minorthreat78's Full Review: J. Michael Stracyznski and Gary Frank - Supreme Po...
Perhaps you know the stories: a tale of an alien infant found by a young couple in the mid-west, an alien destined for great power. A young boy whose parents are killed before his eyes, leaving him with a sizeable inheritance and a desire for vengeance. A young man blessed with super-speed and a deep heartfelt desire to do good. A military man known for his strength of resolve and remarkable courage is given an alien artifact that gives him powers limited only by his imagination and will-power.
Sound familiar? Well, they aren't those guys. Welcome to the quirky and inventive first six issues of Supreme Power, part of Marvel Comics' MAX line of mature readers comics and brought to us by the creative team of writer J. Michael Straczynski (TV's Babylon 5, The Amazing Spider-Man comic book) and artist Gary Frank (Midnight Nation).
Anyway, so that those of you who either a) don't read many comics, or b) read comics but have tried your best to forget crappy 1980's mini-series that are better left forgotten, Supreme Power takes its cues from a 12-issue series called Squadron Supreme that was published in 1985 and 1986. Squadron Supreme was tale of several super-heroes whom were not-too-subtly based on DC characters, but with the added quirk being that the Superman equivalent, Hyperion, decided to try taking over the world.
While I don't know exactly what led Straczynski and Frank to take a relatively obscure 20 year old story and give it a contemporary, post-modern reboot as an adults-only series, but the series turned out to be a big hit, consistently selling out at the shops and being a serious fan-favorite on the comic-book fan sites and blogs. Truthfully, this wasn't too much of a shocker, seeing as Straczynski is big with the fans for his mixture of intriguing philosophical discussion and witty dialogue. And Frank, while relatively little-known, has a distinctive style that is a nice blend of the cinematic styles of many current artists and the pose-worthy style of, well, a couple years ago (styles change fast, ya know).
Basically, the story in this volume goes like this. A young couple driving down Anyroad, U.S.A. discover a crashed spacecraft with an infant boy strapped inside. Seeing it as a sign from God that they should raise the child, they take him home with them, where, of course, they will raise him and teach him right from wrong, until he discovers he has "powers and abilities beyond mortal ken", moves to a big city, takes a job as a reporter and fights crime, blah blah blah.
Well, okay, that was the plan, anyway. What really happens is that a bunch of black helicopter types from the government take the child, after which President Carter determines the best avenue to deal with this alien baby is to put him in the hands of a pair of field agents who will pretend to be his parents and help teach him to be a perfectly compliant destructive force for the U.S. military. So much for truth and justice, I suppose. Code-named Hyperion, and given the name Mark Milton, the alien boy grows up, becoming more and more powerful, even as he becomes more aware of how "different" he is.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Hyperion's arrival on earth, other potential heroes arise. In Chicago, a wealthy black couple are killed by racists, inspiring their young son to dedicate his life to protecting innocents from crime...at least, as long as the innocents are black, and their assailants, white. He is called Nighthawk.
A good, old-fashioned southern mama's boy out of Atlanta finds he is capable of moving much, much faster than can be seen by the naked eye. Wanting to do his mama proud, he chooses to use his ability to be a hero (and, as an added bonus, he gets all the funds from those corporate sponsorships a super-powered hero gets). He is called the Atlanta Blur.
A half-fish/half-woman is borne of a human woman. To say the least, this is an unpleasant event for her parents, who abandon her into the sea. Her role as yet unknown, she is the Amphibian (though they don't get around to telling you this in this volume).
Corporal Joe Ledger is one of the best the military has to offer: cool, efficient, willing to take orders without question, and possessing great courage, the powers-that-be choose him to investigate the alien spacecraft in which Hyperion came to earth. The result of this initially leaves Joe comatose, until he again comes in contact with the ship. With this, he becomes tied to the ship in a curious way that makes him spectacularly powerful. They call him Dr. Spectrum, though that, again, isn't told in this volume.
These batch of heroes make their introductions to the reader and to each other within the pages of this volume, and...well, that's pretty much it. The first six issues of the series are really little more than following Hyperion around as he grows up in his government-sponsored childhood home, and meets the other members of the cast of characters. The political machinations behind the Hyperion project are also revealed to us, and, to Straczynski's credit, his characterizations of the Bush and Clinton administrations's use of the information about a super-hero being the ward of the state ring true, even as they are ironic and humorous. The story often straddles the lines between outright parody, high-minded satire, and serious philosophizing. There is a lot to like here.
Of course, as I mentioned, there is very little plot development here. Straczynski is not noted for fast-paced writing, and here is no exception. Introducing and providing origins for the characters is almost all of the story in this volume, and the end of the volume is by no means the end of anything. It doesn't complete a story-line, there is no villain battled and defeated. It just sets up for the next issue. Those looking for a contained story will be disappointed.
The artwork by Gary Frank and inker Jon Sibal, as I mentioned before, is distinctive and attractive. While not on par with, for instance, Bryan Hitch or David Finch, Frank's pencils are quite impressive, and the man's attention to facial features is a big plus.
All told, this is a solid set-up for a comic-book series that really got better after these issues. Once the characters were established and the plot began moving, the series has gotten to be one of my top reads every month. While the stories contained in this volume are really quite good, they do lack much in the plot development department. Still, for fans of Straczynski, this is definitely a worthwhile pick-up, and fans of the series that came on later in the game ought to check it out as well; it is certainly cheaper than the individual issues.
To others, I would recommend that if you don't mind the relatively slow pace, and enjoy witty and well-drawn post-modern super-hero books with a few well-placed expletives, this is probably worth your time. Those looking for bang-up action and dramatic fight sequences, look elsewhere.
When an alien baby in a spaceship lands in the middle of a Midwestern corn field, the course of mankind on Earth changes forever. Babylon 5 creator St...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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