Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #2

Undaunted from having read issue 1, I'm back for more! So let's dig into Supreme #2:

 

 

Supreme #2 came out in February 1993 and was co-plotted by Rob Liefeld, but written and pencilled by Brian Murray. Liefeld, Murray and Danny Miki handled inks and Kurt Hathaway did the lettering.

 

In issue 1, Supreme returned from outer space but we really didn't learn much about his backstory. More of that gets hinted at here:

He mentions that Sentinel, Glory and Superpatriot were his old allies and are now all gone... which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since Sentinel is in Youngblood and Superpatriot is still around. But it does establish a little that Supreme used to operate with other heroes.

 

And then we get this kind of cool double page spread showing us the current Image heroes, who I guess Supreme is acknowledging he just doesn't know:

 

Supreme then sort of randomly decides to go kill a serial killer influenced very heavily by Hannibal Lector named Grizlock. We get a peak at what Grizlock has been up to in Supreme's absence:

 

Here the Superman similarities already start to get very specific. Supreme's version of Jimmy Olson is Billy Nelson, who Grizlock ran over with a newspaper truck. Supreme had a Lois Lane style girlfriend in Louise, who Grizlock abused and killed pretty graphically. There was a Junior Supreme Squad of former sidekicks who were beheaded.

 

I'm sure they thought this was funny and pushing the envelope in 1993, but we're about a year away from the Green Lantern's girlfriend ending up in the refrigerator which is a turning point for this grim and gritty stuff.

 

Anyway, Supreme is about to kill Grizlock when Heavy Mettle (a not very interesting corporate/government team) show up and tell Supreme that Grizlock is being protected. There's a long fight and then they take Supreme in to meet with Mr. Temple, the mysterious shadowy figure in charge (because there's always a mysterious shadowy figure in charge). 

 

For reasons we don't learn, Supreme forgets about killing Grizlock and agrees to join and lead Heavy Mettle.

 

And we get a little tease that aliens are going to come looking for Supreme soon.

 

Anyway, it's interesting to see that the Superman concepts were there, even if Moore didn't keep the names.   

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #1

For years now, I've been meaning to read the 40+ issues of Supreme before Alan Moore took the series over. As I just found them while cleaning out my closet, I've decided to read them all to see what Moore took and adapted for his run.

So I'll be doing short little snapshots of each issue as I read them. You're welcome to read along and add your thoughts or you're welcome to ignore this endeavor entirely as a way to maintain your good taste and sanity.

Let's start with Supreme 1, which came out in November 1992:

This issue was written by Rob Liefeld and Brian Murray. Murray penciled it and Liefeld inked it. In this issue, Supreme returns from space, is confronted by Youngblood, and is brought to someone within the U.S. government, who tries to recruit him to join a covert super powered team. We learn that Supreme is one of the most powerful beings they've encountered.  

Like most early Image comics, there's a lot of fighting, a lot of characters standing around with odd inhuman-like expressions, but not a lot of story. They spend page after page of Supreme flying. And some of the reaction comments are unintentionally hilariously written...

 

At least it was a quick read.