Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #15

 

 

 

Supreme issue 15 came out in July 1994. The story was by Rob Liefeld. Kurt Hathaway does the witing, lettering, and editing. And guys... Pedi is back! Oh, this is going to be fun. 

 

We are on part 3 of Supreme Madness, the Grand Tour of the Image universe and we're hitting the big stop today... Spawn! I shouldn't even have to explain this, but I will, Spawn was a former black ops military guy (all of the Image "heroes" were) who got killed and made a deal with the devil to return to life as Spawn. But he only had a certain amount of magic before the devil reclaimed him. (Or something like that.) He lived in an alley with a bunch of homeless drunks. 

We start the issue in the alley where Spawn is doing some drinking, when in wanders Supreme and snuffs the fire for Thor's hammer. 

Spawn goes to confront Supreme and finds Supreme distraught that the name Supreme doesn't mean much to people, like it did in the 1940s. 

I guess his Supreme Madness has shifted to the self-pity part.

Then we get a little flashback to Supreme's origin, about Dr. Wells creating Supreme as a weapon, blah blah blah and became a hero. 

 

 

He then talks about the events since issue 1 and we find out in the editor's note that Grizlock actually was killed in the explosion in his lab. Well that's anticlimactic.  

Spawn, speaking for all of us, replies: "That sure was one sad story, Supreme, even if there was no point." Ha!

Spawn then tells his own pointless story about how he became Spawn. 

 

Supreme is upset, thinking Spawn is jealous and flies off. 

 

The end? We didn't even get to see them fight. What was the point of this issue, to bring the characters together and swap origin stories? Weird and really boring.

At least Pedi's art is insane, as always. Take away the Supreme stuff and his style fits the Spawn stuff really well. What's he doing at Extreme, he should have gone to work for Todd.

Anyway, Supreme Madness rolls on. Why is the better question. 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #14

 

 

Supreme issue 14 had a story from Rob Liefeld, was written, edited and lettered by Kurt Hathaway, and had art by Dan Fraga. It came out in June 1994. (They were going for an every 2 week thing.)

 

This is part 2 of Supreme Madness, a 6-part storyline where Supreme takes the Grand Tour of the Image Universe. In this issue, we see Union  and his friend Jill at the Smithsonian when something blows up. Union jumps into action.

 

So... Union? Is he someone anyone remembers? He was one of the comics from Jim Lee's WildStorm and drawn by Mark Texiera. I guess he joined Stormwatch or something. Dunno. Doesn't really matter.

 

Union flies into the destruction of Grizlock's lab from last issue and finds Supreme, who has gone mad. He's convinced Union is Grizlock trying to get Thor's hammer from Supreme.

 

 

It's not really clear what happened to Grizlock. Did he die in the explosion? Did he escape? Does anyone care? 

 

Surprising no one, Supreme and Union proceed to fight. After page after page of fighting, Union realizes that the fight is only antagonizing Supreme's madness, so he pretends to lose the fight and Supreme flies off. 

 

 

We follow up on the Simple Simon Subplot Supreme. Simon kills Horace's (Grizlock's current crony) brother in an attempt to find out where Horace and Grizlock are. Giving up on that, he suffocates and strangles Horace's brother before setting him on fire. 

 

 

 

One thing you can say about Simple Simon is he is subtle.

 

Where will Supreme go next? No one knows! It's madness! 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #13

 

 

 

Supreme issue 13 came out in June 1994. Rob Liefeld came up with the story while Kurt Hathaway did the writing, editing and lettering. Shawn McManus did the layouts while Cedric Nocon did the pencils. Norm Rapmund did the inks.

 

This is part 1 of "Supreme Madness," a six-part story only in the Supreme series. Instead of a traditional crossover, where you then have to grab other comics to read the rest of the story and how it interacts with other characters in the universe, instead the other characters come to Supreme. It's kind of like the Grand Tour of Image, as we'll see starting next issue.

 

We pick up where we left off, with Supreme facing off against Grizlock in the Supreme Slayer robot suit thing. And then they fight. (Thank god, I was afraid we wouldn't get a good sprawling fight in an issue of Supreme!)

 

 

Even as Grizlock is kicking Supreme's ass, he doesn't understand why he's not kicking it more, since the suit is powered by the radium chunk that shares the same powers as Supreme. Well, Supreme lost his powers, so it doesn't affect him. 

 

The fight goes on for a while, but Supreme is unable to damage the machine until he realizes that if he can't get in, he can make Grizlock come out. Supreme damages the air conditioner. Grizlock comes out and Supreme smashes the machine with Thor's hammer.

 

  

It's interesting to me how similar this is to Darius Dax's Tremendroid story, where Supreme was also being beaten by this robot thing, but like in this story, Supreme is unaffected by the radioactive element powering it. In Moore's story, it's because the League of Infinity swapped Supreme with a decoy. That story is fun, clever, nostalgic and silly. In this, Supreme smashes the machine with a hammer. It's kind of a metaphor for the different approaches. 

 

 

Anway, Supreme is about to kill Grizlock--the evil mastermind who killed Supreme's girlfriend, best friend, and team of sidekicks, before mounting some of their heads on his wall--but Grizlock says that he can restore Supreme's powers. Supreme says ok, but if there's any trickery, he won't be so nice next time.

 

This is just really dumb. 

 

Meanwhile "Simple Simon," the incredibly uninteresting former sidekick of Grizlock tracks down Grizlock's new lab, where he's hooking Supreme up to a bunch of devices. Supreme is like, "Sure, hook me up to things that I have no idea what they do. And here's Thor's hammer, the only power I have. Feel free to plug it into your machine. Why shouldn't I trust you?"

 

Grizlock throws the switch, and surprise, surprise, he betrayed Supreme's trust! What!?! Who could have seen that coming!?!

 

 

 

But Supreme isn't dead and now he's mad--both angry and crazy! 

 

 

 

We'll find out how mad next issue. Get it... Supreme Madness. Oh, these Extreme guys were so clever.