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Long ago, there was a sort of "wall" between the two major comic companies.
With a few rare exceptions, until the early 70s, writers and artists who
worked for DC never got work at Marvel. Partly, that was due to the
personalities involved, partly is was the corporate philosophy of the time.
This "wall of separation" extended to the companies' properties, as well.
As much as fans may have wished for it, DC characters never met Marvel
characters. Never. But there was a way, within the pages of a Marvel or DC
comics, for the characters to interact. Creators could introduce new
characters, with new names and origins, similar enough to the original
characters to be recognizable. Usually, these characters were presented as
villains, but sometimes, as heroes mistaken for villains.
One of the earliest of these non-crossovers came in Avengers 69 and 70,
when the Avengers fought a mysterious team of villains sent to fight them,
by the immortal gamesman, The Grandmaster. This team, calling themselves the
Squadron Sinister, would return to cause problems, from time to time, but
the biggest problem they caused was that a team of heroes, in whose image
the Squadron Sinister was created, would forever be mistaken for villains.
The Grandmaster, in a game with Kang the Conqueror, chose to use as pawns
duplicates of four super-heroes from an alternate Earth, Hyperion,
Nighthawk, Dr. Spectrum, and the Whizzer. The parallels between these
characters and four members of DC's Justice League of America, are pretty
obvious, Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and the Flash.
In Avengers 85 and 86, the Avengers, returning from an adventure in another
dimension, landed on the wrong Earth. At first glance, indistinguishable
from their own world, they entered what they thought was Avengers Mansion,
only to discover they weren't at home, after all. This was, in fact, the
mansion of millionaire industrialist Kyle Richmond, who fought injustice as
the hero Nighthawk. When Nighthawk appeared in the mansion, he was only
known to them as a villain, so the Avengers attacked.
They fought, in the time-honored tradition of heroes meeting for the first
time, until the Vision discovered their mistake and learned that this was a
team of heroes called the Squadron Supreme. The Avengers had foreknowledge
of a disaster about to occur on this world and the two groups teamed up to
save the world. At this time, the Squadron consisted of Hyperion, Nighthawk,
Whizzer, Dr. Spectrum, Hawkeye, Lady Lark, American Eagle, and Tom Thumb.
The Avenger known as Hawkeye, was using the name Goliath, at that time. The
next time the Squadron appeared, "Hawkeye" would be known as Golden Archer,
as Clint Barton had resumed using that name, by then.
The Squadron would appear in the Marvel universe, from time to time, in the
Avengers and the Defenders. But they really made a splash when, in 1985,
Marvel published the groundbreaking Squadron Supreme maxi-series. Written by
Mark Gruenwald, with art by Bob Hall #1-#5 and #8, Paul Ryan #6 and #9-#12,
and John Buscema/Jackson Guice on #7. This was Gruenwald's baby from the
beginning. He spent his entire career working for Marvel, but his friends
and acquaintances all say he loved the DC heroes, particularly the Justice
League of America. This would be his chance to play around with the
characters he loved, without the normal limitations of an ongoing series.
The realities of publishing are that popular characters can never be
radically changed without impacting their value as merchandising properties.
Marvel can flirt with changing Spider-Man's costume, for a little while, but
eventually, he will always be back in the basic red-on-blue. DC can't alter
Superman, appreciably, without throwing away the value of what someone once
told me is the most recognized trademark on Earth. This sometimes places
obstacles in the path of a storyteller that are more than a little
frustrating.
Mark Gruenwald, in the Squadron Supreme maxi-series, had the freedom to do
anything he wanted. He had a whole world to play with and that's just what
he did. At the time, the Squadron was just coming off a major victory,
having thrown off the mental domination of the Overmind, a villain who
preferred to remain behind the scenes and control people like puppets. under
his domination, the Squadron had joined in his plan to dominate the world,
using the American military to overthrow the governments of the world. When
the Overmind's influence was removed, there was chaos everywhere. American
soldiers abroad were mobbed and murdered, in the U.S. as abroad, the
government had broken down and the heroes found themselves overwhelmed with
the scope of the disaster.
Feeling responsible for the destruction, for which the world blamed America
and the Squadron Supreme, the heroes decided to try to set things right.
They proposed, to the President and to the American people, an experimental
plan, Project: Utopia. The President of the United States, at that time, was
none other than Kyle Richmond, a.k.a. Nighthawk, who announced his
resignation at the same press conference where Hyperion and the rest of the
Squadron unmasked and issued their proposition to the people. Their proposal
was grandiose in the way that only works in comic books, promising in one
year to repair the economy, eliminate crime, disease, famine, and even
death. If you ask me, that kind of agenda is bound to fail, I don't care
what kind of super-powers you can bring to bear on the problem.
