We're on the second miniseries spinoff of Supreme! The series that wasn't good enough for its own series now has two more! Extreme!
Issue #1 came out in December 1994. 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 the inks are by Dan Panosian.
We start with Maxine watching her TV interview with Supreme from issue 10, in which he claims to be a god and that he was a product of an experiment against the Nazis in the 1930s. Maxine doesn't believe Supreme's story and decides to investigate. Holy $#!%, you mean she's going to do her job rather than stalk Supreme, swearing her need for revenge!?!
We then jump to Supreme in Connecticut, where he has destroyed the headquarters of the Genetech company, and threatening to kill anyone who tries to meddle in matters beyond their comprehension.
We should pause for a minute to acknowledge that this neither sounds like the Supreme we're used to nor looks like him. The red of his costume now comes down to his belt and the white is now a gray/black with stars in it. I like the design, but it really feels like a different version of the character. Which, considering how little there is to the Supreme character, I'm fine with. Supreme spares one survivor as his messenger that mankind must stop this genetic research.
Maxine watches footage of the story and convinces her editor to let her chase down the real story of Supreme's origin, which he reluctantly does: "It's your funeral!" The foreshadowing isn't really subtle, but the literary tool of foreshadowing is so beyond the abilities of the main series that I still see it as a positive.
We cut back to 1944 in France, where Supreme, not in his costume, is killing some Nazis.
We find out that this is a flashback by way of an interview Maxine is doing with the WWII vet who was Supreme's commanding officer. He was in charge of making sure Supreme kept killing, but eventually came to realize Supreme was prolonging the war as part of the "weeding out process" of evolution of mankind.
Maxine finds out that rather than a superior candidate, Ethan (is that still his name?) was actually a convict. He sends her to talk to Sophie Miles next.
Meanwhile Supreme is in the Himalayas. There's a weird caption that reads "On the fortieth night of the fortieth day..." which means what, exactly? Fortieth day since what? Since he returned to Earth? It's trying to be Biblical, but it doesn't really mean anything.
Supreme is talking to himself about Maxine's pursuit. This Supreme quotes scripture... a lot. I find this version of Supreme to be the most interesting. A guy who has convinced himself that he is a god and is drawing direction from his misunderstanding of the Bible. He's so much scarier this way than the sort of pointless version we've seen in the main series.
We cut back to 1937 in St. Louis. He goes into a speakeasy to confront someone who raped a 1t-year-old. The guy asks Ethan, "Didja come to impose penance, 'Father' Crane?" But Ethan pulls out a gun and shoots the guy.
As he's leaving, the police move to stop him and end up shooting him.
Maxine learns this from interviewing the then-15-year-old, Sophie Miles, and learns that Ethan survived and was sentenced to life in jail. Apparently Ethan still visits her and proceeds to quote some scripture herself.
This sets Maxine off from her parochial school days, and starts recalling the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible. Mainly she remembers how Lot's wife was told not to turn back and watch this destruction, but did anyway and paid for it with her life.
We cut to Salem, Massachusetts, "deep in the heart of a Covenant cell..." the Covenant being the weird religious cult of Extreme villains that pop up in those big crossovers.
They realize that it's only a matter of time before Supreme confronts them and must be preemptive. Supreme is attacking their genetic engineering fronts. In order to divert Supreme, they are going to help Maxine discredit Supreme.
There's a kind of beautiful one page scene where Supreme is in space and seems to be talking to God, saying "Soon..." So often, we see Superman as a Christ or religious figure of someone extremely powerful but with a belief in forgiveness and kindness. Supreme is a religious figure, but of a wrathful god, which makes it so much scarier. It's a nice twist on expectations and handled well here.
We cut to Maxine listening to the rest of her recorded interview with Sophie. Sophie says that Ethan was given the opportunity to volunteer for the experiments and that afterwards he came to her. He still blamed himself for overhearing the guys who raped her and not stopping them. She says that he used to say in his sleep that he was firing the gun at himself as much as them. Of course, she'd overhear that while sleeping with Supreme, which surprises Maxine.
There's a question of continuity here. Is Supreme sleeping with Sophie during the war? Is it after the war but before he flew into outer space? What about Louise, the love of Supreme's life, whose grave he visits? It doesn't really add up.
Anyway, Maxine gets a call about the last person still living connected with the experiments and knows her next step.
In Las Vegas, the mobsters are conferring about Supreme threatening to shut them down. They think about getting a superpowered minion to fight Supreme, but it's a lose-lose situation for them. But then they get a call from Maxine.
We cut to 1939 in a secret lab. Dr. Wells is experimenting on Ethan.
This is a flashback to Maxine's interview with a bedridden assistant. She thinks Ethan mutated into Supreme. But he tells her that Ethan died, as the six test subjects before him did. And then he says, "And then came... the horrible part!"
To be continued.
This is an actual compelling issue that is about so much more than mindless fighting. I'll take more of this, please!
