This is a feature called "Nothing is Better." I have a feature called "Reason to Get Excited," where I spotlight aspects of current comic books that have particularly impressed me. I had started to expand it to older comics, but it just didn't feel right. I really think "Reason to Get Excited" should be reserved for current comic books. Therefore, this is the equivalent column for older comic books, "Nothing is Better," where I spotlight aspects of classic comic books that have particularly impressed me.

I continue a month of "Nothing is Better" by spotlighting the way that Mark Gruenwald, Paul Ryan and Al Williamson handled the dread of the death of the universe in their gthrraphic novel sequel to their Gruenwald's classic Squadron Supreme series (that Paul Ryan finished after Bob Hall started the series).

The opening of this graphic novel deals with the tragic ending of the previous Squadron Supreme maxiseries, which ended with the Squadron Supreme disbanding once they realized that their plan to fix their world through benevolent tyranny was still, well, you know, tyranny. However, things were thrown for a loop when the entire world was threatened! The heroes of the Squadron Supreme (who had fought each other practically to the death a week earlier) now had to face the fact that the earth had only twelve hours left before it was destroyed!

The rest of the volume is a somber examination of just how the heroes of the world would react to something like this - as you might imagine, they would do pretty much ANYthing they could, including bringing in former enemies to help.

Here's a great extended sequence between Hyperion, the Doctor Doom-esque villain Master Menace and the time traveling Scarlet Centurion (Centurion is the framing sequence for the story - he is the one who first learns that the world of the past, the world of his hated enemies, the Squadron Supreme, is to be destroyed on this day in the past).

Pretty heady stuff, huh?

Later on, here is the Squadron trying to stop the entity (notice that things aren't going so well)...

Even when their villains turn to OTHER villains to help....

This is a very dark work by Gruenwald, Ryan and Williamson but it is also a well-told tale that really explores what it could be like to experience the very end of all existence.

With the high regard most folks seem to have for Squadron Supreme the maxi-series, I'm a bit surprised that there is not as much attention paid to the sequel - it's a good work and, in a lot of ways, an even tighter story than the original maxi-series (this is the comic that ultimately led to the Squadron Supreme becoming supporting characters in Mark Gruenwald's Quasar series).

Okay, folks, this is a feature that is a BIT less conducive to suggestions (as it really is about stories that spoke to me, ya know?), but hey, feel free to still send suggestions in to brianc@cbr.com! Maybe you and I have the same take on things and I'll use your idea! Also, I have to fill a month of these, so it would probably help to have some extra ideas!