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.

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #12

 

 

Supreme issue 12 was published in May 1994. The story is by Rob Liefeld (still not calling himself Ripley). The script, lettering and editing is done by Kurt Hathaway. Shawn McManus does the layouts and fan-favorite Cedric Nocon does the pencils. And Norm Rapmund does the inks. 

Supreme wakes up in the jungles of South America and it turns out that he has lost his powers in the fight with Quantum in the last issue.  But it's ok because he has Thor's hammer and he'll just use that to do his... what do we call that he does? It's not superheroing. He mainly goes around and fights people until he kills them or something else happens. Let's be generous and call it adventuring. 

I thought this Thor's hammer thing was going to be an issue or two little joke but instead this becomes a major part of this series for way longer than it should. 

 

As he's flying, he suddenly remembers that Grizlock still exists in the least effective transition ever, but as it's my favorite subplot, let's go with that. Supreme flies to a bar in Washington D.C. and finds one of Grizlock's old cronies "Simple Simon," someone never previously mentioned, and tries to find out where Grizlock is. Simon doesn't know, admits to wanting to kill Grizlock is, and vows to become a criminal mastermind himself. 

 

I swear, reading this, it's like the writer read Batman or Spider-Man comics, didn't understand them, and is now trying to recreate them in the EXTREME.

Supreme flashes back to his pre-space sojourn, when some Nazi spies had tried to kidnap a scientist and had threatened to blow up his entire chemical factory. Ultimately they did but Supreme rescued them all from the explosion but the scientist refused to open a locked case that the Nazi's had stolen, despite needing to do so to help the authorities convict the spies. (I guess them blowing up the building wasn't enough of a crime to prosecute?) When the authorities confiscate the locked case, the scientist goes nuts and vows revenge. 

And that, boys and girls, is the really not very exciting origin of Grizlock.

Speaking of Grizlock, we then cut to him and his henchmen, Horace. They need to break into Grizlock's secret facility under... Fort Knox! 

We also find out that his secrets for heavy water were in the locked case. But apparently there was also enough in there to get him arrested and turn him into a comic book villain. 

Grizlock says the glowing Radium rock is starting to react. But rather than use it like Kryptonite, he plans to use it to power his Supreme Slayer suit, which looks kind of surprisingly like Darius Dax's Tremendroid from issue 42.

 

Supreme continues to fly around aimlessly looking for Grizlock when he sees a fire on the grounds of the White House. (These guys a re really subtle.)  There is Grizlock in his Supreme Slayer!

What will happen next? Will there be a really long, mostly pointless fight? I hope so!

Tucked into this issue is a really nice poster of Supreme by Chris Sprouse. 

 

It's a nice reminder that there are better days ahead for Supreme.  

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #11

 

My god. That cover can't be real, can it? Oh, it's real all right. Welcome to the shitshow that is Supreme issue 11.

Supreme issue 11 was published in March 1994. The story is by Rob Liefeld and Eric Stephenson. The script, letters and editing is by Kurt Hathaway. The art is by Pedi. (No, seriously.)

I'm not going to bother to talk about the plot of this issue because it's basically Quantum, the father of Cabbot (of Bloodstrike) and Battlestone (of Brigade) trying to end all of humanity, while Supreme and the other Extreme beings try to stop him. 

Extreme had multiple giant crossovers with all of the other Extreme comics and they're almost all worthless for trying to binge one series. Supreme will appear in it a bit, but it's mostly about way too many other characters and some villain who is always trying to destroy humanity or something in ways that aren't even the littlest bit interesting.

And that's the case here, too. Instead, I want to take a couple of minutes and talk about this art because it is insane.

 

Hair is going every which way. Eyes are making expressions that are independent of the characters or even the plot of this story. And these muscles must be a parody of Image anatomy, right?

 

The only thing I can imagine is that Pedi is a European artist who came over for some easy money and turned in an absolute mockery of Image Comics, and they ran it anyway. 

Because anything else makes absolutely no sense.

Wow. 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #10

  

Supreme issue 10 was published in February 1994. The story is by Rob Liefeld (no longer calling himself Ripley). The script, lettering and editing is done by Kurt Hathaway. Brian Murray does the pencils and the colors. And Joe Rubenstein does the inks. 

Max interviews Supreme on live TV. She recaps what we knew about him being in WWII, including that he dropped bombs on Berlin by himself. 

She then gets into the hard-hitting questions, such as, why did he leave after the war?

 

She accuses Supreme of being allied with Khrome, but he says, nope and that Khrome is dead. So she accuses him of being involved in the innocent deaths at Dulles airport. And he's like, "Innocent people die." Shrug.

She then asks him about his origin story. He says he was human, but now he's a god.

 

As a mortal, he was forced to volunteer for the secret government experiments of Dr. Wells (the same Dr. Wells that Moore brought back later).

 

He was shot full of drugs and exposed to radiation that made his body stronger and his mind smarter. 

 

He soon decided that he had been divinely picked to be a supreme being.

The interview is interrupted to cut to Arizona where a superpowered being named Quantum has escaped and is fighting with Brigade. Supreme then takes off to face Quantum, which is part of the Extreme Prejudice crossover that will take over Supreme issue 11. 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #9

  

Supreme issue 9 was published in January 1994. The story was by Ripley (rumored to be a pseudonym for Rob Liefeld). The story, script, lettering and editing was by Kurt Hathaway. Brian Murray is back doing the pencils. And Chris Ivy is on inks.

The fight between Supreme and Thor continues...

 

Supreme has figured out Thor's confusion... that he thinks it's still WWII and he wants revenge on Hitler... but for reasons that continue to not make any sense, chooses to say nothing. Why? Because we need the fight to rage for three issues. EXTREME!

After several more pages of fighting, Supreme finally fesses up that the war is over. But Thor refuses to believe it. Because if it's true, what kind of idiot would know that and have continued to fight for three issues? Oh, right.

And then, randomly, Supreme decides it's time to knock Thor out and it's nice and easy.

 

Why didn't he do that three issues ago? Ugh.

Supreme decides to keep Thor's hammer and drops Thor off at the top-secret, covert, corporate military group that he just quit. Why not?

 

Remember the serial killer Grizlock? He's working in his lab on a radioactive boulder that is Supreme's weakness. Hey, that sounds familiar! 

 

 

This synthetic radium, "happens to possess the very same properties that Supreme posseses." I guess we know where Supremium came from. Grizlock exhibits a lot of the hallmarks of Dax...

  

 

Apparently, Grizlock has had this program going for the 14 years he's been in prison, just waiting for the return of Supreme.

Supreme flies to the grave of Louise Masters, the Lois Lane type character Grizlock killed. Supreme remembers that he was the world's first superhero. He says that Louise and his friend Billy were killed days after Supreme left for outer space. We see on her gravestone that she died in 1946. So, according to this, Supreme left Earth soon after WWII.

 

Supreme then goes off to visit Charles, better known as Kid Supreme.

 

 

Apparently, Charles could "borrow" a portion of Supreme's powers. 

 

They talk a little and then Supreme hurries off. To go after Grizlock? Heck no! 

To go talk to Max the journalist!

This Supreme guy sure has his priorities straight.

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #8

 

Supreme issue 8 was published in December 1993. Ripley provides the story. Kurt Hathaway does the story, scripting, lettering and editing. Shawn McManus does the pencils and the inks.

This is such an aggravating issue. Basically, Thor was fooled into working for Hitler during WWII. He learned of his error and after some kind of delay, is now back to do it. In fact, that's what he tells Supreme.

 

Not understanding what Thor tells him explicitly, Supreme decides to just fight Thor.

Ugh.

Meanwhile Max has convinced her editors to let her do a live interview with Supreme. The only problem, she doesn't know how to get ahold of Supreme to agree to it.

The long-forgotten subplot of the serial killer Grizlock continues with him returning to his secret lab. And he immediately starts shouting at the top of his lungs. Why? 

Because it's EXTREME!

The fight between Supreme and Thor continues. And despite Thor explaining exactly why he's there...

 

...Supreme is like, "Is it possible he doesn't realize--" that Hitler is dead. 

This is so stupid.

Also stupid, the fight is going to continue on for a third issue. yay

Interestingly enough, Shawn McManus, who handles the art here, illustrated two of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing issues and, later, with his daughter Leah Moore on Wildstorm's Wild Girl.  He also worked on Sandman and a number of other good series. He's definitely better than what he got to work with in Supreme.

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #7

 

 

Supreme issue 7 came out in November 1993. The story is by Eric Stephenson and someone named, I kid you not, Ripley. Pencils and inks are by Shawn McManus. Kurt Hathaway has now taken over the writing, lettering and editing. That's efficient. Just have the letterer try to make it all make sense.

The superpowered beings from the future are known as Starguard and we get their roll call in one of those weird rotated double-page splashes Extreme used to love doing: 

 

They're here to offer a warning. What's the warning? "...be ready--ready to conquer the menace when it arises." That is really helpful. Before they can say more, their emergency alarm goes off and they have to hurry and deal with it... because Ripley and the other writers don't really understand how time travel works. Sigh.  

We then get back to the weird plot about the reporter, Max. Apparently now she's incredibly mad about Dulles airport blowing up... because her dad was inside! 

This is brand new information that isn't presented in any kind of believable way. It's like they realized that her motivation made no sense, so they decided to one up it... to the EXTREME!

Anyway, Max confronts Supreme, demanding he take responsibility, which SHOCKER, he does not.

There's a whole thing about Heavy Mettle being scrapped, which is just about as boring as when Heavy Mettle was active. 

We cut to Thor, who is in Germany, demanding to be taken to see Adolf Hitler. 

 

Thor has returned to kill Hitler, not realizing it is 1993. Supreme flies off to deal with Thor.

I can't wait to see how they resolve this. Maybe by sitting down and having a metaphysical debate about whether gods can exist if no one believes in their mythology anymore? 
 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #6

  

Supreme issue 6 came out in October 1993. Rob Liefeld did the story. Brian Murray did the lettering, story, script, and colors. Chris Ivy did the inks. Kurt Hathaway is the letterer and editor.

The story starts with all five then-living presidents talking about the destruction from the ongoing Supreme/Khrome fight and it is amazing!

 

I can't decide whether they're trolling us or if they actually believe all the ex-presidents were just hanging out with Bill Clinton. Either way, I want more of this! Anyway, Clinton orders Bloodstrike to take down Supreme, which happened over in the Bloodstrike series. (I'll talk about this very slightly at the end.)

In the fight, Supreme discovers the secret to Khrome's power and takes off to disable it, to the chagrin of reporter Max, who hates Supreme (we'll get more into that later). 

We get a few cutaways to side plots (Thor is still around; the serial killer Grizlock has escaped; Heavy Mettle is still boring; etc.). 

Supreme disables Khrome's powers and kills Khrome:

 

Supreme proceeds to quit Heavy Mettle and plans to track down Grizlock when some superpowered beings from the future show up and call Supreme their father: 

 

 

Yeah, ok. What a weird comic. At least you never really know what's going to happen next. 

Let's now take a quick look at Bloodstrike issue 5.

Bloodstrike are assigned to take out Supreme. It doesn't go well for them:

The end. 

Don't worry, though. Bloodstrike works for a covert government project that resurrects them, so they can come back and do more deep ops. Phew!

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #5

  

Supreme issue 5 came out in August 1993. Rob Liefeld provided the story. Brian Murray wrote the script, pencilled and did the colors. Chris Ivy did the inks. Kurt Hathaway did the lettering and has now taken over as editor. Interesting.

We start off with some backstory from Khrome about how Supreme used to be his ally. Together they fought with the Katellans against the Torgans. I really have no idea who any of these races are and they play no role in anything I've ever read before or after this, so I'm not going to bother trying to find out more.

 

Anyway, Khrome became a galactic warlord and has now decided to invade Earth... mainly because Supreme is from there! Lucky Earth!

We then get more fighting between Heavy Mettle and Khrome until Supreme joins in and there's even more fighting. There's a ridiculous scene where Khrome grabs a fully loaded jet and smashes it into Supreme, killing all on board.  

 We see a reporter covering the events, who will become important in the issues to come.

Meanwhile, we get some portents of things to come with some people from the future and a god.

 

 

 

 

And then it's back to more of the fight with Khrome, which inexplicably, goes on for another issue! See you next time for more Khrome.