Contents:
Supreme #41
Supreme #42
Supreme #43
Supreme #44
Supreme #45
Supreme #46
Supreme #47
Supreme #48
Supreme #49
Supreme #50
Supreme #51
Supreme #52A
Supreme #52B
Judgment Day Sourcebook
Judgment Day Alpha
Judgment Day Omega
Judgment Day Final Judgment
Judgment Day: Aftermath
Supreme #53
Supreme #54
Supreme #55
Supreme #56
Supreme: The Return #1
Supreme: The Return #2
Supreme: The Return #3
Supreme: The Return #4
Supreme: The Return #5
Supreme: The Return #6
Awesome Holiday Special #1
Youngblood #1+
Youngblood #1
Youngblood #2
Awesome Adventures#1/Youngblood #3
Youngblood #4
Youngblood #5
Youngblood #6
Youngblood #7
Youngblood #8
Youngblood #9
Youngblood #10
Youngblood #11
Youngblood #12
Glory #0 (Awesome)
Glory #1
Glory #2
Supreme #63
Supreme #41
i) SUPERMAN (1st series) # 1 for the pose and backdrop
ii) various 1940's and 1950's DC comics for the "Complete in this issue... see xxxxx" format
INSIDE FRONT COVER:
i) layout seems 1960's-ish to me, but I can't quote any actual example
ii) "proudly presented by" smacks of the "Stan Lee Proudly Presents" label used by all Marvels for decades
Page 1: Supreme returns to Earth from space. He sees the planet as two overlapping images, “like a double-exposed photograph.” This image, along with the ghostly shadows of the people and cars on the street (superimposing images of “who they are and who they might have been”) on pages 2 and 3, is strongly reminiscent of the early stages of DC’s 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, in particular Crisis on Infinite Earths #4-#5, when several alternate worlds began to overlap.
Page 2: Supreme uses his “micro-sight” for the first time. This is another name for microscopic vision, a sensory power Superman first used in Action Comics #24 (1940) that allows him to see objects smaller than are visible through the most powerful microscopes. Supreme did not have this power prior to this issue.
Page 3: This is the first glimpse of two of the many alternate Supremes that we will shortly meet, Sister Supreme and Superion. Sister Supreme’s exclamation, “Jeepers H. Christmas!” is reminiscent of the favorite phrase of Marvel’s seventies hero Luke Cage (the Hero for Hire, later known as Power Man): “Sweet Christmas!”
Page 4: Here we see Superion (left) and Sister Supreme (right) in full view. Superion’s visor and his reference on page 3 to “the text display on [his] hyper-visor” suggest that he is a high-tech futuristic version of Supreme.
Superman had many futuristic counterparts, although there was not a black version of Superman until the introduction of John Henry Irons (Steel) in 1993's “Reign of the Supermen” storyline. It is worth noting that in the early eighties Marvel Comics introduced a black female Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), who later became a member of the Avengers.
Sister Supreme, with her Afro and dialog style, is reminiscent of seventies “blaxploitation” characters like Foxy Brown (played by actress Pam Grier) and of Marvel’s Luke Cage. She could be an homage, in part, to the Lois Lane "I Am Curious Black" thing, and the whole "relevance" period in '70s DC comics in general. (Oh, and to Captain Marvel over at Marvel, who was a black woman, when the character name formerly belonged to a white man.)
"I pity the fool" is a catchphrase of African-American tough-guy actor Mr. T, known for his roles in the film 'Rocky III' (in which the catchphrase originated) and the TV series 'The A-Team'.
In addition to Son of Supreme and Sister Supreme, we also see Original Supreme, described later in this issue as the first version of Supreme to come into existence (and thus an analog of the early “Golden Age” Superman). His posture suggests that he is leaping rather than flying under his own power; we will learn later that Original Supreme, like Superman in his early adventures, cannot fly.
Pages 5-6: One of the strangest of the alternate Supremes makes his appearance here, Squeak the Supremouse, who derives his powers from eating “Supremium Stilton.” Squeak’s most obvious inspiration is Mighty Mouse, the Terrytoons character who debuted in the theatrical animated short The Wreck of the Hesperus in 1944. Mighty Mouse was preceded by Supermouse, a similar character produced by the same Terrytoons artists who appeared in seven animated shorts in 1942-1943. Supermouse, who was modeled closely on Superman (for example, he had a blue and red costume rather than Mighty Mouse’s red and yellow suit), was replaced by the slightly less derivative Mighty Mouse, possibly out of fear of legal action by Superman’s publisher, National, which had already filed copyright infringement suits against several other publishers, most famously Fawcett Comics, the publisher of Captain Marvel. Supermouse, like Supremouse, gained his powers by eating super-cheese. A very similar but unrelated Supermouse character appeared in Standard Publishing’s Coo-Coo Comics around the same time; in 1948 he received his own title, which survived until 1958.
If you don't think only in terms of mice, it may be a tip of the hat to any of the SA stories that featured super-animals. Jim Allan notes that there was also a Supermouse character and Captain Marvel had a spin off called Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. Marvel had Super Rabbit. Plus, DC had one-page strips about Superturtle. There was also Super Duck who apparently in his first appearances had super powers but this was soon dropped for some reason. He became just a normal funny animal character with no powers despite his name but was a popular character in comics for years. The Flash also had an animal counterpart The Terrific Whatzat.
Page 7: The swirling space warp through which the various Supremes travel to reach the Supremacy bears a certain resemblance to the Boom Tube, the method of intergalactic (and interdimensional) travel used by the denizens of Apokolips and New Genesis in Jack Kirby’s early seventies “Fourth World” cycle (contained in the series New Gods, Forever People, Jimmy Olsen, and Mister Miracle).
Panel 3: Another African-American actor's catchphrase: This time comic actor Mantan Moreland, whose schtick in countless films of the 1930s was the hero's assistant who fled at the first sign of danger with a cry of "Feets, do your stuff!"
Page 8: Note that the architecture of the golden citadel seems strongly influenced by both the work of Jack Kirby (particularly in the fins and antennae at the city’s base) and by the cover artwork of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged (the figure of Supreme holding an enormous white globe is particularly reminiscent of the image of Atlas with the world on his shoulders).
Chapter title is "Land of a Thousand Supremes" - possibly a reference to one of a few stories. Either the great Jimmy Olsen story "World of 1,000 Olsens" from JIMMY OLSEN #105, where he encountered android doubles of himself from all his weirder adventures (e.g., Wolfboy Olsen, Fat Olsen, Elastic Lad, Giant Turtle Boy Olsen, etc.). It's a ludicrous, ridiculous, thoroughly-entertaining JO story of the mid-to-late 60's. A porcupine Olsen! A wolf-boy Olsen! A turtle-Olsen! It also could be "The World of Doomed Olsens!", which appeared in JIMMY OLSEN #72. It's apparently (and rightfully) considered an unofficial part of the ADVENTURE canon, since it's been reprinted in both the Adventure LSH-digest run and in LSH Archives. Finally, it also could be the story in Action 233 (1957) entitled "Land of A Million Supermen" and reprinted in Superman 187. In this story the dictator of Borgonia forces everyone in his country to wear a Superman uniform with the S on the cape being the wrong color. This way if the real Superman ever tries to sneak into the country he'd be able to identify him!
Page 9: We learn that Original Supreme was the first Supreme to arrive in the Supremacy after being “revised.” Superion also mentions that Original Supreme can’t fly.
Page 10: Supreme meets Macrosupreme, a giant stone Supreme. Macrosupreme, who complains that his existence lasted “one short month, with not even a second appearance!” may have been inspired by a story entitled “The Skyscraper Superman” in Action Comics #325 (1965), in which Superman was temporarily stripped of his powers and transformed him into a towering giant.
Macrosupreme also warns Supreme of Darius Dax, Supreme’s arch-nemesis, who is a counterpart of Lex Luthor, Superman’s arch-enemy. In early issues of Supreme, Liefeld had a Luthor-like mad scientist who had been Supreme's "ultimate nemesis" in the 40's. His name was Zachariah Grizlok, which is important to note in that it is not alliterative and it in no way sounds like "Darius Dax." Moore seems to have changed the "ultimate nemesis" to an alliterative name as a conscious choice. This may be more of a commentary on the alliterative names in the Superman mythos in general than a straight one-on-one comparison.
Page 11: Supreme is introduced to Supreme the Fifth, “the Supreme Supreme!” who is apparently modeled after Superman as he was portrayed between 1958 and 1968. During this period Superman was portrayed as having nearly godlike powers: he was capable of moving planets with relative ease. The crown may be inspired by a two-part story from Action Comics #311-#312 (1964), in which Superman forced the United Nations to proclaim him king of Earth as part of an elaborate ruse to defeat an alien invader.
Page 12: Original Supreme's comment about "I don't know if my SINGLE BOUNDS are getting shorter or the tall buildings are getting bigger" not only clears up any doubt (if there was any left) about who he's supposed to be, but also echoes the sentiments that the Golden Age Superman did in those wonderful 1970's issues of ALL-STAR COMICS where Kal-L was featured as the Elder Statesman of Superheroes. And of course it's a reference to the Superman TV series intro.
Supremarch laughs at his older counterpart's comment about the tall buildings, reminding us that once upon a time characters actually said cute, funny things and other characters laughed at them... they didn't try to "one up" them, or put them down, or steal the spotlight back - they just laughed! There's some debate about whether Bennett is drawing Original Supreme in the style of the late Mike Parobeck, who was one of the modern masters of "bright" hero comics such as Batman Adventures, JSA, and The Fly, or just drawing as an homage to Golden Age style, which Parobeck imitated to an extent.
Page 13: Original Supreme recounts his origins as the son of Jack and Joanne Crane of the town of Littlehaven. In the earliest version of Superman’s origin the young Kryptonian orphan who would become Superman was found by “a passing motorist” and apparently raised in an orphanage (Action Comics #1, 1938). His foster parents, Jonathan and Martha (or, originally, John and Mary?) Kent, were first mentioned in the revised version of Superman’s origin that appeared in Superman #1 in 1939.
Superman’s childhood hometown eventually was established as the town of Smallville. In recent years, Smallville (whose precise location previously was never revealed) was established as being in Kansas.
Panel 1: Original Supreme says that he was born in 1920. Superman #181 (1965) gave the same date for Superman’s birth, although Superman appeared older than 18 when he made his debut in 1938.
Panel 2: As we’ll discover next issue, the current Supreme, like Original Supreme, gained his powers by being exposed to radiation; unlike Superman or Supreme the Fifth, he was not an extraterrestrial. The “belt buckle” found by Original Supreme calls to mind the gimmick of forties heroine Liberty Belle, who had a belt buckle made of a piece of the Liberty Bell; when her friend Tom Revere rang the bell in Philadelphia it caused a sympathetic vibration in Belle’s buckle and triggered a burst of adrenaline. Liberty Belle first appeared in Boy Commandos #1 (1943) and later starred in DC’s eighties series All-Star Squadron, set in 1942. This origin also seems closer to Billy Batson/Captain Marvel, or Donald Blake/Thor... Even the time-period is wrong for Superman, since the boy is 10, making it 1930 or 1931. However, in contrast to the "Darius Dax" point above, Supreme is still Ethan Crane. The most recent version of Supreme's origin is in the Legend of Supreme mini, by Giffen and Fleming, if you're curious. It was a good, though very dark, story which was definitely tossed out of continuity on the last few pages of #41.
Panel 3: In describing his powers, though, he sounds like Kal-L: "I could leap over buildings, lift a car or bounce live ammo off my chest!" The "lift a car" bit is a reference to the cover of ACTION #1. In his secret identity as Ethan Crane, Original Supreme was a newspaper reporter like Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent.
Original Supreme’s hometown was Omega City. Superman makes his home in Metropolis, a fictional east coast city. In Superman’s earliest adventures the city’s architecture and geography were closely based on Joe Shuster’s one-time home of Toronto; the name was inspired by Fritz Lang’s classic 1926 silent film Metropolis, about a city of the future. Later artists based Metropolis on New York City, particularly Manhattan. In recent years, Metropolis, New York, and Gotham City (also originally based on New York) have been established as separate entities with their own distinctive geography, although DC remains reluctant to specify the exact locations of Metropolis and Gotham.
Panel 5: Original Supreme says that when he was written out in 1941 “everything connected” with him appeared in limbo with him, including the Daily Record building in which he’d worked. The Daily Record corresponds to the Daily Star, the newspaper for which Clark Kent and Lois Lane worked in their earliest adventures in 1938-1941.
The year 1941 corresponds to a period of extensive change in Superman’s development. It was at this time that the newspaper Clark Kent worked for changed from the Daily Star to the Daily Planet and his original editor, George Taylor, was replaced by Perry White. Perry debuted in the second episode of Mutual Radio Network’s The Adventures of Superman, a radio serial that began in February 1940; Perry was added to the comic book cast later that year in Superman #7. 1941 also marked the introduction of Superman’s young friend Jimmy Olsen, who first appeared in Superman #13 (although a similar-looking but unnamed copyboy appeared in Action Comics #6, which recent sources have cited as Jimmy’s real first appearance). It was also during this period that Superman gradually gained the power of flight, rather than simply the ability to make tremendous leaps.
Original Supreme says that the second revised Supreme appeared in 1945. This second revision may be related to the introduction of Superboy in 1945. In early versions of Superman’s origin he did not assume his costumed identity until he was an adult, but the Superboy strip that debuted in More Fun Comics #101 showed him adopting his colorful costume as a very young boy, albeit with all the powers he would possess as an adult. As established in John Byrne’s 1986 revision, the current version of Superman did not develop his powers until he was almost an adult, and had no career as Superboy.
Panel 6: Original Supreme notes that all the later Supremes were more powerful than he. Superman’s powers increased rapidly in the forties, quickly making him much stronger than he was in his earliest appearances.
Supreme the Fifth describes himself as the “last son of the exploded planet Supron” just as Superman was the last son of the planet Krypton. Superman’s home planet was not named in the first brief account of Superman’s origin which appeared in Action Comics #1 (1938); it was first described in the opening episode of the newspaper comic strip in January 1939. In later years, an extensive body of lore about Krypton’s geography, culture, and history appeared in the Superman and Superboy strips and in a backup series entitled “The Fabulous World of Krypton.”
As we see in the next issue of Supreme, the current Supreme is a human transformed by a Supremium meteor and not an extraterrestrial. His revision date may be symbolic of the transfer of the editorship of the Superman books from Mort Weisinger, the sometimes tyrannical editor who had shaped Superman’s mythos since 1945. Control of Superboy, Action Comics, and Adventure Comics passed to Murray Boltinoff in 1968 and editorship of Superman and was transferred to Julius Schwartz in 1971. Beginning in Superman #233, Schwartz and writer Denny O’Neil made an effort to modernize Superman by reducing his powers and removing many of the trappings of the past fifteen years.
Page 14: Fifties Supreme, who appears on page 17, apparently distinguishes the fifties Superman who was drawn primarily by artist Wayne Boring from that of artist Curt Swan, who took over in 1958 and remained Superman’s primary artist until 1982. Swan, who passed away in 1996, is credited with establishing a visual design for Superman that, with some minor variation, remains the standard today.
The three Sergeants Supreme are similar to the three Lieutenant Marvels, Tall Billy, Fat Billy, and Hill Billy, minor supporting characters in the Fawcett Comics Captain Marvel comics of the forties; they first appeared in Whiz Comics #21 (1941). The original Captain Marvel, who debuted in Whiz Comics #2 (1940), was a young boy named Billy Batson who transformed himself into the adult superhero Captain Marvel by saying the magic word “Shazam;” he was one of the most popular characters of the forties and Superman’s principal sales rival. The Lieutenant Marvels were three other youngsters, each also named Billy Batson, who discovered that they also could become super-powered by saying Billy’s magic word, forming a sort of Marvel auxiliary corps. In 1972 they, along with Captain Marvel and his other supporting characters, were acquired by DC Comics. Their last appearance was in Crisis on Infinite Earths; they do not exist in DC’s current Power of Shazam series. The Sergeants Supreme appear next in the second story in issue #52A.
Page 15: Sirius the Stallion Supreme is an analog of Comet the Super-Horse, a flying, super-powered horse who was the pet of Superman’s cousin Supergirl in the sixties. Comet was a member of the Legion of Super-Pets, an organization of heroic super-powered animals based in the 30th century. Comet, who debuted in Adventure Comics #293 (1962), once was a centaur who was cursed by an evil wizard to become a real horse, albeit endowed with magical powers. He was able to temporarily transform himself into a human whenever he was in sight of a comet. By the eighties, the original Comet was all but forgotten, but a new Comet (with a very different origin) debuted in 1998 in the current Supergirl series (Supergirl (3rd series) #19).
Original Supreme's call of “Up! Up and over!“ is a riff on "Up, up, and away" Superman’s trademark cry from the Adventures of Superman radio series. Contrary to popular belief, Superman very rarely used this exclamation in the comics; it was adopted by the radio show, along with the accompanying sound effects, to indicate when Superman took flight.
Page 17:
Panel 1: The character in the right foreground clapping is not named, but his appearance is reminiscent of the seventies work of Jack Kirby on his so-called “Fourth World” series. The rocky fellow at the left foreground bears a striking resemblance to Ben Grimm, the Thing, a member of Marvel’s Fantastic Four.
Panel 2: Supremes White and Gold are clearly inspired by a classic 1963 Imaginary Story entitled “The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue“ (Superman #162), in which an experiment involving Kryptonite split Superman into two identical Supermen distinguished only by their costumes. The two Supermen pooled their resources and set out to complete the various tasks Superman had been unable to accomplish alone, including restoring the planet Krypton and wiping out war, crime, and famine on Earth.
Imaginary Stories were the brainchild of Superman editor Mort Weisinger in the early sixties; they were first introduced in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, but soon appeared in the regular Superman strip as well. These stories, which appeared frequently until 1971, speculated what would happen if Superman were to die, marry, or retire, or what would have resulted if important events had happened differently (e.g., if Krypton had never exploded). In the seventies Marvel Comics launched an ongoing series with a similar premise entitled What If? DC continues to explore similar concepts in the nineties under the Elseworlds banner.
Fifties Supreme is seen in the grips of a violet Supremium transformation, just as Superman of that era was often transformed by red Kryptonite.
Kryptonite, the generic term for radioactive fragments of the planet Krypton that are harmful to Superman (and other Kryptonian survivors), was first introduced in the Adventures of Superman radio series in 1943. Its conception dates back to an unpublished Superman story by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster from 1939 or 1940 that introduced a similar substance called “k-metal,” although Kryptonite did not appear in the comic books until 1949 (Superman #61). It was colored red in its initial comic book appearance, although this may have been a printing error (it was described as green in the radio show and was green in all subsequent comic stories).
In the late fifties and early sixties it was established that there were several varieties of Kryptonite, including green Kryptonite, which sapped Superman’s strength and could eventually kill him, and red Kryptonite, created when a hail of green Kryptonite meteors passed through a “strange cosmic cloud,” which was not lethal but caused Superman to experience bizarre (though thankfully temporary) changes, such as losing his super-powers on half of his body, becoming a giant ant, or splitting Clark Kent and Superman into two separate individuals. Red Kryptonite was introduced in two 1958 Superboy stories (Adventure Comics #252 and #255) and quickly became a staple gimmick of the Superman series. In the current continuity, the only known type of Kryptonite is the lethal green variety, although in Superman (2nd series) #49-#50 (1990) Superman was temporarily stripped of his powers by a piece of ersatz red Kryptonite created by Mr. Mxyzptlk; this “red-K” was empowered by Mxyzptlk’s magic and was not actually Kryptonite.
Fifties Supreme tells Supreme the lion-head transformation will wear off in 24 hours; red Kryptonite effects generally lasted 48 hours, although there were samples whose effects lasted for a shorter or longer period.
Superman was transformed into a similar humanoid lion in Action Comics #243 (1958), although the change was caused by a potent “evolutionary serum” administered by a descendant of the sorceress Circe and not by red-K.
Page 18:
Panel 1: Here we see Supreme’s ancillary characters, Lady Supreme and Kid Supreme, who had their own Image/Maximum Press titles. Kid Supreme is modeled after the current version of Superboy, who is an imperfect clone of Superman. Lady Supreme has no direct equivalent in the current Superman mythos; in previous years, there was a Superwoman (Kristen Wells, a historian from the 28th Century introduced in Elliot S! Maggin’s 1981 prose novel Miracle Monday), but her powers were different from Superman’s.
Panel 2: Kid Supreme’s fiancée Sally Supreme is reminiscent of Supergirl, although Supergirl’s most direct analog is Suprema, who will appear in issue #46. Supergirl was not introduced until the late fifties, although DC trademarked the name as early as 1945. Fawcett Comics, however, introduced a female version of Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, in 1942; her first appearance was in Captain Marvel Adventures #18.
Panel 3: In the background, we see Fat Supreme and what appears to be a rhino-Supreme, perhaps more violet Supremium transformations. Both will be seen again in the second story in issue #52A.
In the background, there's a fat Supreme with a moustache, carrying a tall lump of rock. His appearance (body shape, hairstyle, clothing, and rock) echoes that of Obelix, the stalwart sidekick of the 'Asterix' comics.
Panel 4: In the background behind Supreme and Supreme the Fifth we see the following characters:
- Far left: a dark-haired female Supreme with a red headband who may be another Suprema or Lady Supreme variant.
- Left: a long-necked dinosaur Supreme, perhaps another violet Supremium transformation.
- Far right: another male Supreme variant, bald except for a Mohawk hairdo. The Mohawk is reminiscent of Gladiator, the leader of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard in the Marvel universe. The Imperial Guard was designed by artist Dave Cockrum as a Marvel version of DC’s Legion of Superheroes; in the eighties John Byrne established Gladiator as a counterpart of Superman possessing many of Superman’s powers.
Panels 1-2: Supreme-of-the-Future, with his enormous head apparently denoting advanced intelligence, closely resembles a guise Superman adopted in Action Comics #256 (1959), when he posed as Ultra Superman from the year 100,000. He also resembles the 30th century hero Evolvo Lad, a member of the Heroes of Lallor, who could evolve himself to gain super-intelligence at the cost of becoming physically frail. Supreme-of-the-Future reappears in the second story in issue #52A, although in that story he inexplicably has green skin.
Panel 3: At the left we see one of the Sergeant Supremes and a bald Supreme with blank white eyes and a pointed head; it is unclear if this is an alien Supreme or another violet Supremium transformation, but he resembles the Coneheads, alien characters who appeared on Saturday Night Live in the seventies.
Page 20: The "fly by" of Supremes is way cool, and reminiscent of those old "keep 'em flying, boys!" posters from World War Two (intentionally so, I'm sure). Besides the fly-by of alternate Supremes we get our first glimpse of Supreme’s supporting cast, all of whom are directly analogs of Superman’s friends:
- Diana Dane = Lois Lane, girl reporter and Superman’s long-time love interest
- Judy Jordan = Lana Lang, Clark Kent’s childhood sweetheart from Smallville
- Billy Friday = Jimmy Olsen, cub reporter and Superman’s pal
- Lucas Tate = Perry White, Clark Kent’s editor at the Daily Planet.
Page 22: As Ethan Crane, Supreme enters his new continuity. Instead of a newspaper reporter, he’s a comic book artist for Dazzle Comics. Ethan draws a series called Omniman, who we’ll soon see is an analog of Supreme himself. Lucas Tate is his editor and Diana Dane writes Warrior Woman, a comic book version of Wonder Woman (whose “real” analog in Supreme’s world is the heroine Glory). Note that Ethan, like Clark Kent, wears round-rimmed glasses.
Page 23:
Panel 2: The cab driver, with his long dark hair, bears a certain resemblance to Alan Moore himself.
Panel 3: The headline of the newspaper seen through the window refers to Youngblood, another superhero team created and owned by Rob Liefeld. Alan Moore later started a new Youngblood series as a spin-off of his work on Supreme and the Judgment Day mini-series.
Panels 4 and 6: Ethan Crane’s address is shown to be 202 West Park, Apartment 5A. Clark Kent resided in similar apartment buildings; in the comics, he lived at 344 Clinton Street, Apartment 3-B, while in the fifties television series he lived at the Standish Arms, Apartment 5-H.
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Panel 3: In his apartment, Ethan Crane discovers his Supreme costumes in a hidden closet. Clark Kent had a similar secret closet in his apartment which contained his Superman uniform.
Panel 5: The photograph on Ethan’s drawing board is of himself and his parents in front of the Littlehaven General Store. Superman’s foster parents, the Kents, were originally farmers but later moved into a house in Smallville, where Jonathan Kent opened a general store. In current Superman continuity, the Kents are still farmers living outside of Smallville.
Supreme #42
Panel 1: This is the first appearance of this continuity’s version of Supreme’s pal Billy Friday, shown here as the writer of Omniman. Unlike Superman’s impetuous but good-natured pal Jimmy Olsen, on whom he is loosely based, Billy is an arrogant, pompous elitist.
Panels 1-2: The comic book Ethan and Billy work on, Omniman (who is also an analog of Superman), apparently has his own version of Supergirl, called Omnigirl. Ethan notes that Diana Dane is planning to write a backup feature starring Omnigirl; Supergirl had a similar long-running strip in Action Comics beginning in Action Comics #253 (1959).
Panel 3: Ethan’s blithe diary entry about saving a crashing airliner (“something came up on my other job that needed attending to”) is very similar in tone to the story “In Dreams” in Kurt Busiek’s Astro City #1 (1996), which starred Samaritan, another analog of Superman.
Page 2:
Note the clever integration of the title of the story, “Secret Origins,” into the panel as a street sign. This is a visual trick established by Will Eisner in his seminal forties series The Spirit that is often repeated by modern comic creators as a conscious homage to Eisner.
We learn here that Supreme, like Superman prior to the 1986 revision, had adventures as a super-powered youngster. As a boy, he was called Kid Supreme.
The billboard shown here is very similar to a sign that hung on the Smallville water tower announcing that Smallville was Superboy’s hometown.
Page 3:
Panels 5-6: The crater Ethan Crane finds in the woods is the spot where a Supremium meteor crashed years earlier, as we’ll shortly see.
Page 4:
Here we are presented with the first of what will be a recurring series of flashback stories intended to evoke the simpler styles of earlier eras.
Panel 2: Like Superboy, who had his dog Krypto, the young Ethan Crane had a dog, Radar. Unlike Krypto, Radar started out as an ordinary dog. Krypto, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #210 (1955), was young Kal-El’s puppy on Krypton. Superman’s father Jor-El launched Krypto into space to test the prototype of the rocket which would later carry Kal-El to Earth. Krypto’s ship survived the destruction of Krypton and eventually passed through the “space warp” created by Kal-El’s rocket. When the ship arrived in our solar system, Krypto gained super-powers like Superman’s. Krypto later tracked down his one-time master, who was now living in Smallville. Superboy and Krypto eventually devised a disguise to protect Krypto’s “secret identity.” They applied a wood stain to the fur on his back so he could masquerade as Clark Kent’s dog; Krypto could lick off the stain at super-speed when he needed to leap into action as Krypto the Superdog.
Panel 3: Ethan Crane's parents’ names are Joe and Joanne. The first names of Clark Kent’s adoptive parents changed several times during the forties; the 1942 prose Superman novel written by George Lowther gives them the names Sarah and Eben Kent, while in the comics they were briefly called John and Mary. It was not until 1951 (in Action Comics #158 and Superboy #12) when their names were established as Jonathan and Martha, which they remain today.
Since this story suggests that Ethan was a normal boy before being exposed to Supremium, rather than an extraterrestrial like Superman, it is interesting that Joe and Joanne are established as his adoptive rather than biological parents. This may have been intended as foreshadowing of a plot development that has not come to fruition in the stories published to date.
Page 5:
Unlike Superman (or the Supreme the Fifth as seen last issue), whose powers came from his extraterrestrial origins, Ethan was an ordinary boy transformed by the Supremium meteor. This is reminiscent of Ultra-Man, the evil Superman of Earth-Three (a parallel world introduced in Justice League of America #29), who gained new powers each time he was exposed to Kryptonite. Other characters to receive their powers in a similar fashion are the villain Vandal Savage and his nemesis the Immortal Man, two Cro-Magnons made immortal by a radioactive meteorite, and the Golden Age Green Lantern, whose power ring and lantern were made from a piece of a mysterious green meteorite called the Starheart.
The meteor also calls to mind the fictional history created in the seventies by author Philip José Farmer in his biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage (Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life). According to Farmer, the crash of a meteorite in Wold Newton, England in the year 1795 irradiated several passing coaches carrying noblemen and their wives. The descendants of those men became the leading (fictional) heroes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger (of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World), Tarzan, Doc Savage, the Shadow, and others.
The origins of the Supremium meteor itself are revealed in issue #52B. That issue also establishes the year Ethan was exposed to Supremium (and thus the date of this flashback story) as 1925.
Before John Byrne’s revision of Superman in 1986, most Kryptonite was portrayed as being completely harmless to ordinary humans; only a rare isotope of green Kryptonite could hurt non-Kryptonians. In the current continuity (as first shown in Action Comics #600), Kryptonite affects Superman more severely than humans, but its radiation is also quite harmful to ordinary people.
The weird, Bizarro-like dialogue for young Ethan is typical of the way small children were depicted in the Superman comics of the fifties and sixties. In his 1981 prose novel Miracle Monday, writer Elliot S. Maggin suggested that the broken sentences were characteristic of young Clark Kent’s rapid learning of the English language: owing to his superb memory, he memorized vocabulary words much more quickly than he learned the rules of grammar.
Page 6: Professor Wells is modeled on Professor Phineas Potter, a resident of Smallville and the uncle of Superboy’s childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. Professor Potter’s out-of-control inventions were the source of many of Superboy’s adventures. Moore’s character was presumably named after seminal science fiction author H.G. Wells, although according to issue #46, his first name is Erwin.
Page 7: Ethan begins to manifest his superhuman powers, which include x-ray vision (“Sight Supreme”), super-strength, and the ability to fly. This sequence is similar to the scenes of a young Clark Kent discovering his powers in various versions of Superman’s origins.
Page 8:
Panel 1: In the earliest Superboy stories, beginning with his first appearance in More Fun Comics #101 (1945), Superboy was depicted as an eight year-old boy. Beginning in Superboy #8 (1950), a “Superbaby” strip was added that showed him performing this type of super-feat at an even younger age. Supreme is shown here as having a similar career as “Supremite.”
Panel 3: Before his 1986 revision, Superman’s costume originally was created as a play-suit by Martha Kent, who wove the suit from the fabric of three colorful blankets in which the baby Kal-El had been wrapped aboard his rocket ship. Since the fabric was from Krypton, it became invulnerable on Earth just as did Superman. Although Martha was unable to cut the indestructible fabric, she was able to unravel loose threads after persuading young Clark to weaken them with the heat of his x-ray vision, thus enabling Martha to weave them into the playsuit. The suit stretched as Superman grew older; the costume he wore as an adult was actually the same as the one he wore as a child. Since Supreme isn’t from another planet, it’s instead established that little Ethan’s clothes also were affected by the Supremium radiation, making his costume similarly indestructible.
In current continuity, Superman’s uniform, except for the cape, is protected by the same “bio-electric aura” that makes Superman impervious to bullets, preventing it from being easily ripped or torn (as first established in Man of Steel #2). The costume itself has no special properties. It was designed by Jonathan and Martha Kent, and its insignia was based on an Indian symbol (shown in the 1997-1998 mini-series The Kents).
Panels 4-5: We see here that Radar has developed powers similar to Ethan’s, just as Superboy’s dog Krypto gained super-powers like Superboy’s in Earth’s environment.
