Squadron Supreme #1

   In a moment of cross-company fun, Marvel and DC had fun with each other's characters by creating familiar-looking super-teams based on their competitors.

   In an issue of Justice League in the '70s, the team faced heroes from an alternate reality - it was a thinly-disguised version of the Avengers.

   The same month at Marvel, they created a team called the Squadron Sinister to fight the Avengers - and it was obviously based on the JLA.

   Eventually, a heroic version of the team from yet another alternate reality, and the Squadron Supreme was born.

   That team was (presumably) lost when all the alternate Earths were destroyed in Secret Wars. But now it's back, and it's a complete mess.

   Rather than the team being survivors from a single Earth, each "hero" is from a different world. How did they survive the destruction of their worlds? No idea.

   It's a team of powerhouses - Hyperion (think Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern), the Blur (Flash) and Power Princess (Wonder Woman) - but they're also ruthless and brutal.

   So they go on a rampage that destroys a city and ends with the gruesome death of one of Marvel's longest-running heroes.

   How long will this death "hold?" I'm guessing about a year, but who knows?

   I get it, they're trying for a different tone - and they succeed there - but this isn't a team I have any interest in. Super-heroics in which the "heroes" kill and destroy at will?

   Nice art by Leonard Kirk and terrific cover by Alex Ross, but otherwise, not much to recommend here.

   Sounds like they should have stayed with the "Squadron Sinister" title.

Grade: C+

-----------------------