Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Increasingly derivative September 10, 2007
JMS has to be one of my all-time faves. His groundbreaking TV series Babylon 5 is still my favorite sci-fi show. His comic series Rising Stars was simply amazing. But he still runs hot and cold. The Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade was not great (only "okay"), and The Legend of the Rangers was truly awful. As was the pilot for Babylon 5. So his work is sort of hit and miss.
Unfortunately this new series is a miss. I am a fan of the original Squadron Supreme and the Squadron Sinister, so I was always fascinated with how they were an homage to the Justice League, but not literal copies. They had fantastic origins, to boot. Hyperion (Superman) was from a subatomic universe, and the atom we split was his homeworld. Nighthawk (Batman) was paralyzed from the waist down, except at night when a mystic potion gives him supernatural strength and mobility. Whizzer (Flash) was saved by a transfusion of mongoose blood which triggered a latent mutant ability. Amphibian (Aquaman) was a mutant, instead of an Atlantean noble.
Now, of course, this has been turned on its ear. Now, not only is Nighthawk more like Batman (avenging his murdered parents), Hyperion is more like Superman, too (an alien baby rocketed to Earth, found by farmers but taken by the government). What's weird is he altered the rest of them too (Dr Spectrum would have to be), except for Power Princess, who got upgraded to goddess and was given vampiric powers.
I know the idea was to revamp 'em for the modern day, but why go for Golden Age silliness? Make Hyperion an alien who crashed millenia ago, whose true form is something monstrous. Since Hyperion was injured in the crash and near death, nanomachines place him in stasis and rebuild him using the dominant life forms here on Earth (the clone banks on his craft were destroyed, so genetic material would have to be found elsewhere). Have his craft unearthed by miners or something that releases a terrible alien disease (as deforestation has led to Ebola and such) and mutates the rest. The gem can be found by the government, Hyperion can awaken (now appearing human) et caetera. Keep Nighthawk the same, too, but still have him distrust white people (who caused his car accident that paralyzed him).
Don't get me wrong, I think the story is interesting, but the origins JMS came up with just left me crying foul.
 Graphic SF Reader September 3, 2007
The man at helm of Babylon 5 takes a crack at reimagining Mark Gruenwald's classic Squadron Supreme.
An alien ship with a child lands on Earth, and the military leaders of the USA are terrified when they realise his potential. They set about a form of brainwashing to ensure he will work for them,by hiring two of their spies to act as man and wife and raise the boy for a couple of decades.
 Supremely kicking DC between the legs. April 12, 2007
This is to DC's JLA what "BATTLE HYMN: Farewell to the Golden Age" was to Marvel's Avengers. Excellent writing...I mean EXCELLENT, and great art to boot. Puts characters we all know in a more realistic and contemporary light. One of the best comics I've read in a while. Up there with Transmetropolitan, Planetary(Spoof on FF), and POWERS.
The first three Volumes are worth buying, the sidetracking stories(SP: Hyperion, SP: Dr. Spectrum, SP: Nighthawk) aren't as good, but worth a read. Though the Nighthawk book WAS pretty good, with a unique doppelganger of the Joker.
An incredible saga begins January 25, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Suprem Power vol.1 is the beginning arc in J. Michael Straczynski's re-telling of the Squadron Supreme, which was a Marvel rip-off of the biggest DC characters. This story is set in real time and in our world, with incredible art by Gary Frank.
The story begins with a very Superman-like origin of Hyperion. A spaceship lands in a field during the Carter administration and is found by a lonely couple. The origin takes a realistic twist when within hours of taking him home a government task force beats on their door and takes the boy away to be raised as a ward of the state.
Hyperion is given the name Mark Milton by a government focus group and raised by a volunteer couple under government supervision throughout the Reagan and Bush years. They mold Mark into an ultimate patriot willing to do anything for America.
The origins of Batman doppelganger Nighthawk and Flash-like Blur are also told in a more condensed way, and the ship that brought Hyperion to Earth's power source is used to make a Green Lanternish Doc Spectrum.
About halfway into the volume, Hyperion is used for the first time by the U.S. Army to put down Iraqi resistance during the gulf war. He is revealed to the public by Clinton in a controlled press release a couple of years later. His "parents" are pulled out of their mission and their death is faked to make Mark completely dependant on the government for a family figure shortly after his outing.
The story told in this six-issue volume leads up to the next volume, Powers and Principalities, where Hyperion finds out the government has used and lied to him. It also reveals Wonder Woman rip off Power Princess and Aquaman inspired Amphibian who are only briefly shown or mentioned in volume one. Once you have read Contact you almost have to pick up Powers and Principalities.
I loved Straczynski's thought out plot and that he obviously intended this to be a long story lets him pace the story a little slower, while his writing and Frank's art makes you turn the pages so fast you can't believe when it's over. I absolutely loved this comic.
The JLA: As Told By Marvel Comics March 26, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Years ago, Marvel Comics created the Squadron Supreme, which was a group of superheroes based on DC's most famous characters. Superman became Hyperion, Batman was Nighthawk, the Flash was the Blur, and Power Princess was used in place of Wonder Woman. It was a way to be able to get the Marvel characters to be able to interact (read: fight) with the Justice League without having to go through legal channels (though I'd be surprised if DC didn't file some kind of suit). The series was restarted as Supreme Power under the new Marvel Max imprint. Marvel Max publishes comics that are more adult-oriented (similar to DC's Vertigo); there can be nudity, harsher swearing, and more intense violence than what is usually found in comics.
Supreme Power is meant to completely subvert the idea of superheroes, most notably the DC Justice League. DC is known for creating very righteous heroes while Marvel had characters with human flaws. The characters in Supreme Power take DC's greatest and give them huge faults.
These first six issues focus mainly on Hyperion. Like Superman, he is an alien whose spacecraft crashed to Earth. However, the farm couple that found him was intercepted by the government and he was taken from them. They set up a fake home for the child, who displayed superhuman strength and resistance, and force-fed him propaganda to make him a hyper-patriotic soldier.
Meanwhile, a young black man named Kyle Richmond was walking with his wealthy parents when a group of white supremicists gunned down his parents, leaving Kyle alive. This is a parallel origin story to Batman, and in the years since, Kyle has become Nighthawk, a vigilante prowling the streets protecting other blacks from hate crimes.
Other "heroes" include the Blur, who is a young boy from Georgia who is asked to become a spokesman for numerous companies, and Doctor Spectrum, based on the Green Lantern, who received powers from a crystal that came in Hyperion's ship.
While the story is a little slow, it shows a very interesting set-up for these characters. Sadly, it does seem to try to do a little too much (the Power Princess character is only alluded to), and there isn't nearly enough focus on Nighthawk (I've always found Batman to be a more interesting character than Superman). Still, the things that these characters go through are horrifying and even sickening at times. The approach to the characters that Marvel takes is drastically different than the DC approach, but it definitely serves for an interesting story.
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