Supreme (character)
Supreme is a superhero created by Rob Liefeld and published by Image Comics, followed by Maximum Press, Awesome Entertainment, and Arcade Comics. Although Supreme was originally conceived as a violent egotistical antihero and Superman archetype, he was retooled by Alan Moore as a tribute to Mort Weisinger's Silver Age Superman.
The character had a 56-issue comic book series, a six-issue miniseries, and a revival in 2012 consisting of six issues. Beginning with issue #41, Moore's run was collected in two trade paperbacks from the Checker Book Publishing Group, Supreme: The Story of the Year and Supreme: The Return. Moore's work on the series earned him an Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1997.
Fictional character biography
Supreme
Supreme is introduced in issue #3 of Rob Liefeld's Youngblood limited series as a flip book story before being spun off into his own series. His history varies; at one point, he is an angel of vengeance who quotes the Bible to justify his actions. At other times, such as when he defeats the Norse god Thor and takes his mystical hammer Mjölnir, Supreme considers himself a god. Although the most powerful being in the Liefeld universe, he has his share of defeats: he is killed in the cross-title Deathmate Black series, loses his powers in Extreme Prejudice, and is killed by Crypt in Extreme Sacrifice.The character receives a comprehensive treatment in The Legend of Supreme, a three-issue miniseries by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming. In the miniseries, reporter Maxine Winslow investigates Supreme's origin story. Winslow learns that in 1937, Ethan Crane shot and killed two men in retaliation for the rape of a 15-year-old girl. Crane was shot by two police officers but survived and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In prison, the government offered him a chance to participate in a human-improvement experiment in the hope that he would survive.
Although Crane died like the others, he returned to life in a world which was strange and new to him. He found his way to a church, where he received sanctuary from Father Beam and discovered some of his new abilities. Crane took the name "Supreme" and, hearing about the war in Europe, decided to do his part. Little was revealed about Supreme's work in World War II, except that he joined the Allies. After the war, Supreme believed that he had done his part as a good Samaritan and left Earth; in reality, Father Beam's accidental death at his hands drove him away.
Supreme spends decades in space, fighting several threats on the side of an alien race known as the Kalyptans.
He returns to Earth in 1992 to find a changed society, which includes genetically-enhanced superpowered humans on teams such as Youngblood directed by Alexander Graves ; and Heavy Mettle directed by Jason Temple. When Supreme reappeared on Earth after 47 years, Temple was convinced Supreme would be Heavy Mettle's perfect leader. Although Supreme is briefly the field team leader of Heavy Mettle, he leaves the position after defeating the villain Khrome.
When Supreme fights Thor for Mjolnir, a character named Enigma acquires another Supreme from an alternate timeline to store if Supreme is defeated. Supreme is victorious, so the other Supreme is left alone; this figures in the events of The Legend of Supreme. Although Supreme apparently dies during an assault on humanity by Lord Chapel, he is stranded on an alternate Earth for several years until the alternate Supreme returns and is defeated by the original Supreme. Original Supreme switches bodies with his double, restoring his powers. After several events involving Enigma and Probe, the original Supreme works with Probe, Enigma, and the alternate Supreme to defeat the evil Norse god Loki. At the end of Supreme #40, Probe remains on the alternate Earth and Supreme returns to Earth.
Alan Moore's Supreme
asked Alan Moore to write for Supreme. Moore agreed on the condition that he could reinvent the character since he felt that the comic was "not very good." Beginning with issue #41 of Supreme in 1996, Moore began retooling the character, with each issue containing commentary on storytelling, comics history in general and Superman in particular. Moore's approach drew on his fondness for the storytelling found in editor Mort Weisinger's Silver Age Superman stories. Prior to DC Comics' landmark maxiseries event Crisis on Infinite Earths, Moore wrote the "final" Silver Age Superman story for editor Julius Schwartz, with SA stalwart artists Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.Moore said in later interviews that his re-imagining of Supreme's background and origin was partly an apology for the darkness of his previous works at other publishers; he had a reputation for the cynical deconstruction of superheroes based on Batman: The Killing Joke, Marvelman, and Watchmen.
"Story of the Year"
Given free rein over Supreme and the wider Maximum universe, Moore created a storyline to both entirely reinvent the character's world, and meld it with Liefeld's extant continuity. In Moore's first issue, Supreme returns to Earth and discovers that he is living in a new revision of reality.The new version of Supreme has a secret identity as Ethan Crane, a mild-mannered artist for Dazzle Comics whose powers are a result of a childhood exposure to a meteorite made of Supremium, an element which can alter reality. When not saving the world as a superhero, Crane illustrates the adventures of Omni-Man, a Supreme-like character being reintroduced with a change of writers.
