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.