Hyperion/Supreme Power Mega-Post Part 1
Dec. 29th, 2009 01:00 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
proteus_lives posting in ![[community profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyGreetings True Believers! I have been inspired to do a series of posts about Mark Milton/Hyperion of Earth-31916 A.K.A the Supreme Power Universe. Hyperion is a Superman analog and the whole concept of the Squadron Supreme is a Marvel riff of the Justice League. What began as a shallow idea really took off. I really suggest the 1985-86 Squadron Supreme maxi-series by Mark Gruenwald. It's fantastic. In 2003 Marvel published a MAX reboot of the series called Supreme Power and it is also excellent.
This series has some simple but interesting themes. What if a Superman wasn't raised by kindly farming couple? What if it wasn't so easy to fit into the human race, even if you look like them? Would people, governments and others react to the sudden induction of superhumans to the equation? What effect would superhumans have on a realistic world?
This post is about Hyperion's arrival, childhood and the first stage of his super-hero career. Enjoy!
Suggested Tags: publisher: marvel comics, creator: gary frank, creator: j michael straczynski, char: hyperion, nsfw: sex, title: supreme power
The story begins like many others. A farming couple witness something fall from the sky into a cornfield.
The story starts to change here. They take the baby home but this event has not gone unnoticed....
The baby is taken into the custody of the American Government. I liked this because Hyperion came down during the seventies. There is no way in hell that the US government wouldn't see something like this coming down in their own backyard.
Carter cameo!
I liked this page too, it shows people grappling with what was just science fiction yesterday. They also recognize the power and danger of their situation.
Two government agents are brought into the project. This man and woman are going to be the alien's parents. It's a twenty year mission with them cutting off all contact with the outside world and devoting themselves completely to their mission.
They meet the baby.
I like the scope of the operation. Choosing the name and already they are attempting to shape the mind of Mark/Hyperion.
His parents give him a puppy for his birthday. In a survillerence room two operatives discuss how many breeds and names they went through until they settled on one that seemed to fit the subject psychologically. His name is spot, his comics career will be a short one.
More reality. Toddlers are too rough with dogs sometimes and sometimes dogs don't like that. Or is it because the dog can smell Mark's alieness? Either way, he got his powers a lot earlier then Clark did.
His parents are freaking.
I understand their reaction. They are monitored at all times but how would you react to living with a child that could kill you whenever he wanted?
Mark starts to grow up, being home-schooled by his parents and "teachers" in a very special curriculum. And like all American children, he grows up in front of the TV.
I also like the progression of real-world events.
Mark is entering his teenage years and he's lonely. He's also starting to question why his parents don't let him outside the fence and the guarded area.
This converstion with his father with effect Mark's entire life.
I can barely express how much I love this page. The father's whispered, "god" while Mark hovers in front of the sun, layers of meaning and foreshadowing. And both them are so scared. The father, "Is this when he starts killing us or not following instructions? Mark: "Please don't say no, don't make me do something. Please don't reject me."
Later destroys a book with his flash-vision while his teacher is holding it. She is unharmed. He has another conversation with his father.
The project leaders decide it's too dangerous to send Mark to a real school, Project: Hyperion would be too exposed. So they create a school manned by project officials and populated by children of the project members.
Mark is taken to school in an APC and it goes down hill from there. None of the other students will speak or sit with him. They're scared.
Mark uses his x-ray vision to follow an overheard conversation in the girl's restroom.
Ouch, social rejection to the max.
Mark tells his parents he doesn't want to back to the school. Life returns to normal for a few years until it's time for the first Gulf War and Hyperion's first operation.
President Bush asks Mark to assist in the ousting of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Mark destroys Iraqi tanks and planes.
This pattern continues for a few years. Mark does secret missions for government but a being like Hyperion can't be kept under wraps forever. One journalist is on the trail and putting it together over the years piece by piece. He meets with a government contact who tells him the basic truth under pain of death if his name is mentioned. The reporter's reaction.
