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A review by maukingbird
Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald, Paul Ryan, Mike Carlin, Tom DeFalco, Bob Hall, John Buscema, Paul Neary
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A really fascinating and engaging superhero epic that should be considered a lot more groundbreaking than it is. It tackles mature themes, deep moral quandaries, and realistic effects of super powered beings imposing their will on the world with all their good intentions and lack of foresight. The kind of stuff that's been done to death by now in comics, television, and film, but... Squadron Supreme kind of got there first? But a year or so later a little book called Watchmen came out and took it to deeper, darker extremes.
Ironic, then, that a DC book would ellipse a Marvel book paving very similar ground, considering the Marvel book in question is made up of analogues of DC's Justice League heroes and villains.
When I'm not distracting myself trying to figure out who is an analogue of who, the story itself does a great job of making me care about these characters on their own without my having to mentally graft their DC faces and personalities onto them. They're not just empty cyphers doing DC cosplay. They have their own history and even deeper ties to the Marvel Universe at whole. The book does a good job of standing on its own without requiring "homework" to be read. (not that that stopped me from reading as much of their prior appearances as I could before diving in, but that's just how my brain wants to work)
It's a good PG-13 antidote to the (sometimes difficult to digest) R-rated content of Watchmen. They're not the same but I think they deserve to be talked about in the same breath more often. They both take comic book tropes down dark and thought provoking alleyways. Squadron Supreme just does it without all the nihilism.
Ironic, then, that a DC book would ellipse a Marvel book paving very similar ground, considering the Marvel book in question is made up of analogues of DC's Justice League heroes and villains.
When I'm not distracting myself trying to figure out who is an analogue of who, the story itself does a great job of making me care about these characters on their own without my having to mentally graft their DC faces and personalities onto them. They're not just empty cyphers doing DC cosplay. They have their own history and even deeper ties to the Marvel Universe at whole. The book does a good job of standing on its own without requiring "homework" to be read. (not that that stopped me from reading as much of their prior appearances as I could before diving in, but that's just how my brain wants to work)
It's a good PG-13 antidote to the (sometimes difficult to digest) R-rated content of Watchmen. They're not the same but I think they deserve to be talked about in the same breath more often. They both take comic book tropes down dark and thought provoking alleyways. Squadron Supreme just does it without all the nihilism.