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Panel 1: Kid Supreme’s use of hair dye to disguise himself in his heroic identity is at least a slight step up from Clark Kent’s glasses, I suppose. Steve Ditko’s hero the Question (introduced as a backup feature in Charleton Comics’ Blue Beetle series in 1967 and now part of the DC lineup) also altered his hair color as part of his disguise, as does the DC heroine the Black Canary, although she uses a blond wig to cover her black hair, rather than dye.
Panel 2: The passerby’s cry, “Look up there in the sky! Is it an eagle? Is it an autogyro? No! It’s Kid Supreme, the Lad of Laurels!” is obviously a play on the classic line, “Look, up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Superman!” which was part of the opening for the Adventures of Superman radio series and of the long-running television series that followed it. The term “Lad of Laurels” is analogous to “Boy of Steel,” the most common nickname applied to Superboy. An autogyro (or autogiro) is a rotary-wing aircraft using a conventional propeller for forward thrust and an unpowered free-rotating rotor for lift; invented in the early twenties, it was the ancestor of the helicopter.
Panel 3: Kid Supreme’s secret workshop under the Crane house, complete with robot decoys of himself, is very similar to the laboratory Superboy maintained under the Kents’ house in Smallville. Superboy also employed a secret tunnel so that he could enter and leave the house without being seen.
Panel 5: Here we’re introduced to Judy Jordan, Ethan Crane’s childhood sweetheart. Judy is the counterpart of Superman’s childhood sweetheart Lana Lang, who first appeared in Superboy #10 (1950). Like Lois Lane, Lana was infatuated with Superboy and somewhat contemptuous of Clark Kent, although she often suspected Clark and Superboy were the same person. As an adult, Lana eventually moved to Metropolis, joining the cast of the Superman series in Superman #78 (1952) as a rival for Lois Lane. She later became Clark Kent’s co-anchor on the WGBS evening news. In current continuity, Clark revealed his powers to Lana shortly before leaving for Metropolis, making her one of the few people aware of his dual identity. She recently married another childhood friend, Pete Ross, and currently lives in Smallville (Action Comics #700).
Panel 6: This is our first glimpse of a young Darius Dax, the counterpart of Superman’s arch-enemy Lex Luthor.
In Luthor’s earliest appearances in 1940, he and Superman first met as adults and Luthor had a full head of red hair. However, beginning in 1960, Luthor was established as having met Superboy while both men were teenagers, turning to crime after losing all his hair in an accident he blamed on the Boy of Steel (first shown in Adventure Comics #271). In the eighties the bald Lex Luthor was established as the Luthor of Earth-One (home of the seventies and eighties version of Superman), while the redheaded Luthor (who was given the first name Alexei in DC Comics Presents Annual #1) was described as existing on the parallel world of Earth-Two, the home of the Golden Age version of Superman. Alexei Luthor was slain by Brainiac in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9 (1985). The current version of Luthor is not a mad scientist but a ruthless businessman who conceals his illegal activities behind a respectable front; he bears a greater resemblance to the Marvel villain Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, than to his earlier comic book incarnations.
Darius Dax is an amalgam of both the Earth-One and Earth-Two Luthors; physically, he is the spitting image of Alexei Luthor, but his early clashes with Kid Supreme are reminiscent of the Earth-One Lex Luthor.
The villain Master Meteor is described in issue #51 as an extraterrestrial collector of rare meteorites who menaced Kid Supreme; he later encountered the adult Supreme as the Supremium Man. He may be based on the Kryptonite Kid, an alien boy whose skin emitted Kryptonite radiation, who fought Superboy and Krypto in Superboy #83 (1960) and #99 (1962). The Kryptonite Kid later became the Kryptonite Man, an enemy of Superman. He was killed by Krypto the Superdog in Alan Moore’s 1986 Imaginary Story “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” (Action Comics #583).
Korgo the Space-Bully was a teenage villain that Supreme battled in his youth; as an adult, he is known as Korgo the Space-Tyrant. At this point in the story, he is imprisoned in Supreme’s Hell of Mirrors, as we will see in issue #43.
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Panel 1: Ethan Crane announces his intentions to leave Littlehaven. In most accounts of Superman’s origins prior to 1986, Clark Kent did not leave Smallville until his parents died, around the time Clark turned 18. In current continuity, the Kents are still alive. Similarly, Ethan Crane’s parents apparently survived for some years after Ethan left Littlehaven, although issue #49 reveals that they died sometime before Supreme’s departure from Earth in 1969.
Panel 2: This is Ethan’s adoptive sister Sally Crane, who later was transformed into Suprema, the counterpart of Supergirl, Superman’s cousin from Krypton, the so-called “Girl of Steel.”
In the Silver Age Superman mythos, Supergirl did not arrive on Earth until Action Comics #252 (1959), when Superman was already an adult. Her real name was Kara Zor-El, the daughter of Kal-El’s uncle Zor-El and aunt Allura and a native of Krypton’s Argo City. After Kara arrived on Earth, Superman advised her to hide her existence and helped her to establish the identity of a young orphan girl, Linda Lee. In Action Comics #264, she adopted by Fred and Edna Danvers and moved to the small town of Midvale (1960).
The original Supergirl was killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (1985) and subsequently written out of existence by Superman’s 1986 revision. There is a Supergirl in the current comic books, although she is not from Krypton and does not have the same powers as Superman. The current Supergirl was originally a protoplasmic shape-changer called Matrix from another dimension who was brought to Earth by Superman after all life was wiped out in her home dimension (in Superman (2nd series) #22). Superman left her in the care of his foster parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, while she recovered from her injuries. She has recently become merged with a teenage girl named Linda Danvers. Another version of Supergirl appears in the current Superman animated series; she is Kara In-Zee, the sole survivor of Argo, a planet in the same star-system as Krypton which was knocked out of its orbit by its sister planet’s destruction. Rescued from Argo by Superman, Kara took up residence in Smallville, where she poses as Clark Kent’s cousin. On Earth, Kara has powers nearly identical to Superman’s, but she is less vulnerable than he to Kryptonite.
Panel 5-6: The Citadel Supreme is Supreme’s version of Superman’s remote hideaway, the Fortress of Solitude. Before John Byrne’s 1986 revision, the Fortress of Solitude was located somewhere in the Arctic Circle, carved out of solid rock by Superman. In Action Comics #261 (1960), Superman was shown to have built a Fortress first in space (an installation not unlike the Citadel Supreme) and then in the center of the Earth before finally establishing it in the Arctic. In the current continuity, the Fortress of Solitude, which was created by the Kryptonian artifact called the Eradicator, is located in Antarctica. We will learn more about the Citadel Supreme in issue #43.
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Panel 2: Ethan is shown working with Judy Jordan as a radio announcer. Clark Kent never worked in radio, but Billy Batson, the alter ego of Captain Marvel, was a radio reporter during the forties. Clark Kent did work in television, however: in Superman #233 (1971) Clark Kent became the anchor of the WGBS evening news, later with Lana Lang as his co-anchor. When Superman was revised in 1986, Clark once again became a newspaper reporter (Man of Steel #2), and as of this writing he remains a feature columnist.
The name of the station for which Ethan and Judy worked, K-ZAM, probably is a reference to Captain Marvel’s magic word “Shazam.” Billy Batson worked for station WHIZ, named after Whiz Comics, the series in which he first appeared.
Panel 3: The gray outfit with nametag Darius Dax is wearing is a prison uniform (see also page 15 of issue #47 and page 6 of issue #52A, for instances of him wearing the same outfit actually in prison); apparently he was so keen to take over Omega City and/or kill Supreme that he couldn't take the time to rustle up a change of clothes after his latest prison break. In the Silver Age Superman comics, Lex Luthor was often the same way.
Panel 4: Unlike Clark Kent, Ethan Crane apparently served in World War Two. Clark Kent, like his co-creator Joe Shuster, was declared 4-F for poor eyesight. According to a story in Superman #25 (1943), Clark tried to enlist in the U.S. Army, but during his examination he became so nervous that he accidentally used his X-ray vision to read an eye chart in the next room rather than the one in front of him; he was promptly rejected. Afterwards, he decided that he could do more good “as a free agent” than as a soldier.
Panel 5: Supreme is seen here posing in front of an American flag, with an American eagle perched on his arm. There's a famous image of Superman in a similar pose, originally the cover image of Superman #14 (published in 1942, roughly contemporary with this bit of flashback).
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Now an old woman, Judy Jordan runs the Kid Supreme Museum. There was a similar Superboy Museum in Superman’s hometown of Smallville, with various exhibits commemorating the exploits of Smallville’s most famous “native son.”
Page 13:
Panel 1: Exhibits in visible in the Kid Supreme museum include:
- A Neptunian Flying Saucer
- The Iron Earthworm of Abysius the Pepper Man
- The Growth Gun of Mr. Big
- Korgo the Space Bully’s Power Belt
- A green gauntlet with what appears to be a stopwatch. This resembles the giant golden gauntlet used by the king of an other-dimensional realm to bring Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes to his world in Adventure Comics #375-#376 (1968).
Panel 2: Radar’s first collar, with its red cape, is displayed in the museum. Krypto the Superdog had a very similar cape, emblazoned with the red-and-yellow Superman shield. Krypto’s cape was fashioned from a piece of the same red blanket used to make Superman’s costume, and, like Superman’s costume, was indestructible.
The black spherical object surrounded by cooling fins is not identified, although it seems significant.
Page 14:
The flashback story “The Hoaxers from Beyond History¬“ introduces the League of Infinity, a counterpart of DC’s Legion of Superheroes, an organization of super-powered teenagers in the 30th century. The Legion originally was inspired by the legends of Superboy; they first met the Boy of Steel and inducted him into their ranks in Adventure Comics #247 (1958).
Panel 1: The situation shown in the splash page (Ethan Crane and Supreme as separate entities) is reminiscent of many Superman covers over the years that showed Superman and Clark Kent as separate individuals (e.g., “Clark Kent’s Incredible Delusion” from Superman #174 or “The Real Clark Kent!” from Superman #198).
The Kid Supreme logo shown here is closely based on the original Superboy logo.
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Panel 3: The Tremendoid, the robot Darius Dax uses in this story, is similar to one used by a young Lex Luthor in an alternate reality story in Legion of Superheroes (2nd series) #300 (1983). Luthor used countless robots of various sizes and shapes throughout his villainous career.
Panel 4: Ethan Crane’s dilemma - how to rescue Judy without revealing his secret identity - is the classic problem in countless Superboy and Superman stories. Although Superboy’s powers were virtually limitless, he was often forced to use them in convoluted ways so no one could connect him with Clark Kent, particularly important because some of his friends already suspected his secret identity.
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Panels 1 and 2: Like Superboy’s robot duplicates, which were tough but far from indestructible, Supreme’s Suprematon decoys are not as powerful as their master.
Page 17:
Panel 2: This is Future Girl, a member of the League of Infinity. Because of their ability to travel through time, the League members know Supreme’s secret identity, just as the Legion of Superheroes knew Superboy’s secret identity from historical records (as first seen in their debut appearance in Adventure Comics #247).
Panels 3-4: Future Girl, whose real name is Zayla Zarn, has no direct counterpart in the Legion of Superheroes, but the design of her costume resembles that of Legionnaire Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen of Titan). Saturn Girl’s original costume, worn in her first appearance in Adventure Comics #247, was a similar combination of yellow and green and had a stylized icon of the planet Saturn as a chest emblem. The lines of Future Girl’s uniform more closely resemble Saturn Girl’s second costume, which she first wore in the Legion’s second appearance in Adventure Comics #267 (1959), although that costume was red and white rather than green and yellow.
Future Girl’s power to temporarily freeze time around her is similar to that of Legionnaire Kid Quantum (first seen in Legion of Superheroes (4th series) #33, 1992) and to that of the villain Chronos, the Time-Thief, an enemy of DC’s size-changing hero the Atom.
Panel 4: Future Girl says she is from the 25th century. The Legion of Superheroes exists in the 30th century in the DC universe, although some early stories described it as existing in the 21st century.
Panel 5: The League of Infinity is said to consist of teen heroes from many eras of history who “banded together to fight crime across time!” The members of the Legion of Superheroes, by contrast, were all natives of the 30th Century except for Superboy, Supergirl, and Mon-El (Lar Gand of the planet Daxam, who Superboy once believed to be his older brother).
Here, we meet three other members of the League:
- Giganthro: a white-furred giant from the Miocene epoch; Giganthro’s origins are discussed in greater detail in Judgment Day #2
- Bill Hickok: a cowboy and gunslinger from the American West
- Witch Wench: an enchantress from the 17th century.
Page 18:
Panel 3: Kid Supreme enters the League’s Time Tower. The infinite staircase of time is a novel approach to time travel; the Legion of Superheroes relied on time bubbles and other mechanical time machines. Superboy generally did not need a time machine; he was capable of traveling through time under his own power by exceeding the speed of light, an ability Superman first demonstrated in Superman #48 (1947).
Panels 4-5: We will see this scene from the older Supreme’s perspective in issue #52B.
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Panel 1: Here we see statues of some of the League’s enemies the League of Infamy:
- Dino Man: a fluke of evolution combining the characteristics of humans and dinosaurs; his origin is shown in Judgment Day #2.
- The Tomorrow Tyrant: possibly a counterpart of the Legion of Superheroes’ nemesis the Time Trapper, or of Marvel’s time-traveling villains Kang the Conqueror and Immortus.
- Morganna La Fey: a evil sorceress in the Arthurian cycle who was King Arthur’s half-sister and the mother of Mordred, Arthur’s arch-foe. Her name was originally Morgan Le Fey; it was rendered “Morgana” in the 1981 film Excalibur, in which the character was portrayed by actress Helen Mirren.
The League of Infamy is similar to the Legion of Super Villains, an organization of 30th century evildoers which repeatedly challenged the Legion of Superheroes. The LSV, which first appeared in Superman #147 (1961), initially had three members: Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, and Cosmic King. In later years, it was reorganized several times with many more members.
Panel 2: Witch Wench refers to Kid Supreme as “Boy of Bronze.” This is a play on “Man of Bronze,” a nickname for the thirties pulp hero Doc Savage, although it seems less appropriate for the WASPish Kid Supreme; Doc Savage’s nickname came from his deeply tanned bronze skin.
Doc Savage, who was featured in 181 pulp novels (most of them written by author Lester Dent under the house name “Kenneth Robeson”) from 1933 to 1949, was a hero trained from an early age to exercise the full potential of his mind and body: he was both a physical marvel and a brilliant scientist and inventor with a high-tech arsenal of his own invention. Savage, to whom Street and Smith house ads sometimes referred as “Superman,” was one of the principal influences on the creation of both Superman and Batman.
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Panels 1-2: In the adventures of the Legion of Superheroes (and other superhero comics of the era) members’ faking each others’ powers was a common plot device. In Superboy’s first meeting with the Legion in Adventure Comics #247, for example, he used his powers to imitate those of the three Legionnaires: Cosmic Boy’s magnetism, Lightning Lad’s lightning, and Saturn Girl’s telepathy.
Panel 2: “Kid Achilles, hero of ancient Greece” is another member of the League of Infinity. Achilles was a hero of Greek legend, the son of the goddess Thetis, who was dipped in the river Styx as an infant to make him invulnerable. Because the heel by which she held him did not enter the water, however, that part of his body remained vulnerable, giving rise to the expression “Achilles heel.”
Panel 3: Future Girl identifies Kid Supreme’s native time as 1933. In issue #41, Original Supreme said he was born in 1920. Since Kid Supreme seems to be about 13 years old in this story, we may assume he was also born in or around the same year.
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Panel 6: Kid Supreme wonders if he’ll ever see the League of Infinity again. The Legion of Superheroes was initially a throw-away concept in Superboy’s strip in Adventure Comics, but they eventually became a regular feature, starting with Adventure #300 (1962), and before long made Superboy a supporting character in what was once his own strip.
Page 22: Here we’re introduced to Hilda, Judy Jordan’s granddaughter. As we’ll later see, there’s much more to Hilda than meets the eye.
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Panel 2: Dax’s epitaph is from the poem “Adonais” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 as an elegy to John Keats. The complete stanza reads:
More of the stanza is printed in issue #52A, when we learn the circumstances of Darius Dax’s death in 1968 and the significance of his cryptic epitaph.
Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep
He hath awakened from the dream of life
'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And a mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife
Invulnerable nothings. We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.
(XXXXIX.343 351)
Judy Jordan refers to Supreme’s recent return to Earth. In this continuity, Supreme left Earth to explore the universe in 1969 and has only just returned (coinciding neatly with the entry of the newest Supreme into continuity). The circumstances behind Supreme’s decision to leave are recounted in the flashback story in issue #49.
Panel 3: Ethan claims to be an acquaintance of Supreme, just as Clark Kent often claimed to be a friend of Superman’s.
Panels 3 and 4: Hilda’s innocent crayon drawing will prove very significant later, beginning in issue #50.
Supreme #43
"Obscured by Clouds"
The title of this issue is borrowed from a 1972 French film directed by Barbet Schroeder; the film is best known for its soundtrack by the British rock band Pink Floyd.Page 1:
The issue opens with a page from Omniman, the comic book series drawn by Ethan Crane and written by Billy Friday. This scene, with Omniman ripping out his own heart, is a parody of the “cosmic" writers of the seventies, most notably Jim Starlin, who added a dash of psychedelia to the wild cosmology of the Marvel universe created in the sixties by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. None of the seventies heroes ever ripped out his own heart (although a Japanese anime character called Dark Schneider, hero of the animated series Bastard, did so near the end of his six-episode series), but Starlin’s Adam Warlock ultimately committed suicide to escape his destiny of becoming an interstellar tyrant (Avengers Annual #7, 1977).
In this scene, Billy Friday presents Omniman as an intellectual under attack by the ignorant masses. Omniman alludes to the works of three French authors: Jean Genet (an absurdist writer of the fifties), Isidore Ducasse (an 19th century poet best known for his grotesque, nightmarish epic poem Las Chants de Maldoror (1868) and who is considered one of the progenitors of surrealism), and “Malarme.” The latter is presumably a misspelling of Stephane Mallarme, a 19th century Symbolist poet who rejected objectivity and realism in favor of metaphysics and symbolism. Omniman’s antagonist, the “Great Unwashed,” derives his name from a derogatory term for the masses coined by British orator Edmund Burke in the 18th century and later popularized by Sir Walter Scott.
Page 2:
Moore has clearly positioned Billy Friday as a satire of the “avant garde” British comics authors of the eighties - including Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and Moore himself - who introduced a climate of revisionism to comics. Moore has said in recent interviews that he now believes this revisionism stripped superhero comics of everything that once made them charming and clever; this series may be seen as his attempt at atonement.
Omnigirl is apparently the equivalent of Suprema (or Supergirl) in the Omniman series and Omni-Dog the counterpart of Radar (or Krypto the Super-Dog). The “Sunken City of Poseidonis" calls to mind Superman's old flame Lori Lemaris, a mermaid from Atlantis. In the DC universe, there are two Atlantean kingdoms, Poseidonis and Tritonis. Tritonis, which was inhabited by mer-people, was home to Lori Lemaris, while Poseidonis, inhabited by water-breathing but normal-looking humanoids, was the kingdom of the hero Aquaman.
Page 3:
Panel 1: "San Diego" is the San Diego Comic Book Convention, first held in 1970. Now called Comic-Con International, it's one of the largest and busiest events on the comic book industry's calendar (and increasingly of allied industries such sci-fi film and television). Hence Ethan's comment that if Neil Gaiman seemed stressed at San Diego, it's not necessarily a reliable guide to his usual state of mind. Moore famously had an adverse reaction to a visit to a comic convention and swore off going again.
(By giving Neil Gaiman a separate existence in this reality, is Moore implicitly absolving him of being one of the inspirations for Billy Friday?)
Panel 3: Newspaper headline: "JOHN PROPHET FEARED DEAD". Prophet is another of Rob Liefeld's superhero characters; I don't know anything much about him, nor whether this headline is a reference to something specific that was happening in another title at the same time.
Note that some of the architectural elements of Omegapolis are familiar from the Supremacy in issue #41. Supreme picks up the crayon drawing made by Hilda, Judy Jordan’s granddaughter, in issue #42.
Supreme uses his “recall supreme.” Along with his other powers, beginning in Superman #105 (1956) Superman also was described as having total recall of everything he’d ever experienced, dating back to his early childhood on Krypton.
Page 5:
Inset panel 1: The Citadel Supreme is described as being constructed in 1939. The first appearance of Superman’s Arctic Fortress of Solitude, on which the Citadel is modeled, was in “The Super-Key to Fort Superman“ in Action Comics #241 (1958). Prior to that story, from 1942 through 1956, Superman had a hideaway located on a mountain side in an undisclosed location outside Metropolis, its entrance marked by an enormous Superman emblem. This hideaway, which first appeared in Superman #17 (1942), was generally referred to as Superman’s “mountain retreat;” it was only called the Fortress of Solitude in one 1949 story (Superman #58). The mountain retreat was later attributed to the Earth-Two (or “Golden Age”) Superman. A similar retreat, belonging to Fifties Supreme, is shown in the second story in issue #52A.
The name and concept of the Fortress of Solitude were borrowed from the pulp adventures of Doc Savage, who had a secret retreat, laboratory, and stronghold on a rocky island in the Arctic sea. Doc’s fortress was first mentioned in his first adventure, The Man of Bronze, in February 1933 and first seen in the pulp novel The Fortress of Solitude in October 1938.
Inset panel 2: Supreme recalls that he rebuilt the Citadel Supreme after Darius Dax and Optilux attacked it in 1964. Superman’s enemies Lex Luthor and Brainiac first teamed up in Superman #167 (1964); the joint attack on the Citadel may refer to Alan Moore’s own story “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow“ (in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583), an Imaginary Story in which the Fortress was besieged by Lex Luthor and Brainiac.
Inset panel 3: The key to the Citadel Supreme is a bolt of lightning. The key to the Fortress of Solitude was an enormous arrow-shaped golden key, set into the cliff face below the entrance. Only Superman (or Supergirl) was strong enough to lift the key and operate the lock.
Page 7:
Panel 1: The Souvenir Gallery Supreme is much like the trophy room in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. The trophies visible here include (from left to right):
- An indistinct bat-winged creature hanging from the ceiling, possibly modeled on the flame dragon, a massive fire-breathing Kryptonian creature Superman encountered in Superman #142 (1961). It is also similar to the pterodactyl shown in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude in the first part of “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” (Superman #423).
- A spherical, multi-legged object which closely resembles the Martians in some versions of H.G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds.”
- A purple creature who resembles a Shmoo, a creature from Al Capp’s comic strip Lil’ Abner.
- A figure in a Supreme costume in a glass case. This may be based on one of Superman’s most grisly trophies: the body of his friend Ar-Val, a Kandorian youth chosen to take Superman’s place after the Man of Steel had temporarily lost his powers in Superman #172 (1964). Ar-Val ultimately sacrificed himself to restore Superman’s powers and was turned to stone in the process.
- An enormous gauntlet identified as the Armageddon Gauntlet confiscated from the End, one of Supreme’s enemies (who we discover in issue #45 is currently imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors).
- A Junkers Ju-87 “Stuka” (hanging from the ceiling), a German dive bomber from World War Two; it may be a souvenir of Supreme’s adventures during the war.
- A large statue of a human figure (behind the Stuka) obscured by a dialogue balloon.
- Stupendo the Simian Supreme is based on Titano the Super-Ape, a giant chimpanzee who projected Kryptonite rays from his eyes (making him exceptionally dangerous to Superman). Issue #51 says that Stupendo was one of Professor Wells’ lab animals in Littlehaven who was accidentally exposed to a sample of Supremium. Similarly, Titano was transformed by the radiation of two colliding meteors, one of uranium, one of Kryptonite. Titano first appeared in Superman #127 (1959). There also was an earlier, similar giant ape, King Krypton, who appeared in Action Comics #238 (1958). King Krypton was originally a Kryptonian scientist transformed into a giant gorilla by an experiment gone wrong; Kryptonite radiation eventually restored him to normal, but at the cost of his life. All these characters, of course, are inspired by King Kong, the gigantic simian hero of the classic 1933 film.
Panel 3: In addition to the trophies noted above, there is also what appears to be a large pink worm in a glass case behind the figure in the case. It resembles an unidentified trophy that appeared in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude in Alan Moore’s Imaginary Story “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” (Superman #423).
Page 8:
“The Conundrum of the Cloud-Castle“ incorporates elements of a 1958 Superman story, “The Super-Key to Fort Superman“ (Action Comics #241), the first story to show the Silver Age Fortress of Solitude in its best known form.
In addition to the trophies seen on the previous page, the splash page of this flashback story shows the following trophies:
- A giant monocle (probably the same as the trophy shown on page 16, where it is identified as having belonged to the villain Jack-a-Dandy)
- A Tremendoid (apparently the same giant robot as that used by Darius Dax in the flashback story in issue #42)
- A giant chess piece (a bishop)
- A glass case with a spiky pink object (this may be the front end of the pink worm seen in panel 3 on page 7).
Supreme uses a robot double, a Suprematon Decoy, to protect the secret of his dual identity. Superman used similar robot duplicates on many occasions; his first robot duplicate of himself was used in 1952 (Superman #76), although it was not until 1957 (Superman #110) that they actually demonstrated Superman’s powers and 1958 (Superboy #63) when they were capable of independent action. Although Superman originally was shown to build his first robot as an adult, later Superboy stories, beginning with “Superboy’s Robot Twin” in Adventure Comics #212 (1956), showed him using sophisticated robots while still a boy in Smallville.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Apparently, the Suprematons can also generate the artificial lightning bolt necessary to open the door to the Citadel Supreme.
Panels 2-4: The mysterious note is another similarity between this story and “The Super Key to Fort Superman" in Action Comics #241, in which Superman found a similar note in the Fortress of Solitude from a mysterious intruder claiming to know all his secrets.
Page 10:
Panel 2: The Hell of Mirrors, a gateway to a strange mirror dimension, is clearly styled after the Phantom Zone, an other-dimensional world discovered by Superman’s father Jor-El and used as a prison by the government of Krypton. In the Zone, convicted Kryptonian criminals spent their sentences as disembodied wraiths, able to see the real world but not interact with it. Superboy discovered the Zone’s existence and recovered the Kryptonian Phantom Zone projector in Adventure Comics #284 (1961). The depiction of the Hell of Mirrors may owe something to the two-dimensional mirror-prison in which the Kryptonian criminals General Zod, Ursa, and Nom were imprisoned in the 1978 film Superman and its sequel Superman II, but its most direct inspiration is Looking-Glass Land, a fantastical world shown in Lewis Carroll’s 1871 story Through the Looking Glass. We learn more about the Mirror-Prison, including its connection to the Carroll story, in issue #56.
We see the following villains imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors:
- Vor-Em (the lion-headed villain at left): named in issue #56 and described as a vicious assassin from another world, originally hired by Darius Dax to kill Supreme.
- The Televillain: a villain whose “static suit” gives him the ability to travel through television signals; issue #52A gives his real name as Reuben Tube. The Televillain has no obvious antecedents in the Superman or Captain Marvel mythos, but his power is similar to that of the villain in the Wes Craven horror movie Shocker.
- Shadow Supreme: a dark figure described in issue #52A as an evil, negative version of Supreme created by Darius Dax. Throughout his villainous career, Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor has made numerous attempts to create an evil version of Superman, the best known result being Bizarro, an imperfect copy of Superman who Luthor created in Action Comics #259 (1959). Bizarro, however, was primarily a nuisance and was not truly evil; his most direct analog in Supreme’s world is Emerpus, the Reverse Supreme, mentioned later in the series. The Shadow Supreme bears a greater resemblance to the “Negative Superman“ accidentally created by Lex Luthor in World’s Finest Comics #126 (1962), who was a black-and-white version of Superman with all of Superman’s powers but an evil disposition. Superman, Batman, and Robin destroyed the Negative Superman at the end of his first appearance.
- Korgo the Space Tyrant: according to issue #52A, a villain who originally fought Kid Supreme as Korgo the Space Bully and who later became an interstellar tyrant. Korgo had two weapons: a Power Belt which enabled him to defy gravity and his Planet Smasher, a powerful, bazooka-shaped energy weapon. Both are stored in Supreme’s arsenal of captured weapons (seen later in this issue).
Optilux is an alien who had transformed himself into light and who tried to similarly convert the rest of the universe. Issue #52A gives his real name as Voran Glynn of the planet Sarto. Optilux is loosely based on Superman’s enemy Brainiac. Originally a bald, green-skinned alien, Brainiac initially was described as an evil scientist from the planet Yod (in Action Comics #242) who stole cities by shrinking them and placing them in bottles; in Superman #167 (1964) he was revealed to be a sophisticated android created by the tyrannical computers of the planet Colu. In Action Comics #544 1983), Brainiac’s original body was destroyed and he became a sentient, immaterial energy being inhabiting a robot body of “living metal.” The original Brainiac no longer exists in present Superman continuity, but two new Brainiacs have been introduced. In the comics, Brainiac is a Coluan scientist named Vril Dox who gained tremendous psionic powers by transferring his mind into the body of a human psychic named Milton Fine; Brainiac later had Fine’s body altered to resemble his original green-skinned humanoid form. In the current Superman animated series, Brainiac is a mechanical intelligence from Krypton who escaped to Earth shortly before Krypton’s destruction.
Panel 5: Supreme wonders if one of the inhabits of Amalynth may have regained material form. Some of the inhabitants of Kandor did occasionally leave the bottle-city, and Superman occasionally shrank himself temporarily in order to visit the city. Like Superman, who was unable to restore Kandor to its proper size until the late seventies, Supreme mentions that he has made repeated unsuccessful efforts to restore the world to normal. Kandor ultimately was restored to its full size on the distant planet Rokyn in Superman #338 (1979).
Page 11:
Panel 1: Here we see statues representing some of Supreme’s comrades of the Allied Supermen of America, an analog of the Justice Society of America. The JSA, which debuted in All-Star Comics #3 (1940), was the world’s first superhero team. The members shown here are:
- Black Hand: a hero who can project black “hand puppets,” solid objects formed from shadows. He is probably intended as a counterpart of Green Lantern, a hero with the power to create solid objects with the energy from his power ring; the original Green Lantern, who debuted in All-American Comics #16 (1940), was a founding member of the Justice Society. Black Hand’s real name is Andrew Garret.
- Glory: an existing Maximum Press heroine who Alan Moore has cast as the analog of Wonder Woman in Supreme’s world. Wonder Woman, who first appeared in All-Star Comics #8 (1941), was an Amazon princess who, as an infant, was formed from clay by the goddess Aphrodite. Glory, whose full name is Princess Glorianna Demeter, is a demigod and the daughter of the goddess Demeter.
- Storybook Smith: a hero with the power to bring fictional characters to life from the pages of his magic book. Smith, whose full name is Sammy Smith, resembles Johnny Thunder, a JSA member (first seen in Flash Comics #1 in 1940) who commanded a magical pink thunderbolt. Smith’s power is very similar to that of Kid Eternity (a Quality Comics character who first appeared in Hit Comics #25 (1942) and who now is part of the DC stable), who had the ability to summon historical and fictional characters to his aid. Storybook Smith’s life and the origins and fate of his magic book are explored in the Judgment Day mini-series.
- The Waxman: a masked adventurer who used a fast-hardening wax compound to immobilize his enemies. Waxman’s real name is “Waxy” Doyle. He bears a strong resemblance to Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #40 (1939) and who starred in the recent Vertigo series Sandman Mystery Theater. The Sandman originally wore a bulky green business suit, a purple cape, and a brown snap-brim hat; he disguised his features with a blue and yellow gas mask that also served to protect him from the knockout fumes projected by his gas gun.
