The Squadron Supreme is villainous organization from the Avengers Assemble series, serving as the main antagonistic faction of the Squadron Supreme arc in Season 2
The Squadron's individual origins are largely unknown, only that they're human like aliens from a distant planet and served as honorable superheroes before becoming corrupt tyrants. The characters are also inspired by the popular DC superhero team, the Justice League.
The members, Nighthawk, Hyperion, Speed Demon, Power Princess, Dr. Spectrum, and Nuke were respectively voiced in the series by Anthony Ruivivar, Brian Bloom, April Stewart, Jason Spisak, and Phil LaMarr (as Spectrum and Nuke).
Biography[]
Past[]
The Squadron Supreme served as superheroes to a distant alien planet presumably for many years and were revered as heroes. Their members consist of Kyle Richmond (Nighthawk), Mark Milton (Hyperion), Princess Zarda (Power Princess), James Sanders (Speed Demon), Billy Roberts (Dr. Spectrum), and Albert Gaines (Nuke). However at an unknown point their behavior slowly started to transition to a considerably more violent nature. The Squadron have shown lack of concern for law and opted to kill villains more often, and they also become more demanding and attention seeking, expecting more gratitude and praise for their duties. Eventually the Squadron become corrupt themselves, realizing that it's more fun to gain power and attention yourself than simply letting it happen.
The team begins to believe that they deserve to be treated like gods by their people for what they do, and when their public opposes this and criticizes their change Hyperion attempts to violently attack them. The team is turned into enemies of the planet leading to war and Hyperion being the one to cause many attacks and sieges. The only member of the team opposed to this is Spectrum, who was repeatedly and violently attacked by his teammates who deemed him a weak coward. Having had enough of their world defying them, Nighthawk steals Spectrum's power source, the Power Prism to power a destructive beam that blows the planet up.
Season 1[]
Hyperion is the first member of the Squadron to meet the Avengers. He saves the planet from an Earth killer asteroid and earns the Avenger's respect, who attempt to recruit him to the team. Black Widow and Captain America become suspicious of his nature however when they realize he appeared on Earth so suddenly with his mothership, and studied the Avengers. The minds of the team quickly change when they see how violent and merciless Hyperion is, making no hesitation to murder supervillains. The Avengers stop him from killing Wrecker when he robs a truck stating that the should respect their world's rules and show mercy. Hyperion becomes disgusted at this notion, believing that the Avengers are weak as to show a villain mercy he turns on them, declaring that humans are soft and flawed. The Avengers battle him for a while and realize he is remarkably powerful, throwing Thor into space and nearly drowning Hulk. Captain America, Hawkeye, and Widow distract him while Ironman hacks into his mothership computer to find out about his past. Hyperion confronts him and Ironman declares that he's a dictator posing as a hero. The rest of the Avengers regroup and Thor gets a headstart from space, speeding into Hyperion and with Hulk's help they knock him out.
Hyperion is later set free from prison by the preserved Red Skull, and makes him a member of the Cabal, his team focused on wiping the Avengers out and dominating the world as totalitarians. Hyperion follows as a powerful and useful henchman alongside MODOK, Attuma, and Dracula. He helps Red Skull on several missions, such as to assassinate Dr. Doom. This fails however when Doom weaponizes his microphone to temporarily deafen Hyperion. Later to quest for the power source Tesseract. Red Skull uses it to build a portal device to send his men to other planets to conquer. Ironman reveals this to be treachery, that the portals disintegrate anyone who goes in. Red Skull plotted this not wanting anyone to stand in his way. MODOK rescues the Avengers from death hoping that they can help exact revenge. However the other members don't sympathize and attack the Avengers as Black Widow teleports with MODOK. Stark weaponizes the tower to contain the Cabal but later sets them free when Red Skull's new teleportation and energy powers make him more dangerous than ever. Hyperion and the other Cabal members work with the Avengers, narrowly escaping death when Thor throws his hammer at Skull's arc reactor to disarm him. The Cabal leave on a temporary truce.
Season 2[]
Kyle Richmond appears as a civilian in the season, later becoming a high ranking SHIELD agent and supposed subordinate of Nick Fury. Later that day however they face multiple attacks in the city by Hydra bots. Captain America states that the attacks are random and out of character. They also find out that the robots are spewing a purple liquid that actually makes Hulk sick, reacting negatively with his gamma form. A projectile containing a norn stone also attaches to Thor's hammer, causing him to teleport at random and out of control. When Black Widow faints Falcon is forced to tell the truth, that all of these are contingencies he made in case the Avengers ever turned rogue, and that Widow has a Red Room chip he hacked. With Falcon's help they trace the activities and find Nighthawk, realizing he is going to try to destroy the city to provoke the Avengers. Nighthawk explains that he's the leader of the Squadron Supreme, and had actually admired Falcon for his cunning. Falcon rejects Nighthawk's invitation to rule Earth with them and the Avengers manage to corner and capture him. Nighthawk however escapes with Hyperion's help.
