Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme Review

The Utopia Project

Squadron Supreme (September 1985-August 1986) review- I must have read the late Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme maxi-series at least four times in its entirely in my life. The last time was this weekend. I just want to say that Squadron Supreme does hold up for me against the super-heavyweights in comic book revisionism and deconstruction (although Gru did not set out to do that) like Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, Kingdom Come, Identity Crisis, The Authority, and Civil War.

I remember when my friend Tony Vahl and I swapped the Squadron Supreme trade paperback a few years ago, and we shared many hours discussing the unhealthy personality types of Hyperion, Tom Thumb, Golden Archer, Doctor Spectrum, Master Menace, and the other heroes and villains.

Mark Gruenwald wanted to see how far he could push the Justice League of America (DC Comics’ group of heroes: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, et al.) with no restrictions, so he used his employer Marvel Comics’ copy-cat group, the Squadron. Mark pushed it to a place where no man had gone before. For that, SS is innovative and a forgotten trend-setter.

I want to be clear: Squadron Supreme is just as underrated as its writer Mark Gruenwald. Any fan of 1980′s Marvel Comics read some of Gruenwald’s work in Captain America, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Marvel Two-in-One, What If?, Hawkeye limited series, D.P.7 and others. Not only was Gru a great writer but he was also a great editor and no one could match his knowledge of Marvel continuity OR DC’s Justice League continuity- not even Mark Waid.

That being said there are a few reasons why comic fandom doesn’t rank Squadron Supreme as an elite mini-series:

1) Artwork: Bob Hall, Paul Ryan, John Buscema, Paul Neary are serviceable for the era (1985-1986), and fit the standard super-hero comic book for that time. However, they were not “hot” artists, and their style turns off fans who were used to George Perez handling large super-hero battles in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, Avengers, Justice League of America, and Teen Titans. Fast forward to 2010, and the artwork looks dated for new fans. Me? I have no problems with the artwork. In fact, a young Paul Ryan seemed better than his older 1990′s Fantastic Four work. But I’ve read the complaints.

2) Some fans couldn’t (and can’t) get over the fact that the Squadron Supreme team is a pastiche (a high-brow way of saying “rip-off” or “homage” or “parody copy”) of JLA. Checking out the reviews and comments from today’s era and back from the archive, quite a few Marvel fans wanted no part in reading about JLA imitators. Too bad they missed a great story.

3) Because of the subject matter (super-heroes want to enact a Utopia Program to rid America of crime, disease, poverty, and crime) there are many moral and ethical dilemmas. I read that modern readers are taken aback that the dialogue, art layouts, captions, and some plot devices are told in a standard super-hero style (ahem, the cheesy way), as opposed to the “serious”, “dark”, “mature”, and “grim” style that came after it, popularized by Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison. For fans of the era, who were conditioned to”standard” mini-series (CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS, SECRET WARS, CRISIS) it was no problem. However, it makes SS less mainstream for fans of today. You probably won’t see a coffee drinker reading Squadron Supreme at Barns & Nobels.

All of that being said, the social problems and philosophical questions in SS make this one of the most deep super-hero comic series ever. Many major political talking points of today are covering in this series. The characters are severely flawed- it was really the first time I ever saw Superman being showed as a condescending arrogant pr-ck (through his stand-in Hyperion. (The second time was in Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns).

Throughout the comic, reading about these well-intentioned heroes (although some are selfish), I can’t help but feel bad about them. It’s a mind trip to see how these characters fall from grace and how skewed and mentally unhealthy they are at times.

As far as directly influencing future comic books, the two major ones that come to mind are Identity Crisis and The Authority. In IC, the JLA uses a mind-erasing machine, and it divides loyalties of the group, and resulted in the DC Universe never being the same (well, at least until recently). This is a direct copy of SS‘s Behavior Modification personality machine, which had disastrous consequences as well.

The Authority- one of the most popular and ground-breaking comics of the 2000′s- is quite simply an updated version of Squadron Supreme, drawn and written in an R-Rated modern style. ’nuff said.

I’d like to add that Marvel’s Civil War had a similar tone, more so than Watchmen or Kingdom Come.

My overall Squadron Supreme story and enjoyment rating is a 10/10, Mark Gruenwald gets a 10/10, andthe artwork gets a 6/10.