- Mighty Man: a hero who, except for his blonde hair, bears a strong resemblance to Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior, particularly in his costume’s high-collared cape. Mighty Man possesses superhuman strength and the power of flight, and according to issue #48, can fire blasts of energy from his wrist bands. Mighty Man apparently is an amalgam of the original Captain Marvel and the Marvel Comics hero of the same name, who was a warrior named Mar-Vell from an alien race called the Kree. Mar-Vell had blonde hair and drew his powers from his “nega-bands,” gold wristbands similar to those worn by Mighty Man. Mighty Man is a pre-existing Image Comics character, who debuted in Erik Larsen's flagship series, 'Savage Dragon', in 1992.
- Professor Night: A masked avenger whose role in Supreme is analogous to that of Batman in the DC universe. Some aspects of the character are reminiscent of the Golden Age hero (and Justice Society member) Doctor Mid-Nite and of the Marvel Comics character Moon Knight. Professor Night’s real name is Taylor Kendall. We will learn more about him in issues #47 and #48.
Panel 4: This is Luriel, an angel who was once in love with Supreme. In issue #50, Ethan Crane describes an Imaginary Story in which Supreme brought Luriel into the real world and married her, with tragic results. Their affair is reminiscent of that between Superman and Lori Lemaris, a mermaid from Atlantis. As first described in Superman #129 (1959), Superman met Lori in college and later asked her to marry him. Lori rejected his proposal, feeling it was her duty to return to Atlantis; she eventually married a merman named Ronal.
Panel 5: Jonas Tate asks Supreme if one of his Suprematons could have rebelled....
Page 14:
...and Supreme says that only Suprematon S-1 has the capacity for independent thought, which will prove important later in the main story in this issue.
Panel 2: Supreme makes a mental note to create Suprematon decoys of his friends to allay their suspicions about his Ethan Crane robot. Similarly, Superman maintained a Clark Kent room with trophies related to his alter ego, to match the rooms devoted to Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and his other friends, so that visitors to the Fortress would not become suspicious about Superman’s snub of his “friend” Clark Kent (first shown in 1958, in the aforementioned Action Comics #241).
Panel 3: Supreme leads his guests through a gallery of members of the League of Infinity (left) and their enemies the League of Infamy (right). The members shown are the same that we saw in the League of Infinity’s headquarters in the previous issue.
Jonas Tate makes a comment directed to his “little boy Lucas.” This is presumably Lucas Tate, who later became Ethan Crane’s editor, as seen on page 2 of this issue.
Panel 5: In the Time Tower, Supreme encounters Aladdin, another League of Infinity member, complete with his legendary magic carpet. Aladdin's outfit resembles that worn by Disney's version of the character (from the 1992 animated film). Disney's version of the story is also one of the few, if not the only, in which Aladdin possesses a flying carpet.
Aladdin’s reference to a meeting of the “Adult League” in 2496 is an allusion to the adventures of the Adult Legion of Superheroes, first seen in Superboy #147 (1961), which depicted the teenage Legionaries grown up. While Legion of Superheroes #300 (1983) later established that the Adult Legion stories were only a possible future, the relationships and character development established in those adventures set the pattern for Legion stories well into the eighties. We will see the Adult League of Infinity in issue #52B.
Page 15:
Panel 4: Like Superman, Supreme maintains a “Hall of Armaments,” with weapons confiscated from villains. The “Photoplasmic Converter taken from Optilux” is analogous to the shrink ray Brainiac used to shrink the city of Kandor (first shown in 1958 in Action Comics #242).
Korgo the Space-Tyrant’s Planet Smasher, mentioned but not shown here, is a powerful energy weapon shaped like a bazooka. It will be seen in issue #52A.
Panel 5: Supreme keeps a sample of “synthetic Supremium” in the Citadel for experimental purposes. Superman stored samples of the various types of Kryptonite in the Fortress of Solitude; an experiment with those samples split him into Superman Red and Superman Blue in the classic Imaginary Story (alluded to by Supreme White and Supreme Gold in issue #41, as previously noted).
Behind the Supremium chamber is a large purple mace-like object which is not identified.
Page 16:
Panel 1: Supreme refers to his “Smartness Supreme.” Beginning in the mid-forties, Superman was described as having super-intelligence, making him capable of solving complex problems faster than the most powerful computers.
Panels 5-6: Supreme discovers that his old comrades from the Allied Supermen of America are responsible for the mysterious note. The prank played on Supreme in this flashback story is borrowed directly from “The Super-Key to Fort Superman” in Action Comics #241, in which Batman infiltrated the Fortress of Solitude to play a friendly prank on the Man of Steel, leaving mysterious notes claiming to know all of Superman’s secrets. To hide from Superman, Batman melted down the wax statue of himself with a flare and took its place; Superman realized the trick when he saw the gray and blue wax remains of the original statue.
Page 17:
Panel 1: This is our first full glimpse of the Allied Supermen of America. In addition to the members depicted on page 11, we see the following heroes (from left to right):
- Alley Cat: a heroine whose costume is reminiscent of the forties heroine Black Cat, who debuted in Harvey Comics’ Pocket Comics in 1941 and had her own series from 1946 to 1958. Alley Cat also resembles (particularly in her fishnet stockings) DC’s original Black Canary, who debuted in Flash Comics #86 (1947) and later became member of the Justice Society of America. Batman’s nemesis the Catwoman wore a costume similar to the Alley Cat’s for a brief period in the late sixties and early seventies; the Catwoman, like the Alley Cat, was sometimes armed with a whip. The Alley Cat’s real name is Serena Richards.
- Jack O’Lantern: a spectral, pumpkin-headed mystic hero modeled on the ghostly Golden Age hero the Spectre, who first appeared in More Fun Comics #52 (1940), and who was a founding member of the Justice Society of America. The Spectre was a murdered policeman who was resurrected as a spirit of vengeance; according to issue #49, Jack O’Lantern is described as a mystical force merged with a dead newspaperman named Jack Bradley. Jack O’Lantern physically resembles Lord Pumpkinhead, a villain from the Malibu Comics series Ultraforce. There was also a DC character called Jack O’Lantern, an Irishman armed with a magic lantern (shaped like a pumpkin), who was a member of the international super-team the Global Guardians.
- Doc Rocket: a red-clad super-speedster with powers similar to that of the Flash. Doc Rocket, whose real name is Dr. Rex Richards, is analogous to Jay Garrick, the original Flash, who debuted in Flash Comics #1 (1940) and who was a founding member of the JSA. His costume, however, more closely resembles that of Barry Allen, the second Flash, who first appeared in Showcase Comics #4 (1956) and who was a founder of the Justice League of America.
- Roy Roman, the Mer-Master: an aquatic hero analogous to DC’s aquatic hero Aquaman, although physically he more closely resembles Prince Namor, Marvel’s Submariner (note also that “Namor” is “Roman” spelled backwards), who debuted in Marvel Comics #1 (1939). Aquaman, who first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (1941), was not a member of the JSA, but was one of the founders of the Justice League of America in Showcase Comics #28 (1959).
Panel 3: Supreme slips away to give himself an excuse to return as Ethan Crane. Superman played similar tricks countless times in an effort to explain why he and Clark Kent never appeared at the same time.
Page 18:
Panel 1: Supreme encounters Joe Crane, his adoptive father, who he had believed dead.
Panel 2: Behind Joe Crane to the left is what appears to be a creature with a single massive eye and spider-like legs. A somewhat similar-looking species, albeit with tentacles rather than spider-legs, was created by artist Keith Giffen in Legion of Superheroes (cf. Legion of Superheroes (2nd series) #290, 1982).
Panel 3: Here we see Joanne Crane, Ethan Crane’s adoptive mother, who he also had believed dead.
We also see several other trophies. From left to right:
- “Anti-Supremium Suit Worn in Battle with the Supremium Man”: a suit of armor (presumably lead) with a glass helmet, similar to a suit Superman first wore to protect himself from Kryptonite in Action Comics #249 (1959). Superman’s suit did not have a clear helmet, instead using a television camera to provide Superman with outward visibility. Supreme will use this suit in issues #44 and #45.
- A giant monocle which the sign identifies as being used by the villain Jack-a-Dandy is analagous to the giant penny in the Batcave. The Jack-A-Dandy, who we will see in the flashback story in issue #48, is the arch-foe of Professor Night. Jack's DC inspiration is probably an amalgum of the Joker and the Penguin, though his top hat and monocle recall J. Wilbur Wolfingham, a Metropolis-based con artist and swindler who crossed Superman’s path on a number of occasions.
- An enormous statue, apparently of a Greek or Roman figure; the portion of the inscription on the figure’s shield may read “Talus.” Talos was a figure in Greek mythology, a giant man of bronze who protected Crete. (The inscription here seems to say TALUS, which is the Latin form of the name.) This may be the same figure shown on page 7.
- A robot with four tentacle-like arms.
- A small rocket ship which may be based on the Supermobile, a vehicle Superman first used in Action Comics #481 (1978) to battle the villain Amazo during a period in which the Earth was being bombarded by Kryptonite radiation. A similar Supremobile appears in issue #54, but it is not clear if that craft is the same as the one shown here.
Panel 1: This is Judy Jordan as a young woman, now claiming to be married to Supreme.
Behind Judy we see a few more trophies:
- A silver rocket
- A high-collared red cape in a glass tube (except for its color this is similar to the cape worn by Mighty Man in the flashback sequence on the preceding pages)
- A large, beetle-browed creature either made of stone or a statue
Behind her are more trophies:
- The large green sphere behind Supreme is identified as a “macro atom” from the body of Gorrl the Living Galaxy obtained in 1966; we will see Gorrl in issue #46
- A small cat-shaped trophy with only one eye.
Panel 1: Supreme finds himself attacked by himself and Radar, the Hound Supreme.
Note that Radar has speakers on his collar which allow him to talk; although Krypto the Superdog was much smarter than a normal dog, in most stories he could not talk.
Panel 3: The “other” Supreme refers to the villain Optilux, who transformed himself into a construct of coherent light maintained in humanoid shape by a complex network of reflectors (as seen in issue #52A).
Page 21:
Panel 2: As the fight continues several creatures in the Mythopoeic Zoo are visible in the background:
A winged elephant
An oversized Venus Fly Trap which is the spitting image of “Audrey Two,” the blood-thirsty plant from the classic low-budget horror movie (and Broadway musical) Little Shop of Horrors
A four-legged creature with no apparent head.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme discovers that Radar is actually a Suprematon. We will see the real Radar in issue #46.
Panel 3: Supreme realizes the truth: his family is really Suprematon robots. Suprematon S-1's creation of Suprematon duplicates of Ethan Crane’s friends and family has certain parallels in the Superman mythos: in Superman #150 (1962), Superman and Supergirl transformed a distant world into an exact duplicate of Krypton populated with robotic duplicates of its population. Similarly, Joey Cavilieri’s prose short story “Mine Enemy Grows Older” showed Superman in the distant future surrounded by android replicas of his long-dead loved ones.
S-1's desire to take on Supreme’s identity parallels that of Adam Newman, one of Superman’s robots, who attempted to take over Superman’s life in Superman #174 (1965). The robot attempted to convince Clark Kent that his career as Superman had been a delusion and that Newman was the real Superman.
Page 23:
Panel 2: Supreme notes that S-1 is the only Suprematon with the capacity for independent thought. Like Supreme, Superman only had a few robots with that capacity; oddly, all betrayed him in one way or another. One, Superman Robot Z, arranged to give Lois Lane temporary super-powers as part of a plan to demonstrate to Superman how shallow Lois’ feelings for him were (Action Comics #274, 1961). Another, Wonder Man, was used against Superman in a scheme by the Superman Revenge Squad in Superman #163 (1963; interestingly, around the same time Marvel’s Avengers #9 introduced another character of the same name who also was an innocent manipulated by villains). A third was the aforementioned Adam Newman, and a fourth was the berserk Superman robot in World’s Finest Comics #202 (1971) that rebelled against its master and nearly killed Superman and Batman.
Page 24:
A page full of ominous foreshadowing:
Panels 1-2: Hilda recalls the drawing she gave Supreme last issue. She apparently has a preternatural feeling that he has hung the drawing on his wall. This feeling will be explained in issue #52A.
Panels 2-3: Judy Jordan is reading Life After Death, the “religious book” she mentioned being given by Darius Dax shortly before his death.
Panel 4: The Jordan house is the only patch of sunlight in a cloudy day: an ominous bit of foreshadowing.
Supreme #44
Page 1:
Panels 1 and 2: Moore intercuts Ethan Crane’s conversation
with Diana Dane and Supreme’s efforts to clean up the remains of his battle
with S-1 in the previous issue, cross-cutting images and dialogue for dramatic
effect (artist and comics scholar Scott McCloud calls this parallel
narration). This is a technique Moore
perfected in his comics work of the early eighties, including Marvelman
(Miracleman in America) and Swamp Thing.
Panel 3: The cross-cutting continues as we see Supreme
walking through the gallery of the Allied Supermen of America in the Citadel
Supreme.
Panel 4: Billy Friday’s revisions on Omniman, the comic book
Ethan Crane draws, apparently got out of hand, with the rape of Omnidog (!) and
Billy’s intention to make Omniman “an anti-Israeli terrorist,” for which he was
apparently removed from the book. This
may be a veiled reference to the resignation of Rich Veitch from DC’s Swamp
Thing in 1988 after his story about Swamp Thing meeting Jesus Christ (originally
slated for Swamp Thing #88) was vetoed late in production by the DC Comics
management.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Supreme examines his Allies signal device, which is
similar to the communicators once used by Superman and the other members of the
Justice League of America. Superman wore his communicator in the hollow belt
buckle of his costume.
Panel 3: Diana notes that Ethan seems to have “a real feel”
for superhero work. Ah, dramatic
irony...
Panel 4: Ethan admits that he still hasn’t read any of
Diana’s Warrior Woman stories. This
calls to mind the ironic fact that although Wonder Woman (of whom Warrior Woman
is a counterpart) is one of DC’s flagship characters, her title often verges on
cancellation, saved only by her importance to DC’s licensing department.
Page 3:
Supreme finds himself in the apparently abandoned
headquarters of the Allies, still holding his signal device. The headquarters resembles that of the
original Justice League of America, the Secret Sanctuary, which was located in
a cave outside the town of Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. The JLA later abandoned the Sanctuary for a
new satellite headquarters in geosynchronous orbit; the unused Sanctuary later
became the base of operations for the Doom Patrol. The current incarnation of
the Justice League operates from a citadel on Earth’s moon called the
Watchtower.
Page 4:
Panel 1: Supreme leaves the signal device on the table,
which still has placards indicating the names of the Allies.
Panel 2: The signal device’s flashing indicates that Supreme
has activated it.
In the background we see some of the Allies’ trophies:
- A figure in a white costume with a red hood and boots, yellow belt, and blue cape; this may be an earlier version of the android body used by the hero Diehard
- An object in a glass dome which bears a striking resemblance to the Bottle City of Kandor.
Panel 3: More trophies, this time related to the Allies’
opponents:
- The inert body of Magno The Super Humanoid, a counterpart of the DC character Amazo, an android constructed by the villainous Professor Ivo to steal the powers of the Justice League of America
- The Battle Helmet of Helios, King of the Sun, which bears some resemblance to the helmet worn by the Invisible Destroyer, a villain who first fought Green Lantern in Showcase Comics #23 (1959).
- A uniform of “the Missile Men of the Third Reich,” presumably antagonists of the Allied Supermen of America during World War Two.
Panel 4: Supreme consults the Allied Supermen of America
yearbooks, which contain records of their cases from 1941 to 1949. The Justice Society of America, on which the
Allied Supermen of America is based,
debuted in All-Star Comics #3 (1940) and survived through All-Star Comics #57
(1951); they were revived in The Flash #137 (1963).
Behind Supreme is the Future-O-Scope, a device which allowed
the Allies to view other time-eras. Similarly, the JSA sometimes made use of
Wonder Woman’s Magic Sphere, a device from Paradise Island that allowed them to
view events taking place in the distant past.
Panel 5: Supreme looks at a photo of the Allied Supermen’s
last meeting, a New Year’s Eve party in 1949.
Page 5:
Panel 1: The flashback story is entitled “The Allies’ Last
Case!” The Justice Society of America’s
final Golden Age appearance was in All-Star Comics #57 (1951), but it was not
until Adventure Comics #466 (1979) when their last case was chronicled. In that story, the JSA was said to have
disbanded after being brought before a Congressional committee reminiscent of
the House Un-American Affairs Committee; accused of collaboration with
anti-American interests, the heroes chose to retire rather than reveal their
true identities to the committee.
The Allied Supermen of America present in this story are,
reading counter-clockwise:
- Supreme
- Glory
- Roy Roman, Mer-Master
- Professor Night
- Doc Rocket
- The Alley Cat
- Super-Patriot
- Mighty Man
- Wax Man
- Die Hard
- Storybook Smith
- Black Hand
Die Hard is another of Rob Liefeld's creations; he is a member of the Youngblood team, and debuted in 'Youngblood' in 1992. For SuperPatriot's history, see the note for issue #43 page 11. Both characters started their careers in the 1940s, hence their absence from the 1938 flashback last issue.
Glory’s oath, “Blistering Bilitis,” is a play on “Suffering
Sappho,” a favorite epithet of the Golden Age Wonder Woman. Sappho, a poet and teacher who ran a school
for girls on the island of Lesbos circa 600 B.C., was one of the greatest of
Greek lyricists. Her romantic lyrics, which are believed to have been directed
to other women (including her students), survive only in fragments, but modern
scholars consider her an important figure in both the development of poetry and
the origins of gay culture. Her school for girls on Lesbos also originated the
term “lesbian” as a name for gay women. In 1954 Dr. Frederic Wertham, author of
the anti-comics tract Seduction of the Innocent, claimed that Wonder Woman was
a veritable lesbian recruiting poster; her favorite exclamation no doubt
reaffirmed Wertham’s suspicions. Here, Alan
Moore has substituted a different lesbian icon: Bilitis, a student and lover of
Sappho who was the central character in an 1894 poem by French author Pierre
Louÿs (Las Chansons de Bilitis) and who later inspired the name of the first
formal lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis, founded in San Francisco
in 1955.
The three “Mayhe-Maniacs” - the Morgue Minder, the Tomb
Tender, and the Old Hag - are based on the GhouLunatics - the Old Witch, the
Vault Keeper, and the Crypt Keeper - the hosts of the early fifties EC Comics
horror comics Haunt of Fear, Vault of Horror, and Tales from the Crypt.
This flashback story is essentially symbolic, dealing with
the decline of superhero comics in the late forties and the rise of crime,
horror, science fiction, and Western titles. In the early fifties the EC line
(which included horror comics and many other genres but not superheroes)
briefly rose to prominence only to be discontinued in 1954 in response to the
Kefauver hearings on comics and juvenile delinquency and the charges made by
psychiatrist Frederic Wertham that comics were harmful to children. In this story, artists Rick Veitch and Bill
Wray mimic the distinctive art styles of Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, and Johnny
Craig, EC’s principal horror artists.
Panel 2: The reference to “the spirits of New
Years-yet-to-come” is, naturally, a reference to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas
Carol.
This is our first good look at the Golden Age
Super-Patriot. With the star on his
forehead and the eagle on his chest, the Super-Patriot appears to be a counterpart
of Captain America, a character created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Timely,
the predecessor of Marvel Comics, in 1941.
Captain America, along with Superman, Batman, and Captain Marvel, was
one of the most popular characters of the forties. By 1949, Captain America’s popularity had
faded; shortly before its demise his book was retitled Captain America’s Weird
Tales, becoming a horror anthology in which Captain America didn’t even appear.
Panel 3: The heroes prepare to divide into small teams. This was a typical storytelling device, both
in the JSA stories in All-Star Comics in the forties and the Justice League of
America stories of the sixties, intended to make it easier for writer and
artist to manage a large cast of superheroes.
Page 6:
Panel 1: The awful puns were another hallmark of the
GhouLunatics and of the EC Comics line in general.
Panel 5: This is the first clear demonstration we’ve seen of
Black Hand’s power: like the constructs created by Green Lantern’s power ring,
his shadow puppets actually have solid form.
Panel 6: Doc Rocket runs at super-speed to create a
vacuum. This trick (and other effects
such as creating tornadoes) is a trademark of the Flash in all his various
incarnations.
Page 7:
Panels 2-3: Super-Patriot’s dedication to defend America and
to punish anyone who assaults the flag emphasize his similarity to Captain America
and other patriotic heroes.
Page 8:
Panel 4: On the wall in the background, the silhouettes of two children playing ball. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, walls had silhouettes permanently burned into them where objects had shielded them from the full force of the explosion, including at least one place where the shielding object had been a person; human silhouettes subsequently became part of the imagery of anti-nuclear protest. The specific two-children-playing-ball silhouette may have originated in Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains", first published in 1950.
Page 8:
Panel 4: On the wall in the background, the silhouettes of two children playing ball. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, walls had silhouettes permanently burned into them where objects had shielded them from the full force of the explosion, including at least one place where the shielding object had been a person; human silhouettes subsequently became part of the imagery of anti-nuclear protest. The specific two-children-playing-ball silhouette may have originated in Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains", first published in 1950.
Page 9:
Panels 1-2: This is our first glimpse of the contemporary
Glory. Because she is immortal, she has not aged since her earlier appearance
in flashback in issue #43.
Panel 3: Glory refers to a recent crossover between her
series and Supreme’s prior to the beginning of Alan Moore’s tenure on Supreme
and notes that “some past events seem sort of blurred!” This confusion is similar to Supreme’s
partial amnesia in issues #41 and #42.
Page 10:
Panel 1: Supreme, who still recalls his visit to the
Supremacy, suggests that the confusion about recent events may be related to
the “reality revision” he learned about in issue #41. Glory, who has not been revised (at least not
as far as we know), doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Panel 3: The rush of air marks the entrance of Doc Rocket at
super-speed.
Panel 4: Doc Rocket appears, carrying the Alley Cat.
Page 11:
Panel 1: We learn Doc Rocket and the Alley Cat’s real names,
Dr. Rex Richards and Serena Richards, and discover that they are now
married. As depicted here, they bear a
strong resemblance to the original Sandman, Wesley Dodds, and his longtime
companion Dian Belmont as they have been depicted in recent present-day
appearances.
Panel 2: Joan Garrick, wife of Jay Garrick, the original
Flash, also made snide comments about the romantic disadvantages of her
husband’s super-speed, most notoriously in one wartime adventure (chronicled in
1984's All-Star Squadron Annual #3) in which she threatened to tell Jay’s JSA
teammates “some of the other ways [he’s] quick on the trigger.” (It should be noted that the aforementioned
story was approved by the Comics Code Authority.)
Page 12:
Panel 1: The Tomb Tender says the name of the town is
Gainesville. This is a reference to William
Gaines, the publisher of EC Comics (and later of MAD magazine).
Note the names of the creative team (Alan Moore, Rich
Veitch, Bill Wray, and Todd Klein) on the tombstones.
This flashback story, “Shock Stalks the Suburbs!” is
representative of the horror stories that created the greatest trouble for EC
publisher Bill Gaines at the Kefauver comics hearings in 1954: tales dealing
with real-world problems like marital infidelity, political corruption, drug
abuse, and racism.
Page 13:
Panels 2-3: The housewife is planning the gruesome murder of
her husband so that she can run away with another man. In the original 1954 Comics Code created by
the Comics Magazine Association of America (later known as the Comics Code
Authority) in response to the Kefauver hearings, Part C of the General
Standards ordered that “[i]llicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor
portrayed” and that stories should “emphasize the value of the home and the
sanctity of marriage.”
Panel 4: The murderous woman’s lover is a “corrupt police
chief.” Part A of the Comics Code
General Standards specified that “[p]olicemen, judges, government officials and
respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create
disrespect for established authority.”
Panel 6: Jack O’Lantern refers to his “Spook-Senses.” The Spectre, the ghostly DC hero on whom Jack
O’Lantern is based, had the supernatural ability to sense when murder or
injustice was being committed.
Page 14:
Panels 1-3: Young Johnny is shown shooting heroin to escape
the pressures of his home life.
Surprisingly, the Comics Code did not include any provisions related to
the depiction of drug or alcohol use, but the CCA did reject any such
stories. It was not until the early
seventies, after Stan Lee and Marvel Comics defied the Code Authority by
publishing a story about drug abuse (in Amazing Spider-Man #96-#98) without
approval that the Code was revised to permit such depictions so long as they
didn’t glorify drug use.
Page 15:
Panel 1: The mayor of Gainesville is shown as a member of “a
race-hate group” (implicitly, the Ku Klux Klan). Again, there was no specific reference to
race issues in the Code, but the last story that Bill Gaines submitted to the
CMAA in 1955, a science fiction parable on racism, was rejected because the
protagonist was a black man. Gaines angrily elected to publish the story
without the Code seal (in Weird Science Fantasy #29), and subsequently canceled
the entire EC line except for MAD, which was redesigned as a magazine so that
it would be exempt from the CMAA’s authority.
It should be noted that although the comic book Superman did
not confront racism until the seventies, in the Adventures of Superman radio series,
the Man of Steel took on a thinly-veiled version of the Ku Klu Klan in the 1946
“Unity House” storyline. At the end of
the story, Superman unmasked the group’s leader as a former Nazi spy and made a
plea for racial and religious tolerance.
The story attracted great national publicity and infuriated Samuel
Green, the Grand Dragon of the real Klan, but the show’s sponsor, Kellogg’s,
decided to persevere, despite pressure to end the story.
Panel 2: Jack O’Lantern transforms some of the “White Knights”
into grass and mows them down with “a spectral lawn-mower.” This is very reminiscent of the gruesome
fates the Spectre inflicted on criminals in a controversial series of stories
by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo that ran in Adventure Comics #431-#440 (1974).
Page 16:
Panel 1: Supreme’s recollection of joining the Allied
Supermen after his career as Kid Supreme does not directly correspond to DC
history. Superman was only an honorary
member of the Justice Society of America in the forties, making only two
appearances in the original run of All-Star Comics (#7 and #36). The concept of
Superman’s career as Superboy was not introduced until 1945, and not
acknowledged in the regular Superman strip until the early fifties. In Justice League of America #73 (1969) it
was established that it was the Earth-Two Superman who was a member of the
Justice Society; the Earth-Two Superman never had a career as Superboy. Likewise, Amazo (of whom Magno is a
counterpart) did not appear until Brave and the Bold #30 (1960), when he first
fought the Justice League of America.
Supreme mentions the wartime Allied Axis Super-Fiends,
villainous counterparts of the Allies. In DC history, there was a villainous
version of the JSA, the Injustice Society of the World, although it did not
appear until All-Star Comics #37 (1947).
Its members included the Brain Wave, Vandal Savage, Per Degaton, the
Icicle, and the Gambler.
Panel 2: Supreme’s musings on the postwar period reflect the
aforementioned decline in the popularity of superheroes after the end of World
War Two.
Page 17:
Mighty Man arrives with Waxy Doyle, formerly the
Wax Man, who we learn has retired to start a furniture polish business. Assuming that his 'Savage Dragon' history applies wherever it's not explicitly contradicted, Mighty-Man-as-Mighty-Man is ever unchanging, but his human identity underwent some dramatic changes between 1949 and 1996, hence his comment that he has "maybe changed just a little bit". (More on this when we get to page 20.)
Page 18:
This flashback story is very similar to the story
“Superduperman,” a spoof of Superman by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood that
appeared in MAD #4 (1953), down to the banners and in-jokes in the background
and the irreverent slogans that appear on “Supremelvin’s” chest.
In the original story, there was a sign in the upper
left-hand corner of the first panel reading, “When Better Drawrings Are Drawrn,
They’ll Be Drawrn by Wood: He’s Real Gone.”
In this story, that sign has been replaced by one that reads, “When
Better Drawrings are Swiped, They’ll Be Swiped By Veitch.”
“Melvin” was MAD’s trademark character in its early issues,
just as Alfred E. Neuman (who first appeared in MAD #24) became in later years.
Even in the heyday of EC Comics, it’s unlikely we would see
a vibrator labeled “Long John Supremeo.”
Note “Gloryoski’s” Mickey Mouse shirt and prominent breasts;
during the early fifties, the budding chest of Mousekeeter Annette Funicello on
The Mickey Mouse Show was a memorable facet of Americana.
The cryptic remark by the angelic twins in the bottom right corner is a mangling of "potrzebie", a word frequently used in Mad magazine as a random nonsense word. (It's a real word in Polish, but don't ask me what it means.)
The cryptic remark by the angelic twins in the bottom right corner is a mangling of "potrzebie", a word frequently used in Mad magazine as a random nonsense word. (It's a real word in Polish, but don't ask me what it means.)
Page 19:
Panel 3: Here we have a Wood-like parody of Professor Night,
“Professor Newt,” who bears some resemblance to MAD’s parody of Batman in “Bat
Boy and Ruben.”
Panel 6: Another Wood/Kurtzman trademark was bits of
“respectable” art tossed into the mix: here we see the central figure from
Edvard Munch’s famous 1893 lithograph “The Scream.”
Page 20:
Panel 1: “Supremelvin’s” secret identity is “radio reporter
Methane Drain” (i.e., Ethan Crane). Note
that instead of glasses, he disguises his identity with a monocle.
While Ethan Crane worked for radio K-ZAM, Methane works for,
appropriately enough, K-LOD.
Panel 2: “Juicy Jawache” is the satirical version of Judy
Jordan and a clear nod to Wally Wood’s parody of Lois Lane.
Juicy is reading Subversion of the Innocuous by Dr.
Frederick of Hollywood. This is an
obvious reference to Seduction of the Innocent, Dr. Frederic Wertham’s infamous
treatise on the negative effects of comic books on children.
The comment about “dirty pictures hidden in their clothing
wrinkles” really was one of Wertham’s accusations; he claimed that comic book
artists deliberately drew clothing wrinkles to resemble pubic triangles.
Panel 3: Methane Drane meets “radio reporter Bubby
Bugpluck,” a satirical version of Billy Batson, the alter ego of Captain
Marvel, who was a radio reporter. He is
secretly “Meaty Man” (a play on Mighty Man, and more evidence that Mighty Man is intended as an analog of Captain Marvel). Again as per 'Savage Dragon', Mighty Man's human identity during the 1950s was radio broadcaster Robert Berman.
In the background is the Wolf Man from the 1941 horror film 'The Wolf Man', labelled "Wolf Man Jack" - Wolfman Jack was a radio disc jockey who started his career in the early 1960s.
Note that Methane Drane’s secret identity is no secret to
anyone; this is a point of many Superman satires, including Ben Edlund’s parody
in The Tick and Don Simpson’s Megaton Man series.
Panel 4: Bubby’s comment about his “unnatural vices” again reflects Frederic Wertham’s accusations: Wertham decried the homoerotic content of superhero comics, particularly the adventures of Batman and Robin, who he saw as an implicitly homosexual couple.
The figure at the left edge of the panel bears a striking
resemblance to William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics and MAD, though it is more likely
Sgt Bilko, Phil Silvers's character in the 1955-1959 TV series 'The Phil Silvers Show'.
That it's Mighty Man whose manliness is being thrown into question foreshadows his own personal future: after the death of radio broadcaster Robert Berman, the power to transform into Mighty Man passes to another host - and *her* name is Ann Stevens.
Sgt Bilko, Phil Silvers's character in the 1955-1959 TV series 'The Phil Silvers Show'.
That it's Mighty Man whose manliness is being thrown into question foreshadows his own personal future: after the death of radio broadcaster Robert Berman, the power to transform into Mighty Man passes to another host - and *her* name is Ann Stevens.
