Supreme Power is off to an excellent start, and it marks a high point for the comic-book writing of Straczynski and the quality of the loosely-grouped MAX imprint, matching up to its impressive sales numbers with a solid debut. Straczynski has played around in this territory before, with the still-unfinished (and possibly at this point never to be finished) Rising Stars, but Supreme Power starts stronger and has the benefit of being written after Straczynski has a lot more comics experience under his belt. It also has the benefit of stronger art, thanks to Gary Frank and Jon Sibal (Straczynski's Midnight Nation partners). You're probably expecting me to also note that it has the benefit of established characters, but... well, we'll get to that.
Supreme Power starts out looking like yet another pastiche of the Superman origin. To be honest, in the first four pages, when we see a spaceship crash to Earth and a young couple pull a child from the wreckage to adopt from their own, I thought we were going to get a slightly-tweaked version of Superman's origin. Then the black helicopters swing over, and the whole thing goes off in a completely different direction. It's a nice fake-out from Straczynski, and it's not the only example of great timing and shaking off expectations in this issue. Other high points include the revelation of young Hyperion's heat vision (in a gruesome scene that made me cringe, even as it drew me in), an interesting use of President Bush Sr. that explores some of the other side-effects of an alien landing on Earth and a pretty effective cliffhanger ending that shows that Hyperion's arrival is but the first in a series of events that will shape Supreme Power.
Straczynski has turned a bunch of relatively goofy super-hero archetypes, thinly-veiled knockoffs of DC characters, into a vehicle for commentary on political and sociological pressures that are relevant to the 21st century. Not too shabby, and certainly more successful right off the bat than most of his comic-book runs, which have needed a few issues to really get going. In these pages, Straczynski explores the notions of military paranoia, surveillance and privacy and the role of the common man and woman in the larger schemes of their government. I was especially impressed that he used real political figures and a march of time in this book, which is a fairly small part of the whole thing but which also sets it apart from most other super-hero books pretty effectively.
Gary Frank and Jon Sibal, along with colorist Chris Sotomayor, turn in a fantastic job on the artwork. Clearly Frank has taken to heart the notion of a more realistic approach to super-powers and super-cliches, from the more mechanized and functional-looking life support in Hyperion's ship to the brutal effects of his powers, but there are some scenes here that also show he's got the ability to do the larger-than-life stuff as well. The view of the starship battles that brought Hyperion to Earth, as well as the final scene that demonstrates another super-power very effectively, is grandiose super-hero stuff. Frank's work does continue to look a little strange around the eyes, as many of the characters (notably Hyperion and his two adoptive mothers) seem to be wide-eyed all the time, but in general this is pretty amazing-looking artwork.
And yet... while I loved this issue, I think there was a big mistake made in tying it into the Squadron Supreme, and an even bigger mistake in doing this special edition. Gary Frank's sketches and notes practically drip with disdain for the source material, and I find it ironic that his new costumes, while generally interesting, are no more or less cliched than the striking super-hero costumes that he mocks; they're just modern cliches that won't be dated for another 10 years or so. Certainly we didn't need the take on Power Princess, which borders on sexist at best and misogynist at worst. And including a reprint of the first Squadron Supreme story seems wrong-headed; it's obviously material that isn't aimed at the crowd that's going to pick up this new take on the characters, and all it does is reinforce these old versions that the creators are so clearly trying to get away from. Given how strong a foundation the creative team has built, and how different all of these characters are from their Squadron Supreme origins, it seems like the creators would have been better off shedding the original inspiration altogether once they saw the direction in which their minds were working. After all, Warren Ellis alone has created about five different riffs on the JLA... what's one more from J. Michael Straczynski?
In short, if you're picking this book up because you're a Squadron Supreme fan, you might want to prepare yourself for disappointment. If you're looking for a good super-hero yarn with a different take and a solid creative pedigree, you should definitely give this a look. Either way, I'd recommend picking up the cheaper regular edition rather than the special edition, which may leave a bad taste in your mouth if you don't share the view that the previous material was handicapped by the strictures of the period and genre in which it was created.
