Weekly Reading: Supreme #51

Supreme #51

Published by Awesome Entertainment in Late July 1997

The cover:

Title: A Roster of Rogues

(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.)

Wasn't issue #50 great? It's appropriate that after that we learn that Alan Moore won the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his work on From Hell and Supreme. I'll talk more about the Eisner in a post later this week, but what a glow I'm feeling. It doesn't get better than this, does it?

Sigh, alright I guess it's time to move on. So, issue #51 seems to me to largely be setting the table for the epic conclusion to "The Story of the Year," so it's a little oddly structured, but is necessary for what is to come. J. Morrigan has returned to handle the modern art chores and acquits himself nicely.

But before we can get there, let's take a moment to consider this cover. It's a Liefeld drawing of Supreme (or maybe Emerpus?). But the color isn't right for Emerpus, as seen in this issue. It could be the Shadow Supreme, but again, the coloring isn't right.What do you think?

The issue starts as the ridiculous villain Cyberzerk attacks the offices of Dazzle Comics to take on Omniman, not realizing he's a fictional character. Moore savages both '90s comics villains and obsessive comics fans with the brief battle.

Rather than go through it, I'm just going to quote some of my favorite Cyberzerk lines:

• "You must be Diana Dane! They say you are 'taking over' Omniman! If you are his new love interest then he will have to face me in order to rescue you!"
• "This is my moment at last! It's Cyberzerk versus Omniman in a fight to the finish we just had to call 'When Titans Collide!'"
• "Y-you must have used your omni-vision to sever my arm! B-but you lost that power in issue #232 when you were 'siphoned by the space sponge'! This is a continuity error!"

Supreme makes short work of Cyberzerk, and Supreme wonders what happened to the poetic ring to villains of yesteryear. "Well, to be honest, these modern guys probably don't read anything but comic books," Diana says, voicing a complaint Moore has expressed about modern comic writers.

Supreme then flashes back to a Supreme World Exhibition devoted to his roster of rogues. In the flashback, Supreme flies Judy Jordan to the Pallisades Amusements, a theme park based on Supreme. Rather than go to the main exhibit hall, Supreme leads Judy to the "Villa of Villany."

There we get to see Stupendo the Simian Supreme, who used to be a force for destruction but has since become a friend and lives on Conqueror Island. (Note: Conqueror Island will become more important as we get into Judgment Day.) We learn more about Darius Dax and Emerpus, the backward Supreme. In the Backward Zone, old folk are dug up from the ground and slowly dwindle into babies. Emerpus would take villains from prison, help them undo their crimes, and watch them devolve into decent children.

I wish we had seen an adventure with Emerpus, but the description matches one of Moore's best short stories from his early 2000AD days: The Reversible Man. There is also a suggestion that he had an idea for an Emerpus story, but I'll get into that later.

We meet Korgo the Space Tyrant (who will turn up next issue) and Szazs the Sprite Supreme (who will turn up in a later issue). Judy is getting bored and wants to go to the main exhibit, but notices that the villain statues have shifted position.

We see an earlier form of Optilux and the Televillain, a TV repairman named Reuben Tube who can go into television programs (who will turn up later this issue). Then we see the two Supremium Men: the one who fell from the sky in issue #45 and the other an alien who collected supremium meteorites (who will turn up in a later issue). Then we learn about the Shadow Supreme, a negative-energy carbon copy of Supreme (who will appear later in this issue).

Judy sees the Emerpus statue again and thinks that it has moved. The Emerpus and Shadow Supreme statues come to life, scaring Judy, but Supreme just laughs and admits that it was a prank put on by his suprematons to distract Judy while the main exhibit was getting ready: a look at the adventures of Judy Jordan as a cowgirl, a vampire, a jungle girl and more.

It's a nice moment, obviously designed to give us a feeling for who Judy Jordan was, so we understand why she's not the Judy Jordan we see at the end of this issue. 

Back to the modern story. Supreme says goodbye to Diana and flies off. Well, that was a short issue... wait a minute! Then comes a prologue for issue #52.

Judy Jordan and Hilda are below the Citadel when Hilda grabs onto Judy and blasts off with rockets for legs and flies her to the Citadel. Hilda produces a lightning bolt to enter Supreme's home and makes short work of the suprematon guards. When Supreme returns, he's tricked into the Hell of Mirrors by Hilda.

There's a nice effect where the dialog is backward from the other side of the mirror, which Hilda can translate. The Televillain and the Shadow Supreme come charging at Supreme, and he begs Judy to let him out.

"'Judy'? Well, you just tell him from me, honey... Judy's not who he's talking to." So, who is it? Prepare for the Return of Darius Dax!

Then we get a notice that the story will conclude in "our 80-page giant spectacular." But only in the letters page is it explained that the 80 pages will be spread over two issues (that will be numbered the same). The numbering on Awesome series was always a little weird.

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