Characters / Squadron Supreme

Squadron Supreme

In General

"We stand for what is best in us, and against that which is worst. Without hesitation, apology or compromise. And we never, never, NEVER SURRENDER."

"Lighten up, Nighthawk! It may have taken awhile, but we won! We always do, eventually!"

— Nuke

Expies of the Justice League of America, based on their Bronze Age and Silver Age incarnations. As they are Earth-712's only team of superhuman champions, they are by necessity composed of its greatest metahuman crimefighters. The Squadron Supreme of America (the team's full, formal name) has always had close ties with the U.S. government (even before Nighthawk, one of the Squadron's key members became President), to the extent that it was recognized as a special branch of the military, granting the organization special powers and sanctions. It has been argued that these close ties with the government have been at the crux of the various social emergencies and all out disasters that have befallen the Squadron and Earth-712 as a whole. At the start of this story, the Squadron is recovering from being pawns of the Overmind's mental control, the after effects leaving them faced with the near total collapse of society and civilization; dire circumstances that makes the team take steps it never would have considered in the past.

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• 0% Approval Rating: The Squadron as an organization has this when the maxiseries begins, due to their unwilling part in the Overmind's (behind the scenes) totalitarian rule. During the climactic Battle of Squadron City, Nighthawk cites Hyperion's cluelessness as to how overwhelmingly unpopular the Squadron's Utopia program is with the citizenry as the reason why it's pointless for Richmond to even debate the issue with him.
• Alliterative Name: Squadron Supreme.
• Badass Crew: The greatest heroes of this alternate Earth allied to form the world's greatest super team.
• Blatant Lies: The Squadron starts to indulge in this in the course of trying to maintain the public's trust.
• Corrupted Character Copy: While far from the extent as Supreme Power or The Avengers (Jason Aaron) (barring Golden Archer becoming a rapist), the 1985 series turns the Squadron into this for the Justice League. While the series predates Kingdom Come, the Justice Lords, Injustice, and even WildStorm's Coup d'Etat, it does feature the same premise: a major disaster that affects the whole world and the majority of the world's superheroes decide to take matters into their own hands, with several others deciding to oppose their now-fascist former friends.
• Despair Event Horizon: The Squadron, as a team, and as individuals, are at this point at the beginning of the maxiseries. The world they banded together to serve and protect has fallen into shambles, and they are largely responsible. This compels the heroes to implement the Utopia Program.
• Domino Mask: Hyperion, Golden Archer, Lady Lark and Tom Thumb all wear a version of one at some point in their superhero careers.
• Expy Coexistence: The Squadron were essentially created so that the Avengers writers could write unofficial crossovers with the Justice League. So when the JLA actually crossed over with them, this was naturally lampshaded by having Hawkeye make a crack about the League being "a bunch of Squadron Supreme wannabes".
• Evil Counterpart: The Squadron Sinister, which, ironically, served as the mainstream Earth's (and readers on the whole) introduction to the original, heroic group.
• Fanservice: The ladies and gentlemen of the Squadron, by and large, have perfectly toned, attractive bodies, wrapped in tight spandex or such. Artists (and writers) will often find reasons to depict them in even less.
• Flying Firepower: Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum, Nuke, Skylark.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: All the Squadron members' reputations and public images have taken a huge hit due to the whole taking over the world thing.
• Home Base: For the majority of the team's existence, the orbiting satellite called "Rocket Central" served as the headquarters of the Squadron Supreme. After its destruction, the Squadron adopted a cave as their temporary base, until the completion of Squadron City, a hidden complex the size of a small town, fully outfitted with a main headquarters, medical facilities, living quarters for civilians and even parks. Even later, Zarda's homeland, Utopia Isle.
• It's All My Fault: The Squadron largely feel this way for the condition the world is in at the start of the maxiseries. This spurs their undertaking the Utopia Initiative, launching the story.
• Rogues Gallery: The team on the whole can count Master Menace, The Scarlet Centurion, The Institute of Evil, and many other, less notable villains, as recurring, persistent adversaries.
• Secret Identity: Any team member who had one at the beginning of the story unmasked to regain the public's trust at the beginning of the Utopia Initiative.
• Sole Survivor: A flashback in the 2015 Squadron Supreme series reveals all of them, save Zarda, were killed by an Incursion.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: The crux of the struggle between Hyperion's Squadron and Nighthawk's Redeemers.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Squadron becomes this in their implementation and enforcement of the Utopia Initiative.

Hyperion

"Maybe this world crisis could have been avoided— if we had all been living up to our potential."

"Even when I curbed the use of my abilities, I was affecting things. If I chose to prevent one accident, don't you think I was aware of all the others I wasn't preventing?"

The Superman Expy right down to having an Alliterative Secret Identity that he casually abandons at the start of this story. As the most powerful and respected superbeing on this alternate Earth, Hyperion is its foremost hero and perennial leader of the Squadron Supreme. Unfailingly noble and indomitable, he usually refuses to physically take part in physical combat, as his vast abilities make it too easy for him to inadvertently maim or kill someone. Hyperion seems to lack most of the Super-Senses of his counterpart, which may help to explain why he is so often ignorant of the outcry of citizenry who protest his Utopia Initiative.

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• Achilles' Heel: Hyperion is immune to all forms of radiation except for that generated by Argonite, this world's answer to Kryptonite. He's also vulnerable to magic.
• Alliterative Name: Hyperion's false identity (before he abandoned it) was Mark Milton.
• And This Is for...: Hyperion delivers a devastating beat-down to his evil doppleganger, emphasizing each earth-shaking series of blows with the following:
  Hyperion: You've got to pay for what you've done, with your inhuman LIFE! [punch]
  Hyperion: No one makes a mockery of me, you hear? [punch]
  Hyperion: No one uses my reputation to conceal murder and lust! [punch, punch and more punch]
• Arch-Enemy: Hyperion and Master Menace.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Hyperion is usually the Squadron's leader, and is arguably more powerful than all the rest of his teammates put together. Nighthawk (formerly Hyperion's closest friend and the team's strategist) is convinced that the Squadron Supreme would not have the raw power to impose and enforce the Utopia Program upon America if Hyperion were removed, and Doctor Spectrum (probably the Squadron's second most powerful member) cannot restrain an enraged Hyperion for very long, even using all of his Prism's power.
• Badass Cape: He wears a yellow cape as part of his costume.
• Beam-O-War: Hyperion engaged in one of these with his evil counterpart. The end result was Hyperion going blind and the destruction of his counterpart.
• Big Good: The foremost superhuman defender of Other Earth by far, the Squadron's Utopia Initiative would never have gotten off the ground without Hyperion's might and reputation backing them. This role was somewhat subverted due to how the Utopia Program ultimately turned out to be a horrifically bad idea, but Hyperion's intentions were wholly noble.
• The Cape: Wears a flowing, golden one, and is the most well-known, trusted and powerful hero of the Squadron universe.
• Clark Kenting: He used to pretend to be mild mannered milquetoast Mark Milton, but when the series begins he abandons the identity, and brutally tells his would-be girlfriend nothing would ever happen between them.
• Deal with the Devil: Makes one with his arch-enemy Master Menace to escape the interdimensional trap Menace put them both in. Hyperion had to promise not to come after Menace, but only if Menace in turn has to promise not to interfere in the Squadron's Utopia efforts. Shockingly, the devious criminal mastermind doesn't keep his side of the bargain.
• Determinator: Master Menace shunting him into an alternate dimension did not prevent him from nearly exhausting himself to find a way out.
• Domino Mask: Hyperion wore one until he discarded his secret identity on national television.
• The Dreaded: One of the nicest, most personable members of the Squadron, but also the strongest, all-around most powerful member, whose mere arrival is enough to make armies surrender. A threat from him was enough to make the Scarlet Centurion call off a full-scale invasion.
• Energy Absorption: Hyperion's body absorbs ambient cosmic energy and converts it to fuel his superhuman abilities.
• Everyone Can See It: Even before Power Princess' husband Howard passed away, various Squadron members and their spouses agreed that she and Hyperion would be a great couple. Everyone but Hyperion, he later comes around.
• Evil Twin: Played straight when Master Menace recruits Hyperion's Evil Twin to infiltrate the Squadron.
• Eye Beams: He can fire powerful optic blasts of heat from his eyes. Referred to as "Atomic Vision".
• Fiery Redhead: Hyperion's hair is more strawberry blond than red, and his demeanor is usually very calm, bordering on dispassionate at times, but when his evil twin's charade is revealed, his pursuit of righteous vengeance is a terror to behold.
• Flying Brick: He's an Expy of Superman, so this much is obvious.
• Flying Firepower: Hyperion's flight speed and Atomic Vision are a devastating combination.
• Happily Adopted: He loved his human parents as much as Clark loved the Kents; and lived by the values that they taught him even if he came to believe that they were wrong to discourage him from interfering in the ways of mankind.
• Handicapped Badass: Hyperion was rendered blind after fighting his evil duplicate, forcing him to wear special glasses to see. This was later undone when Hyperion discovered his healing factor.
• Healing Factor: Hyperion eventually learned how to direct his body's energies to grant him this, healing his blindness.
• Heel Realization: It's only after he is drained of his powers and defeated in final battle with Nighthawk's Redeemers that Hyperion is forced to really listen to his old ally's reasons why the Squadron was wrong to impose the Utopia Doctrine. The pivotal point of Nighthawk's argument is that the tools and methods Hyperion and co. implemented to create a "perfect" society could easily be perverted for the use of individuals far less altruistic than the current Squadron membership. This makes Hyperion finally realize the Squadron's actions were wrong.
• Hero Insurance: Played with. Hyperion's climactic battle with his Evil Twin destroys much of President's Mountain (this world's stand-in for Mount Rushmore). The cause of the destruction is covered up by the Squadron, but Hyperion nevertheless helps restore the monument weeks later.
• Human Alien: Or at least Transplanted Humans, he's an Eternal from another planet who's the Last of His Kind after their planet blew up. Uniquely his branch of Eternals are weak to a substance called Argonite, this has no effect on other Eternals.
• Human Subspecies: He's actually an Eternal, a branch of humanity experimented on by the Celestials.
• Humble Hero: Despite being Earth's mightiest hero (or perhaps because?), is often seen apologizing for not arriving sooner to save the day, doing more during combat or the like.
• Immune to Bullets: During the first issue of Squadron Supreme, Lonni Lattimer (a Lois Lane) expy shoots him in the chest with a machine gun after mistaking him for an intruder. It doesn't faze him in the slightest
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Why he vows off any relationship.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Hyperion is virtually invulnerable, having taken blows from Hulk, Gladiator, and the Mighty Thor. The Earth-13034 version has survived the destruction of two Earths at once from the Incursions and battles with multiple Beyonders (though he was eventually overwhelmed).
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: Makes a little one at least every other issue he appears in.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: How powerful a version of Hyperion is can vary tremendously. Some Hyperions can lift planets and One-Hit Kill a giant Cosmic Entity while others struggle at 70 tons.
• Primary-Color Champion: He wears a red costume with a gold corset, yellow boots, cape, and insignia.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Throughout his tenure as chairman of the Squadron, Hyperion had to deal with a large number of incidents that would try the patience of any leader, most notably Doctor Spectrum's accidental killing of Nuke, Amphibian's discontent and dissenting opinions, and the Whizzer's panic/murderous rampage. For the most part, Hyperion handled all these instances with understanding, professionalism and compassion.
• Red Is Heroic: Has reddish hair, wears a mostly red supersuit, and is his world's foremost superhero.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Evil Hyperion certainly regretted stealing the original Hyperion's identity in the end.
• Rousing Speech: Gives one to the people of America and others listening around the world as part of a joint address with the President, to announce the implementation of the Utopia Program.
• Shooting Superman: The Nighthawks try this in "New World Order". Their leader Neal lampshades this act as "a waste of ammunition".
• Superdickery: As noted, Hyperion casually reveals his secret identity to Lonni Lake and informs her that the Love triangle was pointless because they could never reproduce. Way to break it to her Hype. He is also shown to be insensitive to the needs of his teammates, not because he's a jerk, but simply because he has no experience being weak and vulnerable.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Being a Superman Substitute, he of course wears a cape.
• Superman Substitute: If it wasn't obvious enough, he resembles Superman.
• Superpower Lottery: He's got the full Superman package, so Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Eye Beams, and Nigh-Invulnerability are a given.
• Super-Speed: Even on foot, Hyperion possesses impressive speed. His speed typically ranges from faster than lightning to faster than light, as he once fought Gladiator on the nano-second scale.
• Super-Strength: Hyperion is the most physically powerful being on his Earth, and has traded blows with both the The Incredible Hulk and The Mighty Thor. His Earth-13034 is strong enough to hold back two planet earths with his bare hands and even using his strength to stop celestial bodies from colliding with Earth. Needless to say, He's earned his title as the "Brother" of Thor.
• Super-Toughness: As an Eternal, he's insanely tough. He can take blows from Mjölnir and is absolutely unphased by Wolverine's adamantium claws.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the very first panel of the very first issue of the maxiseries, Hyperion is depicted as trying (and failing) to keep the Squadron's "Rocket Central" satellite headquarters from falling out of orbit. Hyperion is indeed possessed of more physical power than probably anyone else on this alternate world, but even he can't do anything against the incredible momentum of a multi-ton orbiting headquarters caught in the inexorable grip of the Earth's gravity, especially without being able to brace himself against anything.
• Team Dad: Pretty much the same age as his colleagues, but is still recognized as the ultimate authority of the team by virtue of his power and leadership qualities.
• World's Strongest Man: Hyperion is repeatedly mentioned to be the strongest being on his Earth.

Nighthawk

"The fate of the world— to be decided by a vote among the power elite. To think that it would come to this."

"I only wanted the best for our country... for the world."

Kyle Richmond, born into a life of privilege, became the masked crime fighter Nighthawk, dedicating his life to the pursuit of justice. He later becomes President of the United States of this alternate Earth, but resigns in disgrace when his domination by an alien force enables his former teammates in the Squadron Supreme to impose a totalitarian state across the world. When the Squadron elects to impose a Utopia Program upon the United States, Nighthawk quits the team in protest and secretly creates a resistance to his former allies' goals. An Expy of Batman.

