One of The Panel Biter's most popular posts was a comic book series idea called "Squadron Superior" featuring a team of Marvel characters who just don't get along. Seeing as how enough time has passed, I thought I'd expand on the idea and share my idea for a "Volume 2" of Squadron Superior!
In my last pitch for Squadron Superior, Marvel's schizophrenic Superman known as The Sentry kidnapped Moon Knight, Valkyrie, Quicksilver, Namor, Nova, and Super Skrull to help him defeat his own alter ego "The Void" which had separated from him and took over a portion of the universe. While The Sentry and The Squadron Superior successfully defeated The Void and freed the cosmos from it's control, The Void leeched off the negativity of Sentry's team. It is revealed that after The Void split from Sentry and began it's cosmic conquest it manipulated The Sentry's mind into believing he had to gather those six heroes specifically. Unknown to The Sentry, The Void wanted him to unite with those characters because it knew the team would be at constant odds with each other. The further the team succeeded in defeating The Void, the more fed up the team got with each other. By the end of that story The Void would use The Squad's negative emotions as a power source to open a portal to another dimension, one where The Void could amass more power. While the rest of The Squad saw this as the end of their journey The Sentry wasn't satisfied. But, out of guilt and respect, The Sentry gave his ship to the six heroes so they could return to Earth while he followed The Void to another world. One eerily unlike our own.
The Sentry follows The Void to Earth-323, a world where the alignments have reversed and the Earth is ruled by villains. On this Earth, The Void finds Robert Reynolds (The Sentry's civilian identity) who is a mild mannered reporter working for The Daily Bugle. This version of Robert never became The Sentry so The Void takes over his body, slowly destroying his social life in the process. When The Sentry finds out this world's Robert Reynolds had a family and an actual life he only becomes angrier at The Void-at himself really-for destroying this perfect life. With the emergence of The Sentry and The Void, President Nicholas Fury summons the aid of "The Masters".
The Masters are this world's version of The Avengers, but obviously evil. Steve Rogers became a Super-Soldier in the 1940's like usual, but in this world the professor who gave him the serum also brainwashed him into being a Nazi. As Adolf Hitler's General Germany, Rogers became the driving force behind The Nazi Party winning World War II. However, Rogers killed his superiors and ruled over Europe for decades until deciding to ally with the corrupt USA. Also, his shield would have a swastika on it. After one of his own weapons nearly killed him in Iraq, weapons manufacturer Tony Stark was bonded to a suit of armor by enemy scientists. The terrorist known as The Mandarin planned on using Tony as his personal inventor, but Tony killed him and gained the worship of The Mandarin's army. Tony decided the US didn't appreciate his genius like these men did, so he upgraded his armor and led this terrorist army as The Iron Mandarin. Hank Pym and his wife Janet Van Dyne were constantly being attacked by those who wanted access to Pym's shrinking technology. Pym and Dyne tried to remain small to avoid conflict, but the effects of the Pym Particles drove them insane and-through incidents Hank can't remember-Janet died and Hank built two robots to help dull the loss. One robot tried to convince Hank to turn himself in, but the other robot replicated the appearance of Janet and convinced Hank that the first robot wasn't loyal. Hank and the Janet robot upgraded their shrinking tech and took over a company called AIM, turning themselves into the mad scientists known as Yellowjacket and The Wasp. After Thor-The God of Thunder-saw how weak the people of Earth were and how disrespectful his father Odin was towards him, he decided to destroy Asgard's Rainbow Bridge and strand himself on Earth where he built a kingdom of his own. Though Thor is not worthy to pick up his hammer, he forced scientists to build him the closest replication they could. His hammer still sits under the foundation his kingdom was built on. As for The Hulk? The origin didn't change, but let's just say Bruce Banner died when The Hulk was born.
General Germany, The Iron Mandarin, The Hulk, Thor, Yellowjacket and The Wasp all control a portion of Earth under President Fury's commands and as ordered they unite to fight The Sentry. After Sentry is defeated and locked up in a miniature prison called Camp Hammond, The Masters go after The Void next. The Sentry can feel his powers disappearing, perhaps the effects of the camp or this dimension. Or maybe The Sentry needed The Void more than he thought. Luckily, the prison is broken into and The Sentry is freed by this world's heroes The Revengers. Once they get to The Revengers' base in Latvaria, the heroes reveal they became aware of The Void's appearance on their Earth and-in order to bring balance back to their Earth-they need to help The Sentry defeat The Void. What shocks The Sentry is that the heroes of this Earth are the minority and are always defeated, either killed or arrested they keep trying. Not for world peace, but just for the joy of tormenting villains.
