Issue #3 (the final issue) came out in February 1995. The plot and layouts are by Keith Giffen. The co-plot and script is by Giffen's longtime partner Robert Loren Fleming. The pencils are by Jeff Johnson and Dan Panosian, who also handles the inks.
We start this issue with a reporter covering the destruction of an apartment building caused by the fighting of the two Supremes. The reporters tell us the the United Nations is discussing using nuclear weapons against the rampaging Supremes.
At the TV station where Maxine works, her editor is looking for him, but she's been missing for days.
Meanwhile, the Supremes are fighting, each thinking the other is the impostor. They quote scripture at each other while they fight.
I like the idea of Supreme thinking he's a god/son of God, but all the scripture ultimately starts to feel like too much and doesn't really give us any insight into who Supreme is or how he got that way.
Meanwhile, Maxine is following up on the Gospel of Ethan Crane, which she discovered in her apartment last issue. The account tells of Ethan waking up from being dead and having escaped from Dr. Wells' experiments.
It was 1939 and he was naked in the snow when he entered a church. The priest offers him sanctuary and he works for his keep while listening to the news about the war on the radio. One day he starts hearing the Christ statue talking to him and he starts talking back to it. He is soon flying as though nailed to the cross, his identification with Christ complete.
Meanwhile, the two Washington powerful men we saw last issue are congratulating themselves over their solution to the problem and choose to not be worried about Maxine's story.
In space, the real Supreme realizes the fake Supreme is fighting just like he would. He realizes it's a clone from the sample he gave a year ago but that he's one year stronger and pokes the clone's eyes out with his fingers.
He then breaks its neck and drops it in the sun to burn up.
Maxine turns in her story about Supreme's origin and then goes home, refusing to read it on the air. She offers this bit about his origin: "Do you remember when he first showed up? What he said? 'I am Supreme!' I don't think he was telling us his name, Sid. I think he was trying to convince himself." I'm not sure what it means, except that maybe be doubts his godhood and is trying to convince himself to justify the things he's done?
She goes home and Supreme is waiting for her. She quotes commandments to him, about having no other god before God and thou shall not kill. He thinks she doubts him even though he gave her his story to carry his message.
She says that she feels a reawakening of her faith, but not for him. But that she'll pray for his lost soul.
He demands that she'll tell his story, which she laughingly agrees to. He then says he's leaving Earth again. And she wants to know why he left Earth in the first place.
We get a flashback to the priest who took Ethan in. He is chastising Ethan for killing and Ethan slaps him to death.
That caused him to flee Earth.
Back in the present, we see Supreme departing again and get the pretentious quote, "There is no fundamental, but that every supreme power be arbitrary," from George Savile, the Marquis of Halifax, 1633-1695.
Basically, Savile was arguing against the supreme power of the English monarchy and arguing for the Glourious Revolution that brought William and Mary to power. He thought no one should have Supreme power as they won't act in a reasonable way with it. I guess this would work for an ending if anyone thought Supreme should have supreme power and act responsibly with it in the first place. But no one reading Supreme comes away with the thought that Supreme is a good guy or the right guy to have this power. That's the point. Supreme has always been the wrong guy.
Anyway, that was The Legend of Supreme. I'm not sure we really learned all that much new about Supreme. Does him being reborn and being found by a priest before accidentally killing him jibe with the origins we've read in the main series? No. Does the way he leaves Earth fit with what we learned in Glory Days? No. I appreciate the attempt to find more to the character and fill in his backstory, but ultimately it's not enough and doesn't really make him any more of a compelling character than he already was.
More than anything, it feels like more there's now another version of Supreme running around the universe. And in truth, we'll see this version of Supreme again. But for now, back to the regular series.
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