History ComicBook / SupremePower

So begins ''Supreme Power'', Marvel's UltimateUniverse version of Comicbook/{{the Avengers}} foes, the Squadron Sinister and their later heroic counterparts the ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'', themselves originally an {{Alternate Company Equivalent}}'s of JusticeLeagueOfAmerica from the DCUniverse. It's better than it sounds, as it's pretty much one giant WhatIf story, with the premise of "What if TheGovernment raised Superman?"

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* AntagonisticOffspring: Emil Burbank was one of these. [[spoiler: His backstory revealed that he killed his school bullies by trapping in their houses before lighting their homes ablaze, lost his virginity by drugging and raping his older sister which eventually drove her insane to the point she had to be permanently confined to an asylum, and engineered his parent's death by having their car drive off a cliff for the sake of cashing in on their life insurance policy. All this occurrred before he even turned eighteen.]]

* MadScientist: Emil Burbank, though hardly ever do "mad" and "scientist" intersect with him -- he's a smart man who enjoys murder and sometimes even rape, but goes about those crimes in fairly mundane ways.

** ''SupermanReturns'' came out June 2006. Supreme Power #17 was released '''[[OlderThanTheyThink April 2005]]'''. Creator/JMichaelStraczynski is '''''CrazyAwesome'''''.

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* [[ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld There Are Two Kinds of Black People in the World]]: Nighthawk believes this;
-->"A long time ago, my dad heard Malcolm X speak at a church in Memphis. He said that during slave days, you had the house Negro, and the field Negro. The house Negro lived in the master's house, ate the same food as the master, lived in a warm room, usually in the basement. If the master got a cold, he was right there to help out, all cheerful and friendly because he wanted his own life to be good, and that meant making the master happy. The field Negro ate whatever scraps the dogs didn't eat, lived out in a cold shack, was beaten and kicked -- and when the master got sick, he prayed every day the master would die. Didn't matter if the master was technically a nice guy or not. The master represented the system, and it was the system he hated."
** It's pretty much the core of his philosophy: In a world with masters and slaves - oppressors and oppressed - every slave that isn't looking for a way to defeat the masters '''[[WithUsOrAgainstUs serves the masters]].'''

So begins ''Supreme Power'', Marvel's UltimateUniverse version of Comicbook/{{the Avengers}} foes, the Squadron Sinister and their later heroic counterparts the SquadronSupreme, themselves originally an {{Alternate Company Equivalent}}'s of JusticeLeagueOfAmerica from the DCUniverse. It's better than it sounds, as it's pretty much one giant WhatIf story, with the premise of "What if TheGovernment raised Superman?"

The stories are printed on Marvel's [[Creator/MarvelMax MAX]] imprint (basically the R-rated segment of Marvel Comics) and do not shy away from gore, destruction and violence. At the height of its publication, it was considered one of Marvel's better comic book lines (being released during the same era as the mainstream love affair with {{Crisis Crossover}}s and the infamous OneMoreDay, many saw it as Marvel returning to its spiritual roots of being an answer to DC's use of comic book tropes.).

ExecutiveMeddling would later have Straczynski off the book and forced a new creative team to relaunch the series with a new storyline and new characters that look a lot like properties already owned by Marvel. After this incarnation, the franchise appeared ruined. But a brief mini was released in 2011 that appeared to try to take a back-to-basics approach, harkening to the original run of Supreme Power (returning to the MAX imprint, a return to being BloodierAndGorier and more realistic story) but with the initial story focusing mainly on Hyperion and Doc Spectrum.

The stories are printed on Marvel's Max imprint (basically the R-rated segment of Marvel Comics) and do not shy away from gore, destruction and violence. At the height of its publication, it was considered one of Marvel's better comic book lines (being released during the same era as the mainstream love affair with {{Crisis Crossover}}s and the infamous OneMoreDay, many saw it as Marvel returning to its spiritual roots of being an answer to DC's use of comic book tropes.).