Later on, while the Avengers are simultaneously fighting Thanos and Ultron, Nighthawk finds the Reality stone and commands Spectrum to use it, creating a flipped illusion where the Squadron are superheroes again and the Avengers are villains. Stark accidentally shoots the stone and discovers the illusion, and regroups the disbanded Avengers to help them find the truth. They raid Squadron tower where Nighthawk has summoned the other two members, Power Princess and Speed Demon. The Avengers seize the stone and reverse the reality. Over the next few days and weeks the Squadron attempts to slowly dismantle the Avengers, and although they have subdued Thanos, this is made hard for the Avengers as they're also trying to fight Ultron. When Antman joins the team they find out that he sold weapons to Spectrum during his thief days and that Spectrum is actually in trouble, being corrupted by his partially sentient Power Prism. They help get Roberts into protective custody since he hopes to defect from the Squadron, but Nighthawk finds away to reconstruct the Spectrum suit into a sentient armor after stealing the Prism. Power Princess also attempts to force Thor into joining them and revealing they fought as allies on another world. Thor initially tries to reform her since she apparently demonstrated nobility subduing corrupted animals, but it's revealed she has creation powers that mind controlled them to begin with. Hulk helps Thor and the two force Zarda into surrender.
The Squadron decide not to delay their domination plan any further. Nighthawk upgrades Speed Demon's powers to become faster than time. Speed Demon targets Hulk who gains an essence of his power, trapping him in a void where time has slowed. Hulk however uses one of Stark's power siphoning devices to remove the upgrade, but it's revealed that Speed Demon was just trying to hit Hulk with as much speed energy to overload his form, but Hulk channels the power and chases Speed Demon to Hyperion, and releases the power as an explosion. However it was revealed to be a strategic ruse to get the Avenger's computer data. They team abduct Ironman and Captain America the next day, forcing Falcon to take lead. They use teleportation technology to separate the Avengers but Falcon regroups them anticipating Nighthawk's strategies. Eventually after saving the tower from being teleported to Limbo, they find that the elaborate traps and fighting was to buy enough time to awaken a pacified member named Nuke, a living bomb. After regrouping in a mothership, Nuke blows it up while Thor is holding off the Squadron on the ground. Thor is nullified and contained, while the Squadron cripples SHIELD and goes on manhunts for other superheroes. The Avengers however with Falcon and Antman's intelligence go into hiding, revealed to survive the explosion.
The Avengers engage in guerilla warfare, targeting Squadron robots and infiltrating the tower. They use the Squadron's arrogance and overconfidence against them and trap everyone except Nighthawk, but he manages to recover Hyperion and transfers Nuke's energy into his form to make him considerably stronger. The Avengers chase Hyperion into an underground when he tries to heat up the Earth's internal layers. Ironman realizes Nighthawk is hoping to destroy Earth and run away to another world, leaving his team. Nighthawk overwhelms him but Ironman changes his fighting strategy to throw him off. Hyperion is exhausted and in the process beaten down by Hulk, and Nighthawk gets his wings torn off by Ironman and is subdued. The Squadron are placed in Vault custody in special cells to hold their powers.
Season 4[]
Despite being subdued Nighthawk and Hyperion make cameo appearances in the Vault when Crimson Widow is arrested. Crimson Widow breaks out and assists Typhoid Mary and Zarda to help get all the prisoners out after collecting money from them. Zarda engages in a prolonged duel with Captain Marvel but loses.
Powers and Abilities[]
Nighthawk[]
Intelligence and strategy- Nighthawk's most dangerous ability is his battle strategy and ability to anticipate enemy moves based off of their behavior. This alone has given him multiple opportunities to cripple and even kill superheroes like the Avengers, making him one of if not the most dangerous member and leader. He is also an engineer, weapon designer, and a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Given that he also has demonstrated a lack of empathy for others means that he has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Combat- Nighthawk is an aggressive and agile combatant who utilizes his many weapons produced by his uniform including shuriken, blades, and firearms.
Superhuman strength- A most notable distinction from his inspiration Batman, Nighthawk has enhanced strength, durability, and stamina. His punches are capable of denting metal walls and Ironman's armor with little to no pain. This combined with his analytical nature means that he is not at all afraid to take on enemies stronger than him such as Ironman.
