Supreme Power is a retelling of Marvel's Squadron Supreme, a series that was meant to mimic DC's Justice League. The real twist however for this series is that it falls under Marvel's MAX imprint, meaning it has adult content. The story begins with our Superman parallel Hyperion crash landing on Earth and being found in a field by a couple. A few days later the US government arrives to take the child and raise him in a controlled environment. It doesn't take long for him to show powers, taking advantage of this the government begins to groom him to be a weapon. Meanwhile the Flash parallel, called the Atlanta Blur is discovering his own power that was a result of a mystery illness he got as an infant. Fast forward roughly 20 years and Hyperion is a top secret military asset used to end wars, but he is eventually discovered and the Clinton Administration decides to go public with him as a superhero. The Atlanta Blur is discovered soon after and rather than be a hero, he gets a lot of endorsements by simply being himself. The Batman parallel, in this series called Nighthawk, is a black man who only helps black people. Unlike the regular Batman Nighthawk has no problem with killing and does so without any remorse, especially if it helps black people. The Green Lantern parallel is named Doctor Spectrum, he is an army colonel who was testing the crystal when it fused with his hand. The Wonder Woman character is Princess Zarda, a Greek goddess who spent the last 2000 years sleeping in a mausoleum. The last member is a version of Aquaman who isn't named until the end of the series. Her origin is that she was born with a defect that made her look like a fish hybrid. With the origin stories out of the way lets move on to the story.
SPOILER SECTION
This section will contain far more spoilers as it is the plot of the series, so feel free to skip if you don't want to have the series spoiled. The story can be broken into a few different parts. The first part is the origin stories that runs for a few issues. The second part has a more realistic feel to it. In a nutshell Hyperion learns the truth about his origin and becomes disillusioned with America, kinda. He realizes that sometimes the greater good doesn't line up with the American agenda. This terrifies the government and they put a plan in motion to kill Hyperion. The first attempt is they send Doctor Spectrum against him. However because the crystal fell to Earth with Hyperion it has a reaction with him that puts Doctor Spectrum in a coma. The crystal takes him to the ocean to heal undisturbed. There he is found by the nameless fish girl who is fascinated by the sight of another human. Hyperion then goes on a search for the truth that leads him to a military base. The general at the base, rather than talk with Hyperion decides to implement his last resort to kill him, 20 Daisy Cutter warheads that are stored under his office that destroys everything for a few miles. Hyperion survives however and is nursed back to health by the newly Awakened Princess Zarda. While this is going on The Blur is conflicted about being a superhero and continuing his endorsement deals to help his mother. And Nighthawk is saving black people and blaming all their problems on white people.
The final act of the series is more like the superhero book we are all used to. Hyperion is still on his journey of self discovery trying out all kinds of new things. Nighthawk is on the trail of a killer he believes to have powers, so he asks for help from the Blur and Hyperion. Meanwhile the government also finds out about this killer, and the new head of project Hyperion learns that the virus found in Hyperion's ship grants superpowers to regular humans, and that the group in charge of researching it has been testing it on convicts, and a few escaped. One of the escapees turns out to be the killer. So they send Doctor Spectrum after the killer. The group of heroes find the killer first, and actually defeat him fairly easily. But then Doctor Spectrum arrives and Hyperion hands the killer to him. He justified this by claiming only the government has the ability to hold him. The series ends with President Bush granting amnesty to any super powered human if they take up jobs as superheroes. Hyperion however decides to finally show the world his true power by causing a 10.5 earthquake in Antarctica, with a warning; stay away from him and he won't retaliate. And that is where the series ends.
END SPOILER SECTION
Personally I thought this series was worth the read. However I can't stress enough that the series is aimed for a more adult audience, it has strong language, graphic violence, and it has a large amount of nudity, and yet it all works to convey a more realistic take on the superhero. The writing is done well, the art, done by Gary Frank, is equally amazing and quickly became some of my favorite comic book art. The only real problem I had with the series is that they introduced a lot of characters they never use who end up in the background. But this is forgiven because the series continued to later series to accommodate these characters. The next issue is because the series is aimed for mature audiences it is hard to share with others, some of my friends are turned off by the language and nudity. However since the review is from my perspective, I give the series a B+, a solid first series that I recommend to any comic book fan.
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