r/SquadronSupreme

I've only recently finally sat down and read through Heroes Reborn 2021, and even though it's a pretty bare-bones story, I quite liked it. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a story that depicts an alternate universe where the Avengers and other Marvel heroes never existed... but in their place, the Squadron Supreme are Earth's mightiest heroes. They've effortlessly dispatched every single villain and threat the Marvel universe throws at them, but they're also highly dysfunctional, brutal, and totally at the beck and call of the corrupt US government (they even endorsed mutant persecution and helped a US invasion of Canada!)

The story's all about Blade, the only one who remembers the 'old' universe, tracking down the Avengers and reminding them of who they are, to restore things to normal. In the meantime, we get to explore this crazy world a bit. Part of the fun is that, just as the Squadron are clearly pastiches of DC comics heroes, everything in this new, altered universe has been 'bent' slightly to give everything a DC Comics kind of feel- that is, since Nighthawk is Batman, Falcon has become his 'Robin' and the Green Goblin has become his 'Joker,' and so on. This is my attempt to keep track of all the "DC-isms" I noticed. Here goes:

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SQUADRON SUPREME

(not to get blatantly obvious, but they're essentially a dark version of the Justice League)

• Hyperion = Superman
• The Blur = the Flash
• Dr. Spectrum = Green Lantern
• Nighthawk = Batman
• Power Princess = Wonder Woman

There's also a little stealth-joke in there where the Squadron are headquartered in Washington, DC instead of the more-traditional-for-Marvel-Comics New York. This might have been to accommodate Nighthawk's job as a US Congressman, but it's also because they're from DC (get it?)

(... this does mean that the city gets portrayed with lots of skyscrapers that come superhero-standard, even though the real Washington DC has none. But oh well.)

Masters of Doom = the Legion of Doom

For whatever reason, these guys break away from the "Marvel characters become DC" trend and have their own gimmick, where they're each a sort of composite of two different Marvel villains.

• Dr. Juggernaut (Dr. Doom + Juggernaut)
• Silver Witch (Quicksilver + Scarlet Witch)
• Thanos (uses rings to hold his Infinity Stones instead of a gauntlet, possibly meant to add similarity to the Mandarin, as his archenemy, Spectrum, has often presented as basically the Squadron's answer to Iron Man)
• Black Skull (Red Skull + Venom symbiote)
• All-Gog (Thor villain Mangog + Odin in his darker moments... and maybe Demogorge?)

The "DC character theme" might still be there, but it's a bit more subtle; Dr. Juggernaut seems to be this world's Lex Luthor (with his new Juggernaut armor referencing Lex's famous giant battlesuit), Silver Witch possibly Golden Glider or a gender-swapped Captain Cold (drawing on her hatred of Blur for killing her brother, and her use of magic to slow things down, similar to Cold's gun), Thanos as Sinestro (thanks to his rings), Black Skull as possibly Bane (if I'm right about the Venom symbiote being a substitute for the drug Venom), and All-Gog possibly as DC's Ares.

Young Squadron (this world's Champions) = the Titans, or Young Justice

• Kamala Khan (as "Girl Power") = Wonder Girl (Sandsmark)
• Sam Alexander (as "Kid Spectrum") = Kyle Rayner
• Miles Morales (as the new "Falcon") = Robin III (Tim Drake)

Squadron Savage = Suicide Squad

• Wilson Fisk = Amanda Waller
• Frank Castle = Rick Flagg
• Elektra = Katana
• Hawkeye = Deadshot (with no Avengers, he never reformed)
• Winter Soldier = seemingly KGBeast
• Crossbones (in powered armor) = I guess Bloodsport?