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• Action Hero: An Olympic level athlete and genius level strategist who swings from rooftops fighting crime.
• Always Someone Better: Nighthawk is probably the most supremely skilled natural human athlete on his world, But he's nevertheless totally outclassed by mainstream Earth's Captain America.
• The Atoner: Resigns as President due to his being used as a puppet by the Overmind to conquer Earth. Richmond feels his inability to resist the alien's mental domination is the main reason society is in shambles, and steps down in shame and repentance.
• Badass Cape: Their capacity to grant its wearer the ability to glide for short distances almost makes it a set of wings. Hyperion even refers to it as such in "New World Order".
• Badass Normal: This world's version of Nighthawk has no powers at all to speak of, relying solely upon his supreme athleticism, gadgets, combat skills and superior strategic, intuitive mind, but was still a founding and key member of the Squadron Supreme and the foremost superhero on the planet except for Hyperion himself.
• Batman Gambit: Fitting, as Nighthawk is an obvious expy of The Trope Namer. His plan to take down the Squadron from within via his Moles depends on his former comrades acting exactly as he anticipates they will. It plays out nearly flawlessly.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Again apropos, as here, as Batman stand-in Kyle Richmond nearly shoots his former close friend Hyperion with a gun loaded with a bullet carved from Argonite, the one radioactive element that is fatal to the Squadron leader, to prevent him from imposing the Utopia Program. He ultimately can't bring himself to do it.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: By all appearances, Nighthawk and The Mink's whole hero vs. villain relationship was based on this.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Overmind's victimization of President Richmond causes the downfall of American civilization.
• Broken Ace: A genius billionaire Olympic level athlete who becomes not only the second greatest superhero of his world, but also President of that world's United States... before it all goes wrong and he resigns in disgrace after being mentally compromised.
• Building Swing: Often depicted doing so as his main means of getting around, as he apparently doesn't have like, a secret cave full of kitschy vehicles....
• Character Death: Nighthawk dies at the hands of a heart attack induced by Foxfire in the climax of the Battle of Squadron City. Nevertheless, his side won.
• The Chessmaster: How he ultimately takes down the Squadron Supreme.
• The Cowl: Much like that other guy who wears dark colors and prowls rooftops in the dead of night.
• Crazy-Prepared: Nighthawk keeps a chunk of Argonite in his mansion headquarters just in case he needs to murder his uber-powerful best friend to prevent him from instituting a well-meaning but ultimately flawed Utopia.
• Dating Catwoman: Though their relationship never really reached the "dating" stage, he and his former enemy The Mink nevertheless shared at least one steamy romantic moment.
• Deal with the Devil: Gets in bed with longtime Squadron enemy Master Menace for the sole purpose of having the criminal genius devise a means to reverse Behavior Modification.
• Expy Coexistence: His Batmanyness gets a not-so-subtle nod when he crosses over into Earth-616 looking for allies. A bunch of bystanders catch a glimpse of him and mistake him for the Adam West Batman.
• Honor Before Reason: Blue Eagle, Nighthawk's former teammate in the Squadron Supreme, accidentally discovers the secret hideout of Nighthawk's Redeemers conspiracy, which of course threatens to blow their whole scheme wide open. Master Menace, genius despot and ally of convenience to Nighthawk's team, offers the most pragmatic, obvious solution: use their copy of Tom Thumb's Behavior Modification machine to make Blue Eagle loyal to the Redeemers. Nighthawk vehemently rejects this idea, stating that using the Squadron's corrupt methods to get ahead or even survive would make them no better than his former teammates. Menace lampshades this stance as idealistic nonsense, but the two ultimately compromise with the solution that Menace only brainwash The Eagle to forget he ever saw the Redeemers or their base.
• It's All My Fault: When fellow Squadron member Nuke rejects the notion that the Squadron is responsible for the collapse of society after the Overmind debacle, Nighthawk shoots that right down, claiming paramount blame for himself as President.
• Killed Off for Real: Squadron Supreme #12 depicts the death of Nighthawk at the hands of Foxfire.
• Knight in Sour Armor: The state of the country under his watch and Richmond's various personal defeats have made him this. Nevertheless, he perseveres and plans to save the world from an even greater potential disaster.
• The Lancer: Filled this function when he was a Squadron member and his close friend Hyperion was The Leader. Nighthawk's pragmatism often served to mediate Hyperion's mild Wide-Eyed Idealist tendencies.
• My Greatest Failure: Richmond's term as President is cut tragically short and turned catastrophic due to his mental domination by the alien conqueror The Overmind. Richmond in turn leads The Overmind to the Squadron Supreme, enabling the alien to mentally enslave them as well, and take over the entire world. President Richmond later resigns in disgrace.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: You'd think so, but no. Despite walking in the midst of beings who can crush mountains, move faster than the speed of sound, created objects out of thin air and fly, Nighthawk remains confident and assured that he's one of the most valued, pivotal, valuable members of the team.
• Pragmatic Hero: He counters Hyperion's idealism by having a more realistic view of a situation and dealing with it in the best way, not necessarily the most moral one. His speech to Hyperion in the Redeemers arc actually mentions him leaving out ethics and pointing out how impractical it is to have a superhuman-enforced Utopia that doesn't account for villainous types who can re-interpret its rules to their advantage.
• President Superhero: As a retired superhero, Kyle Richmond had about as much need for Secret Service protection as a rocket needs training wheels. But he still proves to be no match for the Overmind.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a crucial, momentous one to Hyperion at the climax of the Squadron/Redeemers battle. Nighthawk describes all the major inherent flaws in the Squadron's Utopia system, with the biggest one being how said system can be corrupted by evil beings to create a Dystopia, which actually happens in "New World Order".
• Rogues Gallery: Nighthawk's includes The Mink, Remnant, The Huckster and... Pinball.
• Shout-Out: Both his real name and codename are nods to Richard Kyle, a fan who once engineered a hoax about Batman supposedly having been inspired by an obscure pulp hero called Nighthawk.
• The Smart Guy: Nowhere near the likes of Tom Thumb in regards to inventive genius, but is a supremely skilled criminologist and strategist, and the one the Squadron always turned to to find a solution to the unsolvable.
• Taking Up the Mantle: His adopted son Neal does this in "New World Order", as does his personal team of revolutionary commandos.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With The Mink. Sadly, with Nighthawk's death, it will remain so.

Power Princess

"Defeatist talk will get us nowhere. It is deeds, not words that will restore our credibility, and save the world in the process!"

"As long as there are individuals whose goals are not in keeping with the greater good of society, something must be done to protect society from those individuals."

The Wonder Woman Expy. Born on Utopia Isle (a highly advanced hidden society which is basically Earth-712's answer to The Inhumans' Attilan), Zarda Shelton stayed behind when her fellow Utopians left Earth decades ago. Hoping to act as an emissary of her society's philosophy of peace and the pursuit of knowledge, Zarda invariably found herself acting as a superhero, first as a member of the Squadron's predecessor organization, the Golden Agency . Increasingly frustrated with simply fighting crime, Zarda sees the initial civil unrest as a chance to rebuild society more in the image of the Utopian society that embraces fellowship and understanding. Aside from being one of the key and most fervent architects of the Utopian Initiative, Power Princess also serves as the leader of the Squadron Supreme throughout much of the story. Her Utopian physiology gives her vast super strength, enhanced speed, agility and durability, and is able to fly.

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• Alliterative Name: Power Princess.
• All-Loving Hero: Zarda comes from a culture where discrimination basically doesn't exist and so she is very respectful and caring toward everyone.
• Amazonian Beauty: She has a very muscular body in addition to being tall.
• Brought Down to Badass: On her return in the 2015 series, she's had all her powers drained out of her by an evil otherdimensional counterpart (shades of 70s Wonder Woman's depowering). She's still got decades of knowledge and fighting experience on her side.
• Determinator: While fighting against Inertia, Zarda keeps attempting to attack her even after Inertia proves that her efforts are useless. She even attempts to get up and fight after being hit by three redirected blows from Hyperion, but couldn't.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Was one of the main proponents of the Squadron's disarmament program, even filming at least one PSA promoting it.
• Flight: Originally, Zarda's ability to fly was the result of her transparent shield. However, it was later retconned to be a result of her own biology.
• Happily Married: Zarda and her late husband Howard. Though their relationship was no longer sexual around the time of his death, it was clear that the two still loved each other very much.
• The Heart: It is Zarda's impassioned pitch at the Squadron's momentous meeting that not only keeps the team from disbanding in the wake of the collapse of America, but inspires them to create a Utopia.
• I Have Your Wife: The Institute of Evil kidnaps Howard Shelton, Zarda's common law husband, along with the rest of the Squadron's family members.
• Immortality: Zarda is about five centuries old, and while she was originally just extraordinarily long lived, she later said she did not age at all. Her husband, on the other hand, is very mortal and by the time the fake Hyperion murders him, he’s already close to death from his old age.
• Last of His Kind: After the destruction of Earth-712, she's the only member of the Squadron left, save Tripwire, wherever he's gotten to.
• Made of Indestructium: Zarda carries a transparent shield made by her people that is virtually indestructible.
• Mayfly–December Romance: With her husband Howard, and later Hyperion. It's different than the typical example, since while she LOOKS younger than both men, she's actually much older than both of them.
• Most Common Superpower: Zarda is quite busty.
• Ms. Fanservice: She is a very beautiful Utopian, dark haired woman who tends to wear outfits that highlight her very large breasts, muscular body, and long muscular legs.
• Purple Is Powerful: Most of Zarda's outfits incorporate the color purple.
• Really 700 Years Old: More like 500, but looks no older than 25, thanks to her Utopian physiology.
• Statuesque Stunner: Her official height is 6'8'', though she usually appears somewhat shorter than that.
• Super-Strength: Zarda can officially lift 20 tons and is the third strongest person on her Earth, after Hyperion and Redstone.
• Super-Toughness: Zarda, much like Wonder Woman, is extraordinarily tough, but is vulnerable to piercing weapons like bullets.
• Team Mom: The strongest woman on the team, Zarda is also the most compassionate and protective. Look at how she comforts Dr. Spectrum after he accidentally kills their teammate Nuke.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Much like her inspiration's Flanderization in modern times, Zarda's reappearances in Exiles and Squadron Supreme (2015) have her much more bad-tempered and needlessly belligerent (though in the case of the later, she does have some justification).
• Touched by Vorlons: Zarda's people, the Utopians, were created when the alien Kree came into contact with primitive humans and experimented on them.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Suffers one at the prankish hands of Doctor Spectrum. She later gets her revenge.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Zarda is the originator and main proponent of the Utopia Program. For a very long time she has strongly believed that mankind could achieve utopia, but it it only after humanity reaches its lowest point that she is able to convince her fellow Squadroners to believe in it as well.
• Wonder Woman Wannabe: Pretty much all incarnations of her are based on Wonder Woman in some form.
• World's Strongest Woman: Zarda is the strongest woman on her Earth.

Doctor Spectrum

"Just because I'm great-looking, witty, fun to be around, and more powerful than most foreign countries, doesn't mean I have to let it go to my head!"

"I know I could have done far more for the world than the random stuff I've done."

A Green Lantern Expy, based mostly upon the Hal Jordan version, with a bit of Guy Gardner tossed in. Former astronaut Joe Ledger was gifted the alien Power Prism by his future teammate, the Skrullian Skymaster, as a reward for saving his life. Ledger took the name Doctor Spectrum and became a superhero, as well as a founding member of the Squadron Supreme. Despite his great power or perhaps, because of it), Spectrum starts out as one of the less mature members of the team until his encounter with teammate Nuke leads to Ledger accidentally killing him in an attempt to retrain him. Extremely distraught, Ledger takes himself off combat duty for the rest of the story. The alien Power Prism gives him the ability to wield vast, multi-colored energies that he can form into objects or project as offensive blasts, and gives him the capacity to fly and phase through solid objects.

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• Achilles in His Tent: Is second only to Hyperion in raw power, but for the better part of a year, he utterly refuses to use his prism in combat after accidentally killing his teammate Nuke.
• Arch-Enemy: Formerly, Quagmire to Doctor Spectrum.
• Bar Brawl: Spectrum alludes to having one when accosted by patrons in the course of his Nuke investigation.
• Beam-O-War: Engages in one during his battle with Nuke.
• The Casanova: Fancies himself one, at least, hitting on females even while on duty. He's never hurting for company, however.
• Chick Magnet: Even after the collapse of society, Ledger finds himself swamped by members of the "Doctor Spectrum Kissing Section" almost wherever he shows up.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Basically a decent, self-sacrificing hero, but his home is depicted with several adult magazines scattered about, and later intentionally causes his well-endowed teammate Power Princess to suffer a Wardrobe Malfunction in full view of civilian witnesses. Granted, Spectrum intended it as a joke, but he did make a deal to obtain a video of the incident...
• Dating Catwoman: Played with. Joe starts a relationship with Olivia Underwood only after she's behavior modified into becoming a loyal Squadron member. But before that, Foxfire was a member of the Institute of Evil and fought against the Squadron many times.
• Easily Forgiven: Votes to induct the former members of the Institute of Evil into the Squadron Supreme after they've been behavior modified, despite the countless times they've tried to kill him. Spectrum even notes that he's starting to like his old archfoe Quagmire.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: Ledger's energy emissions are multicolored like a rainbow.
• Flight: Doctor Spectrum's Power Prism allows him to fly, even in space.
• Flying Firepower: Doctor Spectrum's Power Prism enables him to emit blasts of energy in flight.
• Hand Blast: His Power Prism and later, its shards embedded in his body gives him this ability.
• Heroic BSoD: Goes into one after accidentally killing his teammate Nuke while trying to restrain him. It lasts until nearly the very end of the maxiseries.
• He's Back!: After spending most of the series refusing to use his Power Prism in combat, Spectrum overcomes this in the midst of the Squadron's desperate struggle for survival against Nighthawk's Redeemers contingent. In short order, he neutralizes Inertia, the Mink and Lamprey, even killing the latter by overloading and exploding him.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Is (was?) this with Golden Archer. Offers to let Wyatt hit him to let off steam so McDonald wouldn't get into trouble, and vehemently objects to Archer's later expulsion from the team.
• Hypocrite: Was a strong advocate of the Behavior Modification program (including the inducting of brainwashed former enemies into the Squadron), but vehemently objects to Blue Eagle's proposal to brainwash new potential team members who have no criminal records, calling it a "scummy betrayal of good faith".
• Intangible Man: His Prism gives Spectrum this ability.
• It's All My Fault: Invoked by Dr. Spectrum after the death of Nuke.
• Jerkass with a Heart of Gold: A slightly smarmy, immature, unrepentant practical joker, but when the chips are down, he will go to the wall for his friends and innocents.
• Kryptonite Factor: As it turns out, a massive burst of ultra-violet radiation can short out his powers for a time.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Spectrum is a former astronaut so its possible his "Doctor" title is earned, but he doesn't give any indication of being that educated.
• Pacifist: Dr. Spectrum officially resigns from combat duty after the death of Nuke. He stops being one during the conclusion of the original series.
• Power Crystal: A large gem that allows Dr. Spectrum to have powers like Green Lantern.
• Power Perversion Potential: Uses his Power Prism, one of the most versatile and potentially devastating weapons in the Earth-712 universe, to rip off Power Princess' top.
• Swiss-Army Superpower: As to be expected, the Doctor's Power Prism gives him this superpower.
• Took a Level in Badass: After Black Archer destroys his Prism, coating Spectrum's body with the shards, Spectrum seems to become more powerful and ruthless, taking out three of the most dangerous attacking Redeemers, one after the other.
• Touched by Vorlons: Dr. Spectrum was given his Power Prism by a Skrull, specifically his teammate the Skrullian Skymaster.