Not everyone in the Squadron went along with the program. Nighthawk opposed
the plan, because he believed it would violate the fundamental rights of the
people it was supposed to help. Of course, he was correct.
In implementing their program, they stepped on a lot of toes. The Squadron
came into conflict with some military personnel, but quickly subdued them.
They made emergency deliveries of food and medicines to cities cut off from
normal supplies by the collapsing infrastructure. They instituted strict gun
control, confiscating firearms of all types from civilians, as well as
police and military. Police were issued narcotic-projecting "pacifier
pistols". Eventually, personal forcefield belts would be available for
everyone.
Inventive genius, Tom Thumb, on whose shoulders rested the bulk of the work
creating the new technologies upon which the Utopia program was based,
developed a machine for altering the behavior of criminals. It was this
behavior modification device and it's use, which caused the most friction
within the Squadron.
One way that the Squadron Supreme maxi-series was innovative, was that, for
each issue, a month would pass, so that at the end of twelve issues, the
full year would pass. Another way it broke new ground was in the mortality
of the characters. Nuke, a character loosely based on DC's Firestorm, mad
with grief over the death of his parents, died in battle with Dr.Spectrum.
Characters were allowed to grow and change as the series went on. They were
very human and fallible, in ways that even Marvel's mainstream characters
were not. When Golden Archer asked Lady Lark to marry him, she said no.
Later that night, Archer drugged her and used the Behavior Modification
device to change her mind. The next day, she told him she changed her mind.
This sudden change of heart led other members of the Squadron to become
suspicious, even to the point of leading Tom Thumb to add a protective block
to the device, to prevent its use in Squadron members, in the future.
Considering the purpose of the Behavior Modification device, it's
surprising that it would not keep records of all operations. This would have
provided crucial evidence of misuse and would have allowed the Squadron to
uncover the truth, much sooner, but you can understand why they wouldn't
want any records of tampering with the minds of individuals. After all, the
Nazis kept such good records, because they never dreamed they could be used
against them in any court. No point in giving possible future prosecutors
any concrete evidence to use against you, right? Another problem with the
Behavior Modification device, when it was used to reform some of the
Squadron's former enemies, these people were unable to speak a word against
another Squadron member. This led to more than one delay in action,
following some member's misdeed. Amphibian smashed the Behavior Modification
machines and ordered one of the reformed villains to delete the plans from
the computers. Arcanna, five or six months pregnant, hid her condition with
illusion and forbade the team's doctor, also a reformed villain, Dr.
Decibel, from telling anyone. The reformed villain, Lamprey, whose power
enabled him to leech the powers of other superhumans was prohibited by his
conditioning from informing the Squadron of his suspicions that Hyperion had
been replaced by his evil duplicate. If that wasn't enough, the Behavior
Modification device could not reverse any modification.
In the end, Nighthawk was forced to form an alliance with a former enemy,
Master Menace and recruit other superhumans to his cause, stopping the
Squadron Supreme from completing the Utopia Project and spreading it
worldwide. His group, calling themselves the Redeemers fought the Squadron
in their stronghold and Nighthawk managed to convince Hyperion that he'd
been wrong. In a last-ditch attempt to prevent defeat, Foxfire, one of the
reformed villains, killed Nighthawk. Even so, the Squadron ordered the
Utopia Project shut down and the Squadron agreed to disband.
One week later, the Squadron's universe was infiltrated by the a refugee
from the mainstream Marvel universe, a creature called the Nth Man. This
being, the product of exotic energy research in Project: Pegasus, had the
power to consume whole universes. As his power consumed the Squadron's
universe, they fought him and it was the child of Squadron member Arcanna,
Benjamin Jones whose magical abilities were destined to make him the
ultimate sorcerer on this Earth. Benjamin switched places with the Nth Man
(Thomas Lightner), who became the sorcerer supreme and Benjamin returned the
absorbed realities to existence.
Unfortunately, as will happen in alliances with villains, Master Menace
prevented the Squadron's return home, shunting them to the mainstream Marvel
Earth, for a time. Time which they spent working with Project: Pegasus, the
Avengers and the hero Quasar. Eventually, they were able to return to their
world, only to find the situation much changed from when they had left.
