Weekly Reading: Supreme #49

Supreme #49

Published by Awesome Entertainment in May 1997

The cover:

Title: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out...

(As always: Supreme is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

At long last, welcome to the Awesome Universe. In the speculation-crazy days of the mid-1990s, Rob Liefeld set out to build another comics company, this time without other comic creator partners. He hired Jeph Loeb to be the publisher (as Loeb wrote several series for Awesome). He also got financial backing from both John Hyde (Film Roman CEO) and Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who had run Malibu when they lured Liefeld from Marvel and now ran Platinum Studios (home of Cowboys & Aliens).

As you can see from the image above, the Awesome line had a unique look with the Awesome logo running along the side. It's always appealed to my graphic designer side as it was distinctive and fun. Beyond the cover (and notice they've scrapped the "New Adventures" subhead), not much had changed on the inside. For the first time in a while we have the same art team working on the issue, with Mark Pajarillo handling the modern story and Rick Veitch handling the flashback.

So, following up from the last issue, The Allies were facing off with Supreme villain Optilux in a part of Idea Space. As this issue starts, Optilux explains that he faked his suicide in 1969 and instead became a form of spiritual light. He hired Hulver Ramik to kidnap the other heroes' souls to put them in special glass prisons that will act as a batteries that will allow Optilux to turn the whole universe into the same sort of spiritual light.

The Allies decide to attack, but as Roman asks, "How can you fight something that's made of light?" To which Supreme replies that they have to find a way to "snuff" him. It's the start of several bad puns which make me wonder if Moore didn't realize that what worked in the flashback stories doesn't always work in the modern story. Personally, I don't mind it too much, but your mileage may vary.

Optilux makes short work of The Allies. Supreme and Glory awake in a bed looking at a chandelier, wondering where they are, if they are in fact anywhere.

 

I want to pause for a second and point out the really weird art on this page (seen above). We have these three small panels pulling back to reveal the chandelier and then the large panel has huge swaths of space for the ceiling and covers up the only detail on the chandelier. There's something really wrong here that I don't think was intentional, and I can't decide whether it's that we've hit the artistic limitations of Pajarillo, which I doubt, as some of the work he did on issue 48 was lovely, or more likely, this issue was rushed so much that there wasn't adequate time to get it right.

Anyway, moving on, Supreme explains to Glory that Optilux can make solid material out of his astral light, especially here in this realm of Idea Space. And that means that here light can attack like an animal, which we soon see in the form of light-based manta rays (get it?!?). The heroes beat them back, with Supreme pointing out that Glory's godly lineage giving her great power in this area of Idea Space. Here is where gods and goddesses are at their most real, and hence, most powerful (as Moore noted was a powerful idea he came away with from writing From Hell). As Supreme and Glory look for a way out of this mind maze, Supreme flashes back to his "Space Years."

And we have our Rick Veitch flashback, this time most likely inspired by Jim Starlin's cosmic psychedelic existential works of the 1970s. Supreme has left the Earth to "find himself" and the answer to the riddles of God, death and existence. "A reason for us and our universe to be!" he thinks.

He soon comes across Jack of Lanterns, the keeper of the Living Lantern, who warns him to turn back for he has reached the gateway of reality. Jack is the Awsome Universe's version of The Spectre, a one-time hero who became a cosmic being. Jack takes Supreme into the borderlands of being, "reason's furthest reaches" where they battle for a bit through some wonderful Veitch visuals before Supreme tears down the gauze of reality. Unfortunately, it's too much for Supreme's mind to bear and he loses his mind.

I've always felt that Moore was trying to say something here about whether Supreme came to realize that he wasn't part of our reality. That he's a bit of imagination and nothing more. But it also may have been meant as nothing more than an homage to a period of comics that Moore referenced several times in scripts and proposals he was writing around this time. You can decide for yourself.

Anyway, back in the modern story, Supreme explains that he wandered around with amnesia and journeyed to fake Earths until he recently returned at the start of Supreme #41. Through a trick of shadows, Supreme realizes Optilux is nearby and he manages to shock the villain, letting the heroes out of their mind mazes. Supreme then uses his shout supreme to crack the prisons of all the other heroes, finally letting us meet Professor Night and the other imprisoned heroes.

Again, the layout, inking and even the color are off on this page. Look at how none of the characters on the sides are detailed, inked or colored correctly. It's a shame because this could have been a really nice page.

The heroes decide to attack Optilux's light, which doesn't do much good, but Supreme comes up with a plan to trick Optilux into a prison made of the same special glass he had imprisoned the other heroes in. Mark Tyme's dimensional powers transports Optilux's prison to the real world and the heroes awaken from their extended slumber. The Allies remove their helmets and they're back in the real world, too.

Back at the Citadel, we see Radar and Suprema (who is wearing a costume that looks nothing like what we've seen before), who tells them that there is a time distortion in mind space and that Ethan is missing an appointment to work with Diana. He quickly takes off and Radar and Suprema have a feeling they know why: "He's fallen in heat," says Radar.

There's a lot to like from this issue, with the great villain in Optilux and the interesting setting of Idea Space. Moore set himself up with some wonderful heroes freed from Hulver Ramik. But ultimately, the art is dragging the book down. Fortunately next time, Chris Sprouse arrives to save the day in "A Love Supreme."

From the continuing misadventures in promotion, we get this, explaining that Supreme #52 will be spread over two issues (with the same issue number):

Why they decided to promote this months ahead of time in issue #49 (with a piece of art that appears in issue #50), but not in the actual issue just before it (#51) is bizarre. And why would you say Alan Moore's 2nd year on Supreme begins today, when it's not going to start for three to four issues?

More confusion: according to the letters page, Judgment Day Alpha was now available at comic shops. I'm not going to take it up until after Supreme #52 a & b, as that's where it's referenced in the Supreme series. Even from the start, the scheduling of Awesome books was off.

Drat.

As always, please check out the Supreme Annotations Page, for all of the details and references that I completely missed.