Echoing this change, Supreme encounters a number of previous/retired and parallel iterations of himself living in another reality, called the "Supremacy." The Supremacy is a form of afterlife for characters whose stories had ended or have been written out of current continuity. After experiencing amnesia, Supreme's returning memories are told on the page in flashback form revising and ret-conning the character's complex and oft-rewritten backstory, often in pastiche style evoking different periods of comics history.
Darius Dax, a Lex Luthor–like evil genius and Supreme's antagonist, is introduced in this storyline. Dax dies twice in the series, the first time in prison from lymphatic cancer caused by exposure to Supremium.
Although the "Story of the Year" arc was intended to finish with another deliberate Silver Age-evoking conceit — the 80-Page Giant special issue — publishing needs instead saw the 52nd issue split into two parts: 52a and 52b.
According to Liefeld, the storytelling methods and styles Moore honed on Supreme directly informed his subsequent America's Best Comics title Tom Strong.
''The Return''
Moore continued working on the series until Supreme #56, when it became a miniseries entitled Supreme: The Return. After six issues, the miniseries was cancelled when Awesome Comics collapsed. According to artist Rick Veitch, Moore had written an additional issue or two which were never published; Supreme: The Return "biggest failing is that the final issue of the story was never produced. This volume takes care of that little problem by ignoring it completely and just tacking 'The End' on the last story."After Darius Dax is defeated, Supreme finds an ember of Judy Jordan's consciousness in her body and transfers it to a Suprematon android. Although Judy now has superpowers, she has trouble adjusting to another body and missing the last 20 years of her life. S-1, the only other sentient Suprematon, expresses his love for her. He changes his name to Talos, and they are married by Supreme in the Citadel Supreme. They leave Earth and find an uninhabited planet on which to live.
Ethan Crane's romance with Diana Dane falters when she becomes annoyed with the way he "gets all weird and runs away." After arranging a meeting as Ethan, he tries to reconcile with her as Supreme, giving her a tour of the Citadel to give her ideas for Omni-Man. After a trip to the Supremacy, Diana discovers Ethan's identity and is willing to continue their relationship.
After Darius Dax becomes the Supremium meteorite at the end of The Story of the Year he is sent to Daxia, a place similar to the Supremacy. Every version of Dax before him lives in Daxia, including Darius Duck, Daxor, Daxian, Doomsdax, mad Nazi scientist Dax, and serial-killer transvestite 1980s Dax. The combined intelligence of the Daxes allows him to return to the land of the living. Again, trying to destroy Supreme, he sets in motion another chain of events involving Billy Friday and Master Meteor.
Announced finish
At New York Comic Con 2011, Rob Liefeld and Erik Larsen announced that the last unpublished Supreme stories would be published and drawn by Larsen. Supreme #63 was published in 2012 by Image Comics, with Moore's final completed Supreme script.Erik Larsen's Supreme
Erik Larsen wrote and drew Supreme for five issues, seeing Moore's work on the title purged and Liefield's early-1990s version of the character restored. On the letter page of his first issue, Larsen wrote, "My thought was to marry the two and take what Alan had done and what came before and try to find something in the middle which might appeal to both audiences.".He opened with a resurrected Darius Dax and his counterparts laying siege to the Supremacy, killing Supreme's counterparts with weapons stolen from the Supremacy's armory. Supreme the Fifth, Radar the hound Supreme, 90 percent of the past Supremes, and the supporting members of the Supremacy are killed. To stop the killing spree, the surviving Supremes free Rob Liefield's original Supreme from his imprisonment. Called "mean" Supreme in the comic, his violent, bigoted, and psychotic behavior led to his restraint with chains in a subarea of the Supremacy. Freed by the "modern" Supreme and "original" Supreme, "mean" Supreme murders all the Darius Daxes, turns against the heroic Supremes, removes their powers with Silver Supremium, and carries the Supremacy to the Moon.
During the fight, Earth is again revised. "Mean" Supreme goes on a killing spree, murdering criminals, to re-establish his position as the most powerful superhero on the planet. He also viciously beats Suprema into a coma and engages in a brawl with Omni-Man, the father of Invincible and the only other hero with comparable powers. Diane Dane and "modern" Supreme are aware of the reboot, and she has a new life with someone other than Supreme, although she realizes she is pregnant with Supreme's child. The surviving Supremes try to adjust to their helplessness in ending the "mean" Supreme's rampage. Ethan Crane learns that his alter ego's life is gone in the reboot; he cannot find work as a comic-book artist because his talent came from his Supreme power. Larsen's run ends with the surviving Supremes discussing the possibility that their powered selves still exist in the Supremacy.