How would you react to such forbidden knowledge?
It's not just him. Word and rumors are slowly leaking out. The new Clinton administration decides to head them off and control Hyperion's exposure to the world.
The same reporter receives a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to step out to his balcony.
That's another page I loved. I love the change from the previous page and I adore that costume. It's functional and stormtrooperish. It's very dark and cool.
Of course the world flips out and the president holds a press conference Slick-Willie style.
And he introduces....
And "The greatest weapon in the United States strategic arsenal becomes the world's first super-hero."
Mark visits the reporter again.
So Hyperion does the hero thing for a while and the Project decides it's time for the parents to exit stage-left. They fake a plane emergency to ensure that Mark doesn't discover the meeting.
Mark is supposed to go on a fishing trip with his folks but they give him a bogus mission to distract him. (What they think is a bogus mission.)
They send him after the "Atlanta Blur" an urban legend that might be another superhuman. The emergence of other superhumans will factor in enormously on Mark's life.
I like what he does to track the Blur.
Creepy huh? But smart use of super-hearing.
Mark catches up to the Blur but the speedster doesn't want to talk. He does a left at super-speed and Mark can't make a course correction in time.
Mark is excited about discovering another superhuman, "I'm not alone!" Then some army guys arrive and tell him there's been an accident. Mark zips off to the accident and admits to find his parents.
I love the dead ocean life. It's realistic, he used his flash-vision under water and it was deadly.
The government puts Mark up in a new apartment in a major city. He has a request.
Isn't that fucking sad? Mark is still isolated and alone. All his life he's been lied to and manipulated. In part two, the US government and the world will learn the consequences of that. Mark will also encounter other superhumans and begin to discover the wider aspects and results of his fall to earth. I hope you enjoyed!
This series has some simple but interesting themes. What if a Superman wasn't raised by kindly farming couple? What if it wasn't so easy to fit into the human race, even if you look like them? Would people, governments and others react to the sudden induction of superhumans to the equation? What effect would superhumans have on a realistic world?
This post is about Hyperion's arrival, childhood and the first stage of his super-hero career. Enjoy!
Suggested Tags: publisher: marvel comics, creator: gary frank, creator: j michael straczynski, char: hyperion, nsfw: sex, title: supreme power
The story begins like many others. A farming couple witness something fall from the sky into a cornfield.
The story starts to change here. They take the baby home but this event has not gone unnoticed....
The baby is taken into the custody of the American Government. I liked this because Hyperion came down during the seventies. There is no way in hell that the US government wouldn't see something like this coming down in their own backyard.
Carter cameo!
I liked this page too, it shows people grappling with what was just science fiction yesterday. They also recognize the power and danger of their situation.
Two government agents are brought into the project. This man and woman are going to be the alien's parents. It's a twenty year mission with them cutting off all contact with the outside world and devoting themselves completely to their mission.
They meet the baby.
I like the scope of the operation. Choosing the name and already they are attempting to shape the mind of Mark/Hyperion.
His parents give him a puppy for his birthday. In a survillerence room two operatives discuss how many breeds and names they went through until they settled on one that seemed to fit the subject psychologically. His name is spot, his comics career will be a short one.
More reality. Toddlers are too rough with dogs sometimes and sometimes dogs don't like that. Or is it because the dog can smell Mark's alieness? Either way, he got his powers a lot earlier then Clark did.
His parents are freaking.
I understand their reaction. They are monitored at all times but how would you react to living with a child that could kill you whenever he wanted?
Mark starts to grow up, being home-schooled by his parents and "teachers" in a very special curriculum. And like all American children, he grows up in front of the TV.
I also like the progression of real-world events.
Mark is entering his teenage years and he's lonely. He's also starting to question why his parents don't let him outside the fence and the guarded area.
This converstion with his father with effect Mark's entire life.