The Whizzer

"There are no guarantees in life. All we could do is try our best."

"Mowing down soldiers at 900 feet per second is good exercise, but no real challenge."

The Flash Expy, based on the Barry Allen version of the character (except he's a mailman instead of a police scientist). A founding member of the Squadron, Stanley Stewart is one of the most morally upright, compassionate members of the team. His gift is Super-Speed, and a body abnormally enhanced to accommodate the rigors of extreme velocity. This version has a family which is the source of most of his strain. That combined with his speed, Whizzer sometimes faces the temptation to simply run away in a fight.

---

• Alliterative Name: Stanley Stewart.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Is the most mild-mannered, humble member of the team. But is ready to kill when his family is endangered.
• Big Eater: Must eat huge amounts of food to maintain his body's super-accelerated metabolism. The Whizzer eats so much his wife Maddy feeds guests to their home extreme amounts by force of habit.
• Bullet Time: Perceives reality this way by virtue of his powers.
• Crazy-Prepared: Built an emergency shelter for his family long before the country went to crap. This pays off.
• Death Seeker: Sort of becomes this towards the end of the "Death of a Universe" graphic novel, when it looks like everything is coming to an end, and his family will die without him.
• Doesn't Like Guns: The Whizzer agrees with the team's plans to disarm the populace. This later causes a conflict when he's forced to attack the Institute of Evil with an automatic weapon.
• Giver of Lame Names: You think Whizzer is bad? That was his second choice. The first was "Boomer". (It might not be a coincidence that Whizzer was his wife's choice.)
• Happily Married: One of the few Squaddies who has a home life.
• The Heart: Shares this role with Power Princess to a degree, as he is extremely sensitive and empathetic.
• Henpecked Husband: Scenes of his home life have slight shades of this. "Stan, what did I tell you about running in the house?"
• Heroic BSoD: Suffers one when his family is kidnapped by the Institute of Evil.
• I Have Your Wife: ...and daughter, courtesy of the Institute of Evil.
• Mundane Made Awesome: His Super-Speed enables him to play tennis by himself, against himself.
• Mundane Utility: The Squadron has the Whizzer, a man who can break the sound barrier, run background checks, for maximized efficiency.
• One-Man Army: Stan is effectively this, as he can disarm entire crowds before they can react, and mow down seasoned soldiers at 900 feet per second.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the usually mild-mannered Whizzer freaks out when his family is kidnapped, opening fire on the Institute of Evil with a misappropriated machine gun while screaming "DIE, YOU BLOODSUCKERS!!, the supposedly brainwashed Lady Lark still has to comment how out of character this was for Stan.
• Papa Wolf: Stan's ready to kill when he finds out his family's been abducted.
• Required Secondary Powers: The time he spends in a "hypermetabolic state" must be balanced with time spent in a hypometabolic state. When Squadron membership becomes a full time job, this gets to be difficult.
• The Stoic: Gets this way when he doesn't get enough sleep to replenish his heightened metabolism.
• Super-Reflexes: Definitely a required secondary power when you can move faster than the eye can see.
• Super-Speed: Can break the sound barrier almost effortlessly, but needs to travel at least 500 feet to do so.
• The Unintelligible: Stewart becomes this when he tries to talk while running at super speeds.
• Walk on Water: Actually runs, by virtue of his power.

Amphibian

"The vast deeps are my home now. I prefer their serenity to the ceaseless strife and chaos of the surface world."

Amphibian's "ocean floor mode"

"I agreed to go along with our plan to correct society's problems, but we're not talking society here, but individuals!"

The Aquaman expy minus the royal background. Kingsley Rice's body possesses various adaptations enabling him to survive not only on land but in the deepest ocean depths, such as superhuman strength, durability, and swimming speed. He can also communicate with various forms of marine life. Amphibian was a founding member of the Squadron and served continuously for many years, before eventually resigning in protest of their adoption of the Utopia Program. He returns to the team years later, due to the events depicted in Squadron Supreme: New World Order.

---

• Achilles' Heel: Much like his inspiration, he needs prolonged contact with water, or he'll die. Something of a problem when the team bases itself in-land, over his objections, in a setting with no teleporters or teleportation tech.
• Apparently Human Merfolk: Amphibian, despite his aquatic superhuman physiology, usually looks entirely human. But the "New World Order" one-shot reveals that if he spends a long period of time in the deeper parts of the ocean, Kingsley's body adapts to the greater pressures and darkness of the murky depths by morphing into a more fishlike appearance.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns to the fold during "New World Order".
• Cassandra Truth: Amphibian voices his reservations about the Squadron's undertaking of the Utopia Initiative at the very first meeting about it, but is overruled. This pattern continues when he dissents from the prevailing decision to implement the Behavior Modification program, the induction of brainwashed former Institute of Evil members into the team, and the vote to expel the Golden Archer from the team. In all these instances, Amphibian's stance is ultimately proven to be right.
• Dude, Where's My Respect??: Amphibian is a founding member of the Squadron Supreme, as well as one of its strongest, longest serving members. So when his reservations and outright objections to the Utopia Program on the whole and its applications are largely ignored, he feels justifiably slighted.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Amphibian is able to destroy the plans for the behavior modification device by ordering the already brainwashed Ape-X to do so. She must obey him because of that very device.
• Hypocrite: Amphibian is arguably this, as he was one of the Squadron members most opposed to behavior modification. But this doesn't stop Amphibian from exploiting that same brainwashing to compel former Institution of Evil leader Ape X to delete the Behavior Modification machine plans from the Squadrons files. It could be argued that this was ultimately for the greater good, but still...
  • At the very least, he does acknowledge the fact he's taking advantage of the brainwashing and seems to view it on the grounds of it coming back to bite the Squadron in the ass, given he is using that very same brainwashing to destroy the devices that created it. It comes across as a point of the fallacy of the Behavior Modification machines, since they don't actually make anyone good, it just makes them follow the orders of the person who sets the commands.
• Meaningful Name: Despite the fact that Amphibian is apparently not the ruler of an underwater realm, his first name of "Kingsley" is a nod to Aquaman, King of Atlantis, of whom he is an Expy. It's also possible that the surname "Rice" is meant to evoke Arthur Curry.
• Only Sane Man: To a degree: he opposes the vote to implement the Utopia Program (which he knows will not end well)at the very beginning, but unlike Nighthawk, he opts to remain in the Squadron Supreme to attempt to moderate the eventual damage. He eventually quits when he realizes no one will listen to him and decides the Squadron will simply have to suffer for their own hypocrisy eventually. His ordering of Ape X showed the glaring fault in the modification process. Those who are put through it are only "good" so long as the people they are brainwashed to obey are good.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He quits the Squadron and isn't seen for the remainder of the series after Golden Archer is expelled for using the behavior modification device on Lady Lark to make her love him. He didn't quit because he believed Archer was innocent, he quit because the Squadron had the nerve to actually punish Archer for using the device that they all lobbied for. On top of that, he was against the election of former criminals into the Squadron, knowing full well they couldn't say "no" because of the modification.
• Super-Speed: Swimming speed, anyway.
• Super-Strength: Until Redstone shows up, Amphibian is the world's third strongest person in the world after Hyperion and Zarda.
• Super-Toughness: Not bulletproof, but is much more durable than a normal man.

Tom Thumb

"NO! Not impossible! If it can be done, I'll do it! I'll find a way!"

"I've got too much to do an' precious time left to do it in anyway!"

A genius little person (though, unlike his Justice League counterpart, The Atom, he can't shrink, he's simply short) and the backbone of the Utopia Initiative. Thomas Thompson is responsible for inventing the miraculous technologies that give the Initiative a chance at success though those efforts are not always appreciated. Possesses no superhuman abilities, but Thumb's innovative weapons usually make him quite the formidable opponent.

---

• Alliterative Name: Thomas Thompson. For that matter, Tom Thumb.
• Badass Normal: He has no superpowers, just his intelligence.
• Blatant Lies: Needs powerful backup to steal the Scarlet Centurion's Panacea Potion, but refuses to compromise the morals of his fellow Squadron members (or at least the core, non-brainwashed ones) by involving them in theft. Thumb lies to former Institute of Evil member Lamprey that the Centurion stole the Potion from the Squadron to make him go along with it.
• Character Death: Finally succumbs to cancer shortly after Squadron Supreme #9.
• Crazy-Prepared: This trope is played with as Thumb saves the Squadron Supreme from defeat by the Institute of Evil by secretly installing a failsafe feature in his Behavior Modification machine that makes Squadron members immune to its effects. But it's later revealed that Thumb did not install said failsafe until after he'd discovered Lady Lark had already fallen victim to it.
• Dating Catwoman: Played with. Tom becomes quite close with lab partner and former Institute of Evil leader Ape X, but while she has more romantic inclinations toward the diminutive scientist, Tom is totally oblivious and sees their relationship as purely platonic.
• Deal with the Devil: The Scarlet Centurion poses one to him but Thumb can't go through with it.
• Domino Mask: Wore a variation of one when he previously went into combat with the Squadron.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Refuses to tell the team about his illness because he doesn't want pity from them.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He's deeply troubled at how little consideration he gets from pretty much the world at large, even his own teammates, especially since without him the Utopia Program would be impossible. (Hyperion, at least, usually treats him rather decently.)
• "Eureka!" Moment: Has one when he realizes he can obtain a cure for cancer by visiting the Scarlet Centurion's future.
• Height Angst: He's a dwarf on a team where the vast majority of his colleagues have bodies the average person would die for, and feels his lack of height causes them too overlook, belittle or outright ignore him. The constant taunting by Doctor Spectrum and Golden Archer does not help his self esteem at all.
• Human Popsicle: Tom becomes one when he is placed in a hibernaculum after his death.
• Hypocrite: Tom has no problem voting to expel Golden Archer from the Squadron Supreme when he is discovered to have used the Behavior Modification machine on fellow member Lady Lark, despite the fact that Tom created the machine in the first place, and hid the fact that he knew someone (most likely Archer) used it on Lark.
• Innocently Insensitive: Hyperion, despite his great respect and fondness of Tom, unintentionally but semi-regularly commits this against his diminutive friend by picking him up like a small child or pet.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: The only "person" he seems to feel comfortable with is his Artificial Intelligence, Aida.
• Killed Off for Real: Squadron Supreme #9 Tom dies from cancer.
• Let's Get Dangerous!!: When the Institute of Evil invades the Squadron's cavern headquarters, Thumb breaks out a stun rifle and force field belt and takes the entire gang head-on. He's swiftly neutralized.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: His genius enables him to make tremendous innovations in engineering, physics, chemistry, robotics, artificial intelligence and biology.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Inverting this with Tom is a central theme of the story.
• Repetitive Name: Thomas Thompson
• Sadistic Choice: Squadron enemy the Scarlet Centurion presents him with one: poison Squadron leader Hyperion (enabling the Centurion to conquer the world)and receive a Panacea Potion that will (supposedly) save cure all disease, or refuse and know that he (Thumb) could have prevented countless millions from ever having to know death.
• Secret-Keeper: Nuke makes Tom promise not to tell anyone that his powers are out of control, or that his parents are dying of cancer Nuke gave them. He also hides the fact that someone (all reasonable evidence pointing to Golden Archer) behavior modified Squadron member Lady Lark.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Issue #9 of Squadron Supreme is arguably this, as Thumb undertakes a series of adventures, laced with Blatant Lies and moral compromise, only to ultimately fail in the main purpose of his mission, staving off his imminent death from cancer.
• Super-Intelligence: His brainpower and inventive genius seems to be able to handle and supply whatever the Squadron might need, at ant given time, from high-tech weaponry to cryogenic devices to time travel harnesses.

Lady Lark (later Skylark)

"Brace yourself: I'm going to give the signal!"

as "Skylark"

"So...you boys want to play rough, huh?"

Starts out as a Black Canary expy. Linda Lewis was a pop singing star whose career was cut short by an injury. Doctor Anton Decibel (the criminal Doctor Decibel) performs an experimental and highly unethical surgical procedure upon Lewis' vocal chords that endows her with the power of a sonic scream, ruining her career, but starting her new vocation as a superhuman crimefighter. Lark joins the Squadron Supreme and, after the death of Blue Eagle, she begins wearing his wings and becomes an expy of Hawkgirl as well, changing her name to Skylark.

---

• Action Girl: Becomes one as Skylark.
• Alliterative Name: Lady Lark's real name is Linda Lewis.
• Arch-Enemy: Doctor Decibel, the man who gave her her sonic powers, effectively ruining her singing career.
• Boyish Short Hair: After her identity change to "Skylark".
• Brain Washed: Her fate at the hands of her ex-lover, Wyatt McDonald (Golden Archer). It eventually wears off after he dies.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Becomes this after being programmed to unconditionally love former boyfriend Wyatt McDonald. The process worked entirely too well on her, to the point where her Archer (who originally wanted to marry her) did everything he could to get away from her. After Archer's death, she eventually became more like old, clearheaded, independent self again.
• Combat Stilettos: Somewhat justified in her original "Lady Lark" identity, as she wasn't truly an Action Girl.
• Domino Mask: Wore one in her previous Lady Lark incarnation; discarded it when the Squadron went public with their identities.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted and played with. During a key Squadron meeting, Lark fervently objects to the induction of the former members of the Institute of Evil into the Squadron, partly because of what they as a team did to her lover Golden Archer, but mostly because Doctor Decibel, a key member of that team, was the one responsible for performing the vocal surgery on her that ruined her career as a singer. But minutes later, when it's revealed that McDonald, without her knowledge, used Tom Thumb's Behavior Modification machine on her to force Lark to love the Archer, that selfsame brainwashing compels her to exclaim that she doesn't care what her fiance had done, as she loves him regardless.
• Flight: After the death of Blue Eagle, Lady Lark appropriated his wings for herself, allowing her to fly.
• Flying Firepower: Achieves this upon claiming Blue Eagle's wings and anti-gravity apparatus, and adopting her new code name of Skylark.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Lark was an up and coming pop singer before being forcibly experimented on to gain superpowers. She'd have much rather stayed a pop star, as shown when she relishes the chance to sing in space, where no one is around to be hurt by her powers.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: All her superhero outfits incorporate this.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: By virtue of her Sonic Scream powers.
• Ms. Fanservice: Lark's costumes usually incorporate fishnet stockings and always incorporates a low cut top.
• Sonic Scream: As a result of her modified vocal chords. The problem is, she can no longer sing with them.
• Stocking Filler: Wears fishnets as part of her usual costume up until her identity change to Skylark.
• Took a Level in Badass: By virtue of her getting over fiancee Wyatt McDonald's death and rededicating herself fully to crimefighting, taking on the new, more combat oriented identity of Skylark.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Lark becomes much more superficial, needy and shallow after she was modified.

Golden Archer (formerly Hawkeye, later Black Archer)

"I couldn't miss a target that big if I traded in me custom double-recurve for a toy bow!"

as "Black Archer"

"To redeem my honor, the Squadron's gotta fall. Sorry, but I can't even let old friendships stand in the way."

The Expy of Green Arrow. Wyatt McDonald becomes by all accounts the greatest archer on Earth-712 with unerring aim and armed with an arsenal of trick arrows. He is also a great hand-to-hand combatant. The Archer served in the Squadron for several years and was one of the most fervent supporter of the Utopia Program in its early beginnings. His on-again off-again relationship with fellow Squadroner Linda Lewis (Lady Lark) ultimately leads to his defining moment as a character when Lark refuses his marriage proposal (made after an especially close brush with death) and Behavior Modifies Lark to make her love him. McDonald is expelled from the Squadron for this and later joins Nighthawk's Redeemer conspiracy, rebranding himself as Black Archer.

---

• The Atoner: After he gets kicked off the team, he join's Nighthawk's insurgents convincing himself that nobody should have the power he abused. He is later killed in battle before he can fully atone.
• Badass Normal: Has no superhuman powers, but still (basically) carries his own weight on teams containing people who can fly, break steel in their bare hands and atomize solid matter.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: His desire to make Lady Lark love him again results in the disastrous decision to brainwash her into loving him. This results in Archer being driven to distraction (and guilt) by Lark's constant clinging, leading to him being captured by the Squadron's enemies to be tortured and crippled, and later expelled from the Squadron when his treachery is uncovered.
• Bring Me My Brown Pants: It's suggested by Foxfire that Archer is fortunate to be wearing yellow pants when the Institute of Evil captures him.
• Character Death: Archer's death at the hands of Blue Eagle causes Lady Lark a tremendous amount of grief.
• Color Character: GOLDEN Archer, later BLACK Archer.
• Darker and Edgier: His eventual change to Black Archer.
• Domino Mask: Wore one as Golden Archer/Hawkeye, dumped it when the Squadron announced their Utopia Program.
• The Gadfly: As Golden Archer, seemed to enjoy getting a rise out of his teammates with his rough around the edges and all-around snarky manner.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: He eventually joins the Redeemers so he can, in his mind, makes things up to Lark for brainwashing her by bringing down the Utopia program. As to why he doesn't just find her and de-brainwash her... well, she would probably feed him his teeth the minute he did.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Invoking the Green Arrow/Green Lantern dynamic, he and Doctor Spectrum are the best of friends.
• Hidden Depths: Is definitely an insensitive JerkAss for the most part, but what's notable is that he's the only one who seems to recognize that Tom Thumb (a frequent target of teasing) looks somewhat "bleary" and/or haggard.
• I Owe You My Life: The Archer says this nearly word for word when the Whizzer saves him from being killed by an Army soldier's bullets.
• If I Can't Have You…: Archer's response to Lark turning down his marriage proposal, at first screaming that she's probably in love with Blue Eagle, and then deciding that he'll make her love him from now on.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Probably the greatest archer on that particular version of Earth. Able to hit the smallest of targets under heated battlefield situations with unerring accuracy.
• Love Makes You Evil: At the very least, it makes you Mind Rape your ex-girlfriend.
• Master Archer: He's an expy of the DCU's archetypal master of archery, previously used the same name as the regular Marvel Universe's best, and is in a superhero team for those skills; obviously, he's just that good.
• Meaningful Name: His real last name was "McDonald", and his code name for the majority of his career was "Golden Archer". Think about it for a second.
• Never My Fault: The Archer, in his talk with former Squadron member and current Redeemer leader Nighthawk seems to take responsibility for brainwashing Lady Lark with the Behavior Modification machine, but still sort of shifts blame by stating that if the Squadron hadn't invented the machine in the first place, he wouldn't have been tempted to do what he did.
• Oh, Crap!: Archer has this internal reaction when his force field belt fizzles out in the midst of a pitched battle with Army forces, and a soldier opens up a full barrage of bullets upon him. Fortunately, his speedster teammate the Whizzer is there to save him.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: His brainwashing of Lady Lark could definitely be seen as this. When Linda refused Wyatt's marriage proposal, hinting she wanted to break up with him, McDonald later subjects an unconscious, lingerie wearing Lewis to the Squadron's Behavior Modification machine, programming it to compel her to love him, madly and unconditionally, effectively making her his love slave. By virtue of this alteration, Lady Lark was rendered incapable of refusing any request by the Archer, including sexual. The Squadron, largely disgusted and horrified by this, vote to expel the Archer from the group. Power Princess, one of the main architects of the Utopia Program, proposes that McDonald be subjected to the same brainwashing treatment the Squadron would give any criminal who committed such an act.
• Yandere: His feelings for Lady Lark tip him towards a male version of the trope.

Arcanna, later Moonglow II

"You have my word that the Squadron only means the best for you- for everyone! You have nothing to fear from us.. ever!"

"If the Squadron fails on this one, my newborn, my husband and my family will cease to exist!"

Arcanna Jones, a stand-in for Zatanna, is the Squadron's resident magician and illusionist. Like Whizzer, Arcanna is married with three children, and near the halfway point of the series, becomes pregnant a fourth time. Like Amphibian she objected to the use of the behavior modification machines Tom Thumb built, but didn't voice any further objections after their installation. Later adopts the codename Moonglow.

---

• Badass Family: All of her children show at least some proclivity towards magic. And this is without touching on what her youngest, Benjamin, becomes.
• Blow You Away: Arcanna is capable of manipulating the wind, allowing for Flight as well.
• Flight: Accomplishes this by riding a tree limb being held aloft by either levitation or wind currents.
• Flying Broomstick: Her method of flight, borne aloft by either levitation or wind while straddling a tree branch invokes this.
• Glamour: Arcanna has no qualms about her body size while pregnant, but makes it so she doesn't look like it because that way her teammates won't treat her like she's made of glass.
• Happily Married: Her marriage to her husband Phillip has always been shown as supportive and happy.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the "End of a Universe" oneshot, Arcanna must give up her newborn son Benjamin to save reality.
• Hot Witch: A blonde bombshell in fishnets and a low cut unitard who can cast spells.
• I Have Your Wife: Arcanna's husband and children (along with the Squadron's other civilian loved ones) are seized by the Squadron's arch enemies, the Institute of Evil, to be used as hostages.
• Lady of Black Magic: A feminine, gorgeous bombshell of a sorceress with a variety of spells.
• Magical Girl Warrior: Other-Earth's premiere super heroine sorceress.
• Magicians Are Wizards: An actual sorceress who made a living pretending to be a fake one, before she took to crime fighting.
• Master of Illusion: Arcanna apparently does this by bending light.
• Making a Splash: Arcanna mentions that she can control water as well.
• Ms. Fanservice: There's not much reason to depict Arcanna getting caught sleeping in the altogether, but then again, maybe there is.
• Pregnant Badass: Spends half of the series pregnant, but uses her powers to conceal it in order to put her teammates at ease. The series ends with Arcanna successfully giving birth to her fourth child.
• Shattering the Illusion: A subversion. Arcanna drops the illusion and reveals her pregnancy after her water breaks in the middle of the battle between the Squadron and Nighthawk's allies.
• Sleeps in the Nude: Arcanna sleeps totally naked, even in the co-ed dormitories, where she is shown wearing only a Modesty Bedsheet a few times.
• Squishy Wizard: An extremely powerful sorceress, but possessed of normal human level durability and not particularly strong. But Arcanna can throw a decent punch under extreme circumstances, as Moonglow found out.
• Stocking Filler: Like Zatanna, she wears fishnets.

Blue Eagle (formerly The American Eagle and Cap'n Hawk)

"I was only interested in seeing justice served. That's our job, remember?"

"Drop the stolen goods- go back to your homes, and there'll be no trouble."

James Dore Sr., the original American Eagle from Earth-712's World War II, bequeathed his flying apparatus, artificial wings and superhero identity to his only son, James Jr., who took up his legacy as a costumed crimefighter, becoming an early recruit of the Squadron Supreme. Basically the Hawkman expy, sharing not only the winged hero aspect but the hard-nosed, ultra-conservative mindset.

---

• American Eagle: As American Eagle, he was Captain Patriotic superhero whose shtick is using a flying apparatus shaped like a pair of feathered wings.
• The Atoner: He feels extreme guilt after former Instituter and behavior modified Squadron draftee Quagmire nearly dies saving a dozen civilians after having a heated physical altercation with Eagle. Tries to atone by making an extra effort to befriend Lamprey, another Instituter.
• Bad Ass Normal: James Dore has no inherent powers, but his wings, weapons and skills make him a very dangerous opponent.
• Bequeathed Power: James Dore, Sr. left his flight harness and artificial wings to his son James Jr., who became known as The American Eagle, then Capn'Hawk, and finally Blue Eagle.
• Blue Is Heroic: It's in the name. He wears a blue costume befitting the trope.
• Brain Washed: Falls prey to Behavior Modification at the hands of Nighthawk's Redeemers and Master Menace when he stumbles upon their secret hideout. Nighthawk is very reluctant to do it but is convinced that it's the only option; they can't let him go as he is, they can't keep him captive since the Squadron would notice his absence and be on their guard, and Nighthawk certainly doesn't want to kill him. While Nighthawk insists that they only B-Mod him to forget that he saw anything, as opposed to giving him a new personality or making him loyal to the Redeemers, what was done to him still qualifies.
• By-the-Book Cop: Has strong notions about truth, justice and order. Not a fan of people who don't share the same level of respect for rules and procedure he has, like Doctor Spectrum and Golden Archer.
• Captain Patriotic: Had shades of this, in his former "American Eagle" identity. A fallout with his father, the original American Eagle, over political issues, caused him to take on the newer identity of Cap'n Hawk.
• Cassandra Truth: Not only votes against the induction of the original members of the Institute of Evil into the Squadron Supreme, but later advocates the brainwashing of prospective new recruits to the team without criminal records to ensure they can be trusted. His teammates ignoring Blue Eagle's suggestions come back to bite them in the ass in a HUGE way.
• Color Character: BLUE Eagle.
• Flight: Wings, duh!
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He's a valued and respected senior member of the Squadron, but James Dore's stuffy, somewhat standoffish demeanor makes him unpopular among his peers on a personal level.
• Heel Realization: Reflecting upon how Quagmire nearly died proving himself a hero after Eagle asserted that he was not causes Eagle to reevaluate his stance on the former Instituters and try to be more open and friendly to them.
• Hope Spot: Lamprey drains his wings' power during the pitched battle at Squadron City, causing Eagle to plummet from the sky, dozens of feet up. Eagle spies an unconscious Pinball in his inflated ball suit, and tries to glide toward him to possibly break his fall. it doesn't work, and both Eagle and Pinball die when Dore breaks his own neck while breaking the criminal's spine.
• I Have Your Wife: The Institute of Evil capture all the Squadron's immediate family, along with Blue Eagle's mother, to use as hostages.
• It's All My Fault: Feels responsible for the coma former Instituter and current (if brainwashed)Squadron member Quagmire falls into, as Blue Eagle was out joyriding while the former criminal nearly killed himself singlehandedly saving thirty factory workers. This incident causes Dore to soften his attitude toward the inducted former Institute of Evil members.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Pretentious, preachy and a total know-it-all, but as heroic and self-sacrificing as anyone on the team.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Deciphers what Golden Archer did to Lady Lark and ensures that McDonald be tried and expelled, citing using a device for criminals to brainwash a fellow Squadron member is the ultimate form of betrayal, deserving of the harshest but fair punishment.
• Killed Off for Real: The climactic battle against the invading Redeemers sees Blue Eagle die at the hands of Lamprey.
• Legacy Character: His father was the first American Eagle, serving his country during World War II. Despite a couple of name changes, James Jr. continues to carry on his tradition.
• Mythology Gag: He's an obvious stand-in for Hawkman, and the costume damage he suffers in the wake of the Overmind takeover leaves him bare-chested except for his flying harness, which matches the look his counterpart usually maintains.
• The Paranoiac: While it does turn out to be justified, suggesting immediately brainwashing the newcomers is a tremendously awful move. He doesn't trust them anyway, and follows them... which gets him zapped with Laser-Guided Amnesia.
• Taking Up the Mantle: James Jr. for his father, the first American Eagle.
  • The stormtroopers of the New World Order regime that take over the world in the Squadron's absence are garbed in armor and gear evocative of Blue Eagle, even naming themselves as a group after him.

Nuke

"Scatter, turkeys! It's megarad time!!!"

"Listen, you butt-heads- when the Squadron tells you to move it, WE MEAN BUSINESS!!!"

Likely a stand-in for the Justice League member Firestorm (with maybe a little Captain Atom tossed in for good measure), though the young Albert Gaines's powers merely involved flight and radiation blasts. Albert Gaines obtained the ability to generate and expel vast quantities of nuclear energy, as a result of being exposed to radiation. He was recruited by the Squadron Supreme and served admirably for some years. Unfortunately, as his power levels dramatically grow, his ambient radioactivity increases to the point where it is lethal for others to be in his vicinity.

---

• Ax-Crazy: Heroic and decent, but still a hot-headed young man with the ability to create mini-nuclear explosions with his hands. Nuke was always somewhat reckless, reactionary and maybe overly violent. Once his parents die (due to his own nuclear power growing beyond his control), he goes mad, lashes out with his powers, causes considerable property damage, ultimately setting out to murder one of his former teammates and engaging in a heated, full-scale battle with another.
• Beam-O-War: He and Doctor Spectrum engage in one during their fight, Nuke's nuclear blasts versus Spectrum's Prism energy.
• Can't Spit It Out: By the time he has permission to tell his parents about his secret identity, he can't bring himself to do it because it means admitting that he was unwittingly killing them.
• Character Death: Nuke dies in battle with Doctor Spectrum.
• Clingy Costume: As his power continues to grow stronger, Nuke has to keep wearing a lead-lined suit to avoid killing everyone around him.
• Flying Firepower: Nuke's nuclear energy can keep him aloft while he fires immensely destructive bursts of radiation.
• Freak Out: After his parents die.
• Hand Blast: A one fisted shot can give the uber-powerful Doctor Spectrum a run for his money. Two fists nearly overwhelms him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Nuke dies trying to escape Doctor Spectrum's energy bubble, burning up his own oxygen supply.
• It's All My Fault: Initially felt this way when he first discovered his parents contracted cancer from him. But when it becomes clear that Tom Thumb cannot save them (absolving him from guilt), he swiftly puts the blame for their imminent death on Thumb for failing.
• Manchild: Even setting aside his evident youth, he's not remotely got the maturity or self-control the situation requires, much less one with his dangerous powers. It gets worse when his parents die. It gets so much worse.
• Never My Fault: He blames Tom Thumb for the deaths of his parents, because he couldn't cure cancer in time. It's obvious that they contracted cancer as a result of exposure to Nuke's powers, but in Nuke's defense, he didn't plan for them to get sick because of his powers.
• Power Incontinence: He doesn't have absolute control over his powers, letting out radiation constantly. Worse, his powers are getting stronger and nobody ever stopped to check.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: At least in Nuke's mind, Tom Thumb must die for "refusing" to save his dying parents, and is determined to kill not only him but anyone who stands in the way of his vengeance. Doctor Spectrum stops him, fatally.
• Sacrificial Lion: The first Squadron member to die, not just in the series, but apparently at all. It's a sign this isn't going to be a typical superhero story where good always triumphs.
• Sanity Slippage: Was already reckless and maybe even slightly unhinged before things went to pot, but when it's revealed that his parents will die because of him and nothing can be done, Nuke finally and violently snaps.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A superhero whose powerset stems from the generation and release of nuclear energies is going to induce cancer in somebody sooner of later, most likely the people he interacts with most.

Skymax (a.k.a. Skrullian Skymaster and the Skrull)

"Too long have I played the scholar. It is good to taste the fire of combat again!"

"There is a word in my people's language: tso'chota. It doesn't translate precisely, but..."

An Expy of Martian Manhunter. After the destruction of his homeworld by Galactus, Sk'ym'x wandered the cosmos for a suitable planet to settle on. When his ship malfunctioned near Earth he was rescued by an astronaut who he rewarded with a Skrullian Power Prism allowing him to become the superhero Dr. Spectrum. He then joined with other heroes to form the Squadron Supreme as Skymax. At the time of the maxiseries, Skymax is living in seclusion—having deceived the Squadron into believing he has left Earth—and takes no active part in the events of the limited maxiseries, appearing only in flashbacks. He has assumed the human identity of James Doe, librarian.

---

• Alliterative Name Skrullian Skymaster.
• The Bus Came Back: Ultimately returns to the ranks of the Squadron in Squadron Supreme: New World Order.
• Composite Character: While he's the Martian Manhunter stand-in due to being a green-skinned, shape-shifting alien in a cape, the fact that he gave Doctor Spectrum his Power Prism also makes him an analogue to Hal Jordan's predecessor Abin Sur.
• Flying Brick: His great strength and flying abilities earn him this designation.
• The Ghost: Is a founding member of the Squadron and the being responsible for granting Joe Ledger his Power Prism, setting him on the path to become Doctor Spectrum. But he doesn't make an actual appearance outside of flashbacks until Squadron Supreme: New World Order.
• Last of His Kind: After his homeworld was devoured by Galactus, he may very well be the sole survivor of the Skrull race in the Squadron Supreme universe.
• Superpower Lottery: Along with his native Skrullian power of shapeshifting, has super levels of strength, speed, durability, along with pyrokinesis and invisibility.
• Super-Soldier: Is the Skrullian equivalent.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Possesses the power to change form, like the rest of his Skrullian race.

Redeemers

In General

"Let's table the discussions for a minute, and get down to business...namely, how the ten of us are going to overthrow the Squadron!"

"The five of us standing here, and our various allies, are America's Redeemers. We are here to relieve you of all the authority you have usurped from the federal government. Surrender peaceably and there need be no incident."

— Nighthawk

Nighthawk, founding member of the Squadron Supreme, quits the team when the Utopia initiative is proposed. He resolves to overthrow his former teammates and liberate the country from their unintentional tyranny, saving the nation from the inevitable dystopia. To this end, Nighthawk forges a team whose main strategy is to infiltrate the Squadron and subvert and defeat it from within. The resistance is made up of reformed villains Mink, Pinball, and Remnant, expelled Squadroner Wyatt McDonald (formerly Golden, now Black Archer), and new superhumans Inertia, Moonglow, Redstone, Thermite, and Haywire. Perennial Squadron enemy Master Menace aids the cause by devising a de-modification device which undoes the effects of Tom Thumb's brainwashing machine, enabling the Redeemers to bolster their ranks even further by freeing the former members of the Institute of Evil (who were drafted into the Squadron), having them act as moles as well. Most likely an expy of The Outsiders.

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• Army of Thieves and Whores: The "whore" part is certainly debatable, but as the vast majority of Nighthawk's recruits are former Institute of Evil members, the "thieves" part definitely applies.
• Everyone Has Standards: While their infiltrators are against the Squadron, they internally feel lousy about lying to the team's face to accomplish their goals.
• Home Base: The Redeemers use Kyle Richmond's palatial mansion as their headquarters. Along with all the usual luxuries, it also boasts a fully equipped training facility and communications center.
• Magnetic Hero: It's a testament to Kyle Richmond's charisma, powers of persuasion and leadership abilities that he is able to forge a team composed mostly of former arch enemies of his, along with perfect strangers and rookies.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Nighthawk, realizing that no one man could hope to defeat the Squadron alone, went on a countrywide search for suitable recruits. But seeing as how nearly all known superhumans of altruistic intent were already among the Squadron's numbers, Nighthawk had no choice but to ally with super-criminals, an expelled Squadroner (Wyatt McDonald), and unknown quantities.
• La Résistance: In opposition to the Squadron's unintentional totalitarian regime.

Moonglow I

"Making others see what I wish them to is such child's play!"

"Ever wonder what it'd be like if Earth's gravity suddenly became five times stronger?"

The origin of Melissa Hanover's powers is unknown, as is her background. Her ability to create illusions is so potent, she convinced all she came into contact with that she actually possessed a wide variety of superhuman abilities. She was recruited by Nighthawk for his Redeemers team for the express purpose of subverting the Squadron Supreme from within. Moonglow performed the key task of stealing the blueprints for Tom Thumb's Behavior Modification device, getting them into the hands of Squadron enemy and Redeemer ally Master Menace. Possibly an expy of Looker from the Outsiders.

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• Alpha Bitch: Played with. Her haughtiness, apparent superiority and overall disdain for nearly everyone else around mark her with all the earmarks of a prime example. But Arcanna eventually takes her down a peg, exposing her true nature as a self-loathing, overweight frump.
• Break the Haughty: Her defeat at the hands of a pregnant Arcanna (along with the subsequent public reveal of her true, overweight and plain form), humiliates her so badly she retreats into almost total seclusion.
• Glamour: Her blonde bombshell appearance is a facade, created by her powers. It hides her true, frumpy self.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Moonglow's Smug Super attitude is merely a pose, as it turns out her attractive blonde appearance is mere illusion. In reality, Hanover is an overweight, far less physically appealing older woman.
• Master of Illusion: Even more so than Arcanna.
• Ms. Fanservice: A blonde bombshell in a very flattering outfit. Too bad it's an illusion. In actuality, she's much less physically attractive overall.
• Pride: Has a very high opinion of herself and her abilities. Ultimately this attitude is a pose, as in reality Hanover is much less self-assured, self-loathing, even, due to her true appearance.
• The Mole: Within the Squadron, like the rest of the unknown quantity Redeemers. She accomplishes the key role of stealing Tom Thumb's blueprints for the Behavior Modification device.
• Shattering the Illusion: A shot to the chops from Arcanna is enough to drop not only Moonglow but her illusory attractive appearance.
• Smug Super: Lords it over even her fellow Redeemers with her supposed inherent superiority. A subversion, as in actuality she sees herself as a "frumpish nobody".
• Super Power Lottery: She seems to have hit it, with her diverse powerset of flight, illusion casting, gravity manipulation, luminescence and phasing, but as it turns out, her sole ability is illusion casting.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After giving the moniker of Moonglow to Arcanna, she just vanishes from the story and what happened to her is never revealed.

Redstone

"Nighthawk's given the word. Today's the day."

"Your strength is overrated, Hyperion. Admit it- you've met your match!"

Growing up on a Native American reservation somewhere near the Apache Mountain Range area on the Squadron's Earth, Michael Redstone dreamed of one day facing Hyperion in combat. A giant of a man, Redstone had the capacity to increase his already prodigious superhuman strength by drawing energy from contact with the Earth. He was one of the very first recruits for Nighthawk's Redeemer conspiracy against the Squadron Supreme. A probable expy of Geo-Force from DC Comics.

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• Achilles' Heel: The Earth itself is the source of not only his tremendous strength, but his very lifeforce. Being cut off from the planet will not only seriously debilitate his vitality, it will eventually kill him, which is precisely what happens in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• The Big Guy: Redstone is not only the Redeemers' resident powerhouse: he's the largest and most physically imposing being on Earth-712.
• Character Death: Dies when taken into orbit and away from contact with the Earth in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• Color Character: Michael REDstone.
• Fastball Special: Redstone and The Shape pull one during a simulated combat training session.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Engages Hyperion himself in one on one combat during the final battle in Squadron City, putting him in an apparently inescapable headlock. Hyperion marvels at Redstone's strength, and realizes that the new recruit was holding back the true extent of his power when he was tested.
• The Mole: Along with Moonglow, the first of the newly minted superheroes recruited by the Squadron. He makes a point to hold back the true extent of his strength from the Squadron during testing sessions, so that he might catch Hyperion unawares.
• Mysterious Past: Exactly how he got his powers is unclear, and he doesn't say much.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Rankles under Power Princess' leadership because she's a woman, which leads to them brawling in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• Super-Strength: Powerful enough to engage Hyperion himself in direct combat. His strength increases the longer he is in contact with the Earth.
• Unknown Rival: For Hyperion. Michael Redstone grew up wanting to pit his strength against the man generally recognized as the strongest being on the planet. Hyperion, for his part, never knew Redstone existed until he showed up to join the Squadron.

Inertia

"What the Squadron's done is wrong and we volunteered to stop them."

"Inertia's power is among the most dangerous."

— Power Princess

Edith Friedberg possessed the power to manipulate momentum, to either transfer it, increase or cancel it altogether. Shortly after joining Nighthawk's Redeemers conspiracy, she was placed in the Squadron as a mole to subvert the team from within. Inertia was engaged in a romantic relationship with fellow Redeemer Haywire.

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• All Women Are Lustful: Seen making out hot and heavy in a jacuzzi with boyfriend Haywire, and engages in an impromptu sex session with him on the beach some time later. A comment from a nearby Moonglow suggests this is a common occurrence.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Gets turned into a fine pink mist by the reflection of her own power back upon her when she tries to stop the interdimensional threat of the Nth Man in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Inertia's power is to mentally steal the friction from one individual and transfer it at another. She actually knocks Power Princess out cold by channeling Hyperion's punches towards Redstone to her.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Tries to slow the growth of The Entity by using her power to reverse the direction of its expansion. The Entity is so overwhelmingly powerful, it magnifies Inertia's power reflects it back upon her, and disintegrates her into pink dust.
• Mind over Matter: Her control over kinetic energy is basically this.
• The Mole: Recruited along with the other unknown superhumans into the Squadron. Inertia also takes it upon herself to wipe clean the memory banks from security cameras to cover up Moonglow's theft of the B-Mod machine plans.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her skintight, almost nude-colored costume already leaves very little to the imagination; is later seen in very skimpy bikinis.
• Power Perversion Potential: Uses her power at one point to tear away her boyfriend Haywire's swim trunks. In her defense, he started it first by using his own power to tear away her bikini.
• Stripperific: Though it covers her from head to toe, Inertia's costume is a near-nude bodysuit that hugs her body extremely tightly.

Haywire

"Okay by me- now it's time to tangle!"

"That bleeping 'tanglewire' of his shoots out of his hands like it was under pressure!"

— Foxfire

Harold Danforth had the superhuman ability to generate and project a wire-like substance from his fingers, in seemingly limitless quantities. Haywire joined Nighthawk's Redeemers contingent to stop the tyrannical rule of the Squadron Supreme, serving as a double agent. He started a romantic relationship with fellow Redeemer (and mole) Inertia soon after being recruited by the Squadron.

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• All Men Are Perverts: Has no problem getting it on with Inertia on the beach, where anyone might catch them (and has).
• Butt-Monkey: Thermite loves making him the target of his pranks.
• Hammerspace: Can generate an apparently unlimited amount of his steel-like "tanglewire" from seemingly nowhere.
• Heroic BSoD: Suffers one (after a gigantic freak out) when his lover Inertia dies in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• I Choose to Stay: When the Squadron found a way back to their universe in Kurt Busiek's Avengers, Tripwire declined to return, feeling that there was nothing left for him there, so he stayed on Earth-616. It's been some time since he's shown up.
• Mr. Fanservice: A good looking, well-built young man, seen in swim trunks (or less) on a couple of occasions.
• The Mole: Along with Moonglow, Redstone and the rest, inserted into the Squadron's ranks by Nighthawk to subvert it from within. It is Haywire who captures Lamprey and delivers him to the Redeemers for behavior modification deprogramming.
• Power Perversion Potential: Uses his tanglewire to undo Inertia's bikini.
• Redhead In Green: A reddish-blond, anyway- dressed in a green costume.

Thermite

"Hot-cha!"

"If you had to wear a bodysuit just to control your temperature extremes all the time, you'd find crazy ways to sublimate too!"

— Inertia

Sam Yurimoto was able to project intense heat from the left side of his body, and intense cold from his right. His regulator pack was necessary for mediating the two drastically conflicting temperatures of his body. Thermite joined the Squadron, secretly serving as a mole for Nighthawk's Redeemers. He may be intended as a sort-of (50%?) expy of Batman foe Mr. Freeze.

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• Clingy Costume: Has to constantly wear a special head to toe bodysuit (with accompanying regulator) to keep his body temperature extremes in check.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Killed when his regulator pack is accidentally damaged by The Whizzer: the two extremes of his body temperature apparently tears him apart internally.
• Elemental Powers: Can generate extreme levels of both heat and cold.
• The Faceless: Due to the nature of his power, he is never seen without his mask on.
• Hailfire Peaks: A weird comic book variant with Thermite, who has fire and ice based powers.
• An Ice Person: Can emit blasts of extreme cold from the right side of his body.
• The Mole: Recruited by the Squadron, who of course are totally unaware of his true alliances and objectives. He and fellow secret Redeemer Redstone capture The Shape and deliver him to Nighthawk and Master Menace for deprogramming.
• Playing with Fire: Can emit and direct high levels of heat or fire blasts from the left side of his body.
• The Prankster: Loves using his powers to mess with his teammates. Haywire seems to be his favorite victim.

Supporting Characters

Professor Imam

"My Third Eye never blinks."

"If he deemed the manifestation of the Serpent Crown, the invasion of the Overmind, and our own Utopia Program to be beneath his notice - what kind of crisis does it take to concern him these days?"

— Hyperion

Wizard Supreme of Earth-712, and former member of The Golden Agency (the precursor to the Squadron Supreme during World War II). Is the preeminent seer and magic user of the Squadron's Earth, with more mystic knowledge and skill at his disposal than anyone else in that world. His power having waned over the decades, Imam withdrew from all worldly affairs to preserve his mystic energies. He is eventually contacted by former Squadron member Nighthawk who sought and received aid in seeking allies for his Redeemer conspiracy. Imam himself later reaches out to the Squadron to warn them of the imminent trans-universal threat of the Nth Man entity. Mostly an Expy of DC's Doctor Fate, with some of Doctor Strange's Ancient One thrown in.

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• Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: His "Eternal Triangle", which he uses to transport Nighthawk to Earth-616 in search of allies.
• The Arch Mage: THE authority on magic and mysticism of Earth-712. Even Hyperion drops everything and rushes to attend Imam when he says a crisis is impending.
• Bald Mystic: Earth-712's resident Master Mage has a clean, smooth dome.
• Character Death: Dies from the strain of communicating with the universe swallowing Nth Man in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• Home Base: His Temple of Contemplation, a tower which serves as his domicile and seat of mystic power.
• Levitating Lotus Position: Engages in this when utilizing spells or communicating mystically.
• Magical Gesture: His are much more subtle than say, Doctor Strange's; they may not even be fully necessary to cast spells.
• Neutral No Longer: Chose to sit out almost all the various world-threatening crises the Squadron's dimension has suffered; it takes the coming of the reality destroying Nth Man to make him get involved.
• Retired Badass: Not entirely by choice mind. He's preparing himself to train a successor... in four hundred years or so. Hey, can't rush these things.

Villains

The Institute Of Evil

In General

From upper left to right: Lamprey, Quagmire, Foxfire, Doctor Decibel and The Shape

"These guys are the most powerful gang a' sleezebags the Squadron's ever fought!"

— Tom Thumb

As they are a super-villain group composed of personal enemies of various members of the Squadron Supreme, they can most likely be considered an expy of The Legion of Doom. Originally gathered by the Scarlet Centurion to use as pawns in a competition against the Elder of the Universe known as the Gamemaster, the Instituters opted to stay together to pursue their criminal goals. Led by Ape X, this foremost team of superhuman criminals has had a long-standing enmity with the Squadron, culminating in the Institute's final defeat and brainwashing when they attempted to kidnap the Squadron's family members. Except for absent members Remnant, The Mink and Pinball, all Institutioners were pressed into service as Squadron members.

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Ape X

"If [Hyperion] thinks being blind is bad, he ought to feel what it's like to be a legless mutant ape."

"Then go to it, Institutioners, for the night is short!"''

Xina the ape was the result of an experiment to grant a simian human-level intellect. She turned to a life of crime after her trainer was killed, coming to lead the Institute of Evil. She was eventually captured by the Squadron and brainwashed into joining them and serving as the lab partner to resident genius Tom Thumb, eventually developing strong feelings for him. X later fell prey to a Logic Bomb, rendering her catatonic for the remainder of the series. Loosely based on The Flash villain Gorilla Grodd, or perhaps the Ultra-Humanite.

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• An Arm and a Leg: Ape X's body is totally truncated below the waist.
• Brainwashed: Her fate, along with the rest of the captured Institutioners, at the hands of the Squadron Supreme.
• Cyborg: From the waist down. Ape X alternates from a tank tread vehicle configuration to a flying car to get around.
• Evil Cripple: When she was a criminal. She is totally truncated below the waist and relies on a life-supporting chair for locomotion.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Alluded to be this during her criminal career, but it's only after Ape X is behavior modified and drafted into the Squadron that we truly see the fruits of her skill. As Tom Thumb's lab partner, she perfects his force field belts, invents non-lethal Pacifier Pistols, assists Thumb in creating the Hibernaculum suspended animation pods, and devises a set of image inducer goggles to enable the blinded Hyperion to see.
• Genius Cripple: Ape X's body is totally truncated below the waist, but she possesses super-human intelligence.
• Gentle Gorilla: She began as a Killer Gorilla, but after being brainwashed she turns into one of this, always willing to help.
• Good Feels Good: Seems to be genuinely glad to be able to use her inventive skills for the good of society, especially as it enables her to work alongside Tom Thumb.
• Killer Gorilla: At first.
• Interspecies Romance: Became quite enamored with Tom Thumb during her time as his lab partner, but he was totally oblivious and nothing developed from it.
• The Leader: As the most intelligent member of the Institute of Evil, Ape X formulates all the group's schemes, devises all the weaponry and paraphernalia and sets overall policy.
• Logic Bomb: Ape X catches new Squadron recruit Moonglow downloading the plans to the Behavior Modification machine to an outside party. Her own brainwashing demands she alert her fellow Squadron members to this clear violation of their bylaws, but that selfsame brainwashing prevents her from "betraying" a fellow Squadron member. Unable to mentally reconcile this conflict, Ape X's brain shuts down and she becomes catatonic for the rest of her life.
• Replacement Goldfish: She tries building a robotic duplicate of Tom after he dies. She never succeeds before her brain snaps.
• Super Wheelchair: She used a life-supporting chair for locomotion (on tank tracks) as well as offensive and defensive capabilities, having various weapons and options incorporated into it.
• Uplifted Animal: Ape X was the result of an experiment to grant a simian human-level intellect

Doctor Decibel

"Aha- the last of the mighty Squadron!"

Dr. Anton Decibel was a physician who leads a double life as a costumed criminal. He was responsible for administering the experimental and unwanted throat surgery granting Linda Lewis the sonic powers she would later wield as the crime fighter Lady Lark. He was a key member of the Institute of Evil and was subjected to the Squadron's Behavior Modification program upon the Institute's final defeat, acting as Squadron City's head physician until his death. he was most likely an expy of Green Lantern villain Sonar.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Lady Lark, the woman whose singing career he ruined.
• Brain Washed: Right along with the rest of the Institute after their final defeat.
• Create Your Own Hero: He performed the unauthorized operation on Linda Lewis's throat that gave her the sonic powers she would wield as Lady Lark. Lady Lark subsequently became his Archenemy.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Dies by drowning in his teammate Quagmire's extradimensional ooze.
• Easily Forgiven: By the rest of the Squadron, even after spearheading the operation to kidnap their loved ones, due to his behavior modification. But even then Lady Lark refused to work with him or even speak to him after he was inducted into the Squadron.
• Gale-Force Sound: His "Mega-Sonic Blast" proved capable of sending Tom Thumb flying, even while surrounded by a force field.
• Mad Doctor: Decibel's lack of medical ethics enables him to perform the radical, experimental surgery on Linda Lewis that gave her her Sonic Scream and ruined her singing career.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: An actual accredited surgeon, but certainly leaned more towards the Mad Scientist side while an Instituter.
• Weaponized Headgear: During his criminal career, Decibel wore a head-mounted device capable of transmitting 300 decibels of sonic energy.

Foxfire

"Taa-daa! One building rotted to the ground!"

"I like what the Squadron did to me. And I'm proud that they let me join their team, considering how bad I used to be."

Olivia Underwood possessed the power to generate bioluminescence capable of inducing near-instantaneous rot in both organic and inorganic substances. She was among the Institutioners captured and behavior modified to join the Squadron, where she eventually started a romantic relationship with Joe "Doctor Spectrum" Ledger. Foxfire perished during the battle of Squadron City, killed by former Institute colleague The Mink in retaliation for killing Redeemer leader Nighthawk. She appears to be a loose Expy of Batman villain Poison Ivy, given her poisonous ability, role as a villain with sex appeal, and an implied past history with Nighthawk.

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• Being Good Sucks: At first, her being "good" involves her being brainwashed into serving the Squadron and entering a sexual relationship with a man she is literally incapable of ever saying no to. When the brainwashing is undone and she decides to turn good for real, it gets her killed. It probably would've been better for her had she stayed a villain.
• Boyish Short Hair: Has a short cropped blonde hair do', befitting her punk image. It resembles the same flat top style worn by singer Grace Jones.
• Brainwashed: Is subjected to the Behavior Modification process along with the rest of her cronies. Notably, even after she is successfully de-programmed, Foxfire still remains loyal to the Squadron, mostly due to her genuine love for Doctor Spectrum.
• Collateral Angst: Her death is treated more as a tragic moment for Doctor Spectrum since she practically dies in his arms. It's used as a motivation for him to realize he's internalized the Power Prism's energy.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: After being brainwashed, the Squadron find a beneficial use for her powers, helping safely demolish buildings.
• Delinquent Hair: Has a short cropped blonde hair do', befitting her punk image. It resembles the same flat top style worn by singer Grace Jones.
• Good Costume Switch: Not long after she is Behavior Modified, Foxfire changes from her previous punk rocker styled criminal apparel to a somewhat less provocative (but still daring) outfit.
• Good Feels Good: The major reason (other than her love for Joe Ledger) she stays loyal to the Squadron after her Behavior Modification is reversed.
• In the Back: After she kills Nighthawk, the Mink stabbed her from behind.
• Light Is Good: Her original costume was colored a rather poisonous looking green. When she's brainwashed, her new costume is white.
• Love Redeems: Because of her love for Squadron member Doctor Spectrum, Foxfire stays loyal to them despite her Behavior Modification de-programming at the hands of their enemies, the Redeemers. Unfortunately, this also leads to her death.
• Make Them Rot: Foxfire's bioluminescence can cause rapid deterioration of not only inorganic substances like wood, stone and metal, but also flesh and bodily organs like Nighthawk's heart.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: She's only ever remembered as the woman who killed Nighthawk, and the last time she's ever mentioned the artwork (seen above) is made to make her look malevolent after she committed the act, despite that she felt horrible about doing so.
• Redemption Equals Death: As we as readers (or for that matter, Foxfire herself) didn't really know what side she'd take in the superhero war after her brainwashing was undone, it could be argued that Foxfire's first genuine act of "good" was killing Redeemer leader Nighthawk so that the Squadron Supreme could win. She herself is murdered immediately afterward.

Lamprey

"Heh-heeya heeya hee!"

"You guys can dish it out okay, but nobody does it better than Lamprey!"