Panel 5: The MAD Superman parody culminated in a battle
between Superduperman and Captain Marbles (Superman and Captain Marvel), a
reflection of the long-running legal battle between National and Fawcett
Comics. In a suit filed in September
1941, National claimed that Captain Marvel constituted an infringement of the
Superman copyright. The case was finally
settled out of court in 1953, around the time the MAD parody was originally
published; Fawcett admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to stop publishing the
Captain Marvel series. In the seventies
DC Comics acquired the rights to the character, although due to legal
objections raised by Marvel Comics DC is forbidden to use the name “Captain
Marvel” on the covers of its comics or on any licensed products (all DC uses of
the character are instead entitled “Shazam”).
Here, Alan Moore gives the Superman-Captain Marvel conflict
a more perverse spin, but one that’s still perfectly in keeping with the spirit
of the early MAD series.
Page 21:
Panel 1: “Fershlugginner” recalls “Furshlugginer,” a
favorite expletive in MAD stories (as a euphemism for words they weren’t
allowed to print, no doubt).
Panel 2: The Mayhe-Maniacs gleefully inform the Allied
Supermen that “your Golden Age is finished,” and indeed the end of the Justice
Society’s run in All-Star Comics in 1951 is seen by many as the closing curtain
of the Golden Age of comics.
Panel 4: Storybook Smith thinks about becoming a narrator of
horror stories instead of a superhero.
As mentioned above, this was the fate of Captain America shortly before
his original series ended in 1949.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme notes that only he, Glory, and Professor
Night remained active after the team broke up.
Their DC counterparts, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, were the only
forties heroes to maintain their own series throughout the fifties.
Doc Rocket mentions that “second stringers like Roman, the
Fisherman, and Spacehunter...sort of struggled along” after the disbanding of
the Allied Supermen. As previously
mentioned, Roy Roman, Mer-Master is the counterpart of Aquaman, while the
Fisherman is the counterpart of Green Arrow, an archer who fought crime with
trick arrows. Aquaman and Green Arrow, who both debuted in More Fun Comics #73
(1943), survived the fifties as backup features in Adventure Comics, home of
Superboy. Spacehunter is a counterpart of the Martian Manhunter, who debuted in
1955 and starred in a backup strip in Detective Comics, which was headlined by
Batman.
Panel 2: Detective Gorilla may be inspired by Detective
Chimp, an unusually intelligent chimpanzee who solved crimes in his own strip
in Rex the Wonder Dog during the early sixties.
A similar simian detective was the Ape, an intelligent simian detective
who fought crime with the help of his human partner Angel O’Day in the late
sixties series Angel and the Ape. Unlike
Detective Chimp, who was really quite clever, Detective Gorilla was apparently
something of a bumbler.
The Danger Damsels are apparently a reference to the
Holliday Girls, a group of courageous, fun-loving young women from Holliday
College who, led by the irrepressible Etta Candy, participated in many of
Wonder Woman’s adventures in the forties beginning in Sensation Comics #2 (1942). Oddly, they disappeared from Wonder Woman’s
adventures in the early fifties; their last appearance was in Wonder Woman #44
(1950), and they did not return until Wonder Woman #117 (1960). There are no counterparts of the Holliday
Girls in the current Wonder Woman mythos, and the modern Etta Candy is an Air
Force officer married to Steve Trevor (who, prior to George Perez’s extensive
1987 revision of the character, was Wonder Woman’s long-time boyfriend).
Supreme refers to some of the bizarre transformations
experienced by Professor Night during the fifties: Negative Professor Night and
Polka-Dot Professor Night. During the
fifties and early sixties Batman, of whom Professor Night is an analog,
underwent almost as many bizarre changes as Superman experienced under the
influence of Red Kryptonite. Batman was transformed into a living photographic
negative in Detective Comics #284's “The Negative Batman” (1960); Polka-Dot
Professor Night may refer to the infamous story “The Rainbow Batman” in Detective
Comics #241 (1957), in which Batman donned a different brightly-colored version
of his costume each day to distract passerby from the sling on Robin’s arm
(which could potentially have betrayed his secret identity). Batman’s colorful costumes in that story
included a rainbow-striped number, but not a polka-dot one; in Detective Comics
#300 (1960), however, Batman and Robin did face a villain called Mr. Polka-Dot.
Panel 3: Waxy Doyle notes that Roy Roman, Diehard and the Patriot are now
part of other teams. Diehard, as noted above, is a member of Youngblood. SuperPatriot is a member of the Liberty League in 'Savage Dragon', but they probably don't exist in Supreme's continuity.
Waxy also mentions that Professor Night “dropped out of
sight.” The fate of Professor Night and
his partner Twilight is revealed in issues #47-#49.
Panel 4: Supreme remarks that Black Hand recently suffered a
stroke. The Golden Age Sandman, another
JSA member, suffered a series of debilitating strokes in the eighties, a fact
first mentioned in Infinity, Inc. #1 (1984).
The storybook of Storybook Smith, lost in 1958, is a crucial
element of the Judgment Day mini-series.
Supreme also wonders about the fate of Jack O’Lantern. According to issue #49, Jack O’Lantern
disappeared after the Allied Supermen of America disbanded in 1950; Supreme’s
last encounter with him took place in 1971. The Spectre, on whom Jack O’Lantern
is based, vanished in 1945 shortly after the cancellation of his strip in More
Fun Comics; the grimness of the character, combined with his near-omnipotence
and the vague nature of his powers, limited his popularity. He did not reappear until 1966, when he was
revived in Showcase Comics #60. Unlike his Golden Age peers, he never rejoined
the Justice Society of America, and he eventually became a remote and inhuman
cosmic entity.
Page 23:
Panel 2: Glory notes that the Alley Cat looks good for a
woman of her age. The longevity of DC’s
Golden Age heroes became something of a headache in the seventies and
eighties. For many years, the contemporary
heroes have been on a “floating” timeline which says that the characters’ early
adventures took place roughly ten years ago, whatever the current year may
be. However, because of the JSA’s ties
to World War Two, the JSA members and their contemporaries are more “fixed” in
time than the modern heroes. When the
Justice Society first met the Justice League in 1963 (Justice League of America
#21-#22), this was not a problem: the JSA members were in their early forties
and still active and athletic. However,
by 1980 the youngest of the original group was pushing 60; in 1984 it was
established that many of the JSAers were exposed to a burst of “temporal
energy” that allowed them to remain vigorous at an advanced age (All Star
Squadron Annual #3). In recent years,
the surviving JSA members have been aged and “de-aged” several times. Three of their members, the Flash (Jay
Garrick), Wildcat (Ted Grant), and Green Lantern (Alan Scott) still are active,
despite the fact that both are nearly 80 years old.
Supreme asks if he can borrow some of the ASA’s trophies,
including the Future-O-Scope and Magno, to display in the Citadel Supreme.
Panel 3: Glory kisses Supreme goodbye. In the DC universe,
there has been an occasional flirtation between Superman and Wonder Woman -
they parted with a kiss at the end of Superman Annual #11 (1984) and shared
another kiss in Action Comics #600 (1988) - but it has never developed into
anything more serious, and Superman’s recent marriage to Lois Lane appears to
have shelved the issue. The possibility of a romance between Supreme and Glory
is explored in issue #50.
Page 24:
Panel 1: Supreme has apparently repaired Suprematon S-1
since last issue.
Because S-1 says he will have to instruct them, Suprematons
S-2 and S-3 presumably aren’t capable of independent thought.
Panel 2: Supreme dons his anti-Supremium suit, which was
first seen in the Souvenir Gallery Supreme last issue.
Note in the background that Hilda’s drawing of Supreme is
still taped to the wall. To the right are
the Future-O-Scope and the inert body of Magno, which Supreme removed from the
trophy room in the Allies’ headquarters.
Panels 3-4: Supreme prepares to investigate the mysteries of
Supremium.
Page 1:
Panel 1: As in the previous issue, we begin with a parallel narration, as Diana Dane enlists Ethan Crane to ask a favor of Supreme.
Panel 2: We learn that Billy Friday, who was taken off of Omniman last issue, is now planning a new autobiographical comic series.
Supreme is flying towards the Citadel Supreme carrying a figure wrapped in his cape. When Superman flew visitors to the Fortress of Solitude, he would frequently wrap them in his indestructible cape to protect them from the friction of his flight and to keep them warm in the frigid Arctic climate where the Fortress was located, as first shown in Action Comics #253 (1959).
Panel 3: Ethan expresses his annoyance at saddling Supreme with the arrogant, obnoxious Billy Friday. Despite this issue’s title, Billy is clearly not Supreme’s pal.
Panel 4: Setting down the figure in the cape, Supreme generates the artificial lightning bolt to open the Citadel’s doors, as we first saw him do in issue #43.
Page 2:
As Supreme enters the Citadel, we see a massive sword embedded in a block at the right edge of the panel. The sword is not identified, but may be intended to be Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Billy expresses skepticism about the stuffed body of Stupendo, the Simian Supreme, citing the Square-Cubed Law as proof that Stupendo could not exist. The Square-Cubed Law is a principle of biology that states that so long as a bipedal creature’s proportions remain the same, its mass will increase at a faster rate than its height (i.e., if height is squared mass will be cubed). This suggests that beyond a certain height, a human-shaped creature’s bones and muscles will no longer be capable of supporting its own mass.
Panel 2: Supreme reminds Billy that Stupendo was transformed by Supremium, which Supreme describes as a “meta-element” that distorts physical laws in its vicinity. Since Supreme also acquired his powers through exposure to Supremium, this may explain how he is able to exercise his powers in ways that obviously defy the laws of physics.
The Suprematons inform Supreme that his Supremium sample is still in its “white stage.” Unlike Kryptonite, which existed in several varieties with different colors and effects, the color and effects of Supremium are apparently based on the energy state of the individual sample.
Panel 3: Supreme expects that the Supremium sample will shortly enter its “violet stage,” just as did the violet Supremium which caused bizarre transformations in Supreme and Suprema in years past. As an experiment, Supreme is attempting to accelerate the changes in the Supremium through “particle bombardment” of the sample.
Panel 4: The Suprematons describe the birth of a new creature in the Imaginary Menagerie: an eight-legged chimera with hooves and glossy mane like a horse. It is the offspring of two creatures from Greek myth: a centaur (a creature with the torso of a man and the body of a horse) and a lamia (a vampiric demon, generally depicted as a snake with the head and torso of a woman).
Page 4:
Panel 1: One of the Suprematons notes that the villains imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors refuse to approach the glass to make themselves visible. Superman possessed a device called the Zone-O-Phone, which allowed him to see into the Phantom Zone to communicate with its inmates; if an inmate was not willing to speak to him, the inmate could simply move away from the window created by the Zone-O-Phone and retreat to elsewhere in the Zone.
Panel 2: The Suprematons note that it is the beginning of the new year for the inhabitants of Amalynth.
Panel 3: The body of Magno the Super Humanoid, which Supreme retrieved from the Allies’ headquarters last issue, has now been moved into the Allies Memorial Chamber in the Citadel Supreme.
Panel 4: We see that Billy has definitely touched the Supremium reaction chamber, which will shortly prove to be a very serious problem.
Page 5:
Panel 3: Billy asks Supreme if his experiments are “'black’ research for the nuclear conspiracy.” Billy’s paranoia and intellectual elitism are reminiscent of Alan Moore’s colleague Grant Morrison, the writer of the ultra-paranoid conspiracy adventure series The Invisibles for DC’s Vertigo imprint.
Page 6:
Panel 1: The “splash page” for this flashback story, “The Secret of the Supremium Man,” shows Supreme transformed into “modern art Supreme” bearing some resemblance to cubism. Cubism, an artistic style founded by painter Pablo Picasso circa 1911, presented fragmented objects, often constructed from abstract geometric shapes, in such a way that multiple aspects of the three-dimensional object are visible simultaneously.
Like Master Meteor (mentioned in issue #42), the Supremium Man may be partly inspired by the Kryptonite Kid, an alien villain who radiated green Kryptonite and who had the power to turn objects into Kryptonite who fought and nearly killed Superboy and Krypto in Superboy #83 and #99 (1960 and 1962), and who later became the Kryptonite Man.
Panel 2: Sally Crane, Ethan’s adoptive sister, mentions that Ethan now works in Omega City. As described in issue #41, Original Supreme, the first incarnation of Supreme, made his home in Omega City. Supreme currently lives in Omegapolis, which is what Omega City grew into.
Panel 3: Supreme gives Sally Crane a robotic duplicate of Radar, the Hound Supreme. Note that “Radar II” has spots; similarly, Krypto the Superdog used a washable wood stain to make himself spotted in order to preserve his and Superboy’s secret identities.
Page 7:
Panel 4: Sally sees “ghost people” looking down from the sky. The identities of these “ghosts” will be revealed in issue #52B.
Panel 5: Supreme exclaims “Great Luminous Nebulae!” Superman’s favorite epithets were references to his home planet Krypton, including “Great Krypton” and “Great Rao” (a reference to the supreme being in Kryptonian belief); Supreme seems to favor exclamations referring to stellar phenomena.
Page 8:
Panel 1: Sally feels dizzy from exposure to the Supremium Man’s radiation. This is the Supremium exposure that presumably is responsible for her gaining powers like her brother’s.
Panel 4: The reason for Supremium Man’s hostility towards Supreme, who apparently has never seen him before, will be made clear in issue #52B.
Panel 5: The Supremium Man’s radiations become violet-tinged, causing Supreme to feel strange. This presumably is Supreme’s first encounter with violet Supremium.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Supreme’s first violet Supremium transformation turns him into a Ventriloquist’s Dummy Supreme. This is reminiscent of a transformation experienced by the Flash in The Flash #133 (1964), in which the villain Abra Kadabra turned him into a wooden marionette.
Panel 3: Note that Sally’s hair has turned white just as Ethan’s did after he was exposed to Supremium as a boy.
Panel 6: The Supremium Man’s taunt (“you don’t realize you’re no match for me in any decade!”) is a hint of his true origins.
Page 11:
Panels 1-2: Doc Wells is referred to here as “Doc Erwin.” It is not clear if Wells’ first name is intended to be Erwin, or whether this is an error that was not corrected prior to publication.
Panel 4: Supreme's exclamation of "Merciful Mondrian" refers to modern artist Piet Mondrian (1872–1944). Supreme doesn't actually get turned into a Mondrian pastiche during this sequence; Mondrian didn't do people, preferring landscapes early in his career and non-representational geometric shapes later. (Mondrian did do a famous series of compositions based around red, white and yellow rectangles, so a Mondrian Supreme might not be entirely out of the question - but he'd have trouble carrying on his conversation with Doc Wells without a mouth...)
Panel 5: Supreme is transformed into a Picasso-like rendering of himself as seen in the splash page on page 6.
Page 12:
Panel 1: Supreme's transformation here is based on Salvador Dali's painting "The Face of War".
Panel 5: The Supremium Man says he “fell here from a terrible war in the heavens.” Again, all will be explained in issue #52B.
Panel 6: The Supremium Man suggests that there really is only one Supremium isotope spread throughout several points in time, a fact that Supreme will use in the next issue to help him locate Radar and Suprema.
Page 13:
Panel 2: The Supremium Man begins to shrink...
Panel 3: ...and becomes a singularity, dropping out of space and time. The graphic used to represent the singularity is reminiscent of the collage effect used by artist Jack Kirby to depict the Negative Zone, a weird antimatter dimension parallel to our own that was first seen in Marvel’s Fantastic Four #51 (1966).
Panel 5: Sally’s hair remains white, but she has not yet manifested any super-powers.
Page 14:
Panel 1: Supreme notes that all of his subsequent encounters with Supremium, including the sample used in this issue’s experiment, were with an artificial isotope he himself created in the mid-sixties. Similarly, Lex Luthor managed on several occasions to create synthetic Kryptonite to use on Superman when the genuine article was not available; he produced the first such sample in 1950 (Action Comics #141).
Panels 1-2: Billy Friday scoffs at the concept of Supreme’s secret identity, insisting that “your friends would recognize you, unless they were stupid.” Supreme, no doubt savoring the irony, replies, “one would assume so.” While Superman’s friends and coworkers often noted a resemblance between Superman and Clark Kent, only a few -- primarily Lois Lane and Lana Lang -- were ever openly suspicious that they were the same man; on many occasions, they uncovered evidence of that fact, only to have Clark convince them (often on the flimsiest pretenses imaginable) that they were mistaken.
Note that the crayon drawing of Supreme made by Hilda (in issue #42) is still hanging on the wall.
Page 15:
Panel 1: This is our first glimpse of Supreme’s Stadium Supreme, an amphitheater that later will be used to hold the trial of Knightsabre, a member of Youngblood charged with the murder of his teammate Riptide (in the Judgment Day mini-series).
Panels 1 and 2: Billy is beginning to undergo a transformation triggered by the violet Supremium.
Billy’s transformation in this issue is reminiscent of the many such changes Jimmy Olsen underwent both in the Superman strip and in his own series Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. Over the years, Jimmy was transformed into a giant, a devil, an enormous turtle, and many other forms. None of his changes, however, were caused by red Kryptonite, which had no effect on non-Kryptonians.
Page 16:
Panel 1: Billy’s uncontrollable growth is reminiscent of the gruesome changes undergone by the psychic Tetsuo Shima in Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga series Akira and its animated film adaptation.
Panel 2: Billy suggests a name for himself: Billy Friday, Elaborate Lad. Jimmy Olsen’s most frequent transformation was Elastic Lad; by drinking a vial of a special serum he could temporarily gain the power to stretch himself (like Plastic Man or the Marvel hero Mr. Fantastic). Jimmy first became Elastic Lad in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #31 (1962).
Page 19:
Panels 1-2: As Billy Friday’s expansion threatens to crack open the Hell of Mirrors, Korgo the Space Tyrant and Shadow Supreme rant at their captor:
Korgo: “The day is coming, Supreme!”
Shadow Supreme: “Accursed one! Our revenge shall consume you!”
Korgo: “Strike hard, dark one! Soon we shall be free!”
Panel 2: Supreme recalls with horror that the End (whose Armageddon Gauntlet is on display in the Citadel, as seen in issue #43) is imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors, and that he had threatened to destroy the Earth if he ever escaped. We do not see the End in this issue, but we will get a brief glimpse of him in issue #52B.
Page 20:
Panels 2-3: The destructive force of Billy’s expansion, which smashes several Suprematons, is once again reminiscent of Akira, where several unfortunate bystanders including Tetsuo’s own girlfriend were crushed to death within his rapidly expanding bulk.
Page 21:
Panels 2-3: Supreme heads for the Hall of Armaments in search of Optilux’s Photoplasmic Converter (seen earlier in this issue).
Page 22:
Panel 3: Supreme uses the Photoplasmic Converter to transform Billy into sentient light, trapping him in the Prism World of Amalynth. This solution is reminiscent of a story in Superboy #89 (June 1961) in which Superboy first met Mon-El, a space explorer from the planet Daxam with powers almost identical to Superman’s. Mon-El was poisoned by lead, which affects Daxamites the same way Kryptonite affects Kryptonian survivors. With no way to reverse the lead’s toxic effects on Mon-El’s body, Superboy was forced to send Mon-El to the Phantom Zone; Mon-El survived there for a thousand years as a bodiless phantom before he was freed by the Legion of Superheroes.
Panel 4: Supreme enlists S-1's help in explaining Billy’s fate to his coworkers.
Page 23:
Panel 1: S-1 poses as Supreme to allow Supreme and Ethan Crane to appear in the same place at the same time as he did in the flashback story in issue #43.
Panel 5: "Billy Friday - Hero of the Prism World" echoes the title of 1980s DC Comics series 'Amethyst - Princess of Gemworld' (a comparison I suspect Billy would not appreciate). Jonas Tate, enthusiastic about the idea of Billy writing autobiographical comics about his experiences in the Prism World, exclaims, “even Shooter never thought of this!” Jim Shooter is a comic writer who became the regular writer of the Legion of Superheroes strip in Adventure Comics in the late sixties while only 14 years old. He later became editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1978 to 1987, and he was responsible for inaugurating an era of sales-boosting gimmicks including the first major company-wide crossover, 1984's Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars.
Page 24:
Panel 1: We have another bit of dramatic irony as Diana Dane calls Supreme (as impersonated by S-1) “a bit cold and mechanical.” For the first time she notes Supreme’s resemblance to Ethan...
Panel 2: ...but notes that Supreme is “obviously a lot taller.” Superman, who is listed in DC’s Who’s Who series as being 6'3" tall, often deliberately slouched as Clark Kent to disguise his true height. Since the Suprematons are supposed to be exact duplicates, either Ethan Crane does the same thing or his height and impressive physique are less noticeable in street clothes.
Panels 3-4: Diana asks Ethan if Supreme ever had a female counterpart, and he says her name was Suprema. This is the first reference to Suprema in the current continuity, although we saw alternate versions of her in the Supremacy and have already seen her alter ego Sally Crane.
Page 1:
Panel 1: Ethan Crane is in the Omegapolis public library.
Panel 2: While flying through space, Supreme sees strange images as he approaches the speed of light.
A Moiré grid is a shimmering wave-like pattern seen when two sets of parallel lines are superimposed at an acute angle; the wavy distortions occasionally visible in computer monitors is a Moiré effect, a side effect of the physical configuration of the monitor’s picture tube.
The point-of-view perspective here is very similar to that of scenes in Miracleman #8 (also written by Moore) in which Miracleman crashes through Emil Gargunza’s laboratory.
Panel 3: Ethan looks up an old newspaper article about his own departure from Earth in the late sixties.
The name of the newspaper, the Daily Globe, is reminiscent of that great metropolitan newspaper, the Daily Planet.
The date of the article is May 1969.
The main article says that Supreme left the Earth in Suprema’s care; sidebars indicate that the President affirming his confidence in Suprema, but a poll shows ordinary citizens concerned. The President is presumably Lyndon Johnson, who in our world was President from November 1963 to January 1969.
The article notes that Suprema was “chirpy and confident.” As we will see in the next two issues, Suprema is always chirpy and confident; in Youngblood (third series) #1, Twilight describes her as being “like God’s pushy big sister.”
There is also a note that Suprema “modeled a new claret cape for the occasion.” Supergirl’s costume changed frequently during the sixties and seventies, and readers often submitted their own costume designs, which Supergirl would occasionally model in subsequent issues.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Supreme refers to the increase in mass an object experiences as it approaches the speed of light. The peculiar fact, established as a corollary of Einstein’s theory of general relativity in the early part of this century, has been demonstrated experimentally using particle accelerators, and is the reason why it apparently is impossible to travel faster than light. The closer to light speed an object comes, the more its mass increases and thus more force is required to accelerate it: to accelerate to the speed of light would require an infinite amount of energy, because the object would have infinite mass. Only photons, which have no mass, travel at the speed of light. Luckily, Supreme, being a superhero, is exempt from such minutiae.
Panel 2: Another newspaper article, this one dated October 1969, reports the Earth being threatened by Gorrl the Living Galaxy. Based on his appearance in this issue, Gorrl seems to be inspired by Ego the Living Planet, an enormous Marvel comics character who first appeared in The Mighty Thor #132. Ego was a sentient planet, a fraction of the size of Earth, who was fitted with a “sidereal propulsion unit” that allowed him to travel through space. He occasionally menaced the populations of inhabited worlds and was thwarted on several occasions by Thor and the Fantastic Four.
Panel 3: Supreme exceeds the speed of light. Before his 1986 revision, Superman could fly at many times the speed of light (he first flew faster than light as early as 1945, in Superman #35) allowing him to travel interstellar distances - or even, as mentioned in the notes for issue #42, through time - under his own power. In the current continuity, Superman is fast enough to reach escape velocity, but not fast enough to travel interstellar distances unaided.
Panel 4: A third newspaper article reports Suprema’s decision to become Gorrl’s companion in exchange for his sparing the Earth.
Panel 5: As Supreme flies through space, he sees three shapes pass him traveling in the opposite direction, a phenomenon which is explained later in this issue.
Page 3:
Rick Veitch’s art style in this flashback story, “The Hussy from Heck,” is modeled on that of artist Jim Mooney, who was the primary artist of Supergirl’s strip in Action Comics during the fifties and sixties. Aiding the resemblance is Mooney himself, who inked Veitch’s pencils in this sequence.
Panel 2: Sally Crane is shown living in Glenvale. Supergirl, in her secret identity of Linda Danvers, lived in the small town of Midville.
Page 5:
Panel 1: This story is somewhat reminiscent of a 1972 Supergirl story entitled “Demon Spawn,” in which the villainess Nightflame, an evil version of Supergirl, imprisoned the Girl of Steel within a “microcosmos” in Supergirl’s own mind and then took Supergirl’s place (Adventure Comics #421). In 1963 there also was a villainess called Satan Girl who fought Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes. Satan Girl was a duplicate of Supergirl created by exposure to red Kryptonite in 1963; she attempted to drain the red Kryptonite radiation from her body so that she would not disappear once the red-K’s effects wore off. She was exposed to green Kryptonite and perished before she was able to carry out her plan. (Adventure Comics #313).
There also is a Marvel Comics character called Satana, the daughter of the Devil and the sister of Damien Hellstrom, the unlikely superhero Son of Satan.
Panel 6: Here we see Sally Crane’s girlhood sweetheart, Troy Taylor. Supergirl had a boyfriend named Dick Wilson (changed to Dick Malverne after he was adopted), another resident of the Midville Orphanage.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Suprema remarks that her powers are useless against sorcery. Superman and Supergirl’s powers gave them no special protection from magic spells or artifacts, which had the same effect on them as on any ordinary mortal.
Panel 3: This is Lord Sin, ruler of Hades. Each of his seven heads represents one of the seven deadly sins: greed, lust, hate, sloth, pride, gluttony, and envy.
Page 9:
Panel 6: Suprema tells Satana she would be much nicer if she got “more fresh air and exercise.” This was the recurring message in a series of public service ads which ran in Superman beginning in the late thirties, urging readers to become more fit. Superman’s co-creator Joe Shuster was an exercise enthusiast, and the ads may have been his inspiration.
Page 11:
Panel 2: Appropriately, Gorrl bears a strong resemblance to astrological illustrations showing the major constellations.
Page 13:
Panel 1: Supreme notes that Sally’s powers manifested “some months” after her encounter with the Supremium Man (shown in flashback in issue #45).
Panel 2: Perhaps inspired by the Supremium Man’s cryptic remark that there is really only one sample of Supremium in the universe spread across time, Supreme uses the affinity of his own Supremium-irradiated cells for Suprema’s to track his sister through space.
Panel 3: Supreme remarks that his super-senses - telescopic vision, “micro-sight,” and “hyper-hearing” - are not actually physical senses at all but an extension of his own consciousness. This is reminiscent of the Marvel Comics character Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), who gained “cosmic awareness” in the mid-seventies (Captain Marvel #33-#34). It also addresses the fact that Superman’s sensory powers defied the laws of physics just as much as his flight. He could hear events taking place thousands of miles away, faster than the sound (which travels at about 750 miles per hour at sea level) could possibly reach his ears, and could see instantaneously across interstellar distances that it would take light decades to cross. In fact, in some stories, Superman was able to witness (and even photograph) past events by overtaking light rays, a trick he first performed in 1947 (Action Comics #111).
Page 14:
Panel 1: Supreme discovers Radar, the Hound Supreme, frozen in a block of ice.
Panel 2: Supreme channels his body’s surplus energy to his retinas to produce blasts of destructive energy, referred to as his “Stare Supreme,” analogous to Superman’s heat vision. According to current explanations of his powers, this is essentially how Superman’s heat vision works. Superman’s body processes solar energy with incredible efficiency to power the “bioelectric aura” surrounding his cells that gives him his strength and invulnerability; if he has enough excess energy, he can release some of it as infrared beams from his eyes. Previously, Superman’s heat vision was a byproduct of his x-ray vision; in the fifties, Superman more commonly described the power as “the heat of my x-ray vision” (in current Superman continuity, his x-ray vision actually enables him to see radiation invisible to normal humans, and does not involve projecting radiation from his eyes).
Panel 3: The art here is scientifically inaccurate: the drops of liquid water from the melting ice should be spherical. In zero-gee, liquid forms itself into perfect spheres.
Panel 4: Radar’s metabolism has slowed to a crawl to increase his chances of survival. This has precedent in the Superman mythos: following his apparent death at the hands of Doomsday in 1993 (Superman (2nd series) #75), Superman was still been alive for hours or perhaps days, despite the inability of paramedics to detect any life signs. Similarly, after Legion of Superheroes member Mon-El, whose powers are nearly identical to Superman, apparently died of internal injuries (Legion of Superheroes (3rd series) #62), he was actually alive (albeit in an exceptionally deep coma) even though his vital signs had flatlined (Legion of Superheroes (4th series) #3 and #4).
Page 15:
Panels 3 and 6: A black hole is a bizarre stellar phenomenon caused by the death of a star many times larger than the sun. The mass at the star’s interior becomes so dense that it collapses to form a singularity, an object with incredible mass but no height, length, or width. The singularity’s gravity is so enormous that it draws surrounding matter towards it in the manner of a whirlpool. The name “black hole” comes from the fact that the area of space nearest the singularity would appear pure black; its gravity would be so strong that the velocity necessary to escape its pull would exceed the speed of light. The edge of this lightless area, from which nothing can escape, is called the event horizon.
The presence of the black hole within Gorrl’s confines has a basis in current astronomy; it is believed that there are massive black holes at the centers of galaxies.
Page 16: As Supreme and Radar approach the event horizon, they find themselves stretched and distorted because the gravitational pull is greater on the parts of their bodies nearest the black hole than on their extremities.
Page 17:
Panel 2: Radar says that the strange landscape he and Supreme find themselves in smells “like the moon shining in water.” Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to the precise meaning of Radar’s bizarre metaphor, but what’s important is that here, as at several key points in the series, Radar is less susceptible to disguises and illusions than humans, even his super-powered master.
Panel 3: The enormous objects filling this space represent the stereotypical concerns of a teenage girl of the sixties: a telephone, a hairbrush, and a perfume atomizer.
Panel 4: The strange space also contains “human icons from the nineteen sixties” including images of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Also note the giant stuffed rabbit, perhaps one of Suprema’s childhood toys.
Page 19:
Panel 2: Supreme discovers that Suprema has been affected by time dilation. By falling into a black hole, an object is accelerated rapidly, approaching the speed of light as it approaches the center. As established by general relativity, time passes more slowly for objects traveling at high speeds than it does for a stationary observer. Thus, while almost thirty years have elapsed on Earth, in Suprema’s frame of reference it has only been a short time, perhaps a few hours.
Panel 6: When told of Gorrl’s infatuation with her Suprema says, “I didn’t realize he thought we were dating.” Given the headlines we saw on page 2 describing her “wedding” to Gorrl (which she presumably would have seen before her departure), this remark seems rather disingenuous.
Page 20:
Inset panel 2: Supreme offers a bit of pseudo science, saying that if “something called gravity radiation” can escape from a black hole, so can they. At one time, physicists theorized the existence of gravitons, subatomic rays or particles which carry gravitational force the same way electrons carry electrical force. However, more recent theories suggest instead that the reason objects are drawn towards larger objects is that they are following the “curve” created in space by the larger object’s mass. An analogy would be to drop a bowling ball onto the middle of a cushion: if a marble is then dropped on the curtain it will roll down into the depression created by the bowling ball. If this theory is correct, there is no reason to believe that gravitational force requires a carrier.
To complete their escape Supreme urges his companions to accelerate to “lightspeed plus.” If the laws of physics applied to Supreme, this wouldn’t help, because the closer to light speed he accelerated, the greater his mass would become and the more strongly he would be drawn towards the singularity. Luckily, Supremium radiation apparently defies physical law.
Page 21:
Panel 2: Here Gorrl’s face particularly resembles that of Ego the Living Planet.
