From: rnmg1200@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Walrus and April)
Subject: Re: Squadron Supreme(was Re: McReviews: JLA #72)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 21:07:41 GMT

In article <0fMdcYm00WDKQ4Em5w@andrew.cmu.edu> Vernon H Harmon <vh00+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>Excerpts from netnews.rec.arts.comics.misc: 22-Jan-93 Re: McReviews: JLA
>#72 Terry Wong@garfield.Stan (2336)
>
>> This is an incredible rip-off!!!  Marvel did almost the exact same story
>> 5 years ago with their Squadron Supreme mini-series.  At that time,
>> Marvel and DC were negotiating to do an Avengers-JLA team-up story.
>> When that deal fell through, the Marvel writers had some fun by coming
>> up with their own version of the JLA called the Squadron Supreme.  There
>> were equivalents to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Hawkman,
>> Zatanna, and others in the team.   The basic plot you described is
>> almost exactly the same as written in the Squadron Supreme.  The
>> group that takes over the world is lead by the Superman equivalent, 
>> while the team that that rebels against the superhero rule is led by
>> the Batman equivalent.  
>
>
>no offense, but don't ever consider yourself a Marvel zombie! :) The
>Squadron Supreme has been around for MUCH longer than 5 years, dating
>back to the early days of the Avengers. They also appeared in the
>Defenders from #111-113 I believe (it might have #113-115), which was
>the story which introduced the Overmind, and in Captain America around
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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, 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.
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?

>--Vernon.

The Walrus
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc