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, October 31, 2025

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #34

 

Supreme issue 34 came out in December 1995. Eric Stephenson was the writer. Layouts by someone called Zebra MacPherson. Pencils by Joe Bennett. Inked by Norm Rapmund and Eric Cannon. Lettered by Kurt Hathaway.  

We start the issue on other Earth with a radio show discussing the return of Supreme. As the callers discuss whether Supreme is heroic or not, we see Supreme stop a building from collapsing on a little girl. 


And Supreme being Supreme, he's pretty much an ass about it. Balthazar of the police force shows up, but Supreme isn't having it and leaps (since he still can't fly) off. 


We cut to a farm, like the one that Supreme's pod landed in a couple issues earlier and now there's a glowing orb. One of the scientists checking it out collapses and they bring him in for medical attention.

We cut back to Supreme, hanging out in a diner, when a man in a trench coat shows up saying that Supreme should remember him. (And it's obviously a big deal because his trench coat is given a double page spread.) 

 


I get the sense that Stephenson thought he was making his own Constantine, but this guy has no personality beyond the trench coat, and even the trench coat seems a little empty.

The guy, Tarryn Beckett, says that he's trapped on this world too and leads Supreme to a warehouse. They break in but find a giant robot, which I guess is called "The Wall" if the cover is to be taken at face value. 


As Supreme fights the robot, Old Bearded Supreme sneaks up from behind as Supreme gets knocked out.


Back on regular Earth, Kid Supreme is back to being a guy and returns to see Original Kid Supreme--also a guy--where he finds out that Probe has left. They talk about how she probably wants to stay a woman and not revert to Val-En's body. But then Probe shows up and she is still a woman (albeit she appears drawn by someone who has never seen a woman's body in real life). 


And that's where it ends. Okay, well one issue closer to the end of this run, I guess.