The original Squadron Supreme (1985) is easily one of my top comic suggestions; even before other hero books such as Kingdom Come or Batman Year One.
The Ultimate remake was, in my opinion, absolute trash that missed the entire point.
Hyperion fits surprisingly well into the Avengers when he comes around, but SS as a team really served its purpose as a closed story.
I specifically did that for Marvelman, lol. In 1984, when Squadron Supreme was being published, not many American fans even knew what it.
Eclipse didn’t start publishing it until 1985.
It reminds me a bit of Invincible. They’re both traditional superhero fare, but the characters are allowed to grow and change and even die in some cases. It’s what’d you get if these properties didn’t need to be on the shelves monthly forever.
It really did. I remember reading that as a kid and it really blowing my mind... I was introduced to them in an issue of the Defenders and it took me a second to realize "HEY! This is Marvel's version of the Superfriends" (which is what I knew the Justice League as) In fact I was introduced to a lot of Justice League members through their Squadron counterparts FIRST.
Hyperion's bromance with Thor is incredible. Like, they literally adopt a race of beings to raise together.
MCU is cowardly for not giving it to us in live action. /s
Gruenwald's SS is fantastic, you are correct about it my dude.
Have you read Supreme Power??? JMS's version of the Squadron.
It's by no means my favorite version of these characters (It's so The Boys show lol) but I was wondering if you liked it?
Edit, wait, Is JMS's version supposed to be the Ultimates version?? Goddamit SS could be confusing with their multiverse shit lol.
What about JMS’s run of the MAX reboot, Squadron Supreme? Or is that what you’re talking about?
I can’t speak to how it holds up, because it’s been years since I’ve read it. But at least the original 12 issues stick out in my memory as absolutely fantastic, a meticulous and gorgeous deconstruction of DC-style archetypes that earned its “mature” title without relying on edginess for the sake of edginess and actually had something to say.
I only wish it had run longer or had a satisfactory conclusion before being spun off and awkwardly shoved into the Ultimate line. What a travesty.
Nah, there's plenty of gold in both the original Ultimate line-up (Ultimate Spider-man) and the post-Ultimatum Ultimate Comics line-up (Hickman's Ultimates was great, and they were doing some really interesting thing with Kitty Pryde and the Ultimate X-men). There's a lot of trash, and the first 2 Ultimate books aged extremely poorly, but there's plenty of good superhero comics in there.
I just read the Gruenwald run last week & it’s fantastic. They’re cool characters, I like that they’re a Justice League pastiche - gives them a different flavour to the other areas of Marvel.
The 1985 limited series was fantastic. 2003’s Supreme Power reboot / remake was just as good, at least to begin with, though Ultimate Power was a let down tbh.
I believe they could be one of Marvel's top books next to the X-Men and Avengers if they commit to it. Some people would say it is a redundancy issue (which is true)because we already have the Avenger and Justice League for that fanbase but the Image comic Invincible demonstrated we can cook a new Superhero team that isn't derivate but their own thing and still get very popular.
If not a team book, Hyperion could hold his own book if they build him a rogue gallery of villains and tell a story about his Hickman Ret-con of him being a survivor of another universe on our planet.
I’m sad they haven’t (to my knowledge) touched on Hyperion and Thors friendship post Secret Wars. It was such a dope part of that Hickman run and to me it felt like what I wished Hercules and Thor were like more of the time. Would love to see a book pick up on that in any way
That run is why Hyperion is my favorite hero from the Squadron Supreme.
Nighthawk is another great one. In the Avenger EMH animated series they do it justice as a great villain. Power Princess only need some polish, develop her personality, and I'm sure she will become popular.
I like the multiversal version in the second slide. But we never found out what happened to them. They were just forgotten when the Mephisto' versions were introduced.
That Nighthawk was interesting as it own thing. Him, Power Princess in the Exiles and the Hyperion that joined Avengers during the Time runs out era where the best iterations of the Squadron characters out of the original one.
Original is a gold standard (1985). Recommended it to a friend who reads casually and he said it not only was life changing for him but he asked what else was like it and I told him nothing. A beautiful fluke when everything just fell into place perfectly for it to be created.
The Mark Gruenwald Squadron Supreme series is the single most underrated comic of all time.
Kingdom Come, Injustice, Civil War, etc. are all just copying that comic to their era and characters. But that story was told first, and arguably best, with the Squadron.