I can barely express how much I love this page. The father's whispered, "god" while Mark hovers in front of the sun, layers of meaning and foreshadowing. And both them are so scared. The father, "Is this when he starts killing us or not following instructions? Mark: "Please don't say no, don't make me do something. Please don't reject me."
Later destroys a book with his flash-vision while his teacher is holding it. She is unharmed. He has another conversation with his father.
The project leaders decide it's too dangerous to send Mark to a real school, Project: Hyperion would be too exposed. So they create a school manned by project officials and populated by children of the project members.
Mark is taken to school in an APC and it goes down hill from there. None of the other students will speak or sit with him. They're scared.
Mark uses his x-ray vision to follow an overheard conversation in the girl's restroom.
Ouch, social rejection to the max.
Mark tells his parents he doesn't want to back to the school. Life returns to normal for a few years until it's time for the first Gulf War and Hyperion's first operation.
President Bush asks Mark to assist in the ousting of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Mark destroys Iraqi tanks and planes.
This pattern continues for a few years. Mark does secret missions for government but a being like Hyperion can't be kept under wraps forever. One journalist is on the trail and putting it together over the years piece by piece. He meets with a government contact who tells him the basic truth under pain of death if his name is mentioned. The reporter's reaction.
How would you react to such forbidden knowledge?
It's not just him. Word and rumors are slowly leaking out. The new Clinton administration decides to head them off and control Hyperion's exposure to the world.
The same reporter receives a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to step out to his balcony.
That's another page I loved. I love the change from the previous page and I adore that costume. It's functional and stormtrooperish. It's very dark and cool.
Of course the world flips out and the president holds a press conference Slick-Willie style.
And he introduces....
And "The greatest weapon in the United States strategic arsenal becomes the world's first super-hero."
Mark visits the reporter again.
So Hyperion does the hero thing for a while and the Project decides it's time for the parents to exit stage-left. They fake a plane emergency to ensure that Mark doesn't discover the meeting.
Mark is supposed to go on a fishing trip with his folks but they give him a bogus mission to distract him. (What they think is a bogus mission.)
They send him after the "Atlanta Blur" an urban legend that might be another superhuman. The emergence of other superhumans will factor in enormously on Mark's life.
I like what he does to track the Blur.
Creepy huh? But smart use of super-hearing.
Mark catches up to the Blur but the speedster doesn't want to talk. He does a left at super-speed and Mark can't make a course correction in time.
Mark is excited about discovering another superhuman, "I'm not alone!" Then some army guys arrive and tell him there's been an accident. Mark zips off to the accident and admits to find his parents.
I love the dead ocean life. It's realistic, he used his flash-vision under water and it was deadly.
The government puts Mark up in a new apartment in a major city. He has a request.
Isn't that fucking sad? Mark is still isolated and alone. All his life he's been lied to and manipulated. In part two, the US government and the world will learn the consequences of that. Mark will also encounter other superhumans and begin to discover the wider aspects and results of his fall to earth. I hope you enjoyed!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 07:02 pm (UTC)And why does that make you think the government should abdicate all responsibility in his care and study?
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 07:42 pm (UTC)Because if he is a member of a hostile race which could potentially come back to get him and they discover how we treated a *young* member of their species we've just given a casus belli for an entire species of super-powered adults to go asskicking.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 02:39 am (UTC)I agree with Geoff. This book is a much more realistic reaction than any existing Superman-esque mythos.
And there's nothing here to indicate that anybody involved in the project, *anybody*, is acting in bad faith or can predict what will happen.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 10:23 pm (UTC)Of course, if Carter had, probably the plot would've changed so that he was indeed a convergent evolution product, and simply lost by his species, or given to our planet as a test.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 02:41 am (UTC)Maybe Phobos-sized. But Mars? Ouch.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 05:15 pm (UTC)But its great reading til that point, and you can read the original series by Gruenwald or just the summary in wiki to get an idea of what was going to happen. The original Gruenwald characters are still in 616 canon btw.