All things Supreme: Straczynski's Squadron (pt3)

And here we are, in the third part of our whirlwind tour of the Supremeverse. Part 1 is here and part 2 is here, if you feel the need to catch up. Today, we're looking at the non-DC-analogues, who are very fun in their interaction with each other. They were designed as a post-Supreme Power addendum to the Squadron, and it turned out -- great. Arcanna Dr. Fate? Dr. Light? Dr. Arcanna? DC Analogue: none! Alias: Arcanna Jones Powers: manipulation of reality (unstable and unreliable, but very, very powerful) Character traits: intelligent, confident, curious, nurturing Let it never be said that Straczynski doesn't know how to write female characters. First you have the psycho-sadist (Zarda), then you have the soft-spoken alien (Kingsley), and now you have Arcanna, a physicist with a PhD. She wrote her own book, in fact, titled Quantum Physics: the New Reality. Not too much to say about her, like everyone else today. She joined the Squadron, essentially, to learn more about her powers of reality manipulation. She's a very smart character, and it's always fun to hear her talk.

Emil Burbank

Hey look, it's another sadist, except he's not psychotic. darn. DC Analogue: Lex Luthor??? Except he isn't rich Alias: Emil Burbank Powers: superintelligence Character traits: conniving, sadistic, cautious,

Emil Burbank is a genius, but a creepy genius, but an awesome creepy genius. He ended up killing his parents and driving his sister insane just for the hell of it. He joined the Squadron not out of any sense of justice (The Blur), or to make something of his life (Doc Spectrum), or because he's curious about his powers (Arcanna), but just as an "experiment." To see what would happen. Life is a game to him, and he knows how to take advantage of it.

He's so creepy, but it's a cool kind of creepy.

Shape

Man, Shape is great.

DC Analogue: zuh? Alias: Raleigh Lund Powers: impervious to any physical trauma Character traits: mentally deficient, simple-minded, child-like

Shape is so great. He used to be a janitor, because he wasn't smart enough for anything else (because he's mentally retarded). But then the government's all, "Hey, this guy has powers. Let's put him on our team."

Shape is great.

Inertia a grayish past with a light heart DC Analogue: none? Alias: Edith Freiberg Powers: Impervious skin, superstrength, I think she absorbs energy too Character traits: easygoing, sad, broken(ish), friendly, light-hearted, volatile, quippy Man, I love everyone today, and Edie here is no exception. Her dad was a Christian bigot/hypocrite, and she ended up leaving her small town and leaving him. She was traumatized when a bunch of boys raped her in grade school, so I think she covers up all the trauma with good humor. You really have to admire that. She doesn't let her past hold her down, and her sense of humor is great. I didn't really get why she joined the Squadron, other than she has nothing better to do with her life. She's very easygoing about what the regime tells her to do, but she does do it.

Sigh. So overall, the four characters today have a fantastic dynamic together and by themselves. It's a really great cast that made the original cast of Supreme Power even more exciting. There were other characters too, but they had passing notes and had no field work behind them (because one's a living nuke and the other's a shrinking guy). With that our look into Straczynski's and Frank's squadron comes to an end. Can you identify each person here?

If you have any questions, or maybe you're curious about something I mentioned but didn't fully talk about, don't be shy! The Squadron was a work of art, and I'd love to talk my mouth off about it. Upcoming we'll talk about Chaykin and Turini's credentials for the Squadron, and I talk my mouth off about that. For the curious, here's Straczynski's catalog of the series and its spin-offs at World of JMS. Here's the Wikipedia for the series. And here's Marvel.com's catalog of the series. Mike Deodato is actually cited as the artist for issues 8 and 9, but those issues were never released (I didn't think he was a good enough follow-up to Gary Frank anyhow).