Image of Squadron Sinister
Squadron Sinister
PURPOSE: Pawns of The Grandmaster, World Domination, Personal Gain
AFFILIATIONS: The Grandmaster
MEMBERS : Doctor Spectrum, Hyperion, Nighthawk, Speed Demon
ENEMIES: Avengers, Black Knight, Defenders, Thunderbolts
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Pocket Dimension
FIRST APPEARENCE: Avengers #69 (1969)


HISTORY The first version of the Squadron Sinister is assembled by the cosmic entity the Grandmaster as pawns to battle the champions of the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror. Kang has chosen his greatest foes; The Avengers, now composed of Captain America, Iron man, Thor and Goliath. The Grandmaster creates four villains to match the heroes; Nighthawk; Doctor Spectrum, Hyperion and the Whizzer.

Image of Squadron Sinister - Avengers Cover

Hyperion is an alien powerhouse from a sub-atomic world, one supposedly destroyed by Earth's first experiments in Atomic Power. Nighthawk is a wealthy industrialist who has the fighting powress and athletic skills to make him a match for Captain America. Doctor Spectrum has bonded with an alien crystal that allows him to fly and control forces of the exectro=magnetic spectrum. Whizzer is a former chemist who has been given a substance that grants him super-human speed/

Image of Sqquadron Sinister Origin Image of Dquadron Sinister Origin

The four battle the Avengers and prove to be powerful nemesis indeed. The hero the Black Knight interferes in the battle between Goliath and Whizzer and the contest ended undecided. The Grandmaster discards The Squadron Sinister and leaves Earth.

UImage of Squadron Sinister Image of Squadron Sinister

Several years later the Squadron Sinister is reunited when Hyperion encounters the alien Nebulon, and in exchange for freedom (Hyperion was miniaturized and imprisoned in a glass sphere by Thor) promises him the Earth. The team then creates a giant laser cannon in the Arctic and plans to melt the polar ice caps, thereby covering the entirety of the Earth's surface in water. Nighthawk has reservations and after trying in vain to contact the Avengers (Nebulon makes the Squadron Sinister invisible and intangible in the presence of the Avengers), he finds the Defenders, who agree to help after Nighthawk is discovered and teleported back to the Arctic.
Image of Squadron Sinister

The Defenders, comprised of Doctor Strange; the Hulk; Sub-Mariner and Valkyrie, journey to the Arctic and battle the Squadron Sinister and defeat them. Nebulon holds off the Defenders until overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers, and at the last moment morphs into his true form and teleports away with Hyperion, Dr. Spectrum and the Whizzer. Nighthawk decides to stay with the Defenders and joins the team.
Image of Hyperion - Squadron Sinister      Image of Dr. Spectrum - Squadron Sinister      Image of Speed Demon (Whizzer) - Squadron Sinister      Image of Nighthawk - Squadron Sinister

         A year later, Nebulon returns the Squadron Sinister to Earth. Now in possession of an energy-draining weapon, the Squadron Sinister plan to conquer the Earth and battle the Defenders once again. Despite an initial victory, the Squadron Sinister is eventually defeated by the Defenders and the Avenger Yellowjacket.
         Several years later, a now disbanded Squadron Sinister are contacted individually by the Avengers, who are seeking to free fellow member the Wasp from Dr. Spectrum's Power Prism, which has bonded to her (the Prism was kept by Yellowjacket after the Squadron Sinister's last defeat and was found by partner the Wasp). Billy Roberts, the second Dr. Spectrum, deceives the Avengers and reclaims the Prism, but is defeated after a brief battle.

         The team then disappears into obscurity for many years. Hyperion battles Thor once again and later the Thing. Hyperion then travels with the female warrior Thundra to the Earth-712 universe, where after impersonating the Squadron Supreme's version of Hyperion for several weeks he dies in battle. [9] The Whizzer decides to return to crime, but wishing to cut ties with the Squadron Sinister first adopts a new costume and the alias Speed Demon. Speed Demon briefly joins the supervillain team the Sinister Syndicate before eventually reforming and being recruited to join the superhero the Thunderbolts.

Image of Hyperion - Squadron Sinister      Image of Dr. Spectrum - Squadron Supreme      Image of Speed Demon (Whizzer) - Squadron Sinister      Image of Nighthawk - Squadron Sisniter

         Soon after this the Grandmaster reappears and reforms the Squadron Sinister. An apparently resurrected Hyperion and new Dr. Spectrum (Alice Nugent, former lab assistant of Henry Pym) find and try and coerce Speed Demon and Nighthawk into joining, but both are initially reluctant. Ironically, the New Thunderbolts become responsible for the pair rejoining the Squadron Sinister. Speed Demon is ejected from the New Thunderbolts for committing robberies, while Nighthawk, who had begun working with the team, quits in protest when Baron Zemo joins and then learns that he was simply being used to finance their activities. Courtesy of a phenomenon known as the Wellspring of Power - an interdimensional source of superhuman abilities - the Grandmaster increases the Squadron Sinister's powers. The New Squadron Sinister then battle the New Thunderbolts, as Baron Zemo also wishes to have control of the Wellspring. Zemo manages to defeat the Grandmaster, but in the ensuing chaos the Squadron Sinister scatter and escape.

Significant Issues Nighthawk quit & joined Defenders (Defenders #14, 1974), Squadron Sinister reformed (New Thunderbolts #15, 2005)

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