Editor's Note: Squadron Supreme #2 arrives in stores tomorrow, August 20.

"Power To The People! Part Two of Six: Another Country Heard From..."

This second issue of the new Squadron Supreme series sees Nick Fury, Emil Burbank and Arcanna Jones discover the truth behind the transformation of the crew of the Icarus One. At the same time, we see other characters continue to exhibit superhuman characteristics, as new potential superheroes are born into the Squadron Supreme universe.

This rebooted title has been a strange beast for me. In terms of the overall concept, it reminds me more of Warren Ellis' newuniversal than it does Straczynski's Squadron Supreme, in that it presents an alternate Marvel Universe, far removed from the regular MU, in which a single event endows a select group of people with superhuman abilities. Over the past couple of issues, we've seen a teenage misfit develop Spider-powers, we've seen four astronaut explorers return from space with fantastic powers, we've seen a character who appears to be a superhuman WWII veteran return to serve his country, and we've seen a billionaire industrialist use his technologies to create a flying metallic suit that enables him to play superhero. So, in place of the JLA analogues that we saw developed in the truncated Supreme Power and Squadron Supreme series under JMS, we have a new cast of Marvel analogues instead.

It doesn't look as though Chaykin is interested in bringing Hyperion and his crew back to this book (they've been mentioned in passing, but their fate has been left pretty vague), so I have to assume that these new characters are going to be the ones that carry the series from now on. Unfortunately, two issues in, I still can't really see where any of the intrigue or interest lies in following these characters. Chaykin's Squadron Supreme doesn't have the mature edge that Straczynski's approach to superheroes had, and it doesn't have the kind of originality or imaginative flair that makes similar books such as Ellis' newuniversal series enjoyable to read. In fact, I'm not really sure what this book has to offer beyond a remix of familiar powers and personalities in a setting that's lighter on continuity than the regular and Ultimate Marvel Universes. As best, there may be one or two interesting and novel character relationships developing here - notably between the crew members of the Icarus One - but that isn't really enough here to sustain my interest in a single 22-page book, let alone the full series.

Marco Turini's artwork carries the story well, with a well-staged action sequence opening the issue and with distinctive designs for each of his characters. The characters' body language is occasionally a little wooden, and Turini's depiction of the abilities exhibited by the crew of the Icarus One is a little samey (with two of the characters' powers distinguished only by colour), but it's generally a perfectly adequate art job. However, I do have to wonder whether the colourist has understood the intentions of Chaykin's script clearly, as despite the central scene of this issue (Fury, Jones and Burbank breaking into a military facility to uncover the secrets behind the crew of the Icarus One) taking place over one night, there are frequent flashes to other events (at the Pentagon, at Tucker Ford's offices, and in Nebraska) that are shown to be taking place in broad daylight, with blue skies and clouds that appear to have been added by the colourist rather than the penciller or inker. It's either a colouring error, or the story is being presented in a nonlinear fashion, without making it very clear that the scenes are not occurring in chronological order. Of course, there's also the problem of Nick Fury's amazing chameleonic moustache, which switches between grey and black from one page to another (and which leads me to suspect that a colouring error is probably the more likely explanation for the previous problem, too). It's a shame, as they're distractions that could easily have been avoided with a little more care and attention.

I'm not really sure where this series is going or what the point of it is, and at the moment, I'm not finding the characters particularly interesting or appealing either. The slow pace of Straczynski's Squadron Supreme was justified by the in-depth character work and detailed storytelling that was being accomplished, and the fact that it was an ongoing series allowed JMS the time to develop his world at a slow and steady pace. Chaykin's Squadron Supreme doesn't appear to share that sophistication, and doesn't even share the novelty of featuring DC analogues in a Marvel book, with the company opting instead to cannibalise its own characters with remixed versions that are less interesting than the originals. I don't like being negative about comics, and I believe in giving projects a fair chance, but two issues into this six-issue story, I haven't seen anything that'll encourage me to pick up the third.

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