Alan Moore's Forgotten Awesome: A history of The Allies

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, March 30, 2018

A history of The Allies

Derek Mont-Ros asked me if he could fill in some more details on The Allies, and I'm always happy to have anyone share more information on the Awesome Universe. And with the Allies making an appearance in the fan-created Youngblood #12, now seemed like a great time. So here is his guest post.

The Allies first appeared in Youngblood: Strikefile #1.

The group was Image's answer to the Avengers and the Justice League of America and consisted of Glory (in her first appearance), the "Golden Age" Die-Hard (there's a debate if this Die-Hard is the one fans have come to know in the modern stories or another Allies member named Free Agent) and Super Patriot (at first having Superman powers, but later more like Captain America).

Later on in Brigade #3, Supreme #0, and Battlestone #1, more members appeared, including Battlestone, Supreme, Roy Roman and Mighty Man.

Brigade #3

Supreme #0

Battlestone #1

In the '90s, Alan Moore created new characters to fit the obvious DC pastiche theme he had created. With characters such as Professor Night, Storybook Smith, Doc Rocket, Alleycat, Fisherman, Black Hand and Wax Man, he created (in continuity) a pre-Allies team called the Allied Supermen of America.

The modern Allies also appeared in the Fighting American miniseries and Holiday Special story, with Thor (not Marvel).

In the early and late '90s two attempts were made to give the Allies their own story. Back when Extreme was still part of Image Comics, an advertisement appeared in Brigade #22 for an Allies series, but it never came out. A series was planned from Moore's Allies proposal, and advertisements were shown in Supreme: The Return. At a 1997 comic convention, an Awesome Allies Preview book was produced but only included sketches of Thor and Loki and a poster. Eric Stephenson was quoted about the series, which you can read here.