Remember that good robot Hank created and then abandoned? Well, it became the hero known as Ultron and fought villains constantly until it evolved into one of the strongest beings on Earth. It also allied itself with Victor Von Doom, the poor son of a gypsy woman. Victor grew up in Latvaria during Rogers' rule over Europe and his mother died trying to fight Rogers with magic. Victor was later given The Eye of Aggamato from The Ancient One. The Eye is passed down from Sorcerer to Sorcerer to help it's wielder protect Earth from magical threats, but because The Ancient One was on his death bed he had no choice but to give the Eye to Doom. Using his magic powers and the technological lessons taught by Ultron, Victor-now as Lord Doom-created a sector of Latvaria where his people could be safe. Another ally came in the form of Sinthea Shmidt. Sinthea was the daughter of Hitler's ally Johann Schmidt and witnessed the death of her father at the hands of General Germany. From then on she spent her childhood training in weaponry and martial arts to eventually kill the General and avenge her father, but she knew it wasn't enough. Sinthea tried to replicate the Super Soldier Serum and the resulting effects started killing her. Out of pity, the General put her in suspended animation until decades later Lord Doom and Ultron rescued her and used a formula to even-out the effects of the serum. However, the side effects of the mixed chemicals burned Sinthea's skull. She took the name Red Skull, and became their super soldier. Though he was hesitant to work with a former member of the Nazi party, the mutant known as Magneto decided to join Doom's team. On this Earth Magneto was still a holocaust survivor, but the holocaust never stopped, it only changed directions. Under Rogers and Fury's orders the mutant population was either killed, experimented on or locked away in fear of their powers-even Magneto's children were hunted-and Magneto became a myth among the mutant community. The city of New York is ran by The Hand, a group of powerful men who vote on the direction of the city. Matt Murdock runs the justice system, Luke Cage runs homeland security, Danial Rand runs financial, Peter Parker runs science development and Norman Osborn ran city construction. However, the rest of The Hand learned Norman was developing new weapons behind their backs in order to protect citizens from The Hand's control. Peter Parker-with the use of his black alien suit-killed Norman's son as a warning. Norman murdered Peter's herum of women, he destroyed The Hand's lair, and finally he faked his death. Five years later, a masked vigilante called The New York Goblin appeared using the weapons Osborn created and he too was recruited by Doom. After seeing how these heroes were messing up Thor's precious Earth, Loki The God of Mischief tricked his father Odin into sending him to Earth. In his attempts at annoying Thor, Loki was recruited onto Doom's team. Together they vowed to seek revenge on those who have wronged them.
The Void eventually kills President Fury and takes a powerful gem Fury hid under his eye patch. Now possessing the power of the gem, The Void becomes the new ruler of Earth and he joins The Masters in an attempt to kill The Sentry and The Revengers. The story from then on would feature epic battles and meta parallels to your standard Marvel story. The Sentry would go through some character development, as would these inverses of Marvel villains. DC Comics has played with the mirror-reality idea before and since the Squad has always been a team themed after DC characters this kind of story seems acceptable. Maybe I'll go on about my ideas for Squadron Superior in the future, but for now I hope you enjoyed the second volume of my pitch and see all the possible story angles in something like this. Maybe The Sentry will stay on this Earth? Maybe the gem The Void has is an Infinity Gem? Maybe The Masters and Revengers will expand their rosters? Who knows? I guess me. But still! Squadron Superior continues to be one of my favorite comic book ideas!
Thanks for reading!
The Sentry follows The Void to Earth-323, a world where the alignments have reversed and the Earth is ruled by villains. On this Earth, The Void finds Robert Reynolds (The Sentry's civilian identity) who is a mild mannered reporter working for The Daily Bugle. This version of Robert never became The Sentry so The Void takes over his body, slowly destroying his social life in the process. When The Sentry finds out this world's Robert Reynolds had a family and an actual life he only becomes angrier at The Void-at himself really-for destroying this perfect life. With the emergence of The Sentry and The Void, President Nicholas Fury summons the aid of "The Masters".
The Masters are this world's version of The Avengers, but obviously evil. Steve Rogers became a Super-Soldier in the 1940's like usual, but in this world the professor who gave him the serum also brainwashed him into being a Nazi. As Adolf Hitler's General Germany, Rogers became the driving force behind The Nazi Party winning World War II. However, Rogers killed his superiors and ruled over Europe for decades until deciding to ally with the corrupt USA. Also, his shield would have a swastika on it. After one of his own weapons nearly killed him in Iraq, weapons manufacturer Tony Stark was bonded to a suit of armor by enemy scientists. The terrorist known as The Mandarin planned on using Tony as his personal inventor, but Tony killed him and gained the worship of The Mandarin's army. Tony decided the US didn't appreciate his genius like these men did, so he upgraded his armor and led this terrorist army as The Iron Mandarin. Hank Pym and his wife Janet Van Dyne were constantly being attacked by those who wanted access to Pym's shrinking technology. Pym and Dyne tried to remain small to avoid conflict, but the effects of the Pym Particles drove them insane and-through incidents Hank can't remember-Janet died and Hank built two robots to help dull the loss. One robot tried to convince Hank to turn himself in, but the other robot replicated the appearance of Janet and convinced Hank that the first robot wasn't loyal. Hank and the Janet robot upgraded their shrinking tech and took over a company called AIM, turning themselves into the mad scientists known as Yellowjacket and The Wasp. After Thor-The God of Thunder-saw how weak the people of Earth were and how disrespectful his father Odin was towards him, he decided to destroy Asgard's Rainbow Bridge and strand himself on Earth where he built a kingdom of his own. Though Thor is not worthy to pick up his hammer, he forced scientists to build him the closest replication they could. His hammer still sits under the foundation his kingdom was built on. As for The Hulk? The origin didn't change, but let's just say Bruce Banner died when The Hulk was born.