Other characters and concepts:

• Peter Parker = Jimmy Olsen (never became Spider-Man, and stayed a shy reporter who sometimes hangs out with Hyperion, though he secretly hates him)
• Carol Danvers = Carol Ferris (I'm pretty sure, but one who actually despises her 'Green Lantern' instead of being his girlfriend)
• Sam Wilson (Falcon) = Robin (still became Falcon, but he's Nighthawk's partner, not Captain America's. He's killed by the Goblin, evoking the fate of Jason Todd)
• Gwen Stacy (as Nightbird) = Batgirl (Nighthawk's other younger partner... but she's double-dipping as Harley Quinn, a blonde woman who studies psychiatry; notably, instead of putting her in a wheelchair like the Joker did with Barbara, the Goblin simply drives her insane)
• Luke Cage = Commissioner Gordon (or maybe Gordon's temporary replacement, Commissioner Akins... I'd assume the proper 'Gordon' would be Gwen's father George Stacy)
• Misty Knight = Renee Montoya, I guess (though instead of any kind of Bullock-analogue, her partner is Jessica Jones)
• Norman Osborn (as 'the Goblin') = Joker
• Otto Octavius (as 'the Octopus') = the Penguin
• Ebenezer Laughton (Scarecrow) = Scarecrow (...duh)
• Curt Connors (still a Lizard) = Killer Croc
• Black Cat = Catwoman (... duh)
• Kraven the Hunter = I'm guessing Catman; this version of his 'Last Hunt' comes from an obsession with copying Nighthawk, not Spider-Man. A guy dressed as a big cat who wants to copy basically-Batman seems Catman-y.
• Bullseye = Victor Zsasz
• Moon Knight = Hush (or at least, his bandaged face while in Ravencroft suggests that)
• Matt Murdock (as 'the Saint') = Azrael
• Hulk = Bizarro (with no Avengers, he never became a good guy, and he's become very confused by the world changing and sometimes finds himself talking backwards)
• Hank Pym (as Ultron) = Metallo
• The Beyonder = Mr. Mxyzptlk
• Annihilus = General Zod (his imprisonment in the Negative Zone evokes Zod's time in the Phantom Zone)
• Deadpool = can't seem to decide if he wants to be Deathstroke or Harley Quinn.
• Johnny Blaze (as "Ghost Runner") = Black Flash (doesn't have his bike, for some reason, and forces his enemies to run up "Penance Stairs" instead of using a Penance Stare)
• Ursa Major = Gorilla Grodd
• Tigra = Cheetah
• Janet van Dyne (as Giantess) = Giganta
• MODOK = Hector Hammond, I'm pretty sure
• Rocket Raccoon = Lobo (the Guardians of the Galaxy never formed, and Rocket became a hardened interstellar bounty hunter)
• Doom 2099 = not sure; Blur alludes to having faced him and his "timesled" at one point. Presumably he's standing in for a number of Flash enemies from the future, but I can't think of any one in particular who would be a good fit for future-Doom, or who used a sled.
• Circus of Crime = well, it's complicated. In Dr. Spectrum's issue, we learn they've become a spacefaring group, which I took to be a reference to the Legion of Superheroes story "Space Circus of Death!". But then we see the Circus of Crime a few other times over the course of "Heroes Reborn" and never again as a group active in space... so I assume there was a mixup between writers.
• SHIELD = STAR Labs (SHIELD's been downsized to a string of research labs that just handle cleanup for the Squadron, with no global peacekeeping troops. Probably because those troops aren't needed with the Squadron around)
• Vibranium = Kryptonite
• Ravencroft Institute = Arkham Asylum

Events

• Hyperion being friends with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard in his youth = Superboy hanging out with the Legion of Superheroes
• Nighthawk gets the Black Suit (equivalent to Spider-Man's Alien Costume Saga) = Batman: Venom, I think
• Norman Osborn runs for president (equivalent to Dark Reign) = that story arc where Joker became ambassador to Iran
• The Falcon's death (equivalent to The Night Gwen Stacy Died) = A Death in the Family and the death of Jason Todd)
• Hyperion and Nighthawk fighting each other over mutant registration (equivalent to *Civil War*) = any of the times Superman and Batman fought, I guess. Maybe especially *The Dark Knight Returns* since Nighthawk whips out a special superpowered suit for the occasion
• Power Princess meeting her past and future while fighting Gorr (equivalent to Jason Aaron's Thor: God of Thunder) = Impossible Tales, where Wonder Woman used to partner with her past selves, Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot
• Blur marrying Mary Jane Watson but losing her due to events involving Mephisto (equivalent to One More Day) = a more obscure Flash story called Hell To Pay

That's all I could find, but let me know if you noticed anything else! I thought it would be fun to look for other possible "DC-isms" that the series didn't make use of, so feel free to throw those out if any occur to you.