Writer: Alan Moore
Artists: Various
This followed Moore's decidedly so-so JUDGEMENT DAY crossover for Rob Liefeld's band of superheroes so why should this be any better? The art was straight down the line hackwork and the character was another of those Image attempts at mimicking the big two, a scattershot try at a Superman. Moore took over at issue 41 and it was funny and it played on the genre and the very fact that he was reinventing the character. Rick Veitch was put in charge of drawing the 'flashback sequences'. These referenced the DC habit of reprinting fifties stories in the seventies using new framing sequences, the same way that a MARVELMAN special reprinted old with the new.
So, as this is a new beginning, Supreme starts out with sketchy memories of who he is. He's taken to the shining Citadel Supreme where he meets some of the hundreds of other Supremes that live there. There's the funky seventies version, big afro and jive talk in place, Supremouse who squeeks as he speaks, Kid Supreme, Lady Supreme, Sally Supreme, you get the idea.
In his 'real life' (oh, please) he's Ethan Crane, mild mannered writer for comic books, taking the Peter Parker/Clark Kent veiled fantasy to the fore. Someone was in last week looking for a 'serious' work on the big cheeses ('Superman & the American Dream: A Cultural Study' that sort of thing) and I should have shown them this. It's no PROMETHEA but there's more to it than TOM STRONG with the playful approach of TOMORROW STORIES. The guy's a magician and this must have made a nice break from the murk, sweat and tears of FROM HELL.
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