JulianPerez
08-11-2010, 03:44 AM
One thing that bugged me about the Gruenwald take on the Squadron Supreme was that, in defiance of their previous appearances and characterizations, Gru showed them as very clean, sanitized, scrubbed and Disneyfied...more like the characters that inspired them than the at times prejudiced and temperamental characters they'd been shown for appearance after appearance in Marvel comics. The trouble is that as the mini is very widely reprinted, it's often the only place many people have seen the Squadroners.
In general, the Squadron and the world seen in that mini were very different from the Squadron seen before in many ways.
Hyperion for example was a stubborn, arrogant muscleman that believed might made right, a world-class dick and authoritarian, and Gruenwald cleaning him up to be more like his inspiration - Superman - did Hyperion's uniqueness a disservice.
The relationship with Zarda made no sense to me. It was based around the idea that Hyperion can't really say what's on his mind so how can he express his true feelings for Power Princess? That always baffled me because Hyperion was always characterized, prior to the Gru mini, as having the opposite problem: he was blunt and direct to the point he was alienating.
Everyone was excessively sanitized in the Gru series. Cap'n Hawk, in his very first appearance in Avengers was a superpatriot to the point he was a little insane...in his first meeting accusing the Avengers of being Communist simps. Tom Thumb was always, always a pissed off little runt that had a Napoleon complex and an urge to smash.
What's more...every single time we've ever seen Squadron-Earth in Avengers, we were led to believe that it was a world with a history, as rich and peopled as Marvel-Earth, a whole other world that we barely got snippets of. The idea in Gru's story that there are only something like 20 people with powers and costumes in the whole of Squadron-Earth makes that world seem all small, petty and unimaginative.
In general, the Squadron and the world seen in that mini were very different from the Squadron seen before in many ways.
Hyperion for example was a stubborn, arrogant muscleman that believed might made right, a world-class dick and authoritarian, and Gruenwald cleaning him up to be more like his inspiration - Superman - did Hyperion's uniqueness a disservice.
The relationship with Zarda made no sense to me. It was based around the idea that Hyperion can't really say what's on his mind so how can he express his true feelings for Power Princess? That always baffled me because Hyperion was always characterized, prior to the Gru mini, as having the opposite problem: he was blunt and direct to the point he was alienating.
Everyone was excessively sanitized in the Gru series. Cap'n Hawk, in his very first appearance in Avengers was a superpatriot to the point he was a little insane...in his first meeting accusing the Avengers of being Communist simps. Tom Thumb was always, always a pissed off little runt that had a Napoleon complex and an urge to smash.
What's more...every single time we've ever seen Squadron-Earth in Avengers, we were led to believe that it was a world with a history, as rich and peopled as Marvel-Earth, a whole other world that we barely got snippets of. The idea in Gru's story that there are only something like 20 people with powers and costumes in the whole of Squadron-Earth makes that world seem all small, petty and unimaginative.