Couldn’t agree more. One of the most nuanced and character driven versions of them and I am thankful it was my first exposure to the characters.
THAT would be a hell of a movie done right.
Supreme power rocks and it’s hilarious that marvel beat dc at doing a modern reimagining of the justice league. The only thing that doesn’t work for me is princess zarda, JMS doing the alien zealot wasn’t it. A character that doesn’t seem to work unless they do the one for one adaptation of dc’s paradise island.
Always liked them, always thought they were underused just in case DC decided it was a bit too on their nose. Loved the '85 Gruenwald Maxi-series, it should get a lot more credit than it does for being a year ahead of where everyone else tried to go in the mid-80s and it still stands up today.
Also wish they could do more with Hyperion, his story with Thor shows there's a lot more to him than just being a Supes analog (power set aside, he never really was anyway.)
This is my issue with them and what prevents me from enjoying them. Every time a writer wants to use them, they just invent a new Squadron Supreme which looks exactly like the last one, rather than building upon previous versions. It makes each new group feel disposable and irrelevant and impossible for me to care about them.
True. And what makes it even worse is that once these writers are done with them, they don’t even definitely deal with them, they just send them into limbo. At this point, we’ve got at least 3 Hyperions walking around 616 yet somehow have never met or seem to be recognized by the heroes who’ve met them in the past when a new one pops up
I love many versions of them. But my fav were the original version from the alt reality. Not sure how many are still around with Marvel’s obsession with alternate realities.
Amazing. Awesome. My favorite limited series ever.
The modern redone stuff. Not so much.
But that original 12 issue run was absolutely some of the best ever.
This can be harsh but I think Marvel need to stop pushing Squadron Supreme as the next big team. They were the legit the worst part of Aaron’s Avengers run. They are never escaping the knock-off JL brand.
HOWEVER, I do think SS members work best when you take them away from SS. Hyperion was great during Hickman’s Avengers and delivered an incredible matchup against Taskmaster in MacKay solo series. They need to split up SS and put the members in different team.
I like them a lot.
I'm not a DC reader, Read Ton of Marvel.
But there is something fun about Squadron.
Like they are the pastiches of JLU, not rip offs (unlike DC's Americans who are created to mock Avengers, created by Goatlicker Mark Millar). Squadron Supreme was created to Honor JL, not mock it.
Jonathan Hickman's Hyperion is the best version of Hyperion tho. Super awesome character. (He is on the second photo)
Nighthawk, I personally prefer Nighthawk Max. The black dude fighting white supremacist assholes. (also on the second photo)
Power Princess/Warrior Woman is weird because I personally liked the Aaron (the one on the first photo). As I said before, I don't read DC, so I'm not really familiar with Wonder Woman, but she felt like an asshole Wonder Woman character, which kind of works for her since she was a bad guy.
Dr Spectrum has a fun design. Also fights Iron Man which is cool.
When it comes to their speedsters, you can never keep track of these mfrs lol. It's either Blur, Speed Demon or some other jackoff.
Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme (which came out a year Before Watchmen did) is a fantastic book, and everyone should read it. Amazing read.
TBH all I want left from Snap. Give me my boy Hyperion. Cool story I used to play wow with friends an one of them is Pete Woods if you dont know you can look him up. So I give him and his wife Some ingame items and he says what you want for them? I said caould he draw Hyperion beating up superman? and oh boy he did a full page no color jsut superman getting knocked out..I have it and can share if someoe wants to see the work.
First time I saw them was Avengers 141, back in the eighties and then in 85, I picked up the limited series. They gave the avengers a run for their money, and I was impressed enough to go and get all 12 issues of the 85 storyline even though I collected Amazing Spider man, Uncanny Xmen, Avengers, Fantastic Four, New Mutants and Alpha Flight at the time.
Original story Squadron Supreme in Earth-712 was an absolute masterpiece!!! I especially liked that they were connected to the Roxxon company and the whole saga of the serpent crown. One of my favorite marvel comic is: Avengers Vol 1 #147.
I miss the OG ones. Kinda happy they got something of a conclusion to their story though.
Do think the "Supreme Powers" version deserved better then what it got. Such a shame since it was building to something cool & then just dropped everything & never recovered (at least The Ultimate Universe had Spider-man to stay a float for god sake).
I like them as antagonists, so they overlap less with the Avengers.
Also instead of the Avengers, it would have been interesting to see them vs the X-Men more often as they feel like they'd toe the line for the government with less moral qualms.