Donald McGuiggin was a career criminal and one of the Institute members captured by the Squadron and subjected to the Behavior Modification process invented by Squadron member Tom Thumb, altering his personality. He had the power to absorb energy from both organic and inorganic sources, giving him the capacity to obtain further superhuman powers. Lamprey was impressed into service to the Squadron and served faithfully, until his Behavior Modification was neutralized by Nighthawk and his Redeemers, turning him into a mole dedicated to their destruction. An expy of Superman foe the Parasite, with a smidgeon of Mantis (the New Gods villain).

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• All Your Powers Combined: During the final battle between the Redeemers and the Squadron, Lamprey uses his ability to absorb the superhuman powers of not only Hyperion, but Power Princess and the Whizzer, probably granting him more physical power than he'd ever absorbed and retained up to that point. This proves to be he downfall, when Lamprey attempts to absorb Doctor Spectrum's power as well.
• Arch-Enemy: Relishes stealing the superhuman energy from Hyperion like no other.
• Ax-Crazy: Lamprey presents a strong case for the B-Mod, as by himself he's a gleeful maniac who just wants to use his powers to hurt and kill, nothing more.
• Being Good Sucks: Lamprey certainly feels this way, as he immediately agrees to join Nighthawk's Redeemer conspiracy, and revels in the opportunity to pay back his oppressors in the Squadron for making him "do good".
• Blood Knight: Can't wait to tear into the Squadron during the climactic battle of Squadron City. Even fellow Redeemer Remnant is shocked by Lamprey's bloodthirst.
• Brainwashed: Along with his fellow Institution of Evil members.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Explodes when he tries to absorb the totality of Doctor Spectrum's Prism Power during the final battle. There wasn't enough to bury afterward.
• Fangs Are Evil: Not a vampire (at least in the traditional sense), but is a vicious, predatory character who packs the orthodontic gear.
• Flight: Seems capable of this even without absorbing the superhuman powers of others.
• Flying Brick: Becomes one if he absorbs the right superhuman powerset, preferably Hyperion's.
• Foreshadowing: When Blue Eagle's suggestion that the Squadron preemptively modify the behavior of new Squadron recruits is shot down, Lamprey, a Behavior Modified recruit himself, states that the Squadron will regret that decision. Months later, Lamprey is de-programmed, and acts in collusion with these selfsame new recruits to subvert the Squadron from within, and actually ends up killing Blue Eagle.
• The Mole: Acts as one for the Redeemers once his Behavior Modification is undone.
• Power Parasite: His whole deal, making him one of the most feared and potentially dangerous supervillains of Earth-712.
• Super-Senses: Part of his powers is he can sense energy. It clues him in that Hyperion's been replaced by his counterpart, since he can smell the difference, but his brainwashing prevents him from saying anything unless he's certain.

The Mink

"Never turn your back on The Mink!"

"Charmed, darling."

By her own account, Julie Steel, a spoiled heiress, turned to crime due to boredom, a hunger for excitement, and the conviction that her elite status put her above the rules of society. When she became a cat burglar, her number one opponent was Nighthawk, with whom over the years she developed a fascination, if not genuine affection for. The Mink was an original member of the Institute of Evil, but was absent for the group's final defeat, capture, and subsequent Behavior Modification. She, along with Remnant and Pinball, later joined Nighthawk's Redeemer conspiracy. An expy of Catwoman from the Batman mythos.

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• And This Is for...: Invokes this when she eviscerates Foxfire in retaliation for Nighthawk's death.
  "A heart for a heart, pig!"
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Animal alias, and uses gadgets to simulate some mink-like ability.
• Commonality Connection: Comes from a life of wealth and privilege like her old archfoe Nighthawk, and this similar past is what helps them bond.
• Dating Catwoman: To Nighthawk. Not surprising, given they are expies of Batman and Catwoman.
• Heel–Face Turn: Seems to have made a true one towards the end of the original maxiseries, without the "benefit" of behavior modification. Confides in Nighthawk how she realizes how wrong her previous, selfish entitled mindset was, and how grateful she is to have true meaning and purpose in life.
• Love Redeems: Credits Nighthawk for making a "new woman" out of her.
• Ms. Fanservice: A gorgeous platinum blonde in a mink coat that doesn't quite cover her.
• Pretty in Mink: Her criminal trademark.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Along with Remnant and Pinball, opts to allow Master Menace to transport her to another dimension to escape the Squadron's brainwashing agenda.
• Stink Bomb: Uses canisters of a mace-like gas called "mink stink."
• The Vamp: Uses her sultry wiles as much as her claws to try to get her way.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: This may have always been the case between Mink and Nighthawk, even when she was still a card-carrying criminal.
• Wolverine Claws: Artificial claws that she can extend from underneath her sleeves and retract at will. Her main offensive weapon and quite deadly, as Foxfire would attest.

Pinball

"I think I'll roll out and see."

"Why can't people just get run over like they're supposed to?"

Much of Chester Freeman's past before he assumed the criminal sobriquet Pinball remains unknown, but he was a perennial foe of Nighthawk, and a good friend of his fellow criminal Remnant, often working tandem with him. Along with Remnant and the Mink, Pinball was one of the three members of the Institute of Evil who escaped capture and subsequent brainwashing by the Squadron Supreme. Probably an expy of Bouncing Boy from the Legion of Super-Heroes, solely based on his powers, perhaps with elements of the Penguin (as a visually distinct, rotund-appearing enemy of the Batman expy).

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• Acrofatic: His inflatable suit sort of makes him this.
• Bouncing Battler: His modus operandi, not that he's all that successful at it.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Perishes while being cradled by his longtime friend Remnant after a plummeting Blue Eagle shattered Pinball's spine.
• Hidden Depths: Rather deep and reflective for a guy who wears a rubber ball suit. Makes pointed comments (to Captain America, no less) about the tyrannical way the Squadron is trampling everyone's human rights, the irony of he and his colleagues allying with their old enemy Nighthawk, and Lampshades the utter implausibility of Remnant's flying carpet. Can also pilot a helicopter.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Pleads with Master Menace to use his dimensional transporter to send him, The Mink and Remnant to another dimension to escape the Squadron's tyranny.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: He can fill his rubber suit with air and roll into people like a giant beach ball. That's it. Small wonder he dies in Squadron Supreme #12.

Quagmire

"Can I put 'im outta his misery with a well-placed slime ball?"

"Get stuffed!"

Career criminal Jerome Myers possessed the ability to tap and manipulate the extra-dimensional Darkforce in the form of a thick, dark, viscous tar-like substance. He was a charter member of the Institute of Evil and an arch-foe of Squadron member Doctor Spectrum. Along with the rest of his teammates, he was defeated, captured, and brainwashed into becoming a loyal, self-sacrificing Squadron member, and was plunged into a coma heroically saving thirty factory workers from an industrial accident. Quagmire was presumed dead when he was eventually sucked into the dimension his dark matter originates from, but it later turned out that he was actually only shunted to the mainstream Earth, free of the Squadron's brainwashing, and reverted to his former criminal ways. He is possibly a loosely translated expy of Green Lantern's Arch-Enemy Sinestro, with powers similar to The Shade.

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• Arch-Enemy: Formerly, to Doctor Spectrum.
• Brainwashed: His Behavior Modification caused him to pull a Heroic Sacrifice, nearly killing himself to save factory workers.
• Delinquent Hair: Punkish Quagmire sports a blond mohawk.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Blue Eagle punches Quagmire in the face for jerking around on duty supposedly because Quagmire and his other fellow former Institutioners, with their rough, unconventional appearance and manner, make the Squadron Supreme look bad by association. Quagmire points out that Eagle's physically assaulting a teammate in public doesn't exactly do wonders for the Squadron's image either.
• Drugs Are Bad: When Quagmire goes down due to accidental overexposure to Pacifier gas, his longtime teammate Lamprey mentally comments on the irony of his old friend overdosing on a "mellow" drug.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Senior Squadroner Blue Eagle slugs Quagmire for flirting with a factory worker while on duty, mostly out of resentment for having to team with former Instituters.
• Heroic Sacrifice: His Behavior Modification makes him to pull a near-fatal one, as he is irresistibly compelled to risk his life to drag nearly 30 factory workers to safety by himself, nearly dying of overexposure to an experimental gas.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Quagmire might not have been putting the Squadron as a team in the most positive light by flirting with a civilian while on duty, but Blue Eagle slugging him for it in public is decidedly worse, as the former Instituter points out (even more so since, as he points out, the B-Modding means he can't fight back at all).
• Lovecraftian Superpower: Quagmire's ability to manifest an otherworldly, sticky, black muck into his base dimension is very powerful, dangerous, immune to magic and energy and utterly creepy.
• Savage Piercings: Quagmire has a number of these, fitting his punk image.
• Uncertain Doom: He's rendered comatose, sending his powers out of control. The team is reluctantly forced to concede they'll have to kill him to stop it. Hyperion does so... and Quagmire's body vanishes.

Remnant

"My mind, however demented, is my own!"

"I don't want to move til I'm sure we're gonna win!"

Not much is known about the history of Frank Edwards, the super criminal who would call himself Remnant, not even the source of his apparently superhuman powers and/or magic fabric. He was a longtime member of the Institute of Evil and an even longer foe of Nighthawk. He joined Nighthawk's Redeemers out of fear of the Squadron Supreme's Behavior Modification Program, and fought against them in the final battle in Squadron City. Remnant can perhaps be considered a distant Joker Expy, what with his lanky frame, puckish manner, and enmity with Nighthawk (the Batman Expy) He's even seen tossing playing cards in his very first appearance.

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• Clothing Combat: He could use his magic cloth to ensnare opponents, or as a whip under his control.
• Cool Shades: Wears them at night and everything.
• Delinquent Hair: Sports a mohawk like his former teammate Quagmire, but hot pink.
• Hammerspace: His power enables him to pull magic fabric out of apparently nowhere.
• Hidden Depths: Manages to sew Redstone a pretty spiffy-looking costume.
• Honor Among Thieves: Remnant is shattered by Pinball's death.
• Lean and Mean: A lanky, nasty punk.
• Magic Carpet: His trademark mode of transportation.
• Punk Rock: His look invokes the style.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Fears the Squadron's Behavior Modification Program so much, he pleads with Master Menace to transport him and his cronies Mink and Remnant right out of the dimension of Earth-712.
• Trick Bomb: Remnant carried grenades that could create smoke or flames when thrown.

The Shape

"Okey-dokey!"

"Shape pound cape man!"

Raleigh Lund is the mentally challenged, shape-changing member of the Institute of Evil, and later, the Squadron Supreme. He, like Foxfire, remains loyal to the Squadron even after his Behavior Modification is undone. A possible expy of Plastic Man (with his off-kilter personality and criminal past) or Elongated Man.

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• Brainwashed: With the rest of his Institute of Evil contemporaries.
• Friend to All Children: After his Behavior Modification, he is always seen spending his leisure time playing with the young children of Squadron members.
• Good Feels Good: Shape, as a Squadron member, experiences acceptance and friendship at levels he'd never had as an Institutioner, and his appreciation keeps him loyal to the Squadron when the other moles within the group turn on them.
• Hulk Speak: Shape's mental deficiency causes him to indulge in this.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: He's not all there in head, but proves to be rather nice, brainwashing or not.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Can form hammers from his hands.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: His pliable body gives him this capacity.

Other Villains

Master Menace

"This is my world. The Squadron will not force me to flee. I will fight them to the end... even if I am the last criminal on Earth!"

"You have my word as a criminal! Ha ha ha!"

