They even had a whole team of villains known as the Institute of Evil, some of whom were also DC analogs who eventually joined the Squadron, including Apex (Gorilla Grodd), Lamprey (Parasite), Mink (Catwoman), and Shape (Plastic Man).

Through their subsequent appearances in titles like Defenders and Thor, the Squadron became an expansive team on their own world, including characters such as Power Princess (Wonder Woman), Amphibian (Aquaman), Skymax the Skrullian Skymaster (Martian Manhunter), Golden Archer (Green Arrow), Lady Lark (Black Canary), Tom Thumb (the Atom), Blue Eagle (Hawkman), Moonglow (Zatanna), and Nuke (Firestorm). Instead of doppelgangers, the original Squadron Sinister were revealed as having been summoned by the Grandmaster from their home reality. Initially comprised of Hyperion, a solar-powered Superman analog The Whizzer, a Flash-style super-speedster who takes his goofy name from an even goofier Golden Age Marvel hero Nighthawk, a brutal vigilante in the style of Batman and Doctor Spectrum, who can build light constructs sorta like the Green Lantern, the team would quickly grow into something else entirely when creators and fans latched onto their potential as characters.įollowing their debut as the Squadron Sinister, Roy Thomas and Sal's brother John Buscema (who together with Thomas also created the Vision, Ultron, the Kree-Skrull War, and even the relationship between Vision and Scarlet Witch that forms the basis of WandaVision) revamped the characters in Avengers #85 as the Squadron Supreme, a team of heroes from another world in Marvel's Multiverse that expanded the roster beyond Hyperion, Nighthawk, Doctor Spectrum, and the Whizzer. Thomas definitively stated in an interview in the book The Justice League Companion that the Squadron was purposely designed to resemble the Justice League, as a way to have them fight the Avengers in an era when such a crossover between publishers was unlikely to happen - kinda like the current comic environment of 2022. But without a publishing agreement with DC, they had to go about things on the sly.Įnter the Squadron Sinister in 1969's Avengers #69 – a team of doppelgangers created by the cosmic Grandmaster to challenge the Avengers who resembled core members of DC's Justice League. Way back in the late '60s, legendary Avengers creators Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema had a funny idea to pit Earth's Mightiest Heroes against DC's Justice League, a clash that was on the minds of fans even in the early days of both teams.

Super-Villains Unite by Roy Thomas