Squadron Supreme #9 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Mondays

Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey

Written By: James Robinson
Art By: Aco, Marcelo Maiolo, Leonardo Romero, Mat Lopes
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: July 20, 2016
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoiler and Score At The Bottom*

Honestly, I have no knowledge on the Squadron Supreme. Granted, I did hear about the first story arc of this series because everyone was talking about it but other than that, I have never read a Squadron Supreme book and don’t really understand much about the team. However, this issue is a tie-in to Civil War II, a crossover that I am very familiar with. Thus, since it is linked to the crossover, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to easily understand what’s going on. How did things turn out? Let’s find out.

The issue begins with a monologue about a woman who was destined to be a queen. The dialogue would make it seem that this was a wondrous and glorious thing but the images we receive are those of a dystopian hellscape. Afterwards, we join a character known as Warrior Woman, who has been using the name Power Princess in order to remain undercover. She used to be a part of a group called the Squadron Sinister but they were lost when she came to this world. She speaks with her advisor about what is to come in the future and he asks her about her past. He tells her that someone from her past would come back and become her enemy.

She talks about the events of her past, when she came to this world. Her previous world was being destroyed and the Squadron Sinister had found a portal which would allow them to flee safely to our world. Unfortunately, there was only enough time for one of them to make the journey, which obviously led to a fight between the members. Ultimately Warrior Woman was able to beat them all and ended up using the portal. When going through the portal she began to lose power and feared that she might end up lost in the portal forever. However, it is then that she meets another version of herself, known as Power Princess. Power Princess offers to help Warrior Woman but when they come into contact Warrior Woman steals all the power that she has and keeps it for herself, abandoning Power Princess to the portal.

The reason that the advisor continues to ask her about her past is because he recently made a trip to the Inhuman city. While there, he disguised himself and then used his power to force the new Inhuman Ulysses to see the future for Warrior Woman. His vision told him of the threat from the past and that she would find an ally with Namor, the former king of Atlantis. Thing is, Namor was executed in the first arc of Squadron Supreme and Atlantis was destroyed. This is when we finally get the identity of the threat from the past. It is, not surprisingly, the now powerless Power Princess.

In the back of this issue we get a small story that follows Power Princess after she had her power stolen. It shows that she encountered a similar situation as Warrior Woman. Her world was being destroyed but instead of fighting with her own team for survival, she was chosen by Hyperion to be saved. Of course, she was then betrayed by Warrior Woman in the portal and had her powers taken away. However, she still made it to the main Earth and used the skills she was taught to forward her goals. She plans on making sure that Warrior Woman is unable to get away with what she does.

I was a bit lost in this issue and that is understandable. I haven’t been reading the book until now and the issue doesn’t tie-in a whole lot to Civil War II, but rather deals with its own story that just so happens to be taking place during the same time. That said, while I was lost, I was able to understand a bit because it was mostly about giving a backstory to this character. Granted, it took a while for me to catch on but reading through it a second time made everything make more sense. The art fit the book but in my opinion didn’t do anything special. It certainly wasn’t bad by any means, but nothing that really “wowed” me.

Bits and Pieces

This issue is equally a good jumping on point and a bad one. The fact that we are getting a character’s backstory makes it accessible but we also harp upon storylines from previous issues which the average reader did not read. The art was good but nothing special. Overall, a strange issue to be a tie-in to the Civil War II crossover. It just seems forced to me.

4.9/10