Welcome

So a long time ago (the mid-1990s), the greatest writer in comics agreed to take over the writing duties for Image Comics' Supreme. He would radically reshape the character, the book, and due to forces beyond his control, a whole comic book universe. And it led to an award-winning run of comics, three additional titles (among several proposed) and ultimately led to the genesis of Moore's much better known America's Best Comics. And then it all went out of print and was forgotten by way too many.

Having gathered quite a bit of information about Moore's Supreme and Awesome runs, I decided to create a home for the forgotten Awesome. Over the course of a year, I put it all together here.

Each week I did a main "Weekly Reading" post that was a read-through of that issue. I followed that up with a couple of other posts about topics from that Weekly Reading or whatever else I came up with to talk about. You'll find the lost Youngbloods in the Youngblood section and the fan-edit of the last Supreme in After Awesome.

Below is the archive of posts broken up by book. Thanks for checking the site out!

Book 1: Supreme: The Story of the Year

Book 1: Judgment Day

Book 3: Supreme: The Return

Book 4: Youngblood

Book 5: Glory

Book 6: After Awesome

Book 7: 1963

Book 8: Night Raven

Book 9: A Small Killing

Friday, September 12, 2025

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #20

 

 

Supreme issue 20 came out in October 1994. Written, edited and lettered by Kurt Hathaway. Layouts by Marat Mychaels. Penciled by Cedric Nocon and inked by Norm Rapmund, Lary Stucker, Jonathan Sibal and Robert Lacko. Additional art by Vince Russell. Apparently Nocon was well regarded by the fans, who asked for him to stay on as the regular artist. 

We pick up the story with Kid Supreme, in his red and white costume that he got who knows where, flying to Twist's, the mafia boss, office which had been destroyed in the fight between Supreme and Overtkill

 

He overhears Twit mention the boat Lucky Lady, Hudson River and 7:30. Gosh, I wonder if those will become important later?

Kid Supreme wants to know about the death of Patch and Twist says that Supreme already asked him that. Which is when Kid Supreme notices the ongoing fight between Supreme and Overtkill on the streets below. 

So, this being the book it is, Kid Supreme jumps into the fight. At which point, Supreme basically yells at him to get lost. 


Ah, ever the gentleman, that Supreme. In the fray, Overtkill gets away. Supreme and Kid Supreme yell at each other a bit until Kid mentions what he overheard and Supreme flies off. 

Later that night, Twist and Overtkill turn up at Pug's boat and we learn that Pug is secretly going to blow it up to kill Twist. Meanwhile, Kid Supreme steals a tux and pretends to be working at the party on the boat. He overhears a deal going down where Twist is buying high tech weapons from Pug. Kid Supreme gets notices, chucks a guard in the water as Supreme flies up and it all quickly goes to hell. 


Supreme and Kid Supreme fight Overtkill. Pug says they're going to blow the boat, which Twist overhears and yells to everyone, causing a stampede to jump over the side. Twist and Overtkill get away while Supreme and Kid Supreme get caught in the boat explosion. But they're fine, except Kid Supreme's costume, which since he miraculously got it free between issues last time, I'm sure he can get another.

They capture Pug, who agrees to testify against Twist. If he ever gets caught. Which he won't. But the writer doesn't care, so neither should we. 

 

The issue ends with a weird two page epilogue of Glory bumping into Odin walking a dog, which turns out to be Loki. 


They're looking for Supreme because they want Thor's hammer back. Which makes sense. He's had the hammer for a lot longer than I thought he would and is he ever going to get his powers back? 

Guess we'll find out in the next 20 issues, because we are officially halfway through the pre-Moore Supremes! How we've made it through 20 pages and learned so little about Supreme and found so little that is worthwhile is a true accomplishment. That'll do, Image. That'll do. 

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