General Germany, The Iron Mandarin, The Hulk, Thor, Yellowjacket and The Wasp all control a portion of Earth under President Fury's commands and as ordered they unite to fight The Sentry. After Sentry is defeated and locked up in a miniature prison called Camp Hammond, The Masters go after The Void next. The Sentry can feel his powers disappearing, perhaps the effects of the camp or this dimension. Or maybe The Sentry needed The Void more than he thought. Luckily, the prison is broken into and The Sentry is freed by this world's heroes The Revengers. Once they get to The Revengers' base in Latvaria, the heroes reveal they became aware of The Void's appearance on their Earth and-in order to bring balance back to their Earth-they need to help The Sentry defeat The Void. What shocks The Sentry is that the heroes of this Earth are the minority and are always defeated, either killed or arrested they keep trying. Not for world peace, but just for the joy of tormenting villains.
Remember that good robot Hank created and then abandoned? Well, it became the hero known as Ultron and fought villains constantly until it evolved into one of the strongest beings on Earth. It also allied itself with Victor Von Doom, the poor son of a gypsy woman. Victor grew up in Latvaria during Rogers' rule over Europe and his mother died trying to fight Rogers with magic. Victor was later given The Eye of Aggamato from The Ancient One. The Eye is passed down from Sorcerer to Sorcerer to help it's wielder protect Earth from magical threats, but because The Ancient One was on his death bed he had no choice but to give the Eye to Doom. Using his magic powers and the technological lessons taught by Ultron, Victor-now as Lord Doom-created a sector of Latvaria where his people could be safe. Another ally came in the form of Sinthea Shmidt. Sinthea was the daughter of Hitler's ally Johann Schmidt and witnessed the death of her father at the hands of General Germany. From then on she spent her childhood training in weaponry and martial arts to eventually kill the General and avenge her father, but she knew it wasn't enough. Sinthea tried to replicate the Super Soldier Serum and the resulting effects started killing her. Out of pity, the General put her in suspended animation until decades later Lord Doom and Ultron rescued her and used a formula to even-out the effects of the serum. However, the side effects of the mixed chemicals burned Sinthea's skull. She took the name Red Skull, and became their super soldier. Though he was hesitant to work with a former member of the Nazi party, the mutant known as Magneto decided to join Doom's team. On this Earth Magneto was still a holocaust survivor, but the holocaust never stopped, it only changed directions. Under Rogers and Fury's orders the mutant population was either killed, experimented on or locked away in fear of their powers-even Magneto's children were hunted-and Magneto became a myth among the mutant community. The city of New York is ran by The Hand, a group of powerful men who vote on the direction of the city. Matt Murdock runs the justice system, Luke Cage runs homeland security, Danial Rand runs financial, Peter Parker runs science development and Norman Osborn ran city construction. However, the rest of The Hand learned Norman was developing new weapons behind their backs in order to protect citizens from The Hand's control. Peter Parker-with the use of his black alien suit-killed Norman's son as a warning. Norman murdered Peter's herum of women, he destroyed The Hand's lair, and finally he faked his death. Five years later, a masked vigilante called The New York Goblin appeared using the weapons Osborn created and he too was recruited by Doom. After seeing how these heroes were messing up Thor's precious Earth, Loki The God of Mischief tricked his father Odin into sending him to Earth. In his attempts at annoying Thor, Loki was recruited onto Doom's team. Together they vowed to seek revenge on those who have wronged them.
The Void eventually kills President Fury and takes a powerful gem Fury hid under his eye patch. Now possessing the power of the gem, The Void becomes the new ruler of Earth and he joins The Masters in an attempt to kill The Sentry and The Revengers. The story from then on would feature epic battles and meta parallels to your standard Marvel story. The Sentry would go through some character development, as would these inverses of Marvel villains. DC Comics has played with the mirror-reality idea before and since the Squad has always been a team themed after DC characters this kind of story seems acceptable. Maybe I'll go on about my ideas for Squadron Superior in the future, but for now I hope you enjoyed the second volume of my pitch and see all the possible story angles in something like this. Maybe The Sentry will stay on this Earth? Maybe the gem The Void has is an Infinity Gem? Maybe The Masters and Revengers will expand their rosters? Who knows? I guess me. But still! Squadron Superior continues to be one of my favorite comic book ideas!
Thanks for reading!
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