Weapons and Nighthawk uniform- Richmond's uniform is capable of producing a multitude of weapons that are safely stowed without taking much space, and yet can damage enemies severely. In his fights he has used blades, shurikens, firearms, and cables that has effortlessly pealed Ironman's armor plating off. The uniform also has flexible red wings that can be used as shields and gliding devices to travel at high speed. In reference to his name the suit is also navy blue allowing camouflage at night.
Hyperion[]
Superhuman strength- Just like his inspiration Superman, Hyperion has god like strength and durability, comparable to if not even stronger than Thor's. He has been able to nearly drown Hulk with ease and dodge Thor's hammer strike, and it took built up Thor built up momentum and high speed to knock him out. Hyperion has also injured Antman in his giant form.
Healing Factor- The one distinction from Superman is his ability to recover and heal from damage at an accelerated rate, making him resilient to injury.
Speed and reflexes- Hyperion can fly at remarkable speeds, he is able to fly faster than Ironman and Falcon and has superhuman reflexes.
Heat Vision- Hyperion has laser vision strong enough to damage durable structures and burn Hulk's skin.
Breath- Hyperion is capable of superhuman breathing and can create enormous wind storms at his full potential.
Acute hearing- Hyperion's sensitive hearing allows him to detect imminent threats early, however this also can be exploited as a weakness as seen when Dr. Doom weaponizes his microphone to blast high frequency sound to temporarily deafen him.
Power Princess[]
Combat and Super Strength- Power Princess is part of a warrior race called Utopians, similar to Asgardians they are immensely strong and the royals are trained in combat suited for war. Her physical strength also heavily surpasses Thor's, just like Hyperion.
Sledgehammer- Similarly to Thor's hammer, Zarda's sledge has a worthiness enchantment that only she can surpass. The sledge can fly on it's own, be controlled telekinetically, release devastating energy blasts, and is even capable of mutating biological life and creating organic matter. Zarda uses the sledge to mutate Earth animals giving them armor and strength, and can use the creation power to forge elemental drones and soldiers that will obey her. These abilities combined with Zarda's evil nature and strength make her one of the more dangerous members.
Speed Demon[]
Superhuman Speed- Speed Demon is a speedster who's powers possibly come from technology, as evidenced when Nighthawk uses a Speed Energy belt to modify him. With that upgrade Speed Demon is so fast that time slows down to him, and he can even transfer his energy to other individuals and still have enhanced speed to spare. This makes him capable of killing vulnerable enemies.
Strength and durability- Speed Demon has enhanced strength to accommodate his power. He has demonstrated to ability to knock Hulk back many feet with a kick resulting from his speed, and punching Thor repeatedly without a hint of pain. This means that Sanders can potentially kill unarmored and non durable heroes and there will be no risk of them fighting back.
Doctor Spectrum[]
Flight- Spectrum's numerous abilities come from the artifact known as the Power Prism, one of which is high speed flight.
Telekinesis- Spectrum can create colored bubbles that can be turned into weapons, shields, and tractor beams that can lift and transport people safely.
Light beams- Spectrum unleashes dangerous rainbow colored beams that can cause damage to durable superhumans.
Mind manipulation- Spectrum has been capable of tampering with character's memories and drawing out fears and feelings of discomfort, creating physical manifestations of them. Creation is a sub power of this ability, and the true extent of how far Spectrum can control minds isn't shown.
Nuke[]
Flight
Living nuke- Nuke is an energy generating being capable of generating powerful explosion that can destroy entire buildings. It's also implied that if Nuke is injured or dies, he can be revived with high energy absorption.
Trivia[]
- The Squadron Supreme have designs and powers inspired by the Justice League from DC Comics. Nighthawk is a strategist, engineer, and supreme combatant and counterpart to Batman, Hyperion has Superman's powers in addition to greater healing and immunity, Power Princess is Wonder Woman's counterpart but with an elemental sledge, Speed Demon is a speedster like Flash but with superhuman strength equal to that of Captain America's, Doctor Spectrum has similar powers to Green Lantern but minor differences like the energy beams, and Nuke is a counterpart to to Firestorm.
- In the comics, the Squadron Supreme are actually superheroes just like the Justice League, however they have alternate dimension versions called the Squadron Sinister. In Avengers Assemble, however, the team goes by the name Supreme and were formally superheroes who turned to a life of villainy on the belief that socialism is the key to peace. The Squadron in the comics are also humans with origins on Earth while in the show, they are militant warrior aliens who's origins are largely unknown.
- Hyperion draws his power from yellow sunlight, implying that his power origin connects to this. It's also shown that he loses all of his powers and becomes a normal man when the sun changes color.
- Many members from the comics are not seen in the show, including Skymax, Amphibian, Golden Archer, Lady Lark, Blue Eagle, and Moonglow.