This week on the Major Spoilers Podcast, The Major Spoilers crew go back in time to check out what happens when superheroes stop being polite and start living in the real world.
Freed from the constraints of keeping the comic’s Earth looking (at least superficially) like our Earth and of tying into the continuity of other books, Mark Gruenwald explored the ramifications of super-heroes taking over the world to save it from itself. A “pre-Watchmen Watchmen“; it substitutes for that book’s cynicism with a sense of humor and history.
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7 Comments
And here I thought you were going to talk about the JMS reboot of the Squadron (which is) Supreme. But instead comes this comic of olden times the way of the podcast…
Alas, my comment endeth here.
What campaigner said…
Man you should do the reboot some time. Creepiest “Superman” ever!
So this is extra-relevant because Millar recently pitched his new “Nemesis” series, which looks as if it wants to do exactly the same thing except the analogues for Batman and the Joker are the same character. Like many others, I really don’t like the look of it. I haven’t read Squadron Supreme, and I only had a smattering of a look at its successor, Supreme Power, but I have kind of a feeling that Marvel’s idea of “Let’s Try To Imitate/Satirise/Insult DC” is gradually wearing thin, and a writer as stylistically ham-fisted as Millar ain’t gonna bring anything new to the table.
Salieri-
You should check out this original Squadron Supreme series. It’s far from the current Marvel mindset of “only reference DC to mock them”; it’s apparent from the first issue that Gruenwald was a HUGE Justice League fanboy. Unlike Millar and his smug & clumsy ilk, Da Gru actually had respect for people other than his employers/buddies.
Cool! I have a copy of this trade and have alway thought it was one of the best mini-series of it’s time. Yes, the analogues for the old Justice League are pretty obvious, but there is just enough of the old Marvel Style in it to make it seem fresh.
Great classic series, can’t wait to hear the gang’s thoughts on it.
Does anyone out there have one of the “ashes” trades?
A fantastic mini that took a bunch of joke characters from the Avengers title and turned it into this very human super-human story. Mark Gruenwald was a fantastic writer. Marvel seriously needs to reprint this trade.
Absolutely one of my favorite mini-series of all time. Since none of the characters were A-list characters, they could go to places the regular DC or Marvel titles couldn’t. Heroes would have to deal with the ramifications of their powers (Nuke and his family; Dr. Spectrum after his fight with Nuke; Hyperon using his powers too powerfully with his evil double); a Superman/Wonder Woman romance not so much in the DCU, but it is given some face time with Hyperon and Power Princess.
If I have any complaint with this trade, the tie-in with Captain America, doesn’t exactly work for me. It feels tacked on. Granted today, that tie-in would probably be with Wolverine, so I shouldn’t complain too loudly.
I read the last issue in the very same sitting I read “The Last Days of the Justice Society”, so as you could imagine I was depressed for the rest of the day.
This series and team, like so many other Marvel properties created in the ’70s , seems to fluxuate between forgotten, cult-classic and popular. Hopefully, even after the failed Chaykin relaunch, it will swing back to popular.