Writer: James Robinson

Artists: Leonard Kirk & Paul Neary

Some thoughts to reflect on going into Marvel’s latest relaunch of the Squadron Supreme. 2015 seems to have been the “year of the Multiverse” for both Marvel and DC with both companies fully playing around with other-dimensional versions of their characters. For DC, it was Grant Morrison’s magnum opus The Multiversity and the critically-panned Convergence event. For Marvel, it was the mega-events of Spider-Verse and Secret Wars. In all cases, the companies used the events as an opportunity to play with their classic characters (and in some cases, ersatz versions of each others’ characters) by running them through the filter of the imagination and seeing just how silly they could make them. One of the grand themes of Morrison’s Multiversity, in particular, was to what extent he could run a character through a filter and still have them be themselves. Is Bruce Wayne still Batman if he’s an atomic knight? A pirate? What if he doesn’t model himself on a bat anymore?

These themes and questions converge somewhat in Marvel’s latest version of the Squadron Supreme, because let’s be honest, it’s the ultimate multiversal mashup team. In its purest form, the Squadron is Marvel’s ersatz spin on DC’s Justice League, but thanks to the aftereffects of Secret Wars, it’s gotten even crazier. Now it’s an ersatz spin on the Justice League made up of various individual alternate-dimension versions of the original concept. It’s copies of copies recombining to form a variation of the original Squadron, which is of itself a copy of another company’s team. That’s enough to make even Grant Morrison’s head hurt.

I raise all this because I’ve seen some hefty criticism of this issue before reading this: that Marvel’s latest Squadron is a bunch of bullies, unworthy of the Justice League that they’re imitating. This Squadron doesn’t seek justice, but vengeance–illustrated by their murder of Namor and destruction of Atlantis as an act of revenge for events prior to Secret Wars. That’s a fair criticism, but also misplaced. If the latest Squadron concept is looked at through the wrong Morrisonian filter, then yes–this team has deviated so far from the heroism of the Justice League that they really only resemble the League in the most superficial of sense.

If we’re comparing this or any prior incarnation of the Squadron to the Justice League, it’s always going to come up short. However, that’s misdirected. The Squadron shouldn’t be compared to the Justice League, but to the Squadron qua the Squadron. The beauty of Mark Gruenwald’s classic 12-issue series was that it asked the question of what would happen if the original Squadrom Supreme took over the world in the face of unmitigated disaster. The answer was that however well-intentioned and for whatever good they did, they’d end up making things worse in the long-term. It’s really that theme which the new Squadron Supreme is playing off, and in that sense, Robinson and Kirk seem to be doing fine so far.

The latest Squadron is made of various alternate Squadron members who are the sole survivors of their now-extinct universes.  Thankfully, they’re not unfamiliar: Hyperion is from Hickman’s recent Avengers run; Nighthawk from J. Michael Straczynski’s Supreme Power; Power Princess from the original Silver Age team; and so on. Being survivors, they’re determined not to let their new home (the main Marvel universe) suffer the same fate as their old ones, so they’re determined to take authoritative action to do so. Specifically in this issue, their goal is to destroy Namor so that he can never threaten anyone again. Revenge for his role in “Time Runs Out” serves to grease the wheels. In that sense, this book is playing off Gruenwald’s classic 1980s story quite nicely in exploring the concept of superheroes who take unilateral action to extreme ends.

This is not to say that the book is flawless. James Robinson is a great writer who can write some deep characters, but he just hasn’t flexed those creative muscles in this first issue. Unfortunately, the five Squadron members are driven purely by impulsiveness and revenge, so we don’t get too deeply into their heads and they come off rather one-dimensional. Hopefully Robinson will take the time to get us a little more intimately acquainted with the team in future issues. Similarly, this is not Leonard Kirk’s best work. As a whole it’s not bad, but he’s done better in the past and some individual pages appear to be a bit rushed. One image of Namor literally makes the character look like a balloon, and the lone shot of Thundra–apparently an upcoming team member–presents her with an unfortunately flat head with an oversized face. I hope this gets better in future issues, because Kirk’s capable of better.

Overall, this was not the best start to a new Squadron Supreme title, but there’s a decent enough concept that it may be worth coming back for a second issue. Do not expect this to be Marvel’s Justice League, but do look at it as its own thing: an updated Squadron Supreme for the 21st century.

Rating: Two and a half Gruenwalds out of five.