I read the first TPB today and was transfixed. It’s J. Michael Stracynski’s reimagining of Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme, itself a reimagining of DC Comics’ Justice League. It begins with a pretty standard take on Superman’s origin – baby alien lands in Kansas, is found by wholesome corn-fed farm couple – until the black helicopters arrive, and the infant is whisked away to be raised on a secret compound by the goverment. Project Hyperion, aka Mark Milton, is groomed to be the ultimate hero, the military’s secret weapon, to fight for truth, justice, and the American way. Except that he’s terrifyingly powerful, and if he ever decided to stop being polite and obedient and start being nasty, there’s nothing, nothing, anyone could do to stop him. Hyperion’s so isolated, so repressed, and so lonely that he’s at once both sympathetic and frightening, a colossus trapped on a world too small for him.
I’ve read the first two trades. I gotta say I am terribly disappointed. It just seems to be going nowhere and engaging in decadence for decadence sake.
I like decadence. Don’t get me wrong. But this just seems to distract from the story rather than enhance it.
I enjoyed the original Squadron Supreme miniseries (this series is essentially a remake of that one.) Check it out if you haven’t.
I’ll probably buy the next trade because the writer/artist team have a lot of leeway with me, but I just feel like JMS is spinning his wheels on this one.
I read the first arc and was very underwhelmed. I thought it added nothing to a theme – superheroes in the real world! – that has been old hat since the eighties. I also wonder what the the point was of using the Squadron in the first place. Was it just so they could treat DC-like characters in that deconstructive way? Because that’s been done many times, including in the DC universe itself (Grant Morrison’s JLA: Earth 2).
I read it, and I’m reading the miniseries that are going on right now. I thought the series started out well, then suffered from glacial pacing, but maybe it’s a better read in TPB form than waiting for a new issue every month. The Doctor Spectrum mini kinda sucked and went nowhere interesting. I’m still reading the Hyperion and Nighthawk (I always want to call him Nightwing!) minis, which are better.
Maybe Supreme Power reads better in a TPB than in a monthly, I dunno, since I only purchase TPBs anymore. They’re more durable, and with my lifestyle I need something that will travel well. The storyline seems to unfold in a very novelesque fashion, and I love the little twists and turns (such as the hint that Hyperion may have been sent merely as a diversion to draw away attention from another, less conventional, and more insidious sort of alien invasion). For all the enforced wholesomeness of his upbringing, there is something very alien about Hyperion, and something tells me that even if he had been brought up on the farm with Ma and Pa Kent he wouldn’t have ended up a Superman.
I love the dark humor in Hyperion’s first meeting with Nighthawk. An alien lecturing the hate-crime survivor about peace and love toward your fellow man! Nighthawk envisions him first as a Klansman and then wonders if Hyperion is from Mars.
I liked it except that Nigthhawk just annoyed me intensely after a while. I’m not a victim of violence as he was, but from an outsider’s viewpoint his racist attitude just got very monotonous, IMHO.
I’m torn. I like JMS’s take on this copy of a copy of the JLA, but I find the overall tone just a bit too cynical. Sometimews it makes *Watchmen *seem like a Disney movie.
SP definitely benifits from being read in trades (or saving up the singles). It’s a good series, but not paced well for a monthly comic book. Strazinski is definitely writing for the trades.
I agree with most of what others have written. It’s a good series; it reads better in trades than issue by issue; and the story does drag some. I’ll add that the artwork is top notch.
And I agree that too many of the cahracters are immoral. If nothing else, it would make for a more interesting story if some of the characters had nobler motives. But we seem to have only one supporting character who is a traditional good guy. Everyone else is either neutral or, more often, bad.