Not surprisingly, the "cure" was as bad as the "disease". A reactionary
police state had taken the place of the Squadron's "nanny state". Upon their
return, they found themselves hunted by the Blue Eagles, a sort of elite
police force, based on one of the more vocal proponents of behavior
modification, the Blue Eagle. It's not surprising that, with his attitudes,
he would inspire stormtroopers. When two members of the Squadron were taken
to a hospital, the medics noted that each was missing their "sub-dermal
Citizen Identification Implant", making them non-persons, without legal
status.
As an answer to the Blue Eagles, there were the Nighthawks, ninja-like
disciples of the new Nighthawk, Neal Richmond, the son of the original
Nighthawk. They functioned as a resistance force, to oppose this "New World
Order". Together, they vowed to band together once again, to fight the good
fight.
That brings us to the end of the Squadron Supreme: New World Order
one-shot. That's basically the team I wanted to work with, with one
exception. I never much cared for Amphibian. In the Squadron Supreme
maxi-series, he was a weak link, without the courage of his convictions.
Even when he decided he didn't like the behavior modification program, he
smashed machines, stole an aircar and fled. Not even willing to stand up and
speak his mind. That makes him worse than a wimp, as far as I am concerned.
That's weak.
On the other hand, there was a member missing, at the end of "New World
Order", that I wanted to use. She was injured in the journey home, but not
killed. During the maxi-series, she was Lady Lark, the Squadron surrogate
for Black Canary. After the events of the maxi-series, she took up Blue
Eagle's wings and changed her name to Skylark. For my purposes, I wanted her
back in Amphibian's place. For the other characters, I wanted to work with
the costumes they already had, but change them a little to suit my own
personal tastes.
Take Hyperion, first. Red and yellow are alright, but his costume was so
dated and bland. I liked the versions with the cuffed boots, so I brought
those back. I expanded the "atom" symbol and made it integral to the costume
design, rather than just being pasted on.
For Power Princess, I took her back, a bit, to the aesthetic of the
maxi-series costume, rather than her more recent form-fitting purple armor.
Also, I think it looks sexier than the armor and the purple-and-white color
scheme works pretty well.
Next is Nighthawk. I've taken some design elements from previous versions
of the Nighthawk costume, like the red wings. Others, I adapted from the
existing design, the pointy headpiece and such. Some elements I borrowed
from another version of the "Dark Knight" archetypes, the evil version of
Batman from the JLA: Earth 2 graphic novel, Owlman. That's where the
arm-bands came from, as well as the angular design of the headpiece. And, of
course, every Dark Knight needs a utility belt.
Up front, in blue is the Whizzer. I'm sorry, I know the name comes from a
Golden Age character, and in those days, people didn't care how silly the
name was, but seriously, I guy called the Whizzer, running around in YELLOW?
No way! Plus, I think blue and white looks good on a speedster. Also, anyone
who's standing in for the Flash should have at least one lightning bolt,
somewhere.
Behind him, there's Dr.Spectrum. Since he's gone back to wearing a mask, I
figured I'd make it a mask I like, so I cut the top off it his hood. I
reworked the way the colors were broken up on his costume, so that I could
get the full spectrum in there. ROY G BIV, remember? I think it worked out
pretty well.
On the back row, behind Dr.Spectrum, we have Skymax, formerly the Skrullian
Skymaster, the alien who first gave Joe Ledger the Power Prism that he uses
as Dr.Spectrum. Skymax is pretty much the Super-Skrull, as evidenced by his
appearance in "New World Order" where he had one fist all "rocky", while the
lower half of his body is engulfed in blue flame, allowing him to fly. I
figured any guy with "sky" in his name, should have some blue in his
costume. I didn't much care for his green cape and purple body suit, though.
I wanted to come up with a design that would evoke more of a Martian
Manhunter feel.
Lastly, there's the lady with the wings. Formerly, Lady Lark, then Skylark,
I would have given her the name Blue Eagle, except that name's a bit tainted
by the jackbooted thugs using it, at this time. The former owner of the
wings, James Dore once used the name Cap'n Hawk, in a defiant period and I
thought it would be nice to combine her old name and his, and Lady Hawk just
rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? The color scheme owes more to Blue Eagle,
than Cap'n Hawk, but it also borrows from her Skylark color scheme, as well.
The mask is more of a tribute to Hawkwoman, one of my favorite characters.
I got email from a reader recently, with some suggestions. Everyone is
invited to do the same! I'm always looking for inspiration.
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