call anything by a Buscema mid. In fact, I think we could all stand to be nicer to Sal. But that’s beside the point.
A quick peek at the cover of the next issue tells us that the Hyperion swap may be temporary. But I’ve been reading this series long enough to know not to take cover art at face value.