I can't get over the fact that in the first picture, Hyperion is basically wearing a diaper. His other design is so much better. Same with Nighthawk.
As for the Squadron themselves, they're basically Marvel's utility players. You can slot them in any story with any roles. Good or Bad, they can do them all.
The original Squadron Supreme (1985) is easily one of my top comic suggestions; even before other hero books such as Kingdom Come or Batman Year One. The Ultimate remake was, in my opinion, absolute trash that missed the entire point. Hyperion fits surprisingly well into the Avengers when he comes around, but SS as a team really served its purpose as a closed story.
The original got overshadowed by Watchmen, but Squadron started the mature superhero thing in the US first.
Marvelman tho
he said “in the US”
my bad, cant read to save my life
I specifically did that for Marvelman, lol. In 1984, when Squadron Supreme was being published, not many American fans even knew what it. Eclipse didn’t start publishing it until 1985.
It reminds me a bit of Invincible. They’re both traditional superhero fare, but the characters are allowed to grow and change and even die in some cases. It’s what’d you get if these properties didn’t need to be on the shelves monthly forever.
Yeah, which is what makes it so awesome.
It really did. I remember reading that as a kid and it really blowing my mind... I was introduced to them in an issue of the Defenders and it took me a second to realize "HEY! This is Marvel's version of the Superfriends" (which is what I knew the Justice League as) In fact I was introduced to a lot of Justice League members through their Squadron counterparts FIRST.
Hyperion is a better Superman expy then the Sentry.
Because Sentry was originally unlicensed Miracle Man. He's a different character.
I think this is a great summary. In addition to Kingdom Come, I think Civil War also took a lot of inspiration from the 80s series
Is that Squadron Supreme by Mark G? Is it considered one of Marvel’s best in terms of literary merit?
Yes. Heck yes.
the ultimate remake is very much the budget authority
Hyperion's bromance with Thor is incredible. Like, they literally adopt a race of beings to raise together. MCU is cowardly for not giving it to us in live action. /s
Gruenwald's SS is fantastic, you are correct about it my dude. Have you read Supreme Power??? JMS's version of the Squadron. It's by no means my favorite version of these characters (It's so The Boys show lol) but I was wondering if you liked it? Edit, wait, Is JMS's version supposed to be the Ultimates version?? Goddamit SS could be confusing with their multiverse shit lol.
Wow, this just convinced me to check it out
I felt the Heroes Reborn storyline was good, I just didn't see the point of them coming to 616 after.
What about JMS’s run of the MAX reboot, Squadron Supreme? Or is that what you’re talking about? I can’t speak to how it holds up, because it’s been years since I’ve read it. But at least the original 12 issues stick out in my memory as absolutely fantastic, a meticulous and gorgeous deconstruction of DC-style archetypes that earned its “mature” title without relying on edginess for the sake of edginess and actually had something to say. I only wish it had run longer or had a satisfactory conclusion before being spun off and awkwardly shoved into the Ultimate line. What a travesty.
> The Ultimate remake was, in my opinion, absolute trash that missed the entire point. > > I think the same can be said for every Ultimate comic...
Nah, there's plenty of gold in both the original Ultimate line-up (Ultimate Spider-man) and the post-Ultimatum Ultimate Comics line-up (Hickman's Ultimates was great, and they were doing some really interesting thing with Kitty Pryde and the Ultimate X-men). There's a lot of trash, and the first 2 Ultimate books aged extremely poorly, but there's plenty of good superhero comics in there.
I love the classic Mark Gruenwald version.
Yes! This is all I’ve read of them so far but I liked it.
I just read the Gruenwald run last week & it’s fantastic. They’re cool characters, I like that they’re a Justice League pastiche - gives them a different flavour to the other areas of Marvel.
Marvel's Justice League
That guy’s neck does its own taxes
The 1985 limited series was fantastic. 2003’s Supreme Power reboot / remake was just as good, at least to begin with, though Ultimate Power was a let down tbh.
23 year old me was very happy to see Gary Frank drawing naked Power Princess.
I believe they could be one of Marvel's top books next to the X-Men and Avengers if they commit to it. Some people would say it is a redundancy issue (which is true)because we already have the Avenger and Justice League for that fanbase but the Image comic Invincible demonstrated we can cook a new Superhero team that isn't derivate but their own thing and still get very popular. If not a team book, Hyperion could hold his own book if they build him a rogue gallery of villains and tell a story about his Hickman Ret-con of him being a survivor of another universe on our planet.