Quasars are objects that resemble stars but appear to be much further away than any of the stars in our own or neighboring galaxies. They emit tremendous radiation, mostly as ultraviolet light and radio waves. Their origins and true nature remain a mystery to modern astronomers. The name “quasar,” first coined in 1964, was derived from the term “quasi-stellar.”
Page 22:
Panel 4: Suprema’s farewell to Gorrl reveals a truly romantic heart: “goodbye, my starry darling.”
Page 23:
Panel 1: Supreme notes that the stars that comprise Gorrl are red-shifting. Red- and blue-shifts are a result of the Doppler effect: light waves emanating from a moving object will appear to be a higher or lower frequency (and thus a different color) just as sounds from a moving object will sound higher or lower pitched to a stationary observer. If an object is moving towards the observer, the waves will arrive closer together (at higher frequency) and be shifted towards the blue (or violet) end of the spectrum; if an object is moving away, the waves will take longer to arrive (a lower frequency) and will appear shifted towards the red end of the spectrum.
Page 24:
Panel 1: The three heroes see Supreme traveling in the opposite direction, revealing that Supreme, Suprema, and Radar are the three shapes Supreme saw on page 2.
Radar’s collar, which contains the speakers which allow him to talk, apparently also contains a radio.
Panel 2: We hear two of the nicknames given to Suprema: the Maid of Might, and the Lass of Laurels. Supergirl was also referred to as “the Maid of Might;” “Lass of Laurels” is analogous to “Girl of Steel,” the most common nickname for Supergirl.
Supreme #45
Page 1:Panel 2: We learn that Billy Friday, who was taken off of Omniman last issue, is now planning a new autobiographical comic series.
Supreme is flying towards the Citadel Supreme carrying a figure wrapped in his cape. When Superman flew visitors to the Fortress of Solitude, he would frequently wrap them in his indestructible cape to protect them from the friction of his flight and to keep them warm in the frigid Arctic climate where the Fortress was located, as first shown in Action Comics #253 (1959).
Panel 3: Ethan expresses his annoyance at saddling Supreme with the arrogant, obnoxious Billy Friday. Despite this issue’s title, Billy is clearly not Supreme’s pal.
Panel 4: Setting down the figure in the cape, Supreme generates the artificial lightning bolt to open the Citadel’s doors, as we first saw him do in issue #43.
Page 2:
As Supreme enters the Citadel, we see a massive sword embedded in a block at the right edge of the panel. The sword is not identified, but may be intended to be Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Billy expresses skepticism about the stuffed body of Stupendo, the Simian Supreme, citing the Square-Cubed Law as proof that Stupendo could not exist. The Square-Cubed Law is a principle of biology that states that so long as a bipedal creature’s proportions remain the same, its mass will increase at a faster rate than its height (i.e., if height is squared mass will be cubed). This suggests that beyond a certain height, a human-shaped creature’s bones and muscles will no longer be capable of supporting its own mass.
Panel 2: Supreme reminds Billy that Stupendo was transformed by Supremium, which Supreme describes as a “meta-element” that distorts physical laws in its vicinity. Since Supreme also acquired his powers through exposure to Supremium, this may explain how he is able to exercise his powers in ways that obviously defy the laws of physics.
The Suprematons inform Supreme that his Supremium sample is still in its “white stage.” Unlike Kryptonite, which existed in several varieties with different colors and effects, the color and effects of Supremium are apparently based on the energy state of the individual sample.
Panel 3: Supreme expects that the Supremium sample will shortly enter its “violet stage,” just as did the violet Supremium which caused bizarre transformations in Supreme and Suprema in years past. As an experiment, Supreme is attempting to accelerate the changes in the Supremium through “particle bombardment” of the sample.
Panel 4: The Suprematons describe the birth of a new creature in the Imaginary Menagerie: an eight-legged chimera with hooves and glossy mane like a horse. It is the offspring of two creatures from Greek myth: a centaur (a creature with the torso of a man and the body of a horse) and a lamia (a vampiric demon, generally depicted as a snake with the head and torso of a woman).
Page 4:
Panel 1: One of the Suprematons notes that the villains imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors refuse to approach the glass to make themselves visible. Superman possessed a device called the Zone-O-Phone, which allowed him to see into the Phantom Zone to communicate with its inmates; if an inmate was not willing to speak to him, the inmate could simply move away from the window created by the Zone-O-Phone and retreat to elsewhere in the Zone.
Panel 2: The Suprematons note that it is the beginning of the new year for the inhabitants of Amalynth.
Panel 3: The body of Magno the Super Humanoid, which Supreme retrieved from the Allies’ headquarters last issue, has now been moved into the Allies Memorial Chamber in the Citadel Supreme.
Panel 4: We see that Billy has definitely touched the Supremium reaction chamber, which will shortly prove to be a very serious problem.
Page 5:
Panel 3: Billy asks Supreme if his experiments are “'black’ research for the nuclear conspiracy.” Billy’s paranoia and intellectual elitism are reminiscent of Alan Moore’s colleague Grant Morrison, the writer of the ultra-paranoid conspiracy adventure series The Invisibles for DC’s Vertigo imprint.
Page 6:
Panel 1: The “splash page” for this flashback story, “The Secret of the Supremium Man,” shows Supreme transformed into “modern art Supreme” bearing some resemblance to cubism. Cubism, an artistic style founded by painter Pablo Picasso circa 1911, presented fragmented objects, often constructed from abstract geometric shapes, in such a way that multiple aspects of the three-dimensional object are visible simultaneously.
Like Master Meteor (mentioned in issue #42), the Supremium Man may be partly inspired by the Kryptonite Kid, an alien villain who radiated green Kryptonite and who had the power to turn objects into Kryptonite who fought and nearly killed Superboy and Krypto in Superboy #83 and #99 (1960 and 1962), and who later became the Kryptonite Man.
Panel 2: Sally Crane, Ethan’s adoptive sister, mentions that Ethan now works in Omega City. As described in issue #41, Original Supreme, the first incarnation of Supreme, made his home in Omega City. Supreme currently lives in Omegapolis, which is what Omega City grew into.
Panel 3: Supreme gives Sally Crane a robotic duplicate of Radar, the Hound Supreme. Note that “Radar II” has spots; similarly, Krypto the Superdog used a washable wood stain to make himself spotted in order to preserve his and Superboy’s secret identities.
Page 7:
Panel 4: Sally sees “ghost people” looking down from the sky. The identities of these “ghosts” will be revealed in issue #52B.
Panel 5: Supreme exclaims “Great Luminous Nebulae!” Superman’s favorite epithets were references to his home planet Krypton, including “Great Krypton” and “Great Rao” (a reference to the supreme being in Kryptonian belief); Supreme seems to favor exclamations referring to stellar phenomena.
Page 8:
Panel 1: Sally feels dizzy from exposure to the Supremium Man’s radiation. This is the Supremium exposure that presumably is responsible for her gaining powers like her brother’s.
Panel 4: The reason for Supremium Man’s hostility towards Supreme, who apparently has never seen him before, will be made clear in issue #52B.
Panel 5: The Supremium Man’s radiations become violet-tinged, causing Supreme to feel strange. This presumably is Supreme’s first encounter with violet Supremium.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Supreme’s first violet Supremium transformation turns him into a Ventriloquist’s Dummy Supreme. This is reminiscent of a transformation experienced by the Flash in The Flash #133 (1964), in which the villain Abra Kadabra turned him into a wooden marionette.
Panel 3: Note that Sally’s hair has turned white just as Ethan’s did after he was exposed to Supremium as a boy.
Panel 6: The Supremium Man’s taunt (“you don’t realize you’re no match for me in any decade!”) is a hint of his true origins.
Page 11:
Panels 1-2: Doc Wells is referred to here as “Doc Erwin.” It is not clear if Wells’ first name is intended to be Erwin, or whether this is an error that was not corrected prior to publication.
Panel 4: Supreme's exclamation of "Merciful Mondrian" refers to modern artist Piet Mondrian (1872–1944). Supreme doesn't actually get turned into a Mondrian pastiche during this sequence; Mondrian didn't do people, preferring landscapes early in his career and non-representational geometric shapes later. (Mondrian did do a famous series of compositions based around red, white and yellow rectangles, so a Mondrian Supreme might not be entirely out of the question - but he'd have trouble carrying on his conversation with Doc Wells without a mouth...)
Panel 5: Supreme is transformed into a Picasso-like rendering of himself as seen in the splash page on page 6.
Page 12:
Panel 1: Supreme's transformation here is based on Salvador Dali's painting "The Face of War".
Panel 5: The Supremium Man says he “fell here from a terrible war in the heavens.” Again, all will be explained in issue #52B.
Panel 6: The Supremium Man suggests that there really is only one Supremium isotope spread throughout several points in time, a fact that Supreme will use in the next issue to help him locate Radar and Suprema.
Page 13:
Panel 2: The Supremium Man begins to shrink...
Panel 3: ...and becomes a singularity, dropping out of space and time. The graphic used to represent the singularity is reminiscent of the collage effect used by artist Jack Kirby to depict the Negative Zone, a weird antimatter dimension parallel to our own that was first seen in Marvel’s Fantastic Four #51 (1966).
Panel 5: Sally’s hair remains white, but she has not yet manifested any super-powers.
Page 14:
Panel 1: Supreme notes that all of his subsequent encounters with Supremium, including the sample used in this issue’s experiment, were with an artificial isotope he himself created in the mid-sixties. Similarly, Lex Luthor managed on several occasions to create synthetic Kryptonite to use on Superman when the genuine article was not available; he produced the first such sample in 1950 (Action Comics #141).
Panels 1-2: Billy Friday scoffs at the concept of Supreme’s secret identity, insisting that “your friends would recognize you, unless they were stupid.” Supreme, no doubt savoring the irony, replies, “one would assume so.” While Superman’s friends and coworkers often noted a resemblance between Superman and Clark Kent, only a few -- primarily Lois Lane and Lana Lang -- were ever openly suspicious that they were the same man; on many occasions, they uncovered evidence of that fact, only to have Clark convince them (often on the flimsiest pretenses imaginable) that they were mistaken.
Note that the crayon drawing of Supreme made by Hilda (in issue #42) is still hanging on the wall.
Page 15:
Panel 1: This is our first glimpse of Supreme’s Stadium Supreme, an amphitheater that later will be used to hold the trial of Knightsabre, a member of Youngblood charged with the murder of his teammate Riptide (in the Judgment Day mini-series).
Panels 1 and 2: Billy is beginning to undergo a transformation triggered by the violet Supremium.
Billy’s transformation in this issue is reminiscent of the many such changes Jimmy Olsen underwent both in the Superman strip and in his own series Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen. Over the years, Jimmy was transformed into a giant, a devil, an enormous turtle, and many other forms. None of his changes, however, were caused by red Kryptonite, which had no effect on non-Kryptonians.
Page 16:
Panel 1: Billy’s uncontrollable growth is reminiscent of the gruesome changes undergone by the psychic Tetsuo Shima in Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga series Akira and its animated film adaptation.
Panel 2: Billy suggests a name for himself: Billy Friday, Elaborate Lad. Jimmy Olsen’s most frequent transformation was Elastic Lad; by drinking a vial of a special serum he could temporarily gain the power to stretch himself (like Plastic Man or the Marvel hero Mr. Fantastic). Jimmy first became Elastic Lad in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #31 (1962).
Page 19:
Panels 1-2: As Billy Friday’s expansion threatens to crack open the Hell of Mirrors, Korgo the Space Tyrant and Shadow Supreme rant at their captor:
Korgo: “The day is coming, Supreme!”
Shadow Supreme: “Accursed one! Our revenge shall consume you!”
Korgo: “Strike hard, dark one! Soon we shall be free!”
Panel 2: Supreme recalls with horror that the End (whose Armageddon Gauntlet is on display in the Citadel, as seen in issue #43) is imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors, and that he had threatened to destroy the Earth if he ever escaped. We do not see the End in this issue, but we will get a brief glimpse of him in issue #52B.
Page 20:
Panels 2-3: The destructive force of Billy’s expansion, which smashes several Suprematons, is once again reminiscent of Akira, where several unfortunate bystanders including Tetsuo’s own girlfriend were crushed to death within his rapidly expanding bulk.
Page 21:
Panels 2-3: Supreme heads for the Hall of Armaments in search of Optilux’s Photoplasmic Converter (seen earlier in this issue).
Page 22:
Panel 3: Supreme uses the Photoplasmic Converter to transform Billy into sentient light, trapping him in the Prism World of Amalynth. This solution is reminiscent of a story in Superboy #89 (June 1961) in which Superboy first met Mon-El, a space explorer from the planet Daxam with powers almost identical to Superman’s. Mon-El was poisoned by lead, which affects Daxamites the same way Kryptonite affects Kryptonian survivors. With no way to reverse the lead’s toxic effects on Mon-El’s body, Superboy was forced to send Mon-El to the Phantom Zone; Mon-El survived there for a thousand years as a bodiless phantom before he was freed by the Legion of Superheroes.
Panel 4: Supreme enlists S-1's help in explaining Billy’s fate to his coworkers.
Page 23:
Panel 1: S-1 poses as Supreme to allow Supreme and Ethan Crane to appear in the same place at the same time as he did in the flashback story in issue #43.
Panel 5: "Billy Friday - Hero of the Prism World" echoes the title of 1980s DC Comics series 'Amethyst - Princess of Gemworld' (a comparison I suspect Billy would not appreciate). Jonas Tate, enthusiastic about the idea of Billy writing autobiographical comics about his experiences in the Prism World, exclaims, “even Shooter never thought of this!” Jim Shooter is a comic writer who became the regular writer of the Legion of Superheroes strip in Adventure Comics in the late sixties while only 14 years old. He later became editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics from 1978 to 1987, and he was responsible for inaugurating an era of sales-boosting gimmicks including the first major company-wide crossover, 1984's Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars.
Page 24:
Panel 1: We have another bit of dramatic irony as Diana Dane calls Supreme (as impersonated by S-1) “a bit cold and mechanical.” For the first time she notes Supreme’s resemblance to Ethan...
Panel 2: ...but notes that Supreme is “obviously a lot taller.” Superman, who is listed in DC’s Who’s Who series as being 6'3" tall, often deliberately slouched as Clark Kent to disguise his true height. Since the Suprematons are supposed to be exact duplicates, either Ethan Crane does the same thing or his height and impressive physique are less noticeable in street clothes.
Panels 3-4: Diana asks Ethan if Supreme ever had a female counterpart, and he says her name was Suprema. This is the first reference to Suprema in the current continuity, although we saw alternate versions of her in the Supremacy and have already seen her alter ego Sally Crane.
Supreme #46
Panel 1: Ethan Crane is in the Omegapolis public library.
Panel 2: While flying through space, Supreme sees strange images as he approaches the speed of light.
A Moiré grid is a shimmering wave-like pattern seen when two sets of parallel lines are superimposed at an acute angle; the wavy distortions occasionally visible in computer monitors is a Moiré effect, a side effect of the physical configuration of the monitor’s picture tube.
The point-of-view perspective here is very similar to that of scenes in Miracleman #8 (also written by Moore) in which Miracleman crashes through Emil Gargunza’s laboratory.
Panel 3: Ethan looks up an old newspaper article about his own departure from Earth in the late sixties.
The name of the newspaper, the Daily Globe, is reminiscent of that great metropolitan newspaper, the Daily Planet.
The date of the article is May 1969.
The main article says that Supreme left the Earth in Suprema’s care; sidebars indicate that the President affirming his confidence in Suprema, but a poll shows ordinary citizens concerned. The President is presumably Lyndon Johnson, who in our world was President from November 1963 to January 1969.
The article notes that Suprema was “chirpy and confident.” As we will see in the next two issues, Suprema is always chirpy and confident; in Youngblood (third series) #1, Twilight describes her as being “like God’s pushy big sister.”
There is also a note that Suprema “modeled a new claret cape for the occasion.” Supergirl’s costume changed frequently during the sixties and seventies, and readers often submitted their own costume designs, which Supergirl would occasionally model in subsequent issues.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Supreme refers to the increase in mass an object experiences as it approaches the speed of light. The peculiar fact, established as a corollary of Einstein’s theory of general relativity in the early part of this century, has been demonstrated experimentally using particle accelerators, and is the reason why it apparently is impossible to travel faster than light. The closer to light speed an object comes, the more its mass increases and thus more force is required to accelerate it: to accelerate to the speed of light would require an infinite amount of energy, because the object would have infinite mass. Only photons, which have no mass, travel at the speed of light. Luckily, Supreme, being a superhero, is exempt from such minutiae.
Panel 2: Another newspaper article, this one dated October 1969, reports the Earth being threatened by Gorrl the Living Galaxy. Based on his appearance in this issue, Gorrl seems to be inspired by Ego the Living Planet, an enormous Marvel comics character who first appeared in The Mighty Thor #132. Ego was a sentient planet, a fraction of the size of Earth, who was fitted with a “sidereal propulsion unit” that allowed him to travel through space. He occasionally menaced the populations of inhabited worlds and was thwarted on several occasions by Thor and the Fantastic Four.
Panel 3: Supreme exceeds the speed of light. Before his 1986 revision, Superman could fly at many times the speed of light (he first flew faster than light as early as 1945, in Superman #35) allowing him to travel interstellar distances - or even, as mentioned in the notes for issue #42, through time - under his own power. In the current continuity, Superman is fast enough to reach escape velocity, but not fast enough to travel interstellar distances unaided.
Panel 4: A third newspaper article reports Suprema’s decision to become Gorrl’s companion in exchange for his sparing the Earth.
Panel 5: As Supreme flies through space, he sees three shapes pass him traveling in the opposite direction, a phenomenon which is explained later in this issue.
Page 3:
Rick Veitch’s art style in this flashback story, “The Hussy from Heck,” is modeled on that of artist Jim Mooney, who was the primary artist of Supergirl’s strip in Action Comics during the fifties and sixties. Aiding the resemblance is Mooney himself, who inked Veitch’s pencils in this sequence.
Panel 2: Sally Crane is shown living in Glenvale. Supergirl, in her secret identity of Linda Danvers, lived in the small town of Midville.
Page 5:
Panel 1: This story is somewhat reminiscent of a 1972 Supergirl story entitled “Demon Spawn,” in which the villainess Nightflame, an evil version of Supergirl, imprisoned the Girl of Steel within a “microcosmos” in Supergirl’s own mind and then took Supergirl’s place (Adventure Comics #421). In 1963 there also was a villainess called Satan Girl who fought Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes. Satan Girl was a duplicate of Supergirl created by exposure to red Kryptonite in 1963; she attempted to drain the red Kryptonite radiation from her body so that she would not disappear once the red-K’s effects wore off. She was exposed to green Kryptonite and perished before she was able to carry out her plan. (Adventure Comics #313).
There also is a Marvel Comics character called Satana, the daughter of the Devil and the sister of Damien Hellstrom, the unlikely superhero Son of Satan.
Panel 6: Here we see Sally Crane’s girlhood sweetheart, Troy Taylor. Supergirl had a boyfriend named Dick Wilson (changed to Dick Malverne after he was adopted), another resident of the Midville Orphanage.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Suprema remarks that her powers are useless against sorcery. Superman and Supergirl’s powers gave them no special protection from magic spells or artifacts, which had the same effect on them as on any ordinary mortal.
Panel 3: This is Lord Sin, ruler of Hades. Each of his seven heads represents one of the seven deadly sins: greed, lust, hate, sloth, pride, gluttony, and envy.
Page 9:
Panel 6: Suprema tells Satana she would be much nicer if she got “more fresh air and exercise.” This was the recurring message in a series of public service ads which ran in Superman beginning in the late thirties, urging readers to become more fit. Superman’s co-creator Joe Shuster was an exercise enthusiast, and the ads may have been his inspiration.
Page 11:
Panel 2: Appropriately, Gorrl bears a strong resemblance to astrological illustrations showing the major constellations.
Page 13:
Panel 1: Supreme notes that Sally’s powers manifested “some months” after her encounter with the Supremium Man (shown in flashback in issue #45).
Panel 2: Perhaps inspired by the Supremium Man’s cryptic remark that there is really only one sample of Supremium in the universe spread across time, Supreme uses the affinity of his own Supremium-irradiated cells for Suprema’s to track his sister through space.
Panel 3: Supreme remarks that his super-senses - telescopic vision, “micro-sight,” and “hyper-hearing” - are not actually physical senses at all but an extension of his own consciousness. This is reminiscent of the Marvel Comics character Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), who gained “cosmic awareness” in the mid-seventies (Captain Marvel #33-#34). It also addresses the fact that Superman’s sensory powers defied the laws of physics just as much as his flight. He could hear events taking place thousands of miles away, faster than the sound (which travels at about 750 miles per hour at sea level) could possibly reach his ears, and could see instantaneously across interstellar distances that it would take light decades to cross. In fact, in some stories, Superman was able to witness (and even photograph) past events by overtaking light rays, a trick he first performed in 1947 (Action Comics #111).
Page 14:
Panel 1: Supreme discovers Radar, the Hound Supreme, frozen in a block of ice.
Panel 2: Supreme channels his body’s surplus energy to his retinas to produce blasts of destructive energy, referred to as his “Stare Supreme,” analogous to Superman’s heat vision. According to current explanations of his powers, this is essentially how Superman’s heat vision works. Superman’s body processes solar energy with incredible efficiency to power the “bioelectric aura” surrounding his cells that gives him his strength and invulnerability; if he has enough excess energy, he can release some of it as infrared beams from his eyes. Previously, Superman’s heat vision was a byproduct of his x-ray vision; in the fifties, Superman more commonly described the power as “the heat of my x-ray vision” (in current Superman continuity, his x-ray vision actually enables him to see radiation invisible to normal humans, and does not involve projecting radiation from his eyes).
Panel 3: The art here is scientifically inaccurate: the drops of liquid water from the melting ice should be spherical. In zero-gee, liquid forms itself into perfect spheres.
Panel 4: Radar’s metabolism has slowed to a crawl to increase his chances of survival. This has precedent in the Superman mythos: following his apparent death at the hands of Doomsday in 1993 (Superman (2nd series) #75), Superman was still been alive for hours or perhaps days, despite the inability of paramedics to detect any life signs. Similarly, after Legion of Superheroes member Mon-El, whose powers are nearly identical to Superman, apparently died of internal injuries (Legion of Superheroes (3rd series) #62), he was actually alive (albeit in an exceptionally deep coma) even though his vital signs had flatlined (Legion of Superheroes (4th series) #3 and #4).
Page 15:
Panels 3 and 6: A black hole is a bizarre stellar phenomenon caused by the death of a star many times larger than the sun. The mass at the star’s interior becomes so dense that it collapses to form a singularity, an object with incredible mass but no height, length, or width. The singularity’s gravity is so enormous that it draws surrounding matter towards it in the manner of a whirlpool. The name “black hole” comes from the fact that the area of space nearest the singularity would appear pure black; its gravity would be so strong that the velocity necessary to escape its pull would exceed the speed of light. The edge of this lightless area, from which nothing can escape, is called the event horizon.
The presence of the black hole within Gorrl’s confines has a basis in current astronomy; it is believed that there are massive black holes at the centers of galaxies.
Page 16: As Supreme and Radar approach the event horizon, they find themselves stretched and distorted because the gravitational pull is greater on the parts of their bodies nearest the black hole than on their extremities.
Page 17:
Panel 2: Radar says that the strange landscape he and Supreme find themselves in smells “like the moon shining in water.” Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to the precise meaning of Radar’s bizarre metaphor, but what’s important is that here, as at several key points in the series, Radar is less susceptible to disguises and illusions than humans, even his super-powered master.
Panel 3: The enormous objects filling this space represent the stereotypical concerns of a teenage girl of the sixties: a telephone, a hairbrush, and a perfume atomizer.
Panel 4: The strange space also contains “human icons from the nineteen sixties” including images of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Also note the giant stuffed rabbit, perhaps one of Suprema’s childhood toys.
Page 19:
Panel 2: Supreme discovers that Suprema has been affected by time dilation. By falling into a black hole, an object is accelerated rapidly, approaching the speed of light as it approaches the center. As established by general relativity, time passes more slowly for objects traveling at high speeds than it does for a stationary observer. Thus, while almost thirty years have elapsed on Earth, in Suprema’s frame of reference it has only been a short time, perhaps a few hours.
Panel 6: When told of Gorrl’s infatuation with her Suprema says, “I didn’t realize he thought we were dating.” Given the headlines we saw on page 2 describing her “wedding” to Gorrl (which she presumably would have seen before her departure), this remark seems rather disingenuous.
Page 20:
Inset panel 2: Supreme offers a bit of pseudo science, saying that if “something called gravity radiation” can escape from a black hole, so can they. At one time, physicists theorized the existence of gravitons, subatomic rays or particles which carry gravitational force the same way electrons carry electrical force. However, more recent theories suggest instead that the reason objects are drawn towards larger objects is that they are following the “curve” created in space by the larger object’s mass. An analogy would be to drop a bowling ball onto the middle of a cushion: if a marble is then dropped on the curtain it will roll down into the depression created by the bowling ball. If this theory is correct, there is no reason to believe that gravitational force requires a carrier.
To complete their escape Supreme urges his companions to accelerate to “lightspeed plus.” If the laws of physics applied to Supreme, this wouldn’t help, because the closer to light speed he accelerated, the greater his mass would become and the more strongly he would be drawn towards the singularity. Luckily, Supremium radiation apparently defies physical law.
Page 21:
Panel 2: Here Gorrl’s face particularly resembles that of Ego the Living Planet.
Quasars are objects that resemble stars but appear to be much further away than any of the stars in our own or neighboring galaxies. They emit tremendous radiation, mostly as ultraviolet light and radio waves. Their origins and true nature remain a mystery to modern astronomers. The name “quasar,” first coined in 1964, was derived from the term “quasi-stellar.”
Page 22:
Panel 4: Suprema’s farewell to Gorrl reveals a truly romantic heart: “goodbye, my starry darling.”
Page 23:
Panel 1: Supreme notes that the stars that comprise Gorrl are red-shifting. Red- and blue-shifts are a result of the Doppler effect: light waves emanating from a moving object will appear to be a higher or lower frequency (and thus a different color) just as sounds from a moving object will sound higher or lower pitched to a stationary observer. If an object is moving towards the observer, the waves will arrive closer together (at higher frequency) and be shifted towards the blue (or violet) end of the spectrum; if an object is moving away, the waves will take longer to arrive (a lower frequency) and will appear shifted towards the red end of the spectrum.
Page 24:
Panel 1: The three heroes see Supreme traveling in the opposite direction, revealing that Supreme, Suprema, and Radar are the three shapes Supreme saw on page 2.
Radar’s collar, which contains the speakers which allow him to talk, apparently also contains a radio.
Panel 2: We hear two of the nicknames given to Suprema: the Maid of Might, and the Lass of Laurels. Supergirl was also referred to as “the Maid of Might;” “Lass of Laurels” is analogous to “Girl of Steel,” the most common nickname for Supergirl.
Supreme #47
Page 1:
Here we see Radar the Hound Supreme back in action after thirty years.
Page 2:
Suprema and Radar, perhaps hoping to make up for lost time, are on a one-woman, one-dog crusade to clean up Omegapolis.
Note Suprema’s disapproval of swearing: while Supergirl had a certain reputation as a goodie-two-shoes, Suprema is quite a prig.
Page 3:
Suprema employs her Shout Supreme. Superman (and Supergirl) had a similarly powerful voice; in one 1942 story he shouted so loud that his voice could be heard for miles (Superman #18), and in the November-December 1947 issue of Superman (Superman #49) he shattered a thousand-ton block of ice with a single high-pitched note.
Radar has a doghouse in the Citadel Supreme. Krypto, who spent much of his time in deep space after Superman moved to Metropolis, did not generally live in the Fortress of Solitude, but he had his own Doghouse of Solitude located on a distant asteroid.
Suprema notes that Supreme has gone to Star City. Star City is the home of Professor Night and thus analogous to Gotham City, home of Batman. There is also a Star City in the DC universe that was once the home of Green Arrow; it was originally depicted as being in the Midwest, on Lake Michigan, but in recent years it has been established as being located on the northern coast of California.
Gotham City is modeled on the city of New York, and Batman’s early adventures were described as taking place in New York city. It was later established as a separate locale with a distinct history and geography, although DC remains reluctant to confirm its exact location.
Page 4:
The title of this issue is a play on “World’s Finest,” a term applied to the team of Superman and Batman. In the comics Superman and Batman first teamed up in 1952 in “The Mightiest Team in the World” (Superman #76), although they often shared adventures on the Adventures of Superman radio series beginning in 1945. From 1955 to 1986, they appeared together in nearly every issue of World’s Finest Comics (#71-#325). The World’s Finest title has also been applied to several subsequent mini-series, and to a three-part animated mini-series produced by Warner Brothers in 1997.
Kendal Manor, home of Taylor Kendal (Professor Night’s alter ego) is equivalent to Wayne Manor, the home of Batman’s alter ego Bruce Wayne.
Taylor’s last name is spelled inconsistently in the series: here it is spelled “Kendal,” but in issue #52B it is spelled “Kendall.” It is not clear which spelling is intended to be correct.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Taylor Kendal has a butler, Pratap, whose role is equivalent to that of Alfred Pennyworth, the English butler who acts as Batman’s housekeeper, cook, chauffeur, valet, and confidant.
Panel 2: Ethan remarks that Pratap first came to work for Taylor in the fifties. Alfred debuted in 1943 (Batman #16), and except for a brief period from 1964 to 1966 (where he was presumed dead), has been an integral part of the Batman series ever since.
Note the owl motif inside Kendal Manor: instead of a bat, Taylor Kendal seems to have been inspired by a different nocturnal winged creature. It should be noted that Doctor Mid-Nite, a Golden Age hero on whom Professor Night is partially based, had a pet owl named Hooty, who sometimes shared his adventures.
Pratap refers to “Master Taylor and Mistress Linda.” Linda Kendal is Taylor’s niece and secretly his crime fighting partner Twilight, the Girl Wonder. Twilight is an analog of Robin; she may be inspired by Carrie Kelly, the female Robin in The Dark Knight Returns.
Panel 4: Professor Night and Twilight are referred to as the “Darktown Duo” just as Batman and Robin are often called the “Dynamic Duo.”
Pratap and Ethan prepare to descend into the Halls of Night, Professor Night’s equivalent of the Batcave, Batman’s headquarters and laboratory, which is located in a cavern beneath Wayne Manor. Batman’s underground sanctuary evolved gradually during the forties; a subterranean laboratory with hangers for the batmobile and batplane was first depicted in August 1942 (Batman #12) but the term “Batcave” was not introduced until January 1944 (Detective Comics #83) and it was not depicted as a natural cave (as opposed to a man-made basement) until August 1948 (Batman #48).
Taylor Kendal’s Sinking Salon is an ingenious entrance to his secret headquarters: the entire room drops into the floor and is replaced by an exact duplicate. Batman’s entrance to the Batcave is not nearly so elaborate: the primary entrance is a winding staircase behind the grandfather clock in Bruce Wayne’s study, and there also is a secret elevator.
Page 6:
Panel 1: The Halls of Night repeat the owl motif seen in Kendal Manor and add a moon motif. The crescent moon symbols are reminiscent of the Marvel Comics hero Moon Knight, whose costume and equipment had a similar theme.
At the left there is a statue of a woman with a bow, presumably the goddess Artemis. Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, was associated with the moon and was depicted as a huntress, making her an appropriate patron for Professor Night.
Professor Night and Twilight are lying immobile on stone pillars in the middle of the room.
Ethan's exclamation of "Sacred Paracelsus" presumably refers to the 16th-century Swiss physician Paracelsus, who believed in the harmony of man and nature.
Panel 2: Pratap describes their condition: not alive (with no heartbeat or breathing) but apparently not dead, either, with their limbs still supple and no signs of decay or even rigor mortis.