ExecutiveMeddling would later have Straczynski off the book and forced a new creative team to relaunch the series with a new storyline and new characters that look a lot like properties already owned by Marvel. After this incarnation, the franchise appeared ruined. But a brief mini was released in 2011 that appeared to try to take a back-to-basics approach, harkening to the original run of Supreme Power (returning to the MAX imprint, a return to being BloodierAndGorier and more realistic story)but with the initial story focusing mainly on Hyperion and Doc Spectrum.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: One of the more cynical Superhero comics, the best example can be the flashback montage that accompanies BillClinton's introduction of Mark to the world. Every point Clinton gives of why Mark is a model citizen and human are subverted by a relevant flashback, including Mark's parents telling them that they love him.

* MetaOrigin: The ship which launched Hyperion and [[spoiler:Zarda's]] {{Escape Pod}}s, which not only brought them to Earth, but an [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum alien engineered]] [[LegoGenetics retrovirus that transformed a number of the population into lesser superhumans.]] [[GreenLantern Doctor]] [[AlternateCompanyEquivalent Spectrum]] made good use of the ship's PowerCrystal, too. [[spoiler:Zarda's arrived in AncientRome, resulting in RomanMythology. Zarda went to sleep [[KingInTheMountain Under A Mountain]] at the end of that era, waiting for Hyperion to arrive.]]

* TheDeepSouth: Refreshingly averted with the Blur who is himself from the south and comments that the first blatant racist he has ever encountered was Nighthawk, a fellow black man from Chicago. Granted, they're from different generations.

Okay, stop us if you've heard this one before: [[Franchise/{{Superman}} On a quiet night, a Midwestern couple drives through a corn field. Suddenly, from up in the sky, a rocket falls to earth and crashes. Inside is a lone child. The couple takes it home to raise him as their own.]] Then a team of government Black Ops shows up to take the child. Guess you haven't heard this one. Siegel, Shuster, take a break, Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's calling the shots here.

Okay, stop us if you've heard this one before: [[Franchise/{{Superman}} On a quiet night, a Midwestern couple drives through a corn field. Suddenly, from up in the sky, a rocket falls to earth and crashes. Inside is a lone child. The couple takes it home to raise him as their own.]] Then a team of Government Black Ops shows up to take the child. Guess you haven't heard this one. Siegel, Shuster, take a break, Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's calling the shots here.

So begins ''Supreme Power'', Marvel's UltimateUniverse version of Comicbook/{{the Avengers}} foes, the SquadronSinister and their later heroic counterparts the SquadronSupreme, themselves originally an {{Alternate Company Equivalent}}'s of JusticeLeagueOfAmerica from the DCUniverse. It's better than it sounds, as it's pretty much one giant WhatIf story, with the premise of "What if TheGovernment raised Superman?"

* ExecutiveMeddling: They are adding analogues of Marvel characters for what reason again?

* SerialKiller: Michael Redstone, though note that he bucks most of the conventions. He doesn't care if he gets caught, because, realistically, what could they to do to him?
** They could let Hyperion kick his ass. That attitude is exactly why [[UpbringingMakesTheHero they raised him]] in a [[TheFifties Fifties]] RealityShow.
*** And then they could have Doc Spectrum [[MacGuffinDeliveryService grab him afterwards]].
* SesquipedalianSmith: Arcanna Jones.

* ClarkKenting: Lampshaded: Mark attempts to try this with glasses. His bosses tell him its a bad idea. None of the heroes in the setting have secret identities except for Nighthawk, who wears a mask.

** Brownstone to Ultraman/Bizarro

So begins ''Supreme Power'', Marvel's UltimateUniverse version of Comicbook/{{the Avengers}} foes, the SquadronSupreme, themselves originally an {{Alternate Company Equivalent}}'s of JusticeLeagueOfAmerica from the DCUniverse. It's better than it sounds, as it's pretty much one giant WhatIf story, with the premise of "What if TheGovernment raised Superman?"

* GotTheWholeWorldInMyHand: Hyperion holds his arm up to shield his eyes from the sun as he viewed Earth after flying into orbit as a boy and in so doing inadvertently "grasps" the earth in his hand. This proves to be one of the major formative experiences of his childhood.

* UpbringingMakesTheHero: What TheGovernment ''attempts'' and '''[[BadFuture mostly]]'' succeeds at.

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-->''"UBI DUBIUM, IBI LIBERTAS (LATIN) WHERE THERE IS DOUBT, THERE IS FREEDOM."''