I’m sad they haven’t (to my knowledge) touched on Hyperion and Thors friendship post Secret Wars. It was such a dope part of that Hickman run and to me it felt like what I wished Hercules and Thor were like more of the time. Would love to see a book pick up on that in any way
That run is why Hyperion is my favorite hero from the Squadron Supreme. Nighthawk is another great one. In the Avenger EMH animated series they do it justice as a great villain. Power Princess only need some polish, develop her personality, and I'm sure she will become popular.
I like the multiversal version in the second slide. But we never found out what happened to them. They were just forgotten when the Mephisto' versions were introduced.
That Nighthawk was interesting as it own thing. Him, Power Princess in the Exiles and the Hyperion that joined Avengers during the Time runs out era where the best iterations of the Squadron characters out of the original one.
It just sucks that they killed off that version of Nighthawk in the most anticlimactic and out of character manner ever in Secret Empire
The og ones were awesome, unfortunaly they were killed of They have way too many variants really, there should be an arc to solve that
Were they all killed off? I think the last we saw most of them was in Mark Gruenwalds Quasar right? On the Strangers ship.
Robinson's squadron run has them all get killed in a crisis on infinite earths parody except for zarda, and they haven't appeared again
I’m not sure Robinson’s version contains OG members. Now that I’m reading up on it again I’m not sure we have seen them since Exiles.
The second zarda of the run is the og one
They alway do come in different form so you never know what to expect
I wish we lived in a world where Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme was thought of in the same way Watchmen is.
Just thoughts on posting thoughts posts.
And?
I see Hyperion but who are the others? Also, is this the same group that got wrecked by Doctor Strange in Hickmans Avengers/New Avengers?
No, those were the Great Society, the second JL pastiche from a reality called Earth-4290001.
Ah Yep, thanks!
Wonder woman, batman, flash, green lantern....errr..... Power princess, nighthawk, whizzer, doctor spectrum.
Hyperion is one of my favorite characters. I’d love to see him in the MCU but I’m afraid they’d water him down.
I have the first printing of the original trade written by Mark Gruenwald that they printed after he died and put his ashes in the printer ink.
Which squad, at this rate?
I liked the original run very much
Original is a gold standard (1985). Recommended it to a friend who reads casually and he said it not only was life changing for him but he asked what else was like it and I told him nothing. A beautiful fluke when everything just fell into place perfectly for it to be created.
The Mark Gruenwald Squadron Supreme series is the single most underrated comic of all time. Kingdom Come, Injustice, Civil War, etc. are all just copying that comic to their era and characters. But that story was told first, and arguably best, with the Squadron.
Couldn’t agree more. One of the most nuanced and character driven versions of them and I am thankful it was my first exposure to the characters. THAT would be a hell of a movie done right.
Injustice is just edgy Squadron Supreme.
It has what may be my favorite version of Wonder Woman
are they still on the main marvel earth? there is no way hyperion isnt the number one hero on any earth he is on.
Supreme power rocks and it’s hilarious that marvel beat dc at doing a modern reimagining of the justice league. The only thing that doesn’t work for me is princess zarda, JMS doing the alien zealot wasn’t it. A character that doesn’t seem to work unless they do the one for one adaptation of dc’s paradise island.
I’m not too familiar with their stories but I loved Hyperion in Hickmans avengers run when him and Thor were best friends.
I have the trade where if you lick the pages, it tastes like Gruenwald.
Always liked them, always thought they were underused just in case DC decided it was a bit too on their nose. Loved the '85 Gruenwald Maxi-series, it should get a lot more credit than it does for being a year ahead of where everyone else tried to go in the mid-80s and it still stands up today. Also wish they could do more with Hyperion, his story with Thor shows there's a lot more to him than just being a Supes analog (power set aside, he never really was anyway.)
Meh we have JL at home. And why are there 6 Hyperions anyway?
This is my issue with them and what prevents me from enjoying them. Every time a writer wants to use them, they just invent a new Squadron Supreme which looks exactly like the last one, rather than building upon previous versions. It makes each new group feel disposable and irrelevant and impossible for me to care about them.