Page 2:
Suprema and Radar, perhaps hoping to make up for lost time, are on a one-woman, one-dog crusade to clean up Omegapolis.
Note Suprema’s disapproval of swearing: while Supergirl had a certain reputation as a goodie-two-shoes, Suprema is quite a prig.
Page 3:
Suprema employs her Shout Supreme. Superman (and Supergirl) had a similarly powerful voice; in one 1942 story he shouted so loud that his voice could be heard for miles (Superman #18), and in the November-December 1947 issue of Superman (Superman #49) he shattered a thousand-ton block of ice with a single high-pitched note.
Radar has a doghouse in the Citadel Supreme. Krypto, who spent much of his time in deep space after Superman moved to Metropolis, did not generally live in the Fortress of Solitude, but he had his own Doghouse of Solitude located on a distant asteroid.
Suprema notes that Supreme has gone to Star City. Star City is the home of Professor Night and thus analogous to Gotham City, home of Batman. There is also a Star City in the DC universe that was once the home of Green Arrow; it was originally depicted as being in the Midwest, on Lake Michigan, but in recent years it has been established as being located on the northern coast of California.
Gotham City is modeled on the city of New York, and Batman’s early adventures were described as taking place in New York city. It was later established as a separate locale with a distinct history and geography, although DC remains reluctant to confirm its exact location.
Page 4:
The title of this issue is a play on “World’s Finest,” a term applied to the team of Superman and Batman. In the comics Superman and Batman first teamed up in 1952 in “The Mightiest Team in the World” (Superman #76), although they often shared adventures on the Adventures of Superman radio series beginning in 1945. From 1955 to 1986, they appeared together in nearly every issue of World’s Finest Comics (#71-#325). The World’s Finest title has also been applied to several subsequent mini-series, and to a three-part animated mini-series produced by Warner Brothers in 1997.
Kendal Manor, home of Taylor Kendal (Professor Night’s alter ego) is equivalent to Wayne Manor, the home of Batman’s alter ego Bruce Wayne.
Taylor’s last name is spelled inconsistently in the series: here it is spelled “Kendal,” but in issue #52B it is spelled “Kendall.” It is not clear which spelling is intended to be correct.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Taylor Kendal has a butler, Pratap, whose role is equivalent to that of Alfred Pennyworth, the English butler who acts as Batman’s housekeeper, cook, chauffeur, valet, and confidant.
Panel 2: Ethan remarks that Pratap first came to work for Taylor in the fifties. Alfred debuted in 1943 (Batman #16), and except for a brief period from 1964 to 1966 (where he was presumed dead), has been an integral part of the Batman series ever since.
Note the owl motif inside Kendal Manor: instead of a bat, Taylor Kendal seems to have been inspired by a different nocturnal winged creature. It should be noted that Doctor Mid-Nite, a Golden Age hero on whom Professor Night is partially based, had a pet owl named Hooty, who sometimes shared his adventures.
Pratap refers to “Master Taylor and Mistress Linda.” Linda Kendal is Taylor’s niece and secretly his crime fighting partner Twilight, the Girl Wonder. Twilight is an analog of Robin; she may be inspired by Carrie Kelly, the female Robin in The Dark Knight Returns.
Panel 4: Professor Night and Twilight are referred to as the “Darktown Duo” just as Batman and Robin are often called the “Dynamic Duo.”
Pratap and Ethan prepare to descend into the Halls of Night, Professor Night’s equivalent of the Batcave, Batman’s headquarters and laboratory, which is located in a cavern beneath Wayne Manor. Batman’s underground sanctuary evolved gradually during the forties; a subterranean laboratory with hangers for the batmobile and batplane was first depicted in August 1942 (Batman #12) but the term “Batcave” was not introduced until January 1944 (Detective Comics #83) and it was not depicted as a natural cave (as opposed to a man-made basement) until August 1948 (Batman #48).
Taylor Kendal’s Sinking Salon is an ingenious entrance to his secret headquarters: the entire room drops into the floor and is replaced by an exact duplicate. Batman’s entrance to the Batcave is not nearly so elaborate: the primary entrance is a winding staircase behind the grandfather clock in Bruce Wayne’s study, and there also is a secret elevator.
Page 6:
Panel 1: The Halls of Night repeat the owl motif seen in Kendal Manor and add a moon motif. The crescent moon symbols are reminiscent of the Marvel Comics hero Moon Knight, whose costume and equipment had a similar theme.
At the left there is a statue of a woman with a bow, presumably the goddess Artemis. Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, was associated with the moon and was depicted as a huntress, making her an appropriate patron for Professor Night.
Professor Night and Twilight are lying immobile on stone pillars in the middle of the room.
Ethan's exclamation of "Sacred Paracelsus" presumably refers to the 16th-century Swiss physician Paracelsus, who believed in the harmony of man and nature.
Panel 2: Pratap describes their condition: not alive (with no heartbeat or breathing) but apparently not dead, either, with their limbs still supple and no signs of decay or even rigor mortis.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Pratap notes that the night before they were stricken, Taylor and Linda had been visiting Brice Bristow and Toby King, the alter egos of the Fisherman and Skipper. Brice and Toby are counterparts of Oliver Queen and Roy Harper, also known as Green Arrow and Speedy. Oddly, although Batman and Green Arrow were both members of the Justice League and their sidekicks were both members of the Teen Titans, the four never teamed up. The fate of the Fisherman and Skipper is revealed in issue #49.
Taylor and Linda are said to have disappeared in 1970. In the DC universe, Batman and Robin underwent significant changes in 1969-1970. In 1969 Dick Grayson graduated from high school and left Gotham for Hudson University, prompting Bruce Wayne to move from Wayne Manor to a penthouse apartment in downtown Gotham, leaving much of his paraphernalia behind (Batman #217). During this period, writer Denny O’Neil attempted to confront Batman with topical issues like racism and industrial pollution, though not quite to the extent of his more famous stories in Green Lantern/Green Arrow (#72-#86) around the same time. By having Professor Night vanish in 1970, Moore neatly sidesteps Batman’s period of “relevancy.”
Panel 2: The Night Files are Professor Night’s equivalent of the Batcomputer, the sophisticated computer database system that maintains Batman’s exhaustive files on everything from criminal profiles to Gotham City soil types.
Panel 4: Pratap mentions three of Professor Night’s enemies:
- The Jack-a-Dandy: Professor Night’s arch-enemy, who we will see in the flashback story later in this issue. Jack’s role is equivalent to that of the Joker, the macabre clown who has been Batman’s most persistent foe since his debut in 1940 (Batman #1).
- Fakeface: a criminal who can apparently reshape his face to impersonate others.
- Evening Primrose: another of Professor Night’s enemies from the fifties. An evening primrose is an herb (Oenothera biennis) with yellow flowers that open in the evening; the villain may be analogous to Batman’s opponent Poison Ivy.
In the background, several of Professor Night’s trophies are visible. Like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, Batman’s headquarters contained a trophy room, first shown in 1942 (Batman #12). The two trophies visible here are:
- A giant high-heeled shoe
- A cane in a glass case with a sign indicating it was confiscated from the Jack-a-Dandy; this may be Jack’s cane cannon, which is shown in action (in flashback) on page 14.
Pratap says that the Jack-a-Dandy would have sent absinthe and lilies. Absinthe is a very potent green liqueur of almost 80 percent alcohol and traditionally flavored with wormwood. Absinthe was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially among writers and artists. Lilies are white flowers of the family Liliaceae; symbolically, they denote purity. Lilies are often used in funeral arrangements.
Panel 5: Pratap tells Ethan that Taylor had very few friends or enemies in his civilian identity. Similarly, Bruce Wayne often plays the part of the bored, shallow playboy -- ostensibly to keep anyone from suspecting that he is secretly Batman -- which prevents him from developing any meaningful friendships. In the forties, he was engaged twice, first to Julie Madison and later to Linda Page, but he allowed both to fall apart after his fiancées became frustrated with his apathetic pose. Bruce’s only real friends were Dick Grayson, Alfred, and Superman.
Pratap observes that Taylor greatly valued his friendship with Ethan. From the fifties through the mid-eighties, Batman and Superman were best friends, frequently sharing adventures and helping each other in times of trouble. However, after the climactic battle between a future Batman and Superman in The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, the two old friends were recast as uneasy allies. In John Byrne’s revision of Superman in Man of Steel, he presented a new version of Superman and Batman’s first meeting that showed them as having an antagonistic, distrustful attitude towards each other from the beginning (Man of Steel #3). This remains the pattern for their relationship in the current continuity.
Page 8:
Panel 1: For this flashback story, “The Turnabout Trap of the Terrible Two,” artist Rick Veitch consciously imitated the style of artist Dick Sprang, a regular artist on Batman, Detective Comics, and World’s Finest Comics from the mid-forties through the early sixties. Sprang illustrated many of the team-ups between Batman and Superman that appeared in World’s Finest Comics between 1955 and 1961.
This story depicts a team-up between Professor Night and Supreme’s greatest foes, the Jack-a-Dandy and Darius Dax. The Joker and Lex Luthor teamed up twice to battle Batman and Superman in the fifties and sixties, first in May 1957 (World’s Finest Comics #88) and again in November 1962 (World’s Finest Comics #129).
Note the license plate on the villains’ truck: “RORN1.” For a pair of ruthless criminal masterminds, Jack and Dax apparently have quite a sense of humor.
Panel 2: The Jack-a-Dandy is reading Virgil’s Aeneid; he presumably considers a thorough knowledge of the classics a requirement of his role as a Victorian dandy.
Panel 3: Darius Dax is described as “the Einstein of Evil.” Dax’s counterpart Lex Luthor would have considered this sobriquet quite an honor; writer Elliot S! Maggin established in his 1978 prose novel Superman: The Last Son of Krypton that Luthor idolized Albert Einstein.
Page 9:
Note the ornate Victorian decor of Dandy’s den, which is in keeping with the Jack-a-Dandy’s persona; similarly, the Joker’s hideouts often had a clown motif.
Panel 2: In this panel and in this pose, Jack-a-Dandy bears a striking resemblance to the mascot of The New Yorker magazine (although that worthy fellow is usually depicted inspecting a butterfly rather than a set of superweapon blueprints).
Panel 3: Behind Jack-a-Dandy is a giant replica of his monocle. This may be the same monocle which was seen in the Citadel Supreme in issue #43.
Page 10:
Panel 1: This is the Night-Wagon, Professor Night’s equivalent of the Batmobile, Batman’s distinctive automobile. Batman’s car was first called the Batmobile in February 1941 (Detective Comics #48); it has gone through many variations of styling and equipment over the years.
Page 11:
Panel 5: Professor Night is referred to as the “Afterdark Avenger.” Batman has been referred to by a variety of nicknames, many of them similarly alliterative, e.g., “Caped Crusader,” “Darknight Detective,” and “Dark Knight.”
Professor Night’s acquisition of uncontrollable super-powers is very similar to the story “The Super Bat-Man” from World’s Finest Comics #77 (July 1955). In that story, Batman was accidentally exposed to a ray created by the evil scientist Professor Pender which temporarily gave him super-powers identical to Superman’s. At the same time, Superman was struck by a different ray which stripped him of his powers. Superman eventually realized that the “ray” was actually a spray of Kryptonite dust, and regained his powers by changing into an uncontaminated costume. Together he and the Batman captured Professor Pender; shortly afterwards, Batman’s powers faded.
Page 12:
Panel 3: Mulled sack is a type of spiced white wine imported to England from the Canary Islands and Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Twilight prepares to throw her “lunarang” at the fleeing villains. This crescent-shaped weapon is similar to Batman’s batarang.
Panels 4 and 6: Professor Night’s inability to control his powers are again very similar to the problems faced by Batman in the aforementioned story in World’s Finest Comics #77.
At the right we see a trophy identified as “Killer Oysters used by the Walrus and the Carpenter, 1958.” The Walrus and the Carpenter, two enemies of Professor Night, are characters from a poem by Lewis Carroll. They are probably a reference to Batman's Lewis-Carroll-inspired villain the Mad Hatter, though as Supreme's Hell of Mirrors are the actual mirrors from Lewis Carroll's Alice adventures, it's possible they are the real Walrus and Carpenter from the stories.
Their “Killer Oysters” may be inspired by the giant “animal-machines” used by a trio of fifties Batman villains, the Fox, the Shark, and the Vulture, also known as the Terrible Trio. The Terrible Trio were criminal inventors clad in business suits with animal head masks who used vehicles based on living creatures to carry out a series of spectacular robberies. They first appeared in 1958 (Detective Comics #253). A more contemporary version of the Terrible Trio recently was introduced in the Doctor Mid-Nite mini-series (1999).
Page 13:
Panel 1: Note that the Night Files computer is operated much like an old-fashioned telephone switchboard.
Panel 3: Two more trophies are visible here:
- A “hypnotic music box” used by the villain Evening Primrose in 1955
- False countenances sloughed off by Fakeface.
Panel 6: Note the lasciviously winking figure on the Knave & Toff billboard. “Gentlemen’s magazine publishing,” indeed!
Page 14:
Panel 2: Even at the height of the fifties giant-prop fascination, it’s unlikely that we would have seen a giant bottle of Jim Beam in a Code-approved DC comic book.
Panel 3: Jack-a-Dandy’s Cane Cannon is reminiscent of the gimmicked umbrellas used by Batman’s enemy the Penguin. The Penguin’s umbrellas incorporated a variety of weapons including guns, flamethrowers, and poison gas sprayers.
Panel 5: Professor Night and Supreme take each other’s places. Superman and Batman often pretended to be each other; the first such masquerade took place in 1952 (Superman #76).
Page 16:
Panel 3: S-1 is repairing one of the Suprematons damaged by Billy Friday in issue #45.
S-1 says that Billy Friday, last seen trapped in the Prism World of Amalynth, had a disagreement with Szazs, the Sprite Supreme, and is now in the 19th Dimension. Szazs, who we will see in issue #53, is the counterpart of Mister Mxyzptlk, the magical imp from the Fifth Dimension who has pestered Superman since the mid-forties. Mxyzptlk (originally spelled “Mxyztplk”) first appeared in the Superman newspaper comic strip in February 1944 and made his comic book debut shortly thereafter in Superman #30.
Page 17:
Panel 1: More of the imaginary creatures in Supreme’s Mythopoeic Zoo are visible here:
- A unicorn
- A dragon.
Page 18:
Panel 1: The icons of Supreme’s mind are:
- Hilda’s drawing (from issue #42)
- Judy Jordan
- Radar dragging young Ethan away from the Supremium meteor (as shown in flashback in issue #42)
- The intersecting Earths Supreme saw when he returned to Earth (in issue #41)
- Darius Dax’s Tremendoid (seen in issue #43)
- Diana Dane
- Squeak the Supremouse.
Panel 2: The “archetypal images and cultural symbols” shown here are:
- A banner with the Star of David (probably intended to be the flag of Israel)
- Marilyn Monroe with her skirt blowing up, a famous image from the 1955 film The Seven-Year Itch
- The mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion
- A tapestry with Chinese characters
- An ornate crucifix
- A Coca-Cola bottle
- A baseball
- Adolf Hitler with his arm raised in the Nazi salute
- The planet Earth
- A row of tanks.
Panel 3: Supreme sees the representation of “the Janus-like dual mind” of Professor Night. This suggests that Professor Night may have something of a split personality, which is reminiscent of Marvel’s Moon Knight. Moon Knight, who at one time had four separate identities, suffered psychological problems from the strain of maintaining his various personas.
Page 19:
Panel 2: Giant props like the ones shown here were a trademark of the Batman strip in the forties and fifties, generally attributed to artist Dick Sprang. Giant versions of objects ranging from coffee cups to revolvers were a common sight in Gotham City, usually explained as being advertising or display pieces. The most interesting aspect of the giant props was that they were always fully functional: if you could find an appropriately sized bullet to load into the giant revolver, it would actually fire. The objects shown here are:
- A stethoscope. Supreme wonders if this is symbolic of the doctors who diagnosed Taylor Kendal’s case of Porphyria’s Complaint. Porphyria is a liver disease that prevents the blood from manufacturing heme, the iron-containing component of hemoglobin. The disease causes extreme sensitivity to sunlight; other symptoms include pallid skin, excessive hair growth, allergic reactions to certain chemicals (including those in garlic), and receding gums, which makes the teeth appear elongated. Some historians now suspect that the symptoms of porphyria may have given rise to European lore surrounding vampires and werewolves.
- A giant typewriter. For some reason, the typewriter has become the archetypical giant prop, and whenever modern artists include enormous props as a nostalgic gesture (e.g., the origin of the Riddler as presented by Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner in 1989's Secret Origins Special #1) they always use a giant typewriter.
- The bare tree with the floppy pocket watch draped over it is an image from Salvador Dali's painting "The Persistence of Memory"; appropriate, since this is Taylor's memoryscape.
Panel 4: Chief O’Brien is presumably the counterpart of Commissioner Gordon, Batman’s long-time ally and liaison to the police department, who debuted in Batman’s very first adventure in May 1939 (Detective Comics #27). There's also a Chief O'Brien mentioned during Ethan's trip back to Littlehaven (issue #42, page 13, panel 3) as one of the Littlehaven residents from the old days who has passed on. I wonder if he's related?
Panel 6: Here we see several of Professor Night’s enemies. From left to right:
Panel 6: Here we see several of Professor Night’s enemies. From left to right:
- A figure with tusks, most likely the Walrus.
- A figure armed with a scythe dressed as the Grim Reaper; this may be intended to represent several different Batman enemies who adopted similar guises, including the unnamed costumed villain of Batman #237 and the Reaper, a bloodthirsty scythe-wielding vigilante who Batman fought in the early part of his career (as shown in the “Batman: Year Two” storyline that appeared in Detective Comics #575-#578).
- The Lounge Lizard, possibly based on Batman’s reptilian-skinned foe Killer Croc; Lounge Lizard next appears in Youngblood #2.
- A figure dressed holding a vicious-looking saw, most likely the Carpenter.
- A faceless figure who is presumably the villain Fakeface. Based on the available evidence, Fakeface’s ability is to disguise himself as others, later sloughing off faces he no longer needs; his image here and his brief cameo in Youngblood #2 suggest that he has no real face. Fakeface resembles Steve Ditko’s faceless hero the Question (although the Question’s peculiar featureless face was a mask), while his costume is reminiscent of the question mark-covered suit worn by Batman’s enemy the Riddler. Other characters with similar powers include Richard Benson, the pulp hero known as the Avenger, who could reshape his features to impersonate others, and Batman’s shape-shifting enemy Clayface.
Page 20:
Panel 1: The glyph of Hulver Ramik appears in place of Taylor Kendal’s soul: a metaphysical graffito left by the being who stole it.
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Panel 4: Hulver Ramik, the Slaver of Souls, is described as a resident of the “Dimension of the Dead.” He is an enemy of the Allies, who, according to the Night Files was first encountered in a case called “The Puzzle of the Paralyzed Planet” in September 1964.
Janet Planet, who we will see in issue #49, was an adventurer who occasionally worked with the Allies.
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Panel 2: Supreme refers to Ramik having been swallowed by a creature called the Scarlet Sphere. This incident is mentioned again in issue #48, although it is not explained in any detail.
Page 24:
Several of the former members of the Allies have gathered in response to Ethan’s summons. Present here are the following heroes:
- Glory
- The Super-Patriot
- Roman
- Diehard
- Mighty Man
Supreme #48
Page 1:
Glory arrives at the Citadel Supreme
Page 2:
The Allies are reunited for the first time since the early seventies.
Note that Roman, the Mer-Master greatly resembles the current version of Aquaman in his costume, hair, and beard. In his previous appearances in flashback - with shorter, darker hair emphasizing his pointed ears - he more strongly resembled Marvel’s Prince Namor, the Submariner.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Glory explains that she was late because she was waiting for an updraft. Glory, like the Silver Age Wonder Woman, can glide on air currents, but cannot actually fly. Since her revision by artist George Perez in 1987, Wonder Woman has been able to fly under her own power, a gift from the Greek gods.
Note that Roman, like Aquaman in his recent appearances, is quite testy. Over the years, Aquaman has become increasingly short-tempered with air-breathers for their pollution of the seas; not coincidentally, this characterization has also made him more like Marvel’s Prince Namor (of whom Aquaman originally was an imitation). Namor, who debuted in Marvel Comics #1 (1939), was comics’ original anti-hero, and consequently a more interesting character than his pallid DC imitation.
Panel 2: Roman laments his former headquarters, the underwater Mer-Cave, and its seashell throne. DC’s Aquaman once had a similar headquarters; like Marvel’s Submariner, Aquaman is royalty and at several points has served as the ruler of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis.
Panel 3: Diehard remarks that he feels “a simulation of enthusiasm.” As shown in the Judgment Day mini-series, Diehard is a cyborg who retains little semblance of his original humanity.
Panel 4: The Allies were formed in 1960. The Justice League of America, the Silver Age super-team on which the Allies are based, first met in the March 1959 issue of Brave and the Bold (#28).
Page 4: The Allies’ first foe was Florax the Dominator, an intelligent orchid from interstellar space who could enslave humans with her scent. Florax is reminiscent of Starro the Conqueror, a giant, intelligent starfish, who was the first enemy faced by the JLA. Starro could produce miniature versions of himself that allowed Starro to control a victim’s mind when the starfish was attached to their face.
This “cover illustration” is closely modeled on the cover of Brave and the Bold #28 (the first appearance of the JLA and of Starro) by Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson, down to the lettering style and the Allies logo, which is highly reminiscent of the original Justice League of America logo.
The “Funny Book Federation Decal of Decency” is based on the “Approved by the Comics Code Authority” seal carried by most mainstream comics from 1954 to the late eighties.
Glory recalls that Florax was defeated with a high-tech herbicide. Similarly, Starro was vanquished after the JLA’s mascot, Snapper Carr, discovered the Starfish Conqueror was vulnerable to common garden lime.
Page 5:
Panel 2: Supreme is informed that Billy Friday, who we learned last issue had been banished to the 19th Dimension by Szazs, the Sprite Supreme, was rescued by Emerpus, the Reverse Supreme. Emerpus (which is “Supreme” spelled backwards) is the counterpart of Bizarro, a weird, imperfect duplicate of Superman who followed a strange code of backwards logic. Bizarro was created by Lex Luthor in Action Comics #254 (July 1959). (Earlier versions of the character appeared more-or-less simultaneously in Superboy #68 and the Superman newspaper comic strip in 1958, although neither was created by Luthor and both were destroyed at the end of their respective stories).
Emerpus has taken Billy to his home in the Backwards Zone, which is analogous to Htrae, the Bizarro World. Htrae was a distant planet colonized by Bizarro #1 and his mate, Bizarro-Lois, in April 1960 (Action Comics #263). Bizarro reshaped the world into a cube and populated it with duplicates of himself and Bizarro-Lois. The civilization that developed on Htrae was a bizarre mirror image of life on Earth; its central philosophy, as Bizarro #1 once remarked, held that “Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!”
Panel 5: Glory exclaims “Merciful Demeter!” Demeter, a goddess associated with the Earth and with agriculture, is Glory’s mother. Similarly, Wonder Woman often exclaimed, “Great Hera!”
The symbols visible here include:
- The logo of the cable music channel MTV (shown reversed)
- The stylized H logo of the Honda Motor Corporation
- The McDonald’s logo
- The distinctive camel silhouette of Camel brand cigarettes
- The soft drink brand 7-Up .
Page 6:
Panel 1: More iconic symbols are visible here:
- The Warner Brothers corporate logo (note that DC Comics, publisher of Superman, is a part of the Time-Warner corporation)
- James Dean, an American film actor of the mid-fifties
- The Coca-Cola logo
- Gene Simmons, the lead singer of the band KISS, in his full stage makeup
- A Muppet, one of the puppet characters created by the late Jim Henson.
Panel 2: More symbols:
- The Pepsi-Cola logo
- The Michelin Tire Man
- The pop artists Andy Warhol
- A slogan in the Japanese katakana alphabet (pronounced “yoshimura”).
Page 7:
Panel 1: Dali's melting watch (previously seen in issue 47, page 19) makes a return.
Panel 2: 'Yellow Submarine' is the animated film featuring the music of the Beatles. The oceans through which the titular submarine travelled - which included the Sea of Time, the Sea of Science, the Sea of Nothing, and the Sea of Holes - were indeed quite surreal.
Panel 1: Dali's melting watch (previously seen in issue 47, page 19) makes a return.
Panel 2: 'Yellow Submarine' is the animated film featuring the music of the Beatles. The oceans through which the titular submarine travelled - which included the Sea of Time, the Sea of Science, the Sea of Nothing, and the Sea of Holes - were indeed quite surreal.
Panel 4: Glory recalls that she took the minutes at Allies meetings. When Wonder Woman joined the Justice Society in 1943 (in All-Star Comics #11), she became their secretary, taking minutes and maintaining case files.
Page 8:
The “cover illustration” of Allies #16, “Servants of the Soul-Slaver,” is reminiscent of the cover of Justice League of America #3. That cover, drawn by Murphy Anderson, showed the JLA as unwilling oarsmen of a boat commanded by the issue’s villain, the alien tyrant Kanjar Ro of the planet Dhor.
Hulver Ramik the Slaver of Souls, bears some resemblance to the Justice League of America villain Despero, a red-skinned, three-eyed mutant from the world of Kalanor who first appeared in Justice League of America #1 (October-November 1960).
Glory expresses her irritation at “the slavery thing,” remarking that “it seemed like...I was getting tied up every other month!” While heroines in bondage is a cliche dating back to the pulps, bondage and slavery were major themes in the forties Wonder Woman strip. Wonder Woman and her fellow Amazons were compelled to wear iron bracelets as a reminder of their past subjugation by men; if Wonder Woman’s wrists were bound by a man, she lost her strength and was unable to free herself. Many of Wonder Woman’s enemies practiced slavery, but bondage was only shown as evil if practice by cruel or evil masters. Indeed, submitting to “loving bondage” on Paradise Island resulted in the reform and redemption of Wonder Woman’s forties arch-nemesis, the Nazi spy Paula Von Gunther. After the death in 1947 of William Marston Moulton, Wonder Woman’s creator and writer, the bondage themes were downplayed.
Page 9:
Panel 2: The “archetypes and symbols” shown include:
- The ankh, an Egyptian symbol of life
- A Latin cross
- The Star of David
- A Celtic cross.
Panel 3: Supreme remarks that this realm of ideas was the birthplace of “every angel, demon, god, or monster mankind ever dreamed of.” The concept of a unified idea-space shared by all intelligent creatures is very similar to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series for DC, in which the title character rules over the Dreaming, an amorphous realm made of and encompassing the dreams of all sentient life. The Dreaming was apparently the source for human nightmares and a home for many deities and mythological characters.
Panel 4: Glory exclaims, “Great Athena.” Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom; a tendency to invoke the names of goddess is another trait Glory shares with Wonder Woman, although Wonder Woman was partial to Hera (wife of Zeus and mother of the gods) and Aphrodite (goddess of love and the patron of the Amazons of Paradise Island).
Page 10:
Panel 1: Roman refers to the monsters as “Squids from the Id.” This phrase is a play on “creatures from the id,” the monsters in the fifties science fiction film Forbidden Planet, which was loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Panel 2: Glory comments on the degree to which the Super-Patriot, originally a human hero analogous to Captain America, has given up his humanity as more and more of him has been replaced with cybernetic parts.
Page 11:
Panel 2: Here Supreme’s eye-beams (his Stare Supreme) are described as “plasma beams.” Plasma is a collection of charged particles that possesses some of the qualities of a gas but is a good conductor of electricity; plasma forms the outer layers of a star’s atmosphere. As previously noted, Superman’s heat vision originally was described as a side-effect of his x-ray vision; in current continuity, his eye beams are essentially lasers operating in the infrared frequencies.
Panel 3: Supreme refers to the “time door” which opened between the forties and sixties allowing the Allies to meet themselves as the Allied Supermen of America. Similarly, starting in the early sixties, the Justice League of America frequently met their counterparts in the Justice Society of America, although their meetings were accomplished by traveling to an alternate dimension, not through time.
In 1961, in The Flash #123, it was established that the heroes of the forties, including the original Flash (Jay Garrick), lived on a parallel world called Earth-Two, while the modern heroes, including Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, lived on Earth-One. The two worlds occupied the same space but vibrated at different frequencies so that they never intersected. Barry Allen, who could control his own internal vibrations, discovered that he could travel to Earth-Two by tuning in its particular vibrational frequency. There, he met his forties counterpart, who in Barry’s world had only existed as a comic book character (it was further suggested that writer Gardner Fox, who had penned most of the Flash’s Golden Age adventures, wrote the stories based on psychic impressions that he received from Earth-Two in his dreams). Later, in The Flash #137, Barry met Jay Garrick’s comrades of the Justice Society of America, who came out of retirement to help the two Flashes defeat the villain Vandal Savage.
Not long afterward, the Justice Society arranged its first meeting with Earth-One’s Justice League of America (in JLA #21-#22), teaming up to fight a group of super-villains from both worlds. This afforded the modern heroes the opportunity to meet their Golden Age counterparts; for instance, the original Hawkman (Carter Hall, the reincarnation of an Egyptian prince) met the modern Hawkman (Katar Hol, a policeman from the planet Thanagar). The JLA and JSA heroes were separate individuals and not different temporal versions of each other; however, several of the JLA members, whose adventures had been published continuously from the forties through the sixties, had counterparts on both Earths. Therefore, there were older and younger versions of Wonder Woman, Robin (whose Earth-Two counterpart was now an adult), Superman, Green Arrow, and Batman.
Page 12:
The “cover” of Allies #21 (“The Cross-Time Catastrophe”) is modeled closely on the cover of Justice League of America #21, which was drawn by Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson. That issue showed the first teaming of the Justice League with Earth-Two’s Justice Society of America, in a story called “Crisis on Earth-One!” Its cover featured a banner proclaiming, “Back After 12 Years! The Legendary Super-Stars of the Justice Society of America!”
The Allies’ first meeting with their forties selves is said to have been brought about by the forties villain Doctor Clock and Glory’s sixties enemy the Time Tinker. In the forties, the Justice Society of America had a time-traveling foe named Per Degaton, first encountered in 1947 (All-Star Comics #35), who made four attempts to conquer the world by altering the past. In the most convoluted of those efforts, he time-traveled from 1947 to the parallel world of Earth-Prime in 1963, and then to Earth-2 in 1942, where he attempted to conquer the world with nuclear weapons stolen from Earth-Prime. Degaton ultimately was thwarted by the combined efforts of the Justice League, the modern Justice Society, and the wartime All-Star Squadron, which included younger versions of some of the Justice Society members (Justice League of America #207-#209 and All-Star Squadron #14-#15). Wonder Woman, of whom Glory is a counterpart, had a time-traveling enemy called the Time Master, who first appeared in Wonder Woman #101 (1958).
The JLA had several time-traveling enemies, most notably the Lord of Time, who first appeared in Justice League of America #10 (1962).
The members of the Allied Supermen shown on the cover are, from left to right:
- Black Hand
- Jack O’Lantern
- Alley Cat
- Waxman
- Doc Rocket
- Storybook Smith.
Supreme remarks that “we met ourselves every year.” Similarly, the meetings between the JLA and JSA became an annual event for more than two decades.
Supreme mentions that the Allies and the Allied Supermen fought “evil duplicate parallel world Allies.” In their second team-up in Justice League of America #29-#30 (1964), the JLA and the JSA visited Earth-Three, where all the counterparts of the Justice League were supervillains, banded together as the Crime Syndicate of America. In Supreme’s universe, a similar parallel world, called Contra-Earth, is mentioned in issue #52B.
