Squadron Supreme

Mark Gruenwald's ambitious twelve-issue maxiseries for Marvel, published in the mid-1980s, reimagines a pantheon of familiar superhero archetypes—including Hyperion, Doctor Spectrum, and Arcanna—as the morally complex Squadron Supreme. After a devastating tragedy, these heroes decide to forcibly impose utopia on their world, leading to a gritty, philosophical exploration of power, governance, and the cost of absolute control. Illustrated by a rotating team of Bob Hall, Paul Ryan, and John Buscema, the series is a landmark in superhero deconstruction, predating and influencing later works that question the very nature of heroism.