Spoilers! Also, there’s a NSFW comic book image at the bottom.
Ubi dubium ibi libertas is a Latin proverb, meaning, “Where there is doubt, there is freedom.” Of course, if your idea of freedom is the obliteration of the human race, then our concepts of “freedom” differ. But the original intent of the proverb holds: when one questions what they’ve been told, that seed of doubt could be the blossoming of freedom. Where I last left off with Marvel’s 2004 series Supreme Power, through its imprint Max Comics, is Mark Milton of the Hyperion Project, a Superman-like figure, beginning to question the government’s carefully curated citizen-making of him. In the 2005 follow-up, Powers & Principalities, his doubt blossoms into full-blown, godly, destruction. Writer J. Michael Straczynski and illustrator Gary Frank, with Jon Sibal’s striking ink, go darker in the follow-up. Where the first collection was self-referential and comical in parts with an undercurrent of levity, Powers & Principalities has no time for that. A godlike alien being is doubting his government handlers — that, and much more besides, threatens the existence of every human in the world.
Mark is essentially a diversionary tactic for the U.S. government. Since he was made public in the previous collection, the government uses him stateside for essentially good publicity and to divert attention from their true activities overseas with Corporal Joe Ledger, going by the name Doc Spectrum now, who has the crystal from Mark’s ship making him godlike. Thanks to the Chinese, Mark catches on to this and first, starts doing his own missions overseas, and then when his government handlers learn of this and try to squelch it, Mark finally has that seed of doubt about … everything. He eventually learns that he is an alien who arrived on an alien spaceship and his “parents” weren’t really his parents at all, but more government handlers whose deaths were faked. Mark tracks down Doc Spectrum and they have an explosive showdown befitting two godlike entities colliding. After this confrontation, Doc Spectrum needs to heal, and that’s when we learn of an underwater woman with superpowers. She doesn’t have a name yet, but Doc Spectrum promises to provide her one.
It should be said that Mark’s government handlers, whether General Casey of military intelligence who previously handled him, or his new handler at the National Security Agency, Bryce, are awful. Bryce thinks Project Hyperion should’ve been kept secret and then they could have used Mark to control the world, more or less. But Casey is a cuckoo bird himself. There’s a flashback scene of when the government first recovered baby Mark from the spaceship. Casey, even then, was inquiring about what it would take to kill the baby, if they needed to. In the present day, when Mark comes to confront Bryce and Casey, Casey sets off the equivalent of multiple atomic bombs (minus the radiation due to a new technological weapon) in a bid to kill Mark. It doesn’t work. Afterward though, the previously alluded to Princess, analogous to Wonder Woman, but evil, finally comes forth from her hiding place and helps to revive Mark. Princess Zarda was put into a spaceship and sent away along with Mark by their parents, the God of Night and the God of War, respectively. So, she’s godlike, too. Unlike Mark, though, she wants to conquer and rule the world.
My favorite section of the book was #12, because there was a nice four-panel story structure from beginning to end: first, Mark and Zarda, as she tells him about his history in Italy; second, Richmond, Nighthawk (Batman-like), who tried to recruit Stewart Stanley, the speedster, to help him against what he suspects is a superpowered serial killer, killing Black prostitutes by ripping off their left arms, in Chicago; third, Dr. Steadman, the original doctor for Mark, who learns a terrible secret about “vDNA” in Washington D.C.; and fourth, a very foreboding and ominous panel set in Shreveport, Louisiana. Eventually, Mark flies away from Zarda, because he’s ready to do good for people in spite of the governments lies, and Zarda goes through Italy acquiring her outfit (she’s been naked this whole time). Stanley is put off by Richmond calling superheroes like him “you people.” Richmond, though, placed an ad in every newspaper to enlist Mark’s help. Mark comes, but he needs to “think about it.” Dr. Steadman learns another branch of the military is using alien virus DNA, or vDNA, on murderers to see what happens when the alien virus combines with human DNA. Many of the superpowered murderers then broke out of prison, and they need Mark’s help to capture them all. Before the military can kill Dr. Steadman, Doc Spectrum comes to his rescue. And finally, as I suspected was the case, Shreveport is the site of one of these superpowered murderers. Indeed, the one Richmond is after. In one gross scene, a woman flees from the man, and the panel just reads, “Eeeee … SKRUNNNCH.” Gross.
In a great cliffhanger, each of the four panels ends with a representative — Zarda, Mark, and Doc Spectrum, at least — saying, “I’m ready.” For his part, the murderer is singing with the woman’s left arm in his hand. I can’t wait to read what comes next!
If there ever is an adaptation of this series, at least part of it is unfilmable. That’s because the underwater woman and Zarda are both depicted as completely nude, at least until Zarda raids some of those Italian stores for clothing. Which makes sense because neither one would come into the world clothed.
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