 | Squadron Supreme: Encyclopedia II - Squadron Supreme - The Utopia Project
Squadron Supreme - The Utopia Project
Squadron Supreme - Synopsis
The Squadron's next major appearance was in The Defenders #112-115 (October 1982-January 1983), in which the Squadron and their world were under the mental domination of the Overmind, a telepathic alien. The Defenders travelled to their world and helped free them. However, the defeat of the Overmind left the planet in a shambles, leaving the world of in a post-apocalyptic state.
Author Mark Gruenwald built on this situation in a lengthy storyline comprised of Squadron Supreme #1-12 (September 1985-August 1986) and Captain America (Vol. 1) #314 (February 1986), illustrated by Bob Hall, John Buscema, Paul Neary and Paul Ryan.
In this series, the Squadron decides that they have the knowledge, wisdom and power to make the world a better place, and decide to implement a project to turn their world into a Utopia. Nighthawk resigns in protest, believing that the Squadron should serve and not rule.
Inspired by Power Princess's homeland of Utopia Isle, a perfect society of women based upon Wonder Woman's Paradise Island, the Squadron begins its own Utopia Project, an attempt to restore stability to the United States through use of their superhuman powers.
Over the course of the next year, the Squadron reveals their secret identities, institutes a program of behavior modifications in the US prisons (ie, mind control), enforces a strict gun control policy, and work on creating medical technology to bring the dead back to life.
Despite significant results in restoring stability to the United States, the Squadron Supreme meets constant resistance and tragedy. Amphibian quits, Golden Archer is thrown off the team for using the Squadron's B-Mod machinery to force Lady Lark to love him, Nuke is killed by Doctor Spectrum, Power Princess's husband is murdered by the Squadron Sinister's Hyperion, Hyperion is blinded, Tom Thumb dies of cancer, US citizens rebel and riot against the violation of their rights imposed upon them by the Utopia Program, and much of the team is killed after a vicious battle with Nighthawk's own rebel super-heroes.
Squadron Supreme - Aftermath
The series has since been collected as a paperback. This series was well-promoted and fairly popular, and the fact that Marvel Comics was publishing a series which was at best a thinly-veiled shadow of the Justice League was occasionally commented on, although no legal action occurred.
The series has been considered a precursor to Watchmen and Kingdom Come in its portrayal of superheroes and the implications of their power. It is widely held to have been Gruenwald's magnum opus: after his sudden death in 1997, he was cremated, and his ashes were blended with the ink used to print the first collected edition of the series (subsequent printings of the collected edition have been ash-free). The collection was a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 1998.
Following this series, Gruenwald wrote the graphic novel, Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe, a Crisis-analog in which the Squadron, reeling from the climax of their Utopia Program, must contend with a huge creature which seems bent on destroying the universe.
Squadron Supreme - Institute of Evil members in the Squadron
The Institute of Evil was the Squadron's version of the Secret Society of Super-Villains.
- Ape-X (possibly based on Gorilla Grodd)
- Lamprey (possibly based on Parasite)
- Shape (possibly based on Elongated Man or Plastic Man)
- Dr. Decibel (possibly based on Sonar)
- Quagmire (possibly based on the Shade)
- Foxfire (possibly based on Vixen)
Squadron Supreme - Nighthawk's Redeemers in the Squadron
Nighthawk then formed a group called the Redeemers from unknown superhumans and former supervillains.
Nighthawk's Redeemers may have been loosely based upon Batman and the Outsiders
- Redstone (possibly based on Geo-Force)
- Moonglow (possibly based on Gypsy)
- Inertia (possibly based on Halo)
- Haywire (possibly based on Black Lightning)
- Thermite (possibly based on Metamorpho)
Other related archives1969, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1990s, 1997, 1998, 2003, Amphibian, Aquaman, Arcanna, Batman, Batman and the Outsiders, Black Canary, Black Lightning, Blue Eagle, Captain America, Champions of Angor, Comics Buyer's Guide, Crisis, DC Comics, Doctor Spectrum, Earth-616, Elongated Man, Firestorm, Gary Frank, Geo-Force, Golden Archer, Gorilla Grodd, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Gypsy, Halo, Hawkman, Heralds, Hyperion, Inertia, J. Michael Straczynski, John Buscema, Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Kingdom Come, Lady Lark, Mark Gruenwald, Martian Manhunter, Marvel Comics, Marvel Universe, Metamorpho, Moonglow, Nighthawk, Nuke, Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, Paradise X, Parasite, Paul Neary, Plastic Man, Power Princess, Quasar, Quicksilver, Redstone, Roy Thomas, Scarlet Witch, Secret Society of Super-Villains, Serpent Crown, Shade, Shape, Skrulls, Sonar, Superman, Supreme Power, The Atom, The Avengers, The Defenders, The Flash, The Whizzer, Thor, Tom Thumb, Utopia, Vixen, Watchmen, Wonder Woman, Yellowjacket, Zatanna, comic book, cremated, graphic novel, gun control, mind control, miniseries, post-apocalyptic, rebooted, science fiction, superheroes, television, universe
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Utopia Project", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