Longtime enemy of the Squadron Supreme, personal arch-foe of Hyperion, Dr. Emil Burbank is (or was) the foremost criminal mastermind of Earth-712. He is an inventive genius of the highest magnitude, and has plagued the Squadron for years with his attempts at revenge and world domination. In the wake of society's collapse due to the Overmind invasion, Menace manages to take over that world's Middle East region, and later allies himself with former Squadron member Nighthawk in attempting to overthrow the Squadron Supreme's rule of America. Roughly 65% expy of Lex Luthor, 35% Doctor Doom.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: After all of Menace's efforts to avoid being subjected to the Squadron's Behavior Modification, Squadron Supreme: New World Order shows that the once feared, proud super-villain has been reduced to a servile, subservient, broken old man by his new masters in the Global Directorate, using the selfsame machine Menace dreaded.
• Alliterative Name: Master Menace. It's even a part of his armor.
• Always Someone Better: The widely held belief that the inventive genius of Squadron member Tom Thumb surpassed that of Burbank rankled him to no end. So the opportunity to disprove this notion by devising a machine that could reverse the supposedly irreversible brainwashing effects of Thumb's Behavior Modification device gave Menace a huge measure of personal satisfaction.
• Arch-Enemy: Hyperion.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: When Blue Eagle stumbles upon the Redeemer conspiracy, Menace suggests they use the Redeemers' copy of the Squadron Supreme's Behavior Modification machine to make Eagle loyal to them. Nighthawk vehemently vetoes that idea, stating that such a tactic would make them no better than the Squadron. Menace then offers to do the brainwashing himself, so that Richmond won't have to "sully his lily-white hands". Nighthawk agrees to this, but only if Menace merely removes Eagle's memory of discovering the Redeemers, not force him to join them.
• Broken Ace: Formerly feared as megalomaniac genius who has had the Squadron and the world itself at his mercy, the Squadron Supreme: New World Order one-shot special shows that his capture and Behavior Modification at the hands of the Global Directorate, the new imperialistic rulers of America have rendered him a shattered shade of his former arrogant, domineering self.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Menace and Hyperion make a pact to cooperate to escape the interdimensional shadowland in which they're trapped (due to Menace's scheming). Menace seals the deal by giving Hyperion "his word as a criminal". It should come as no surprise that he later reneges.
  • When Institute of Evil members Remnant, Mink and Pinball beg Menace to spirit them away to another dimension to escape the Squadron's Behavior Modification agenda, Burbank rebuffs their offer to join them in exile, asserting his intention to battle the Squadron to the end, even if he is the last criminal on Earth.
• Deadpan Snarker: Always prepared with a well honed verbal barb for allies and adversaries alike.
• Deal with the Devil: He and his hated arch-enemy Hyperion strike a bargain to cooperate in escaping Menace's own interdimensional prison. Later, Menace allies with Nighthawk, the second greatest crimefighter of Earth-712, to subvert the Squadron from within. When Nighthawk capitulates to Menace's pragmatic solution to the uncovering of their conspiracy against the Squadron, he feels like he's sold his soul to the Devil.
• The Determinator: "This is MY world. The Squadron will not force me to flee. I will battle them to the end- even if I am the last criminal on Earth!"
• Diabolical Mastermind: The premiere example of Earth-712.
• Enemy Mine: When Nighthawk first approaches Menace with the proposition of teaming up to take down the Squadron, he refuses, mostly due to ego. It is only after Menace's own plan to subvert and destroy the Squadron from within fails that he finally decides to take his old foe up on his offer.
• Evil Is Petty: And how. His career vendetta against Hyperion is (reportedly) based on Hyperion's Atomic Vision supposedly altering Burbank's hormones so that his body hair now grows at an accelerated rate, giving him a perpetual hirsute appearance. And in the Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe graphic novel, when Hyperion approaches him for aid in thwarting the phenomenon that threatens the existence in all known life, Menace chooses this moment to make Hyperion get on his knees and beg him to help everybody (including himself) NOT DIE. Even the megalomaniac conqueror Scarlet Centurion calls Menace out on this.
• Evil Genius: Again, the archetype of the Squadron's Earth.
• Evil Laughter: Even when faced with the threat of universal annihilation, Burbank can't resist indulging in malevolent chuckling at the irony of the situation.
• Eviler than Thou: As ruthless and diabolical Menace is, even he must concede that he is no match for the Global Directorate that conquers Earth and enslaves him through Behavior Modification.
• Exact Words: When Menace and Hyperion strike a bargain to escape the interdimensional prison he trapped them in, Menace makes his enemy promise that neither Hyperion nor any Squadron member will try to apprehend him or "abridge his freedom in any way". Hyperion takes it so that when the duo are transported back to their home dimension, several hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface, Hyperion can refuse to grab Menace and help him reach the ground safely, as that would constitute "abridging his freedom" in some way.
• Gadgeteer Genius: From his battle armor to his servitor robots to his dimensional displacement rifle, Master Menace has an arsenal of weapons that attest to his genius.
• Hand Blast: Burbank's armor gives him this capacity.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Menace succeeds in shunting his foe Hyperion to an alternate shadowy dimension, but when his ally, the Hyperion of Earth-616, betrays and tries to kill him, his only avenue of escape is the same dimension he just exiled his Arch-Enemy to. Menace later discovers he has no apparent way to escape.
• Insufferable Genius: Never misses an opportunity to tell or show people how brilliant he is.
• Large Ham: Menace LOVES pork. He's not quite up to the level of hamminess of his partial expy Doctor Doom, but he is fond of Evil Laughter and grandiose speeches extolling his own greatness.
• Mythology Gag: Master Menace was a Red Baron title used to refer to Doctor Doom during the days of giving every character numerous alliterative aliases. "And a few hours later, at the secret laboratory of the master menace..."
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Would you trust a man who calls himself MASTER MENACE?
• Nigh-Invulnerability: His battlesuit protects him from huge amounts of damage, being able to withstand multiple blows from a being with the strength of Hyperion.
• Not Me This Time: When the Squadron Supreme return to their native Earth and find it conquered and ruled by some tyrannical entity, Hyperion immediately assumes his old arch nemesis Master Menace is behind it. But when he busts into the enemy's headquarters, Hyperion is shocked to find Menace imprisoned, a broken shell of his former self, enslaved by brainwashing to serve the Global Directorate's aims.
• Oh, Crap!: Menace's internal reaction upon encountering his archfoe Hyperion in the dimension prison he put him in not too long ago.
• Powered Armour: Master Menace's signature battlesuit enables him to engage his super-powered opponents in the Squadron Supreme on a level playing field.
• Pragmatic Villainy: When Squadron member Blue Eagle stumbles upon Nighthawk and Menace's Redeemer conspiracy, Menace suggests that they use the Behavior Modification machine he devised by copying Tom Thumb's to brainwash Eagle into being loyal to the Redeemers; not because he harbors any particular hatred for Eagle, or even the notion that Eagle would be a key asset- it is simply the simplest, most expedient solution. When Nighthawk rejects this plan, Menace retorts that if they (the Redeemers) truly intend to win this struggle against the Squadron, they will have to use all available means and methods to ensure victory, and any reservations preventing Nighthawk from doing so is idealistic nonsense. Menace tops this argument with the notion that their only other option to ensure Blue Eagle doesn't talk is to kill him.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Not that you can blame him, but as soon as it's apparent that his plan to remove the threat of the Nth Man entity by shunting him into another dimension has failed, Menace immediately abandons his allies in the Squadron by teleporting away to safety.
• Take Over the World: Menace's main goal. He actually manages to take over Earth-712's Middle East region,in the wake of the catastrophic upheaval of world governments and society at large due to the Overmind's invasion.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Invoked and played with. The Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe graphic novel sees Menace attempt to devise a means to avert the world's destruction by traveling to the Scarlet Centurion's era to take advantage of its highly advanced technology. Hyperion, who has been waiting for only three-quarters of an hour for Menace and the Centurion to return (they'd promised to be back in a minute), is shocked to see Menace sporting gray hair, signifying that about fifteen years has actually passed for his arch enemy in the 40th century. Menace, after such a long period of time, lost track of the exact minute he'd left the Squadron's era.

The Scarlet Centurion

"In moments we shall see if years of effort have borne fruit...and I shall finally see the veil of time rent asunder!"

"Greetings, Squadron! I HAVE RETURNED!!!"

Absolute monarch of 40th century Earth. Time-travelling despot and ruler of countless worlds, Victorex Prime, His Imperial Majesty, conqueror of time and space, the Scarlet Centurion is one of the Squadron Supreme's oldest and most dangerous enemies. Sworn to subjugate their home era, the Centurion has been repeatedly but narrowly thwarted many times by the Squadron, despite the advantages of his vast temporal armies and advanced technology and weaponry. A divergent identity of the man also known as Rama-Tut, Kang the Conqueror, and Immortus.

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• All There in the Manual: If you just read the series alone, you'd never know he's an alternate Kang, since it never hints at it. It wouldn't be until Captain America annual #11, a few years down the line, that the point of divergence is given.
• Alternate Self: He's an alternate Kang. Curiously, none of the other Kangs bare him any malice, or make any effort to go after him, meaning he's spared the mass purge of Kangs Immortus enacted.
• Color Character: The SCARLET Centurion.
• Conqueror from the Future: Commands vast armies of chrono-warriors armed with powerful 40th century weaponry. The Squadron's era is the only one he has failed to absorb into his vast temporal empire, much to his perpetual chagrin.
• Crazy-Prepared: Wears a helmet that is proof against psychic probes and other mental intrusion.
• Deal with the Devil: The Centurion offers one to Squadron member Tom Thumb, who approaches his to bargain for the Panacea Potion, the supposed cure-all for humanity's diseases and the aging process. When the Centurion requests that Thumb slip ground Argonite (the sole radioactive substance that can harm Hyperion) into Hyperion's food (paving the way for the Centurion to crush Hyperion and subsequently rule the world), the short inventor realizes the price is too high.
• Dirty Coward: In Squadron Supreme #2, all it takes is a strongly worded threat from Hyperion to make him back off from staging a full-scale invasion of Earth.
• Divide and Conquer: His primary strategy against the Avengers.
• Enemy Mine: Enters into this situation with his hated enemy Hyperion and the rest of the Squadron Supreme to find a way to thwart the destruction of the universe by "The Entity".
• Eternal English: Subverted. He has his underlings learn 20th century English for when they're operating there.
• Evil Is Hammy: Bursts in on a Squadron Supreme meeting with a huge, ostentatious hologram to announce that "I HAVE RETURNED!!!"
• Evil Is Petty: Absolutely exults in the anguish Tom Thumb suffers when tormented by the Sadistic Choice presented him in Squadron Supreme #2.
• Evil Laughter: Indulges in some at Tom Thumb's expense when the Squadroner agonizes over the moral dilemma laid out by the Centurion's offer.
• Evil Overlord: Victorex Prime, His Imperial Majesty, conqueror of time and space.
• Faux Affably Evil: Exhibits an overall congenial manner while plotting to destroy and/or subjugate all around him.
• For the Evulz : The whole reason he allows Tom Thumb to approach him to bargain for the Panacea Potion, then stand idly by while the diminutive Squadroner later stages a raid to steal the Potion, all the while knowing full well that the drug won't work for people in the Squadron's time. Gets a HUGE chuckle out of this tragic "Shaggy Dog" Story.
• Foregone Conclusion: Sits and calmly watches from a hidden vantage point as Squadron members Tom Thumb and Lamprey sneak into his fortress and steal a sample of the Panacea Potion, the Centurion's "miracle drug". When his "chrono-troopers" ask if their ruler if they should mount pursuit, the Centurion refuses, stating that "Certain historical events, like Tom Thumb's fate (his imminent demise by cancer), are known to me."
• Hologram: Uses a "chronographic projection" of himself to witness the Squadron Supreme's efforts to save the universe during Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• Karma Houdini: He's a conquering jerkass per excellence, but he's not seen suffering any consequences whatsoever for any of it, and the team never does go after him.
• Legacy Character: Kang's son Marcus takes up the title.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Pits the founding Avengers against their successors.
• Mythology Gag: He got into a tussle with Earth-712's Grandmaster, much like how the Squadron Sinister were introduced as minions in a fight between Earth-616's Kang and the Grandmaster.
• Not Me This Time: Hyperion immediately suspects The Centurion of being behind the universe destroying Entity phenomenon in Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe. He is flattered by the accusation. Master Menace initially (and ironically)) suspects him of having something to do with the encroaching catastrophe as well.
• Older Than They Look: Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe states that the Scarlet Centurion has ruled for at least 51 years, but still looks like a man in his physical prime. He has undoubtedly partaken of his own Panacea Potion, which he asserts stops the ravages of age, at least for people from his time era.
• Point of Divergence: His life diverges from Kang's around the events of Fantastic Four annual #2, after which he traveled back to the events of Avengers issue 2 and interfered, turning the Avengers into dictators. When that plan went belly-up, his timeline splits in two; one version of him went off to be Kang, and this version decided to go bother the Squadron Supreme of Earth-712.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Aside from the conquering and enslaving, he cracks a few jokes at Tom Thumb's expense.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Despite his own intense hatred of Hyperion, The Centurion nevertheless tells Master Menace to cut the crap when Burbank wastes valuable time trying to humiliate the Squadroner by making him beg for assistance during the Entity crisis.
• Sadistic Choice: Presents Squadron member Tom Thumb with one in Squadron Supreme #2. The Centurion offers to give the diminutive scientist a sample of the "Panacea Potion", a 40th-century drug which can supposedly cure any and all ailments, with the implication that Thumb introducing the drug to his era centuries before the Centurion's would save untold millions of lives. But in return, the despot requires Thumb to poison the food of Hyperion with Argonite, a substance which is lethal to the Squadron leader, which would enable the Centurion to finally conquer the Squadron's era, enslaving millions.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Pulls this (understandably so) near the end of Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe, after all the combined efforts of the Centurion, the Squadron, Master Menace and the Overmind ultimately failed to thwart the Entity's world erasing efforts.
• Slouch of Villainy: Pulls this pose at the beginning and end of the Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe graphic novel.
• Super-Strength: Nowhere near the level of Hyperion or even Amphibian most likely, but he has been shown to be able to hoist one of his minions (an average-sized but grown man) with one hand quite easily.
• Time Travel: His bread and butter.
• Troll: Deep down, the Centurion had to know that Tom Thumb would never agree to poison his friend and teammate Hyperion, even for a drug (supposedly) capable of curing all disease. The time despot just got his jollies jerking the poor guy around. Even more so since he knew the cure wouldn't work, and Tom was dying himself.
• Victory Is Boring: His dilemma at the beginning of Squadron Supreme: Death of a Universe.
• We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future: ...along with the utter halt of the aging process altogether, thanks to the Panacea Potion.
• Withholding the Cure: Played with. By the Centurion's time, medical science has advanced to the point where all illness and ravages of the body can be cured by a "Panacea Potion". Squadroner Tom Thumb approaches the Centurion to bargain for it, and walks away empty handed when Thumb refuses to poison his teammate Hyperion in exchange. Turns out that the Potion wouldn't have worked on anyone from the Squadron's era anyway, as eugenics and biological systems haven't advanced far enough for the Potion (which is basically composed of complex vitamins) to be effective.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Also played with. When Master Menace travels to the Centurion's era to take advantage of 40th-century technology to devise a means of thwarting the universe-swallowing Entity, he promises Hyperion that he will return to the Squadron's time period within one minute. Menace and the Centurion actually return after more than forty-five minutes, and Hyperion realizes that the arch criminal has aged fifteen years. It turns out that devising the weapon took much longer than Menace anticipated. By all accounts, time moves at the same speed in the Centurion's era as it does in that of the Squadron, but this instance gave the illusion of this trope.

Hyperion (Earth-616)

"Big talk- but talk ain't gonna win this scrap!"

"I'd die before I give up what I've got now, hear me? So you gotta kill me or I gotta kill you- it's the only way!"

Created by Elder of the Universe The Grandmaster out of alien matter, the alternate universe Hyperion was a member of the Squadron Sinister, a group of superhuman criminals based on the Squadron Supreme. Created as a direct copy of the Hyperion of Earth-712, he was gifted with not only the original's physical appearance but myriad powers as well. Fought The Avengers during a "Contest of Champions", and forged a semi-rivalry with The Mighty Thor. Eventually makes his way to the alternate Earth of the Squadron Supreme (Earth 712) where he begins his enmity with the original Hyperion. Somewhat of an expy of Bizarro from The Superman mythos, but also of Superman's Earth-3 counterpart Ultraman.

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See Squadron Sinister for more info.

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