From: khale@camilla.Eng.Sun.COM (Abhijit Khale)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: Squadron Supreme(was Re: McReviews: JLA #72)
Date: 24 Jan 93 22:43:52 GMT
Organization: Sun
NNTP-Posting-Host: camilla-50

In article <C1DMou.Aot@news.cso.uiuc.edu> rnmg1200@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Walrus and April) writes:

>No offense, but don't ever consider _yourself_ a Marvel zombie! :)  The
>Overmind has been around for much longer than Defenders #111-113.  He
>first appeared in the FF in the late '60s, I believe (don't know the
>issue number).  In that story, he dominated Reed Richards, and Susan
>(w/Ben and Johnny in tow, of course) enlisted Dr. Doom's aid in defeating
>him.  Doom, realizing the threat Overmind posed to him (and preferring
>to kill Richards himself), helped out, but they all got trashed until
>the Stranger showed up and shrunk Overmind to a microscopic level.  As 
>it turns out, according to the Stranger, he and tall, dark, and
>gruesome were the last survivors of two warring planets which destroyed
>each other.  They were given the total mental abilities of all the 
>members of their races, so as to carry on the fight.  But since the
>Stranger's planet was more heavily populated (or some such malarky)--
>and due of course to his being deus ex machina--he was stronger.  The
>effects of being so soundly defeated crushed Overmind's sanity,..

Actually, the Stranger thrust him into a subatomic Universe. It was that
loneliness that drove him crazy. 

 and he
>later became a host for Null (?), an evil formless creature who then
>used him to take over the Squadron Supreme's homeworld as seen in Defenders
>#111-113.  The last I saw, Overmind's body was being used as a host for
>a group of psychics whose bodies had been destroyed in previous issues
>of the Defenders' comic.  

>As a side note, two questions:  1) Has this version of the Stranger's 
>origin been retconned away?  I'd heard words to that effect somewhere.

Yes. This origin didnt make sense anyway when you consider the Stranger's
comments in his first appearance way back in X-men. Then he said something
like : "My people are interested in mutations. I travel from world to
world collecting them", and proceded to grab Magneto and the Toad. 
The later origin was given in FF : that he was the sum total of the survivors
of a planet called Gigantus which dwarfed galaxies (dont ask). In
this case, he would have no "people", of course. 

An issue of Silver Surfer had him talking to the Surfer who asked him who
he was and pointed out these discrepancies in his origins. The Stranger
first claimed that the first origin was a lie, and that he had told only
Reed the real origin since he was impressed by him. The Surfer claimed
that this too was a lie. At this time, the Living Tribunal popped up, and
spouted some psuedo-profound talk which seemed to hint at another origin
for the Stranger. 

Later, in an issue of Quasar, the Overmind tried to fry the Stranger's
brain. The Stranger admitted that the Gigantus origin was a lie but
didnt give the real origin. 

>2)  Have their been any more appearances of the Overmind since then?  I
>know of one in MCP, but has he/she/they been seen since?

Yes, the one in Quasar. The psychics who had inhabited the Overmind were
disposed of rather summarily in that Quasar issue. Seems like an interesting
plot thread to follow up on, but since DeMatteis was the only one who
really seemed to like them, I doubt they'll appear again. 

Abhijit
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc