Weekly reading: Supreme #63

Supreme #63

Published by Awesome Entertainment in April 2012

The covers:

Title: Revelations

(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.)

For twelve years I knew there was a script for this issue and I always just assumed it would never see the light of day, much less actually be turned into a comic. Then came word in 2011 that Erik Larsen, of Savage Dragon fame, would be relaunching the series, starting with Alan Moore's last script.

Holy Malloly!

According to Larsen, he was interested in dealing with Rob Liefeld's original idea of Supreme, about a supreme being with no morals holding him back. He decided to start with Moore's last script as a good launching spot to get there.

Unlike a million other promises by Rob Liefeld this one did materialize. It wasn't drawn well. The covers suck. It leaves us on a cliffhanger that Erik Larsen completely manhandles in following issues. But you know what, who cares? It's an issue of Alan Moore's Supreme that I never expected. And that's always a great thing.

So let's dig in.

Supposedly, Checker, who had published the collections, raised a stink about Image publishing this issue, feeling that they had the rights to all of Moore's Supremes. But Image prevailed and decided to renumber the Rob Liefeld series to go back to the original numbering and add up all the other series to get to what might be considered the real numbers. So this became Supreme #63 because Supreme ended at 56, then there were 6 issues of The Return and then this one. So, I guess Supreme Sacrifice didn't count. Never mind, I'll get to that later.

Looking at those covers above, it's like a contest to see what's the worst art they could use to promote this book and it was a three-way tie, so they all got covers!

On the inside front cover, they swipe Todd Klein's credits page even though it has nothing to do with the Story of the Year storyline:

But at least they have taste.

The issue starts with the Omniman comic-within-a-comic as Omniman of the present is confronted by a Oscar the Omnibunny and Original Omniman. They take him to a Supremancy-based Omnigarchy. We see Darius Dax reading the comic in a comic shop, which carries forward the nice meta commentary Moore had been building on in previous issues.

But Dax is troubled. The concept sounds familiar to Daxia, which is too much to be a coincidence.

In the Citadel, Diana Dane is strolling through Supreme's zoo, where she meets Luriel, the angel. She asks if Luriel still has a thing for Supreme, but she can never be with Supreme because she's real and Supreme is just an imaginary idea.

Then Suprema flies up and confronts Diana. Diana recognizes her from the coffee shop back in issue #52A, so Suprema is irked that Diana knows her secret identity. Suprema wants to make sure Diana isn't an alien trying to get retribution on Supreme by marrying him and then destroying him.

Suprema: "Sorry to ask, but you'd be surprised how often that happens." Ha.

Suprema and Diana talk for a bit before Suprema admits: "Y-You think I'm prissy, don't you? I mean everybody in Youngblood thinks I'm prissy! Even Twilight, she's my best friend, and she does this impression of me that's all squeaky, like a cartoon?"

It's a nice vulnerable moment for Suprema that isn't quite ruined by Larsen's art.

Diana tells her that she just needs friends who don't have superpowers. She offers to hang out, which Suprema thinks would be peachy. Supreme flies up and he heads off with Diana to get dinner.

Meanwhile, Dax decides to go to Daxia to share his revelation. He meets up with Darius Duck and they go to talk with King Dax. Our Dax tells them about the comic and how he thinks there must be a Supremia. But if so, they don't know anything about Daxia and are ripe for attack.

Our Dax has a tryst with an evil Diana Dane (Dianax), and there's the subtle hint dropped that they might plot to overthrow King Dax.

Moore has a nice structure of the issue going switching back and forth from Supreme to Dax, seeing the parallels and differences in the characters and worlds.

In the Citadel, Supreme and Diana's date is starting to heat up as he takes her to his room to see the hand creating the universe. At the same time, Dianax is caught in bed by her husband Daxian, whom our Dax kills.

As Supreme and Diana share a wonderful moment of lovemaking, the Daxes gear up and head for war.

The issue ends with a cloud of Daxes about to attack the Citadel while Diana, in Supreme's arms says, "It feels as if the Earth is moving, a-and as if the sky is opening...and as if there's nothing in the world but love."

 

And that's the end of Alan Moore's Supreme. Considering all that has happened, I find it hard to believe he'd ever return to pen a finale. In one sense, this was the way Supreme had to end, on a cliffhanger. Moore had too many jokes about revisions coming at the worst moments for it not to end this way. And read Diana's words again. The Earth moving. The sky opening. And then a world that is nothing but love. Doesn't that sound like she's moving into the Supremacy?

I can reconcile it in my head, but the heart is unsatisfied. I want the war with the Daxes. I want to know how supremium is involved. I want to reconcile the idea that they're stories, which Supreme is coming to realize. I want to see Talos and Radar bring their worlds into the fight. I want too much, I know. But I'll talk more about that later.

Larsen started his run writing the series with Supreme #64. I'll talk about that run late next week. While I'm conflicted on it, I want to make this clear. I'm eternally grateful that Larsen decided to draw this issue. he didn't have to and it could have easily stayed buried for many more years. The only reason we have it is because of Larsen, and for that, he will always get credit in my book (or on my blog, which I'm sure will make him sleep easier at night).

Starting next week: After Awesome!

As always, please check out the Annotations Page for more details and references and be sure to let me know any that I missed. 

The myth of Lilith

As described in his proposal, Alan Moore intended for the magic of the Awesome Universe to transcend any one set of myths or beliefs. He wanted something that worked across many belief systems. So it makes sense that he would adopt Lilith as Glory's antagonist, as she was referenced by a few cultures before she turned up in the Hebrew Bible.

I knew little of the Lilith myth before Glory, so I thought it might be worthwhile to take a look at who she is. This comes from Ancient-Origins.net:

In some sources she's described as a demon, in others she is an icon who became one of the darkest deities of the pagans. Lilith is one of the oldest known female spirits of the world. Her roots come from the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, but she was also described in the Bible and the Talmud.

In Jewish tradition, she is the most notorious demon, but in some other sources she appears as the first woman created on Earth. According to a legend, God formed Lilith as the first woman. He did it in the same way as he created Adam. The only difference was that in place of pure dust, he also used filth and residue. Traditionally Lilith means ''the night'', and she is related to attributes connected with the spiritual aspects of sensuality and freedom, but also terror.

Lilith’s name comes from the Sumerian word ''lilitu'', which meant a wind spirit or a female demon. Lilith was mentioned in the Tablet XII of the Epic of Gilgamesh, a famous poem of ancient Mesopotamia dated back to not later than c. 2100 BC. The tablet was added to the original text much later, c. 600 BC, in its later Assyrian and Akkadian translations. She appears in a magical story, where she represents the branches of a tree. She is described with other demons, but researchers still argue if she was a demon or a dark goddess. At the same time, she appeared in early Jewish sources, so it is difficult to find out who mentioned her first. However, it is obvious that from the beginning of her existence in the texts she was related to Sumerian witchcraft.

In the Babylonian Talmud, Lilith was described as a dark spirit with an uncontrollable and dangerous sexuality. She is said to have fertilized herself with male sperm to create demons. She is believed to be the mother of hundreds of demons.

Lilith was known in the culture of the Hittites, Egyptians, Greeks, Israelis, and Romans as well. In later times, she migrated to the north of the Europe. She represented chaos, sexuality, and she has been said to have cast spells on people. Her legend is also related to the first stories about vampires.

Lilith appears in the Bible, in the Book of Isaiah 34:14, which describes the desolation of Eden. From the beginning, she is considered as a devilish spirit, unclean, and dangerous. The Genesis Rabbah describes her as the first wife of Adam. According to the book, God created her and Adam at the same time. Lilith was very strong, independent, and wanted to be equal with Adam. She did not accept being less important than him and refused to lie beneath Adam for copulation. The marriage did not work and they never found happiness. As Robert Graves and Raphael Patai wrote in the book The Hebrew Myths:

''Adam complained to God: 'I have been deserted by my helpmeet' God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore lilim at the rate of more than one hundred a day. 'Return to Adam without delay,' the angels said, `or we will drown you!' Lilith asked: `How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?? 'It will be death to refuse!' they answered. `How can I die,' Lilith asked again, `when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, if ever I see your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it.' To this they agreed; but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own.''

Due to the misunderstandings and disappointments related to Lilith, God decided to create a second wife for Adam--Eve.

Nowadays, Lilith has become a symbol of freedom for many feminist groups. Due to the rising level of education, women started to understand that they could be independent, so they began looking for symbols of feminine power. She also started to be worshiped by some followers of the pagan Wicca religion, which was created in the 1950s.

This appeal was enhanced by artists, who took her on as a muse. She started to be a popular motif in art and literature around the Renaissance period, when Michelangelo portrayed her as a half woman, half serpent being. He presented her around the Tree of Knowledge, and increased the importance of her legend. With time, Lilith became more attractive for the imaginations of male artists like Dante Gabriel Rosetti, who created her image as the most beautiful female being of the world. The author of ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', C.S. Lewis, was inspired by the legend about Lilith in the creation of the White Witch. She was beautiful, but dangerous and cruel. He mentioned that she was Lilith’s daughter and the she was determined to kill Adam and Eve’s children.

Less romantic pictures of Lilith appeared in the mind of James Joyce, who called her the patron of abortions. Joyce pushed Lilith into the feminist philosophy, and started the process of adopting her as a goddess of independent women in the 20th century. When women started to receive more rights, they started to disagree with the man-concentrated vision of the world, including the Biblical story about the beginning of the life on Earth. The name of Lilith appears as a national literacy program in Israel and the title of a Jewish women's magazine. The ancient Sumerian legendary female demon is one of the most popular topics in feminist literature related to ancient mythology. Researchers still discuss if she was created as a real demon, or as an untrue warning of what may happen if women receive more power.

Here's what Moore had to say about Lilith in his Glory proposal:

"Now, as it happens, according to the lore of the Qabalah, the realm of Demeter (also called Malkuth) hos a kind of resident goddess/demoness who sort of represents the negative or "evil" side of the material world. This is LILITH, and I think she'd be perfect as a main female villain for Glory. She was the first wife offered by God to Adam, but when he rejected her, she went off in a temper and started copulating with demons to produce a race of monsters and abominations, over whom she ruled as Queen of the Night, one of her other titles. Imagine something like a Kirbyized and more beautiful version of the bad fairly Malificence from Disney's Sleeping Beauty and I think you'll get the picture."

Wonder Woman in chains

After reading Glory #2, it's hard to know how far Moore is going with the bondage stuff in the flashback. As mentioned, Matt Martin doesn't do him any favors. So, thanks to Comicsalliance.com, here's a look at some of the kinkier moments from golden age Wonder Woman to see that even though Moore took it to a bit of an extreme, he wasn't completely off the mark.

A little background from Comicsalliance:

"As the art in this gallery shows, it's not just about getting tied up. There's a woman who keeps another woman as her dog (complete with skintight puppy suit), and there are women spanking each other with various tools, riding each other like horses, and forcing each other to dress up like babies.

There are three narrative sources for kink in Wonder Woman. First, there are the Amazons, who have weird BDSM rituals and bondage filled-games. Second, there's the Beeta Lambda sorority at Holiday College, where Wonder Woman's sidekick Etta Candy always seems to be initiating somebody. And finally, there are the villains, who don't just tie people up; they keep slaves as a matter of course."

From a Smithsonian Magazine article on Wonder Woman: In his original scripts, Marston described scenes of bondage in careful, intimate detail with utmost precision. For a story about Mars, the God of War, Marston gave Peter elaborate instructions for the panel in which Wonder Woman is taken prisoner:

“Closeup, full length figure of WW. Do some careful chaining here—Mars’s men are experts! Put a metal collar on WW with a chain running off from the panel, as though she were chained in the line of prisoners. Have her hands clasped together at her breast with double bands on her wrists, her Amazon bracelets and another set. Between these runs a short chain, about the length of a handcuff chain—this is what compels her to clasp her hands together. Then put another, heavier, larger chain between her wrist bands which hangs in a long loop to just above her knees. At her ankles show a pair of arms and hands, coming from out of the panel, clasping about her ankles. This whole panel will lose its point and spoil the story unless these chains are drawn exactly as described here.”

Later in the story, Wonder Woman is locked in a cell. Straining to overhear a conversation in the next room, through the amplification of “bone conduction,” she takes her chain in her teeth: “Closeup of WW’s head shoulders. She holds her neck chain between her teeth. The chain runs taut between her teeth and the wall, where it is locked to a steel ring bolt."

Apparently Wonder Woman editor Max Gaines started to figure out that something was going on. In February 1943, Josette Frank, an expert on children’s literature, a leader of the Child Study Association and a member of Gaines’ advisory board, sent Gaines a letter, telling him that while she’d never been a fan of Wonder Woman, she felt she now had to speak out about its “sadistic bits showing women chained, tortured, etc.” She had a point. In episode after episode, Wonder Woman is chained, bound, gagged, lassoed, tied, fettered and manacled. “Great girdle of Aphrodite!” she cries at one point. “Am I tired of being tied up!"

Gaines later received a letter from John D. Jacobs, a U.S. Army staff sergeant in the 291st Infantry, stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. “I am one of those odd, perhaps unfortunate men who derive an extreme erotic pleasure from the mere thought of a beautiful girl, chained or bound, or masked, or wearing extreme high-heels or high-laced boots,—in fact, any sort of constriction or strain whatsoever,” Jacobs wrote. He wanted to know whether the author of Wonder Woman himself had in his possession any of the items depicted in the stories, “the leather mask, or the wide iron collar from Tibet, or the Greek ankle manacle? Or do you just ‘dream up’ these things?”

(For the record, Marston and Olive Byrne’s son, Byrne Marston, who is an 83-year-old retired obstetrician, thinks that when Marston talked about the importance of submission, he meant it only metaphorically. “I never saw anything like that in our house,” he told me. “He didn’t tie the ladies up to the bedpost. He’d never have gotten away with it.”)

Gaines forwarded Jacobs’ letter to Marston, with a note: “This is one of the things I’ve been afraid of.” Something had to be done. He therefore enclosed, for Marston’s use, a memo containing a “list of methods which can be used to keep women confined or enclosed without the use of chains. Each one of these can be varied in many ways—enabling us, as I told you in our conference last week, to cut down the use of chains by at least 50 to 75% without at all interfering with the excitement of the story or the sales of the books.”

Marston wrote Gaines right back.

“I have the good Sergeant’s letter in which he expresses his enthusiasm over chains for women—so what?” As a practicing clinical psychologist, he said, he was unimpressed. “Some day I’ll make you a list of all the items about women that different people have been known to get passionate over—women’s hair, boots, belts, silk worn by women, gloves, stockings, garters, panties, bare backs,” he promised. “You can’t have a real woman character in any form of fiction without touching off a great many readers’ erotic fancies. Which is swell, I say.”

Marston was sure he knew what line not to cross. Harmless erotic fantasies are terrific, he said. “It’s the lousy ones you have to look out for—the harmful, destructive, morbid erotic fixations—real sadism, killing, blood-letting, torturing where the pleasure is in the victim’s actual pain, etc. Those are 100 per cent bad and I won’t have any part of them.”