Annual #1 came out in May 1995. The plot and pencils are by Keith Giffen. The script is by Giffen's Legion writing partners Tom & Mary Bierbuaum. The inks are by Charles Adlard. We're told on the credits page that this story takes place before Supreme #1.
They didn't really need to tell us that since the very first line of the story is that this occurred probably around 1960. Supreme finds a world that has been torn apart by an automated mining operation.
Supreme finds a little sentient crystal life form calling for help, and--this being the Biblical quoting Supreme of Legend of Supreme--starts quoting scripture to himself to help.
He destroys the mining machine and flies off. Unbeknownst to him, he was being recorded.
We cut to a world filled with strange and interesting plants. A servant approaches "Noble Chi" and tells him about Supreme destroying the mining operation. Chi then calls in someone who can deal with Supreme.
On an alien world, we a big armored guy kill the last warrior of a world, and mostly be bored. Afterward, he transforms back into a human, who we learn is Herr Vergessen, and goes to visit Chi, who hires him to kill Supreme.
Vergessen knows Supreme and we flash back to WWII where Supreme captured him and seemingly killed him with his laser eyes. But apparently, Vergessen is much harder to kill.
Vergessen tracks Supreme to a planet of commerce and promises to kill Supreme and parade his head around on a pole. It's nice when old friends get to catch up.
Vergessen explodes and as the smoke clears, we see he has become a big rock guy. They fight some and then Vergessen becomes a crystal creature, like the lifeform Supreme found on the mining planet. They fight some more and Supreme quotes some scripture.
Eventually they take the fight to space with Vergessen becoming electricity, driving Supreme into a star. Even that can't kill Supreme. So Vergessen decides to transform into the one thing in Supreme's mind that he thinks can kill him. But as Vergessen transforms, he realizes too late his error...
Supreme thinks nothing can kill him. So Vergessen transforms into nothing and is gone.
Supreme decides that he will go after the man who hired Vergessen and on his planet, Chi receives the message: "Soon. -Supreme" And then we get the caption "Not quite the end!"
I wanted to like this story and I get for the clever twist they were trying to go for with Vergessen becoming nothing, but it needed another pass or two on the script to make the twist feel earned.
Anyway, the story will continue in a future issue of Supreme. But this isn't it for the annual. We get a backup story by Len Wein, penciled by Shannon Denton, inked by Norm Rapmund and lettered by Kurt Hathaway.
Back in France in 1943, Supreme is tearing apart some German soldiers when Superpatriot, Glory and Die Hard show up to recruit him. They help Supreme out but of course, Supreme is never grateful. They still ask if he'll join The Allies. Supreme scoffs but when he finds out that they're on a mission to liberate a town and fight a bunch of Nazis, Supreme is in.
They go and start fighting the Nazis and helping the townspeople when Supreme goes up, rips some bombs off an overflying plane and drops them on the town, killing Nazis and civilians alike.
When Glory tries to rebuke him, he grabs her and kisses her before flying off. And The Allies decide they don't need him.
Oof. That was pretty bad. It's so weird how the Supreme writers are all over the map on Supreme in WWII. Was he a hero? Was he a ruthless killer? Did Glory and he like each other? Was he an ass and Glory hated him? There is no consistency. Then again, Giffen is writing his own version of the character who is completely different from the way Hathaway wrote him. It's very weird and frustrating.
There was talk of Wein doing more Allies stories, but they never came to fruition, and if this is what they would be like, good riddance.
We then get a couple of pinups and we're done.