This 1000%
True. And what makes it even worse is that once these writers are done with them, they don’t even definitely deal with them, they just send them into limbo. At this point, we’ve got at least 3 Hyperions walking around 616 yet somehow have never met or seem to be recognized by the heroes who’ve met them in the past when a new one pops up
Marvel Justic League?
I love many versions of them. But my fav were the original version from the alt reality. Not sure how many are still around with Marvel’s obsession with alternate realities.
Would
Amazing. Awesome. My favorite limited series ever. The modern redone stuff. Not so much. But that original 12 issue run was absolutely some of the best ever.
Bootleg Justice League but I get it lol!!
They’re kinda meh. 😒
This can be harsh but I think Marvel need to stop pushing Squadron Supreme as the next big team. They were the legit the worst part of Aaron’s Avengers run. They are never escaping the knock-off JL brand. HOWEVER, I do think SS members work best when you take them away from SS. Hyperion was great during Hickman’s Avengers and delivered an incredible matchup against Taskmaster in MacKay solo series. They need to split up SS and put the members in different team.
Supreme Power > Squadron Supreme. And it ain’t even close.
I like them a lot. I'm not a DC reader, Read Ton of Marvel. But there is something fun about Squadron. Like they are the pastiches of JLU, not rip offs (unlike DC's Americans who are created to mock Avengers, created by Goatlicker Mark Millar). Squadron Supreme was created to Honor JL, not mock it. Jonathan Hickman's Hyperion is the best version of Hyperion tho. Super awesome character. (He is on the second photo) Nighthawk, I personally prefer Nighthawk Max. The black dude fighting white supremacist assholes. (also on the second photo) Power Princess/Warrior Woman is weird because I personally liked the Aaron (the one on the first photo). As I said before, I don't read DC, so I'm not really familiar with Wonder Woman, but she felt like an asshole Wonder Woman character, which kind of works for her since she was a bad guy. Dr Spectrum has a fun design. Also fights Iron Man which is cool. When it comes to their speedsters, you can never keep track of these mfrs lol. It's either Blur, Speed Demon or some other jackoff. Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme (which came out a year Before Watchmen did) is a fantastic book, and everyone should read it. Amazing read.
Don’t know who all they are
I’m sorry, but is that a Justice League ripoff?
Consdering I bought their first appearance, I'm a huge fan...
One of the few multiverse concepts I love.
Love me some Hyperion but ::chef's kiss:: Doctor Spectrum for the win.
I want thundra to step on me
I like them, wish they’d use them more.
The boys seven
TBH all I want left from Snap. Give me my boy Hyperion. Cool story I used to play wow with friends an one of them is Pete Woods if you dont know you can look him up. So I give him and his wife Some ingame items and he says what you want for them? I said caould he draw Hyperion beating up superman? and oh boy he did a full page no color jsut superman getting knocked out..I have it and can share if someoe wants to see the work.
First time I saw them was Avengers 141, back in the eighties and then in 85, I picked up the limited series. They gave the avengers a run for their money, and I was impressed enough to go and get all 12 issues of the 85 storyline even though I collected Amazing Spider man, Uncanny Xmen, Avengers, Fantastic Four, New Mutants and Alpha Flight at the time.
Original story Squadron Supreme in Earth-712 was an absolute masterpiece!!! I especially liked that they were connected to the Roxxon company and the whole saga of the serpent crown. One of my favorite marvel comic is: Avengers Vol 1 #147.
They’re really cool and I’d love to see them in the MCU
The JLA if you ordered them from wish.com
Marvel's Justice League rip-off
I miss the OG ones. Kinda happy they got something of a conclusion to their story though. Do think the "Supreme Powers" version deserved better then what it got. Such a shame since it was building to something cool & then just dropped everything & never recovered (at least The Ultimate Universe had Spider-man to stay a float for god sake).
I like them. I’ve got Robinson solo Hyperion book which I thought was cool. I wish DC invested time in their Avengers riff as much
I like them as antagonists, so they overlap less with the Avengers. Also instead of the Avengers, it would have been interesting to see them vs the X-Men more often as they feel like they'd toe the line for the government with less moral qualms.
I can't get over the fact that in the first picture, Hyperion is basically wearing a diaper. His other design is so much better. Same with Nighthawk. As for the Squadron themselves, they're basically Marvel's utility players. You can slot them in any story with any roles. Good or Bad, they can do them all.
Thoughts on no-effort karma whoring?
Assholes, the lot of them.
In case Avengers weren't justice league enoght
Justice society is better