Page 13:
Panel 1: Glory says that the Allies broke up in the early seventies following the departure of Supreme and the disappearance of Professor Night, and had no more team-ups with their forties selves. In the DC universe, the JLA/JSA team-ups continued through the eighties, with their final meeting taking place during the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 (Justice League of America #244 and Infinity, Inc. #19).
(It should be noted that as a result of the Crisis, the various alternate Earths were combined into a single unified world. In the post-Crisis universe, the Justice Society and Justice League exist on the same world; they still teamed up, but they did not leave their own dimension.)
The original Justice League of America was disbanded in Justice League of America #258-#261 (1987) following the deaths of several of its members; by then, most of the original team had already departed. The League was reorganized as the Justice League International a few months later; it was recently reformed a third time, reuniting most of the original members.
Panel 2: Roman refers to his “sonar senses.” Originally, Roman’s DC counterpart Aquaman had no special sensory powers other than being able to communicate with sea life; in recent years, however, he has developed formidable telepathic and extrasensory abilities.
Page 14:
This is Hulver Ramik’s Alcatraz of the Soul, the otherworldly prison in which he keeps the stolen souls of his victims prior to resale.
Glory exclaims “by the sweet elixir of the underworld!” She may be referring to the Waters of Oblivion, which ran in the river Lethe in the underworld of Greek myth and which caused the dead to forget their former lives. The second story in issue #52B describes an encounter Kid Supreme and Taylor Kendall (who later became Professor Night) and the legendary river, which ran beneath the caverns Taylor later used to house his headquarters, the Halls of Night.
Page 15:
Panel 1: Note that the dialogue of the cyborg Patriot is very similar to the clipped speech patterns of Rorschach, one of the characters in Moore’s Watchmen, and to the Surgeon General, the bizarre cyborg villain of Frank Miller’s Give Me Liberty.
Panel 2: Visible here are the imprisoned souls of a number of other sixties heroes. From left to right:
- Spacehunter: an extraterrestrial lawman who is strongly reminiscent of J’Onn J’Onzz, the Martian Manhunter, a green-skinned hero from the planet Mars. J’Onn first appeared in Detective Comics #225 (1955) and later became a stalwart member of the Justice League in most of its incarnations.
- Professor Night. Note that this is Professor Night’s soul, not his body, which, as seen last issue, still rests in the Halls of Night beneath Kendall Manor.
- Twilight. As with her mentor Professor Night, her body is still in the Halls of Night.
- Polyman: a hero with the ability to stretch himself. The first and most famous stretchable hero is Plastic Man, the creation of the great Jack Cole, who first appeared in Quality Comics’ Police Comics #1 (1940). Plastic Man later became a part of the DC stable, and currently is a member of the Justice League. Other heroes with similar powers include DC’s Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, and Marvel’s Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), the leader of the Fantastic Four.
- The Fisherman: as previously mentioned, a counterpart of Green Arrow who uses a fishing pole rather than a bow as a weapon.
Panel 3: Supreme says that every vanished sixties hero appears to be imprisoned in Ramik’s domain. As we will see in the next issue, Alan Moore used this device to introduce many new heroes, most of them based on DC characters, who did not have previously established counterparts in the Maximum Press/Awesome universe.
Page 16:
The former Allies recall the Fisherman: a playboy and “angling champion” who became a crime fighter along with his partner Skipper. His real name was Bryce Bristow. The Fisherman is analogous to Green Arrow, a crime-fighting archer who debuted in More Fun Comics #73 in 1942. Green Arrow was playboy Oliver Queen, who became an expert archer after being stranded on a remote island where he built a bow for hunting. Green Arrow’s sidekick was Speedy, secretly Queen’s ward Roy Harper. It should also be noted that DC has a villain called the Fisherman, who also used a fishing pole as a weapon; he first appeared in Aquaman #21 (1965).
The Fisherman joined the Allies after helping them to defeat the Moth-Empress, a “dominatrix” from another world who made the Allies her mind-slaves. Green Arrow joined the Justice League of America in Justice League of America #4 (1961); the cover for Allies #28 (“Minions of the Moth-Empress) is loosely based on the cover of that issue. The Moth-Empress is based on the JLA villain Zazzala, the Queen Bee, an alien monarch from the planet Qorll who could control the minds of others with her “radiation rod.” She first encountered the JLA in Justice League of America (1963).
Page 17:
Panel 1: Other vanished heroes mentioned as being imprisoned by Ramik include:
- The Stormbirds: a group modeled on the Blackhawks, a squadron of heroic aviators who first appeared in Quality Comics’ Military Comics series in the forties. Their series was the longest-running of the many aviator strips of the war years, surviving until 1969. They have been revived several times since then, and are now part of the DC universe. The Stormbirds’ leader is Jim Stormbird, a counterpart of Blackhawk himself.
- The Conquerors of the Uncanny: a team of explorers and heroes modeled on the Challengers of the Unknown, a band of adventurers created for DC by Jack Kirby in 1958. The Conquerors and their leader, Dr. Daniel “Blacky” Conqueror, play a minor role in the Judgment Day mini-series.
- Jungle Jack Flynn: a jungle adventure hero based on DC’s Congo Bill, who had a long-running feature in the forties and fifties beginning in More Fun Comics #56 (1940).
Panel 2: The Allies split into small groups, “like old times.” As previously noted, most JSA and JLA adventures split the group into smaller teams.
Panel 4: "Allied Super-Animals of America" is a reference to the Just'a Lotta Animals, a funny-animals version of the Justice League of America created by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw and featuring such characters as Super-Squirrel, Batmouse, Wonder Wabbit, and the Martian Anteater. They appeared within the funny-animal superhero series 'Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew', first as characters in the comics read by the people of Captain Carrot's world; later (perhaps inevitably) a story in the style of the JSA/JLA team-ups revealed that they really existed in an alternate dimension, and they joined forces with the Zoo Crew to defeat a team-up of their respective villains.
Panel 4: "Allied Super-Animals of America" is a reference to the Just'a Lotta Animals, a funny-animals version of the Justice League of America created by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw and featuring such characters as Super-Squirrel, Batmouse, Wonder Wabbit, and the Martian Anteater. They appeared within the funny-animal superhero series 'Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew', first as characters in the comics read by the people of Captain Carrot's world; later (perhaps inevitably) a story in the style of the JSA/JLA team-ups revealed that they really existed in an alternate dimension, and they joined forces with the Zoo Crew to defeat a team-up of their respective villains.
Page 18:
The cover of Allies #24 is based loosely on that of Justice League of America #9 (1962), “The Origin of the Justice League,” which showed the JLA transformed into trees by an alien meteorite.
The villains the Patriot mentions - the Basilisk, Ecto-Man, and the Wizard of Blizzard - each of whom caused bizarre transformations of the JLA, are reminiscent of the villains of JLA #9, aliens from the planet Appellax. The Appellaxians, who took the form of creatures of stone, glass, mercury, gold, fire, wood, and crystal, attempted to turn humans into stone, glass, etc., before they were defeated by the heroes, who decided to join together as the Justice League.
The Patriot remarks that Mighty Man has a separate human identity. This is another similarity between Mighty Man and the original Captain Marvel; Marvel’s alter ego was a young boy named Billy Batson, who possessed no special powers other than the ability to become Captain Marvel.
Page 20:
Panel 1: Here we see more imprisoned heroes:
- Blake Baron, the Occult Agent. As we will learn in Judgment Day, Blake Baron was a Marine Corps sergeant during World War Two, the leader of a unit called the “Roaring Roughnecks;” after the war he was promoted to the rank of Major and attached to a secret government agency called the Veil, investigating supernatural phenomena. Blake Baron is modeled on Marvel’s Nick Fury, a World War Two veteran (the leader of the “Howling Commandos”) who later became the Director of an international espionage organization called S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Janet Planet, a female adventurer whose costume is strongly reminiscent of DC’s sixties science fiction hero Adam Strange. Strange, who appeared in Mystery in Space beginning in 1959, was an Earthman who was transported across interstellar space to become the champion of the planet Rann; he was a frequent ally of the Justice League of America. Interestingly, a female version of Adam Strange, the hero’s daughter Aleaa, appeared in DC’s Kingdom Come (1996), set in the future of the DC universe; except for the colors of their costumes, she and Janet Planet have a very similar appearance.
- A man dressed in 18th century garb, not identified.
Page 22:
The cover of Allies #37, “The Deadly Daubs of Prismalo the Painter,” is loosely based on that of Justice League of America #1 (1960), which shows the villain Despero playing chess with the Flash. The villain snickers, “I’ve got this game rigged so that every time the Flash makes a move, a member of the Justice League disappears from the face of the Earth!”
Page 23:
Panel 2: As Supreme mentioned in the last issue, Hulver Ramik was absorbed by a being called the Crimson Sphere in 1966.
Panel 4: Glory exclaims “Sweet Selene.” Selene is the Greek goddess of the moon.
Page 24:
Supreme’s enemy Optilux returns.
Title: “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”
The title of this issue is borrowed from a 1986 song of the same name, performed by the Smiths.
Page 1:
Panel 1: Optilux refers to his apparent suicide in 1969, when he transformed himself into a “higher form of radiance.”
Panel 6: Optilux has “imagineered” a device called the Rapture Engine, intended to convert the entire universe into coherent light. “Rapture” originally meant the transportation of a soul to heaven, which, at least in Optilux’s view, is what the device is intended to do. “Imagineering” is a term for the creation of objects through pure thought; the term was defined in the framing sequence to Judgment Day: Aftermath, a gushing tribute to artist Gil Kane.
Page 3:
Panel 2: Mighty Man prepares to try an “energy flash” from his wrist-bands, which are very similar to those of Marvel’s extraterrestrial Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell).
Pages 4-5:
The eerie hotel room Supreme and Glory find themselves in here is strongly reminiscent of the finale of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which astronaut David Bowman finds himself in a similar (and equally artificial) hotel.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Glory remarks that she is the daughter of a goddess; as previously mentioned, she is the daughter of the Earth goddess Demeter.
Supreme #49
The title of this issue is borrowed from a 1986 song of the same name, performed by the Smiths.
Page 1:
Panel 1: Optilux refers to his apparent suicide in 1969, when he transformed himself into a “higher form of radiance.”
Panel 6: Optilux has “imagineered” a device called the Rapture Engine, intended to convert the entire universe into coherent light. “Rapture” originally meant the transportation of a soul to heaven, which, at least in Optilux’s view, is what the device is intended to do. “Imagineering” is a term for the creation of objects through pure thought; the term was defined in the framing sequence to Judgment Day: Aftermath, a gushing tribute to artist Gil Kane.
Page 3:
Panel 2: Mighty Man prepares to try an “energy flash” from his wrist-bands, which are very similar to those of Marvel’s extraterrestrial Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell).
Pages 4-5:
The eerie hotel room Supreme and Glory find themselves in here is strongly reminiscent of the finale of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which astronaut David Bowman finds himself in a similar (and equally artificial) hotel.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Glory remarks that she is the daughter of a goddess; as previously mentioned, she is the daughter of the Earth goddess Demeter.
Page 7:
Panel 3: Supreme refers to his departure from Earth in 1969.
Page 8:
This flashback story, “How Low Burns the Lantern,” is modeled on the work of writer/artist Jim Starlin in the mid-seventies. It is particularly reminiscent of a 1975 story in Warlock #10-#11, in which Adam Warlock’s evil future self, the Magus, forced him to confront a bizarre being called the In-Betweener, who was destined to drive Warlock mad. During the late seventies, Starlin brought psychedelic art techniques and cryptic pseudo-mysticism to the Marvel universe cosmology created by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko in the sixties. His “cosmic” stories marked a new effort to appeal to older, college-educated readers rather than the children and adolescents who made up comics’ traditional market.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Supreme recalls his departure from Earth in 1969 in a brief flashback to events alluded to in issue #46.
Panel 2: By this time, Ethan Crane’s parents are dead. As previously noted, Superboy’s adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent passed away shortly before Superboy left Smallville to attend college. Supreme’s parents apparently survived until Supreme was an adult.
The references to Judy Jordan learning kung fu and becoming involved with women’s rights refer to efforts to introduce current social issues to Lois Lane’s comic book series (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane) during the early seventies. The most infamous example of this period was the story “I am Curious (Black)” in Lois Lane #106, in which Lois subjected herself to a ray that temporarily altered her skin color so that she could spend a day as a black woman.
This period also marked the return of Lois’s independence and self-reliance: while she had been a bold, courageous, and headstrong career woman in the thirties and forties, by the mid-fifties her primary concern was persuading Superman to marry her, and she had become almost as mild-mannered and neurotic as Clark Kent. The seventies saw Lois abandon her dreams of marriage and take charge of her own life. She did in fact learn a martial art, the Kryptonian style called Kuklor, taught to her in the Bottle City of Kandor.
Judy Jordan learning kung fu and becoming involved in women's rights also may be a reference to Wonder Woman's activities during the early 1970s, when she lost her superpowers and costume, learned martial arts, and became involved in contemporary concerns, culminating in an issue with the banner "SPECIAL! WOMEN'S LIB ISSUE" - which turned out to be the last issue of the new approach before they started putting everything back the way she had been. About the same time, the old-style Wonder Woman was featured on the cover of the first issue of Gloria Steinem's Ms magazine, with an accompanying article about what a strong female role model she was.
Supreme also notes that Dax and Optilux are dead. As revealed in issue #42, Dax was stricken with cancer as a result of his exposure to Supremium, and died in 1968. Optilux converted himself to pure energy in 1969. Of course, neither are truly dead.
Panel 3: Supreme wanders the “Mausoleum World” of Amalynth, the barren surface of the world transformed into coherent light by Optilux (and which is now contained in a prism which Supreme guards in his Citadel Supreme). The empty landscape is reminiscent of the crater on the planet Krypton where the city of Kandor stood before being stolen by the villain Brainiac, as originally shown in Action Comics #242. (It is worth noting that in current Superman continuity, Kandor was not stolen by Brainiac; it was destroyed thousands of years ago, during the last days of Krypton’s great wars, by an atomic blast detonated by the terrorist group Black Zero (as seen in 1987 in World of Krypton (2nd series) #3).)
Page 10:
Panel 2 - inset: Supreme says that Jack O’Lantern has been missing in action since 1950. The Spectre’s strip in More Fun Comics ended in 1945 when it was displaced by, ironically enough, the new Superboy feature (More Fun Comics #101). The Spectre’s last Golden Age appearance was with the Justice Society in All-Star Comics #23, later that year; the character did not appear again until 1966 (Showcase #60).
Supreme refers to Jack O’Lantern as a “murdered news hound;” Jack O’Lantern was once a human reporter named Jack Bradley. The Spectre was originally a police detective named Jim Corrigan, slain by gangsters in 1940 only to be resurrected by a higher power as an avenger of evil (More Fun Comics #52).
Panel 3: Jack O’Lantern explained that Jack Bradley was inhabited by “the power of the living lantern” which hangs “above the gateway of reality.” Similarly, later Spectre stories revealed that the Spectre, although tied to the spirit of a mortal man, was an inhuman spirit of vengeance and instrument of God’s wrath. In the early eighties, Alan Moore established that the Spectre, now nearly omnipotent, had withdrawn from Earth to stand guard over Heaven and Hell. In 1984 the Swamp Thing, traveling to the afterworlds in search of the soul of his friend Abigail Holland, was forced to seek the Spectre’s permission to enter Hell (Saga of the Swamp Thing Annual #2), and two years later, the Spectre confronted the dreadful Shadow Creature that menaced Heaven itself (Swamp Thing #50). Following his failure in that mission, he was sent to once more walk the Earth (Spectre (3rd series) #1).
Page 12:
Panels 1-3: To battle Supreme, Jack O’Lantern disperses his ectoplasm into several duplicates of himself, a feat Supreme describes as “polylocation.” There are several superheroes who can create duplicates of themselves, including Triplicate Girl (later known as Duo Damsel) of the Legion of Superheroes and Jamie Maddox, X-Factor’s Multiple Man. During Alan Moore’s run on his series, the Swamp Thing also developed this power, learning how to grow duplicates of himself from the surrounding flora.
Page 8:
This flashback story, “How Low Burns the Lantern,” is modeled on the work of writer/artist Jim Starlin in the mid-seventies. It is particularly reminiscent of a 1975 story in Warlock #10-#11, in which Adam Warlock’s evil future self, the Magus, forced him to confront a bizarre being called the In-Betweener, who was destined to drive Warlock mad. During the late seventies, Starlin brought psychedelic art techniques and cryptic pseudo-mysticism to the Marvel universe cosmology created by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko in the sixties. His “cosmic” stories marked a new effort to appeal to older, college-educated readers rather than the children and adolescents who made up comics’ traditional market.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Supreme recalls his departure from Earth in 1969 in a brief flashback to events alluded to in issue #46.
Panel 2: By this time, Ethan Crane’s parents are dead. As previously noted, Superboy’s adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent passed away shortly before Superboy left Smallville to attend college. Supreme’s parents apparently survived until Supreme was an adult.
The references to Judy Jordan learning kung fu and becoming involved with women’s rights refer to efforts to introduce current social issues to Lois Lane’s comic book series (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane) during the early seventies. The most infamous example of this period was the story “I am Curious (Black)” in Lois Lane #106, in which Lois subjected herself to a ray that temporarily altered her skin color so that she could spend a day as a black woman.
This period also marked the return of Lois’s independence and self-reliance: while she had been a bold, courageous, and headstrong career woman in the thirties and forties, by the mid-fifties her primary concern was persuading Superman to marry her, and she had become almost as mild-mannered and neurotic as Clark Kent. The seventies saw Lois abandon her dreams of marriage and take charge of her own life. She did in fact learn a martial art, the Kryptonian style called Kuklor, taught to her in the Bottle City of Kandor.
Judy Jordan learning kung fu and becoming involved in women's rights also may be a reference to Wonder Woman's activities during the early 1970s, when she lost her superpowers and costume, learned martial arts, and became involved in contemporary concerns, culminating in an issue with the banner "SPECIAL! WOMEN'S LIB ISSUE" - which turned out to be the last issue of the new approach before they started putting everything back the way she had been. About the same time, the old-style Wonder Woman was featured on the cover of the first issue of Gloria Steinem's Ms magazine, with an accompanying article about what a strong female role model she was.
Supreme also notes that Dax and Optilux are dead. As revealed in issue #42, Dax was stricken with cancer as a result of his exposure to Supremium, and died in 1968. Optilux converted himself to pure energy in 1969. Of course, neither are truly dead.
Panel 3: Supreme wanders the “Mausoleum World” of Amalynth, the barren surface of the world transformed into coherent light by Optilux (and which is now contained in a prism which Supreme guards in his Citadel Supreme). The empty landscape is reminiscent of the crater on the planet Krypton where the city of Kandor stood before being stolen by the villain Brainiac, as originally shown in Action Comics #242. (It is worth noting that in current Superman continuity, Kandor was not stolen by Brainiac; it was destroyed thousands of years ago, during the last days of Krypton’s great wars, by an atomic blast detonated by the terrorist group Black Zero (as seen in 1987 in World of Krypton (2nd series) #3).)
Page 10:
Panel 2 - inset: Supreme says that Jack O’Lantern has been missing in action since 1950. The Spectre’s strip in More Fun Comics ended in 1945 when it was displaced by, ironically enough, the new Superboy feature (More Fun Comics #101). The Spectre’s last Golden Age appearance was with the Justice Society in All-Star Comics #23, later that year; the character did not appear again until 1966 (Showcase #60).
Supreme refers to Jack O’Lantern as a “murdered news hound;” Jack O’Lantern was once a human reporter named Jack Bradley. The Spectre was originally a police detective named Jim Corrigan, slain by gangsters in 1940 only to be resurrected by a higher power as an avenger of evil (More Fun Comics #52).
Panel 3: Jack O’Lantern explained that Jack Bradley was inhabited by “the power of the living lantern” which hangs “above the gateway of reality.” Similarly, later Spectre stories revealed that the Spectre, although tied to the spirit of a mortal man, was an inhuman spirit of vengeance and instrument of God’s wrath. In the early eighties, Alan Moore established that the Spectre, now nearly omnipotent, had withdrawn from Earth to stand guard over Heaven and Hell. In 1984 the Swamp Thing, traveling to the afterworlds in search of the soul of his friend Abigail Holland, was forced to seek the Spectre’s permission to enter Hell (Saga of the Swamp Thing Annual #2), and two years later, the Spectre confronted the dreadful Shadow Creature that menaced Heaven itself (Swamp Thing #50). Following his failure in that mission, he was sent to once more walk the Earth (Spectre (3rd series) #1).
Page 12:
Panels 1-3: To battle Supreme, Jack O’Lantern disperses his ectoplasm into several duplicates of himself, a feat Supreme describes as “polylocation.” There are several superheroes who can create duplicates of themselves, including Triplicate Girl (later known as Duo Damsel) of the Legion of Superheroes and Jamie Maddox, X-Factor’s Multiple Man. During Alan Moore’s run on his series, the Swamp Thing also developed this power, learning how to grow duplicates of himself from the surrounding flora.
Page 15:
Panel 2: Jack O’Lantern muses sadly that Supreme learned of the “terrible abyss of existence” before he was ready. For all its cosmic grandeur, Jim Starlin’s comics milieu was an essentially pessimistic one: as previously mentioned, his hero Adam Warlock was forced to destroy his own soul to save the universe, while the cosmic awareness of Captain Marvel ultimately served only to allow him to accept his own death from cancer in 1982 (in The Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel).
Page 17:
Panels 3-4: Supreme uses his Shout Supreme, just as Suprema did in subduing the muggers in the beginning of issue #47.
Page 18:
Panel 1: More heroes:
Panel 2: Jack O’Lantern muses sadly that Supreme learned of the “terrible abyss of existence” before he was ready. For all its cosmic grandeur, Jim Starlin’s comics milieu was an essentially pessimistic one: as previously mentioned, his hero Adam Warlock was forced to destroy his own soul to save the universe, while the cosmic awareness of Captain Marvel ultimately served only to allow him to accept his own death from cancer in 1982 (in The Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel).
Page 17:
Panels 3-4: Supreme uses his Shout Supreme, just as Suprema did in subduing the muggers in the beginning of issue #47.
Page 18:
Panel 1: More heroes:
- Mark Tyme, Dimensioneer: a counterpart of Rip Hunter, Time Master, a time-traveling hero who starred in 29 issues of his own series in the early sixties. He has appeared sporadically in other DC titles since then; he recently became one of the Linear Men, a self-appointed task force dedicated to preventing interference with the course of history (Superman (2nd series) #61).
- Jim Stormbird: as previously noted, a counterpart of Blackhawk, the leader of the Blackhawks. Before the eighties, Blackhawk’s real name was never revealed; the 1987 Howard Chaykin series Blackhawk: Blood and Iron, and the short-lived monthly series that followed it, gave his real name as Janos Prohaska, a Polish national. More recent stories have treated that series as apocryphal (e.g., the Blackhawks’ appearance in the mini-series JLA Year One), once again leaving Blackhawk’s real name a question.
- Blake Baron
- Professor Night
- Twilight
- Polyman
- Spacehunter
- Janet Planet.
Page 19:
Panel 1: Dr. Daniel “Blacky” Conqueror is the leader of the Conquerors of the Uncanny. We will see more of him, and learn something of his background, in Judgment Day #2.
Panel 3: Professor Night throws a black-out bomb. Professor Night and Twilight’s weapons are very similar to the black-out bombs used by the Golden Age hero Doctor Mid-Nite. Doctor Mid-Nite, who could see in the dark but was blind in daylight, used the bombs to plunge his opponents into darkness, where he could dispatch them at his leisure; a new Doctor Mid-Nite, with similar powers and weapons, was recently introduced in the Doctor Mid-Nite mini-series (February 1999).
Spacehunter projects destructive eye blasts. Spacehunter’s DC counterpart the Martian Manhunter has inconsistently been shown to possess “Martian vision” similar to Superman’s heat vision.
Page 20:
Panel 1: Janet Planet uses her “gamma gun.” Janet’s DC counterpart Adam Strange, who had no super-powers, was armed with a similar ray gun.
Page 21:
Panel 1: As previously mentioned, the Golden Age heroes Doc Rocket and the Alley Cat, two former members of the Allied Supermen of America, were married in the Citadel Supreme in 1953, an event attended by most of the active superheroes of that time. The wedding brings to mind the wedding of Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman in Marvel Comics - even before one notices that the groom in each case was Dr R Richards.
Panel 2: Supreme infuriates Optilux by telling him that he has reversed the Photoplasmic Converter and restored the Prism World of Amalynth to its original state. As we saw in issues #43 and #45, this is a bluff: the Prism World remains in Supreme’s Souvenir Gallery Supreme, and he has not yet discovered a way to restore it to normal.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme captures Optilux by imprisoning him in a prism, just as Optilux trapped the worlds he once transformed into coherent light.
Panel 3: Conqueror Island is the base of operations for the Conquerors of the Uncanny. As revealed in Judgment Day #2, a strange fluke of evolution allows dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures to survive on Conqueror Island, which was discovered in the early part of the 20th century by Professor Conqueror, grandfather of Conqueror leader Daniel “Blacky” Conqueror. It is reminiscent of Monster Island, a similar locale in the DC universe which first appeared in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (1960). This is a neat double-ended reference: As the Conquerors of the Uncanny are to the Challengers of the Unknown, so Professor Conqueror is to Professor Challenger, the star of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel 'The Lost World' (the titular Lost World, of course, being a remote plateau populated by surviving prehistoric creatures and discovered in the early part of the 20th century by the Professor).
Stormbird Mountain is the home base of the Stormbirds. The Blackhawks, the Quality/DC characters on whom the Stormbirds are based, made their headquarters on a remote atoll called Blackhawk Island.
Page 23:
“Everyone’s home safely.” As we will see next issue, and in the Judgment Day crossover, the vanished heroes of the sixties will shortly be making a comeback.
Page 24:
Panel 2: Suprema makes a crack about Glory’s age. As shown in Judgment Day #2, Glory is a demigod whose birth preceded the existence of the Earth, making her approximately four billion years old.
Note that Supreme refers to Ethan Crane in the third person. Superman occasionally referred to Clark Kent in the third person, an interesting commentary on his relationship to his alternate identity.
Panel 4: Radar clearly does not approve of Supreme’s romance with Diana Dane. The consequences of Radar’s disapproval will be shown in Supreme: The Return.
Page 1:
Panel 1: The newscaster announces that Professor Night and Twilight are back on the streets. The Professor and his young assistant apparently have chosen to resume their crime-fighting careers after being rescued from the realm of Hulver Ramik (as seen last issue).
Panel 2: The Fisherman and Skipper also have returned to action in Coast City. The Fisherman and Skipper’s DC counterparts, Green Arrow and Speedy, made their home in Star City; there also was a Coast City in the DC Universe which was once home to Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern. Coast City was originally intended to represent Los Angeles, but was later established as a separate entity located along the California coast north of Santa Barbara. Coast City and its seven million inhabitants were destroyed by alien attackers in 1993 (Superman # 80).
Panel 3: The news also reports that Jim Stormbird have reported for duty at the United Nations. As seen last issue Jim Stormbird is the leader of the Stormbirds, a squadron of heroic aviators of the World War Two era. The Blackhawks, however, were generally been an independent organization not attached to the United Nations, although in the eighties Blackhawk series they worked as CIA operatives after the end of the war.
Diana’s earrings are figures of Krazy Kat and Ignatz the mouse, the main characters of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, a classic newspaper comic strip that first appeared in 1916.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Dr. Daniel “Blacky” Conqueror is the leader of the Conquerors of the Uncanny. We will see more of him, and learn something of his background, in Judgment Day #2.
Panel 3: Professor Night throws a black-out bomb. Professor Night and Twilight’s weapons are very similar to the black-out bombs used by the Golden Age hero Doctor Mid-Nite. Doctor Mid-Nite, who could see in the dark but was blind in daylight, used the bombs to plunge his opponents into darkness, where he could dispatch them at his leisure; a new Doctor Mid-Nite, with similar powers and weapons, was recently introduced in the Doctor Mid-Nite mini-series (February 1999).
Spacehunter projects destructive eye blasts. Spacehunter’s DC counterpart the Martian Manhunter has inconsistently been shown to possess “Martian vision” similar to Superman’s heat vision.
Page 20:
Panel 1: Janet Planet uses her “gamma gun.” Janet’s DC counterpart Adam Strange, who had no super-powers, was armed with a similar ray gun.
Page 21:
Panel 1: As previously mentioned, the Golden Age heroes Doc Rocket and the Alley Cat, two former members of the Allied Supermen of America, were married in the Citadel Supreme in 1953, an event attended by most of the active superheroes of that time. The wedding brings to mind the wedding of Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman in Marvel Comics - even before one notices that the groom in each case was Dr R Richards.
Panel 2: Supreme infuriates Optilux by telling him that he has reversed the Photoplasmic Converter and restored the Prism World of Amalynth to its original state. As we saw in issues #43 and #45, this is a bluff: the Prism World remains in Supreme’s Souvenir Gallery Supreme, and he has not yet discovered a way to restore it to normal.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme captures Optilux by imprisoning him in a prism, just as Optilux trapped the worlds he once transformed into coherent light.
Panel 3: Conqueror Island is the base of operations for the Conquerors of the Uncanny. As revealed in Judgment Day #2, a strange fluke of evolution allows dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures to survive on Conqueror Island, which was discovered in the early part of the 20th century by Professor Conqueror, grandfather of Conqueror leader Daniel “Blacky” Conqueror. It is reminiscent of Monster Island, a similar locale in the DC universe which first appeared in Star Spangled War Stories #90 (1960). This is a neat double-ended reference: As the Conquerors of the Uncanny are to the Challengers of the Unknown, so Professor Conqueror is to Professor Challenger, the star of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel 'The Lost World' (the titular Lost World, of course, being a remote plateau populated by surviving prehistoric creatures and discovered in the early part of the 20th century by the Professor).
Stormbird Mountain is the home base of the Stormbirds. The Blackhawks, the Quality/DC characters on whom the Stormbirds are based, made their headquarters on a remote atoll called Blackhawk Island.
Page 23:
“Everyone’s home safely.” As we will see next issue, and in the Judgment Day crossover, the vanished heroes of the sixties will shortly be making a comeback.
Page 24:
Panel 2: Suprema makes a crack about Glory’s age. As shown in Judgment Day #2, Glory is a demigod whose birth preceded the existence of the Earth, making her approximately four billion years old.
Note that Supreme refers to Ethan Crane in the third person. Superman occasionally referred to Clark Kent in the third person, an interesting commentary on his relationship to his alternate identity.
Panel 4: Radar clearly does not approve of Supreme’s romance with Diana Dane. The consequences of Radar’s disapproval will be shown in Supreme: The Return.
Supreme #50
Panel 1: The newscaster announces that Professor Night and Twilight are back on the streets. The Professor and his young assistant apparently have chosen to resume their crime-fighting careers after being rescued from the realm of Hulver Ramik (as seen last issue).
Panel 2: The Fisherman and Skipper also have returned to action in Coast City. The Fisherman and Skipper’s DC counterparts, Green Arrow and Speedy, made their home in Star City; there also was a Coast City in the DC Universe which was once home to Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern. Coast City was originally intended to represent Los Angeles, but was later established as a separate entity located along the California coast north of Santa Barbara. Coast City and its seven million inhabitants were destroyed by alien attackers in 1993 (Superman # 80).
Panel 3: The news also reports that Jim Stormbird have reported for duty at the United Nations. As seen last issue Jim Stormbird is the leader of the Stormbirds, a squadron of heroic aviators of the World War Two era. The Blackhawks, however, were generally been an independent organization not attached to the United Nations, although in the eighties Blackhawk series they worked as CIA operatives after the end of the war.
