"What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary."

—James Madison

Per the quote above, if Dolley's Better Half is right, then the mirror of mid-term elections cast back a still-deeply-divided-America, but one seeming to agree that the, er, non-angels nudging the Land of the Free toward a fascist 21st Century have had their day, and that day is over. Angels are, in Mister Madison's estimation, thoroughly capable of governing themselves, but how does that other supreme being, the American super-hero, rate as governor?

If the Squadron Supreme limited series of twenty years ago is any indicator—not very well.

In the mid-1980s, American super-hero comics had what might be described as the opposite of a chip on their shoulder, apologetically reminding the outside world via "Mature Reader" titles like DC's Swamp Thing that, y'know, comics aren't just for mentally retarded 40-year-olds who live in their parents' basement. This is the context in which longtime Marvel editor Mark Gruenwald took advantage of an alternate reality where resided...well, an old joke.

The Squadron Supreme was originally intended as a gag that allowed Marvel's Avengers and an unofficial version of DC's Justice League to do battle. (Want to guess who won?) Hyperion stood in for Superman, Nighthawk subbed for Batman, and Power Princess understudied for Wonder Woman...and on down the roster the chuckles rolled. Interestingly, despite their wink-wink-nudge-noodge origin, these characters were never treated with a light hand...although, come to think of it, they didn't win very often, either.

Thus did Mister Gruenwald step into this alternate reality—Earth-712 for the Alpha Geeks—where he was free to assign actual consequences to a botched planetary takeover perpetrated by the brain-manipulating Overmind. These credible consequences include economic collapse, looting, and some really big hair. Our heroes—well, not really our heroes...more like their heroes—decide to make global lemonade out these world-wide lemons, moving from counteracting America's problems to preventing them—the Home of the Free as realized by the House of Ideas.

Alas, this preemption has the unhappy side effect of transforming the good guys from super-heroes to super-fascists...although admittedly, these are fascists with buns of steel and a great eye for color. When not rescuing kittens from treetops, the Squadron Supreme—not wholly unlike an "S.S."of a generation before—take over the country, hoping to turn it, often kicking and screaming, into a Utopia based on the insular paradise that produced Power Princess. Supposes Squadron leader Hyperion, "We'll abolish war and crime, eliminate poverty and hunger, establish equality among all peoples, clean up the environment, cure disease, and even cure death itself." Since this was before Britney and K-Fed met, they were not part of this ambitiously idealistic agenda.

Nighthawk rejects this docket and its methods—it's always the non-powered one with a zillion dollars in the bank, isn't it?—eventually organizing the Redeemers, a de facto militia composed of former villains, new recruits, and retired masterminds...kind of like the Oakland Raiders but with capes. (Note to the gay men: the Oakland Raiders are professional football team—sorry for boring the lesbians here.) Each member seems to have his own agenda but each wants the Squadron brought down, building the story's climax which manifests as a cataclysmic confrontation where characters die and don't get better...at least not for another series or two.

The series' action goes into hyperdrive in Squadron Supreme #6, which starts quietly enough. Arcanna Jones, the Squadron's Resident Fishnet-Wearing-Sorceress-Extraordinaire, casts a cloak of invisibility over Squadron City, a home which is as advanced, experimental, unfinished, and unrecognizable as the United States of 2006. This spell is presumably meant to camouflage these brave champions from such threats as mad scientists, armored megalomaniacs, and the ACLU.

This invisibility belies the turmoil taking place within the metro-sized headquarters. The subject of the turmoil, naturally enough, is brains...or, more specifically, the alteration thereof. See, an integral part of the so-called Utopia Program is the Behavior Modification Device. Perhaps foreshadowing television sets showing American Idol, the B-Mod Device is a computer that prohibits criminal thought. An external conflict begins when a warden refuses to allow his prisoners to be thusly modified, the irony of the good guys using brain washing seeming to escape all of the characters.

Which isn't to say that the technology doesn't have its detractors: it's eventually revealed that, before the prisoner modification program was implemented, one member abused the technology, causing his away-drifting super-heroine girlfriend to fall madly in love with him. (Breeders—feh!) That member is expelled, the love slave follows, and another member quits the Squadron in disgust, leaving many heady questions asked. And, just as importantly, unanswered.

If Madison was right, and government is a mirror, it's one that's easily cracked. If this series is any indicator, the tools of servitude can easily be abused as weapons of supremacy. And for six long years, our poor country has suffered the bald-faced arrogance of a profiteering squadron who, believing their own supremacy, invade...well, pretty much anything—from foreign countries to its citizens' sex lives, all the while reaping hefty, green profits. For six long years, these self-anointed saviors have ruled America using tools labeled as "patriotic" and "anti-terrorist," ostensibly to make the citizenry safer but instead putting each of us in a greater danger of liberty lost. As the dust of history settles on this lame-duck Congress, the losers would do well to remember this inalienable truth: America's greatest strength is that, in this country, no one is Supreme.

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The sworn enemy of all aerobics instructors, Terrance Griep works as reporter, columnist, essayist, playwright, and comic book scripter. He darkens the airwaves of the midwest United States and western Europe as professional wrestler Tommy "The SpiderBaby" Saturday. The International Gay Outdoors Organization recently named him one of the Nine Toughest Gays in America. He can be reached at Sp1derBaby@aol.com.

All images and characters TM and © 2006 of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. Review © 2006 Terrance Griep.

Prism Comics promotes the works of the LGBT community in comics. It does not implicitly endorse any other material or products associated with those works. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s).