Diana’s earrings are figures of Krazy Kat and Ignatz the mouse, the main characters of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, a classic newspaper comic strip that first appeared in 1916.
Page 2:
Panel 1: The title of this issue, “A Love Supreme,” is both a pun on the name of our hero and a reference to a famous 1965 album by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.
Page 3:
Panel 1: On the wall is an illustration from the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Windsor McKay. Little Nemo was one of the earliest color newspaper strips, first published in 1905.
Ethan refers to the Allies’ meeting as a “class reunion,” an interesting euphemism for the cosmic battle of last issue.
The book on Diana’s coffee table appears to be the 1987 novel Mama by author Toni Morrison.
Panel 3: Note that there is a figurine of Krazy Kat on the shelf next to Diana’s stereo.
Panel 4: Ethan and Diana discuss the status of Billy Friday, who was rescued from the Nineteenth Dimension by Emerpus, the Reverse Supreme and who is now in the 25th century staying with Zayla Zarn. Similarly, Jimmy Olsen made several visits to the 30th century to visit Superman’s comrades in the Legion of Superheroes and eventually became an honorary member in his Elastic Lad guise.
Page 4:
Panel 1: Linda Lake is the love interest of Omniman, the main character of the comic book Diana and Ethan work on. Linda is Omniman’s version of Lois Lane, just as Diana is Supreme’s.
Page 5:
Panel 1: “The Many Loves of Supreme”
“The Suburbanite Supreme”
Panel 2: The “Possibilitron” is reminiscent of a story in Superman #132 (1959), in which Batman, Robin, and Superman used Superman’s “Super Univac” computer to see images of how Kal-El’s life might have unfolded had he grown up on Krypton rather than on Earth.
Note that while Judy Jordan is most closely analogous to Lana Lang, in this and other flashback stories she also fills the role played by Lois Lane in the Superman mythos. While Superman’s relationship with Lana was very similar to his relationship with Lois, his involvement with Lana as an adult was limited, and Lana did not play nearly as important a role in the Superman strip as Lois did (nor did she ever have a strip devoted to her adventures).
Page 6:
Panel 3: Some of the Allies are present at the wedding:
Page 3:
Panel 1: On the wall is an illustration from the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Windsor McKay. Little Nemo was one of the earliest color newspaper strips, first published in 1905.
Ethan refers to the Allies’ meeting as a “class reunion,” an interesting euphemism for the cosmic battle of last issue.
The book on Diana’s coffee table appears to be the 1987 novel Mama by author Toni Morrison.
Panel 3: Note that there is a figurine of Krazy Kat on the shelf next to Diana’s stereo.
Panel 4: Ethan and Diana discuss the status of Billy Friday, who was rescued from the Nineteenth Dimension by Emerpus, the Reverse Supreme and who is now in the 25th century staying with Zayla Zarn. Similarly, Jimmy Olsen made several visits to the 30th century to visit Superman’s comrades in the Legion of Superheroes and eventually became an honorary member in his Elastic Lad guise.
Page 4:
Panel 1: Linda Lake is the love interest of Omniman, the main character of the comic book Diana and Ethan work on. Linda is Omniman’s version of Lois Lane, just as Diana is Supreme’s.
Page 5:
Panel 1: “The Many Loves of Supreme”
“The Suburbanite Supreme”
Panel 2: The “Possibilitron” is reminiscent of a story in Superman #132 (1959), in which Batman, Robin, and Superman used Superman’s “Super Univac” computer to see images of how Kal-El’s life might have unfolded had he grown up on Krypton rather than on Earth.
Note that while Judy Jordan is most closely analogous to Lana Lang, in this and other flashback stories she also fills the role played by Lois Lane in the Superman mythos. While Superman’s relationship with Lana was very similar to his relationship with Lois, his involvement with Lana as an adult was limited, and Lana did not play nearly as important a role in the Superman strip as Lois did (nor did she ever have a strip devoted to her adventures).
Page 6:
Panel 3: Some of the Allies are present at the wedding:
- Glory
- The Fisherman
- Skipper
- Spacehunter
- Die Hard
- Mighty Man
- Twilight
- Roman
- Professor Night
- Super-Patriot.
Suprema and Radar also are in attendance.
Page 7:
Panel 3: The Clarks ask Supreme to crush a lump of coal into a diamond. Superman first performed this feat of super-strength in Action Comics #115 (1947).
Page 9:
Panel 1: Diana’s statement about heroes’ girlfriends wanting to trap and emasculate their boyfriends is an accurate interpretation of the relationship between Superman and Lois Lane up till the early seventies. Lois constantly tried to persuade (and sometimes trick) Superman into marrying her, but it was suggested time and again that she would betray his secret identity or otherwise compromise his crime-fighting career.
Panel 2: Spencer Samson is the civilian alter ego of Omniman, and another counterpart of Clark Kent.
Page 10:
Panel 3: Lyra Lemuria, the mermaid from Poseidonis, is Omniman’s equivalent of Lori Lemaris, the mermaid who was Superman’s college sweetheart. Lori Lemaris, as noted earlier, was from the Atlantean kingdom of Tritonis. “Lemuria” is the name of another mythical lost civilization, similar to Atlantis.
Page 11:
Panel 1: “A Marriage Made in Heaven”
In this chapter of the story, Supreme marries Luriel, the angel glimpsed in his Imaginary Menagerie in issue #43.
Page 12:
Panel 1: In addition to Luriel, we see several more creatures in the Mythopoeic Zoo:
Panel 6: Present at the wedding are several other gods:
Panel 5: The sad fate of Luriel is reminiscent of a 1964 Imaginary Story (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #51) in which Superman married Lori Lemaris, only to see her perish under tragic circumstances soon afterward.
Page 15:
Panel 3: The arguments made by Supreme as to why Omniman would never have a real relationship with Linda Lake are the same as those Superman made throughout the fifties and sixties for not marrying Lois Lane.
Panel 5: The Solar Sanctum is Omniman’s equivalent of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Interestingly, in DC Comics’ recent 1,000,000 series, Superman is shown to have survived until the 853rd century, where he resides in a colossal fortress inside the sun.
Page 16:
Panel 3: As noted in issue #43, Warrior Woman apparently is Dazzle Comics’s equivalent of Wonder Woman.
Page 17:
Panel 2: Surprisingly, the idea of a marriage between Superman and Wonder Woman has rarely been broached in the Superman mythos. In a Wonder Woman story in 1983, Wonder Woman has a dream in which she marries Superman only to find that their responsibilities drive them apart (Wonder Woman #300). Hyperion and Power Princess, counterparts of Superman and Wonder Woman in Marvel’s Squadron Supreme, eventually fell in love and married, and more recently, the coda of DC’s 1996 Elseworlds series Kingdom Come, set years in the future, shows Superman and Wonder Woman having a child together.
Panel 3: Glory suggests that the wedding be held in the Temple of Stars on her Interdimensional Island. The Interdimensional Island is equivalent to Paradise Island (also known as Themysciria), home of Wonder Woman, while the Temple of Stars is similar to the Temple of Aphrodite, where the Amazons of Paradise Island worship their patron goddess.
Page 18:
Panel 1: The wedding of Supreme and Glory is attended both by the Allies and a number of gods of various pantheons. The deities represented here are, from left to right:
Panel 2: Supreme protests that he was busy fighting the Sun-Eater near Andromeda. Andromeda is a northern constellation between Perseus and Pegasus that contains one of the nearest neighboring galaxies to our own, some two million light-years from Earth. The Sun-Eater presumably is similar to the monsters of the same name that have occasionally menaced the DC universe. The Sun-Eater first appeared in Adventure Comics #305 (1962) in the 30th century. In 1996, the sun was engulfed by a 20th century Sun-Eater, but the monster was neutralized before it could consume the sun’s mass and energy (in the Final Night mini-series).
Panel 3: The Moth Empress was a villain who fought the Allies, as mentioned in issue #48. As noted there she could mentally enslave others.
Supreme makes a caustic remark about Glory running home to her mother goddess. As previously mentioned Glory is the daughter of the goddess Demeter.
Panel 4: The Light and Void Cafe is probably a reference to Dave Sim's Cerebus with it's argument that men are the light and women are the void (which accounts for the problems between men and women).
Panels 4 and 5: The apocalyptic battle between Glory and Supreme, in which Glory throws a city bus at her estranged husband, is very reminiscent of the battle between Superman and three Kryptonian villains Zod, Nom, and Ursa in the feature film Superman 2 (1980).
Page 20:
Panel 1: Supreme refers to an incident in which he was made to propose to Gunzella the Gnome Queen as part of a prank by Szazs the Sprite Supreme. This is somewhat reminiscent of a 1962 Supergirl story in which Supergirl was compelled to marry Mr. Mxyzptlk (Action Comics #291).
Page 21:
Panel 3: Diana Dane refers to a famous scene in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (July 1968), in which artist Jim Steranko made clever use of page design and symbolism to suggest a sex scene between Nick Fury and his lover, despite the Comics Code’s prohibition on sexual situations.
Page 23:
Panel 1: Judy Jordan’s granddaughter Hilda remarks that she can’t stop thinking about Supreme’s “big house up in the sky.” This of course is the Citadel Supreme, where Supreme hung Hilda’s drawing in issue #44.
Panel 2: Note that Judy Jordan is once again reading the “religious book,” Life After Death, that was sent to her by Darius Dax.
Page 24:
Panel 1: Hilda has certainly produced an exceptionally complex schematic for a young girl drawing with crayons. A map of the Citadel Supreme, very similar to this diagram, appears in issue #52A.
Page 1:
Jonas Tate’s exclamation: “Great Kirby’s Cigar!” Similarly, Tate’s counterpart in the Superman mythos, Perry White, often exclaimed, “Great Caesar’s Ghost,” or, in the ABC television series Lois and Clark, “Great Shades of Elvis!” Jack Kirby, of course, was one of the premiere artists of American comics, the creator of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, and many other institutions. Kirby was fond of cigars, and was often seen with a stogie in his mouth.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Despite his other psychological flaws, Cyberzerk’s statement that Diana Dane must be “the new love interest” is surprisingly astute.
Page 3:
Panel 4: Cyberzerk mistakes Supreme’s Stare Supreme for Omniman’s “Omni Vision,” a power Omniman apparently no longer possesses.
Page 4:
Panel 1: Supreme’s last jibe, “here’s your No-Prize,” is a reference to a Marvel Comics custom dating back to the late sixties. The No-Prize was originally a reward sent to readers who wrote in to point out errors. Later the standards were tightened: readers had to not only find an error but provide a semi-plausible explanation for why the error wasn’t really an error. Winners got their No-Prize - an empty envelope - by mail.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Supreme refers to two of his enemies: Dr. Nocturne, who we have not yet seen, and the Shadow Supreme, who was last seen imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors in issue #45.
Panel 4: Supreme and Judy visit the Supremeworld Exhibition. There have been several Superman stories showing Superman amusement parks, the first of which appeared in Action Comics #210 (1955). In the early seventies, DC had tentative plans for starting a real “Supermanland” amusement park, to be based in the town of Metropolis, Illinois, but for various reasons the plan never passed the conceptual stages.
Page 6:
Panel 1: “The Remarkable Ruse of the Rogue’s Roster”
Panel 2: Note the Radar ride, which bears some resemblance to Disneyland’s Dumbo ride.
Page 7:
Panel 3: This is our first glimpse of Stupendo the Simian Supreme while he was still alive; as seen in issue #43, he later died of Supremium poisoning and was stuffed and mounted in the Citadel Supreme.
Supreme remarks that he found a home for Stupendo on Conqueror Island. As noted in issue #49 and in Judgment Day #2, Conqueror Island is the headquarters of the Conquerors of the Uncanny; it is inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Similarly, in Superman #138 (1960), Superman found a home for Titano the Super-Ape in the prehistoric past.
Page 8:
Panel 3: This is our first glimpse of Emerpus, the Reverse Supreme, who was mentioned in several earlier issues. Like Bizarro, he is an imperfect version of Supreme with unnatural, purplish skin (Bizarro’s was chalky white). Unlike Bizarro, who wore a costume like Superman’s, the colors of Emerpus’s costume are different: it’s orange with a green cape.
Panels 4-5: The description of Backwards Zone is reminiscent of the story “The Reversible Man,” written by Alan Moore with art by Mike White, which appeared in the strip “Tharg’s Time Twisters” in the British series 2000 A.D. The story narrates the life of an ordinary man in reverse, starting with the protagonist as an old man dying of a heart attack and ending with his birth.
Page 9:
Panel 1: This is our first glimpse of Szazs, the Sprite Supreme. Szazs appears in issue #53.
Panel 3: Supreme remarks that Szazs can only exist in prime-numbered dimensions: the first, second, third, fifth, seventh, eleventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and so on. As previously mentioned, Superman’s perpetual headache Mister Mxyzptlk hailed from the Fifth Dimension.
Panel 5: Supreme admonishes Judy: “Nonsense! It’s just your female imagination!” Superman often displayed a similarly sexist and contemptuous attitude towards both of his erstwhile love interests, Lana Lang and Lois Lane, belittling their intelligence and sometimes subjecting them to humiliating pranks intended to teach them a lesson.
Page 10:
Panel 2: “Looking-Glass Leavenworth” is another term for Supreme’s Mirror-Prison. As we learn in issue #56, which describes Supreme’s creation of the Mirror-Prison, it’s a more accurate description than “Hell of Mirrors.” Leavenworth is the name of a famous high security federal penitentiary located in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Panel 3: This is our first glimpse of what Optilux looked like before his transformation in 1969. Note the floating mirrors around him giving him a humanoid shape; at this point in his career, Optilux had already converted himself to coherent light.
Panels 3-4: This is another of Supreme’s enemies, the Televillain, first glimpsed in issue #43. His real name is Reuben Tube, a criminal who built a “static suit” that enabled him to enter television programs.
Page 11:
Panels 1 and 2: These are the two Supremium Men. The first, the purple figure at the left, was seen in issue #45; his true origins will be revealed in issue #52B. The second, originally known as Master Meteor, was previously mentioned but has not yet been seen. According to Alan Moore’s notes, the Supremium Man is scheduled to appear in issue #61, if that story ever sees print.
Page 12:
Panel 4: Supreme reveals that the villains are just Suprematons helping him play a prank on Judy. Superman commonly played pranks like this one, and some considerably crueler, on Lois Lane and his other friends, including Jimmy Olsen and Batman.
Page 13:
Panel 1: Judy’s transformations:
Panel 2: In the left background, we see another of Judy’s transformations, apparently an ape-Judy.
Panel 3: Here’s two more Judy transformations:
Page 15:
Panel 1: Here we again see the older Judy Jordan and her granddaughter Hilda.
Panels 4 and 5: Hilda is definitely not a normal little girl.
Page 16:
Panels 2-3: Like Supreme’s Suprematons, Hilda can generate the artificial lightning bolts necessary to open the doors to the Citadel Supreme. Hilda’s true nature will be revealed next issue.
Page 18: Ouch.
Page 20:
Panel 3: Supreme exclaims, “By the Great Magellanic Cloud!” The Magellanic Cloud is one of the two galaxies nearest our own, orbiting the Milky Way at a distance of about 160,000 light years from Earth. It was named for Ferdinand Magellan, the famed Portuguese navigator of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Page 21:
Panel 2: Here we see the means by which prisoners are sent to the Mirror-Prison.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme’s reversed dialogue reads “...doing.”
Panel 2: Judy’s reversed dialogue reads: “Poor Supreme. It’s always the same when you get to our age...” Note that, despite Supreme’s apparent youth, Supreme and Judy are roughly the same age.
Panel 3: Judy’s reversed dialogue reads: “...Mirrors can be so unkind.”
This is our first glimpse inside the Hell of Mirrors. We will learn more about this dimension and its origins in issue #56.
Page 23:
Panel 1: Supreme’s reversed dialogue reads: “I don’t understand why you’re doing this...”
Panel 2: Hilda’s reversed dialogue reads: “Gran’ma says everything’s working out fine. She says not to worry.”
Supreme’s reply reads: “Huh? How can I understand what you’re saying? How did you get here?”
Panel 3: Judy’s reversed dialogue reads: “Tell him he’s got a welcoming committee.”
Page 24:
Enter the Televillain and the Shadow Supreme.
The Televillain remarks that he “prayed to the dark gods for this moment.” The Televillain was apparently an ordinary man before creating his static suit; it’s not clear which dark gods those might be. However, this line is reminiscent of the 1988 horror film Shocker, in which a condemned murderer prays to his television for salvation from the electric chair.
Supreme has no powers in the Mirror-Prison. It is not clearly explained why; perhaps the (presumably) magical nature of the mirror dimension strips him of his powers just as Satana’s sorcery nullified Suprema’s powers in the flashback story in issue #46. That would also explain why the Shadow Supreme, who appears to be as powerful as Supreme, has never been able to break through the mirror and escape.
Panels 2-3: Judy replies, ominously, “Judy’s not who he’s talking to.” The meaning of this statement, and the mystery of Hilda, will be explained next issue.
Issues 52A and 52B were originally intended to run as a single oversized comic book like those DC released beginning in the early sixties. 80-Page Giants featured reprints of older stories and occasional special features like diagrams of the Batcave (Batman #203, 1968). Apparently, the printing formats used by Awesome Entertainment precluded the creation of a single issue that size--hence the split into two issues with the unusual numbering.
Title: “The Return of Darius Dax!”
Page 1-2:
Page 7:
Panel 3: The Clarks ask Supreme to crush a lump of coal into a diamond. Superman first performed this feat of super-strength in Action Comics #115 (1947).
Page 9:
Panel 1: Diana’s statement about heroes’ girlfriends wanting to trap and emasculate their boyfriends is an accurate interpretation of the relationship between Superman and Lois Lane up till the early seventies. Lois constantly tried to persuade (and sometimes trick) Superman into marrying her, but it was suggested time and again that she would betray his secret identity or otherwise compromise his crime-fighting career.
Panel 2: Spencer Samson is the civilian alter ego of Omniman, and another counterpart of Clark Kent.
Page 10:
Panel 3: Lyra Lemuria, the mermaid from Poseidonis, is Omniman’s equivalent of Lori Lemaris, the mermaid who was Superman’s college sweetheart. Lori Lemaris, as noted earlier, was from the Atlantean kingdom of Tritonis. “Lemuria” is the name of another mythical lost civilization, similar to Atlantis.
Page 11:
Panel 1: “A Marriage Made in Heaven”
In this chapter of the story, Supreme marries Luriel, the angel glimpsed in his Imaginary Menagerie in issue #43.
Page 12:
Panel 1: In addition to Luriel, we see several more creatures in the Mythopoeic Zoo:
- A unicorn
- A figure with a winged helmet who may be the Greek god Hermes (or his Roman equivalent, Mercury)
- The Cyclops, a creature fought by the hero Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey.
Panel 6: Present at the wedding are several other gods:
- Officiating the ceremony is the Egyptian deity, ibis-headed Thoth. Thoth was associated with science, philosophy, and religion, and credited with the invention of written language.
- Bacchus (known to the Greeks as Dionysus), the Roman god of wine and revelry. He is depicted here as he appears in the comic book series Bacchus, written and drawn by Moore’s friend Eddie Campbell, which chronicles the elderly god’s adventures in the modern world.
- A centaur, a creature with the lower body of a horse and the torso of a man.
- The god Pan, with a human torso and the lower body of a goat, holding his trademark flute.
Panel 5: The sad fate of Luriel is reminiscent of a 1964 Imaginary Story (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #51) in which Superman married Lori Lemaris, only to see her perish under tragic circumstances soon afterward.
Page 15:
Panel 3: The arguments made by Supreme as to why Omniman would never have a real relationship with Linda Lake are the same as those Superman made throughout the fifties and sixties for not marrying Lois Lane.
Panel 5: The Solar Sanctum is Omniman’s equivalent of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Interestingly, in DC Comics’ recent 1,000,000 series, Superman is shown to have survived until the 853rd century, where he resides in a colossal fortress inside the sun.
Page 16:
Panel 3: As noted in issue #43, Warrior Woman apparently is Dazzle Comics’s equivalent of Wonder Woman.
Page 17:
Panel 2: Surprisingly, the idea of a marriage between Superman and Wonder Woman has rarely been broached in the Superman mythos. In a Wonder Woman story in 1983, Wonder Woman has a dream in which she marries Superman only to find that their responsibilities drive them apart (Wonder Woman #300). Hyperion and Power Princess, counterparts of Superman and Wonder Woman in Marvel’s Squadron Supreme, eventually fell in love and married, and more recently, the coda of DC’s 1996 Elseworlds series Kingdom Come, set years in the future, shows Superman and Wonder Woman having a child together.
Panel 3: Glory suggests that the wedding be held in the Temple of Stars on her Interdimensional Island. The Interdimensional Island is equivalent to Paradise Island (also known as Themysciria), home of Wonder Woman, while the Temple of Stars is similar to the Temple of Aphrodite, where the Amazons of Paradise Island worship their patron goddess.
Page 18:
Panel 1: The wedding of Supreme and Glory is attended both by the Allies and a number of gods of various pantheons. The deities represented here are, from left to right:
- Zeus (or Jupiter), the king of the gods and the father of many gods and demigods, is shown officiating the ceremony.
- Cupid, the cherubic Roman god of love and the son of the goddess Venus.
- Loki, the trickster god of Norse mythology.
- Heracles (or Hercules), a demigod who is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman. Hercules has had several comic book incarnations at both Marvel and DC Comics.
- Hermes (or Mercury), the messenger of the gods and the god of merchants, thieves, and athletics. Hermes plays an important role in the Judgment Day crossover storyline (see Judgment Day #2).
- Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare born from the brow of Zeus, with her owl perched on her shoulder.
- Aphrodite (or Venus), the Greek (or Roman) goddess of love.
Panel 2: Supreme protests that he was busy fighting the Sun-Eater near Andromeda. Andromeda is a northern constellation between Perseus and Pegasus that contains one of the nearest neighboring galaxies to our own, some two million light-years from Earth. The Sun-Eater presumably is similar to the monsters of the same name that have occasionally menaced the DC universe. The Sun-Eater first appeared in Adventure Comics #305 (1962) in the 30th century. In 1996, the sun was engulfed by a 20th century Sun-Eater, but the monster was neutralized before it could consume the sun’s mass and energy (in the Final Night mini-series).
Panel 3: The Moth Empress was a villain who fought the Allies, as mentioned in issue #48. As noted there she could mentally enslave others.
Supreme makes a caustic remark about Glory running home to her mother goddess. As previously mentioned Glory is the daughter of the goddess Demeter.
Panel 4: The Light and Void Cafe is probably a reference to Dave Sim's Cerebus with it's argument that men are the light and women are the void (which accounts for the problems between men and women).
Panels 4 and 5: The apocalyptic battle between Glory and Supreme, in which Glory throws a city bus at her estranged husband, is very reminiscent of the battle between Superman and three Kryptonian villains Zod, Nom, and Ursa in the feature film Superman 2 (1980).
Page 20:
Panel 1: Supreme refers to an incident in which he was made to propose to Gunzella the Gnome Queen as part of a prank by Szazs the Sprite Supreme. This is somewhat reminiscent of a 1962 Supergirl story in which Supergirl was compelled to marry Mr. Mxyzptlk (Action Comics #291).
Page 21:
Panel 3: Diana Dane refers to a famous scene in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (July 1968), in which artist Jim Steranko made clever use of page design and symbolism to suggest a sex scene between Nick Fury and his lover, despite the Comics Code’s prohibition on sexual situations.
Page 23:
Panel 1: Judy Jordan’s granddaughter Hilda remarks that she can’t stop thinking about Supreme’s “big house up in the sky.” This of course is the Citadel Supreme, where Supreme hung Hilda’s drawing in issue #44.
Panel 2: Note that Judy Jordan is once again reading the “religious book,” Life After Death, that was sent to her by Darius Dax.
Page 24:
Panel 1: Hilda has certainly produced an exceptionally complex schematic for a young girl drawing with crayons. A map of the Citadel Supreme, very similar to this diagram, appears in issue #52A.
Supreme #51
Page 1:Jonas Tate’s exclamation: “Great Kirby’s Cigar!” Similarly, Tate’s counterpart in the Superman mythos, Perry White, often exclaimed, “Great Caesar’s Ghost,” or, in the ABC television series Lois and Clark, “Great Shades of Elvis!” Jack Kirby, of course, was one of the premiere artists of American comics, the creator of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, and many other institutions. Kirby was fond of cigars, and was often seen with a stogie in his mouth.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Despite his other psychological flaws, Cyberzerk’s statement that Diana Dane must be “the new love interest” is surprisingly astute.
Page 3:
Panel 4: Cyberzerk mistakes Supreme’s Stare Supreme for Omniman’s “Omni Vision,” a power Omniman apparently no longer possesses.
Page 4:
Panel 1: Supreme’s last jibe, “here’s your No-Prize,” is a reference to a Marvel Comics custom dating back to the late sixties. The No-Prize was originally a reward sent to readers who wrote in to point out errors. Later the standards were tightened: readers had to not only find an error but provide a semi-plausible explanation for why the error wasn’t really an error. Winners got their No-Prize - an empty envelope - by mail.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Supreme refers to two of his enemies: Dr. Nocturne, who we have not yet seen, and the Shadow Supreme, who was last seen imprisoned in the Hell of Mirrors in issue #45.
Panel 4: Supreme and Judy visit the Supremeworld Exhibition. There have been several Superman stories showing Superman amusement parks, the first of which appeared in Action Comics #210 (1955). In the early seventies, DC had tentative plans for starting a real “Supermanland” amusement park, to be based in the town of Metropolis, Illinois, but for various reasons the plan never passed the conceptual stages.
Page 6:
Panel 1: “The Remarkable Ruse of the Rogue’s Roster”
Panel 2: Note the Radar ride, which bears some resemblance to Disneyland’s Dumbo ride.
Page 7:
Panel 3: This is our first glimpse of Stupendo the Simian Supreme while he was still alive; as seen in issue #43, he later died of Supremium poisoning and was stuffed and mounted in the Citadel Supreme.
Supreme remarks that he found a home for Stupendo on Conqueror Island. As noted in issue #49 and in Judgment Day #2, Conqueror Island is the headquarters of the Conquerors of the Uncanny; it is inhabited by dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Similarly, in Superman #138 (1960), Superman found a home for Titano the Super-Ape in the prehistoric past.
Page 8:
Panel 3: This is our first glimpse of Emerpus, the Reverse Supreme, who was mentioned in several earlier issues. Like Bizarro, he is an imperfect version of Supreme with unnatural, purplish skin (Bizarro’s was chalky white). Unlike Bizarro, who wore a costume like Superman’s, the colors of Emerpus’s costume are different: it’s orange with a green cape.
Panels 4-5: The description of Backwards Zone is reminiscent of the story “The Reversible Man,” written by Alan Moore with art by Mike White, which appeared in the strip “Tharg’s Time Twisters” in the British series 2000 A.D. The story narrates the life of an ordinary man in reverse, starting with the protagonist as an old man dying of a heart attack and ending with his birth.
Page 9:
Panel 1: This is our first glimpse of Szazs, the Sprite Supreme. Szazs appears in issue #53.
Panel 3: Supreme remarks that Szazs can only exist in prime-numbered dimensions: the first, second, third, fifth, seventh, eleventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and so on. As previously mentioned, Superman’s perpetual headache Mister Mxyzptlk hailed from the Fifth Dimension.
Panel 5: Supreme admonishes Judy: “Nonsense! It’s just your female imagination!” Superman often displayed a similarly sexist and contemptuous attitude towards both of his erstwhile love interests, Lana Lang and Lois Lane, belittling their intelligence and sometimes subjecting them to humiliating pranks intended to teach them a lesson.
Page 10:
Panel 2: “Looking-Glass Leavenworth” is another term for Supreme’s Mirror-Prison. As we learn in issue #56, which describes Supreme’s creation of the Mirror-Prison, it’s a more accurate description than “Hell of Mirrors.” Leavenworth is the name of a famous high security federal penitentiary located in Leavenworth, Kansas.
Panel 3: This is our first glimpse of what Optilux looked like before his transformation in 1969. Note the floating mirrors around him giving him a humanoid shape; at this point in his career, Optilux had already converted himself to coherent light.
Panels 3-4: This is another of Supreme’s enemies, the Televillain, first glimpsed in issue #43. His real name is Reuben Tube, a criminal who built a “static suit” that enabled him to enter television programs.
Page 11:
Panels 1 and 2: These are the two Supremium Men. The first, the purple figure at the left, was seen in issue #45; his true origins will be revealed in issue #52B. The second, originally known as Master Meteor, was previously mentioned but has not yet been seen. According to Alan Moore’s notes, the Supremium Man is scheduled to appear in issue #61, if that story ever sees print.
Page 12:
Panel 4: Supreme reveals that the villains are just Suprematons helping him play a prank on Judy. Superman commonly played pranks like this one, and some considerably crueler, on Lois Lane and his other friends, including Jimmy Olsen and Batman.
Page 13:
Panel 1: Judy’s transformations:
- Giant Turtle Judy, reminiscent of Jimmy Olsen’s transformation in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #51 (1961).
- Devil Judy
- Fat Judy, similar to a transformation Lois underwent in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #1 (1958)
- Elastic Judy, similar to a transformation Lois underwent in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #23 (1961)
- Witch Judy, similar to a transformation Lois underwent in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #1 (1958)
- Snowman Judy
- Snake Judy
- Jungle Judy
- Vampire Judy (note the stake through her chest)
- Cyclops Judy
- Cowgirl Judy.
Panel 2: In the left background, we see another of Judy’s transformations, apparently an ape-Judy.
Panel 3: Here’s two more Judy transformations:
- A hunchbacked Judy ringing a bell, reminiscent of the character Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Pirate Judy, with an eye patch and a parrot.
Page 15:
Panel 1: Here we again see the older Judy Jordan and her granddaughter Hilda.
Panels 4 and 5: Hilda is definitely not a normal little girl.
Page 16:
Panels 2-3: Like Supreme’s Suprematons, Hilda can generate the artificial lightning bolts necessary to open the doors to the Citadel Supreme. Hilda’s true nature will be revealed next issue.
Page 18: Ouch.
Page 20:
Panel 3: Supreme exclaims, “By the Great Magellanic Cloud!” The Magellanic Cloud is one of the two galaxies nearest our own, orbiting the Milky Way at a distance of about 160,000 light years from Earth. It was named for Ferdinand Magellan, the famed Portuguese navigator of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Page 21:
Panel 2: Here we see the means by which prisoners are sent to the Mirror-Prison.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme’s reversed dialogue reads “...doing.”
Panel 2: Judy’s reversed dialogue reads: “Poor Supreme. It’s always the same when you get to our age...” Note that, despite Supreme’s apparent youth, Supreme and Judy are roughly the same age.
Panel 3: Judy’s reversed dialogue reads: “...Mirrors can be so unkind.”
This is our first glimpse inside the Hell of Mirrors. We will learn more about this dimension and its origins in issue #56.
Page 23:
Panel 1: Supreme’s reversed dialogue reads: “I don’t understand why you’re doing this...”
Panel 2: Hilda’s reversed dialogue reads: “Gran’ma says everything’s working out fine. She says not to worry.”
Supreme’s reply reads: “Huh? How can I understand what you’re saying? How did you get here?”
Panel 3: Judy’s reversed dialogue reads: “Tell him he’s got a welcoming committee.”
Page 24:
Enter the Televillain and the Shadow Supreme.
The Televillain remarks that he “prayed to the dark gods for this moment.” The Televillain was apparently an ordinary man before creating his static suit; it’s not clear which dark gods those might be. However, this line is reminiscent of the 1988 horror film Shocker, in which a condemned murderer prays to his television for salvation from the electric chair.
Supreme has no powers in the Mirror-Prison. It is not clearly explained why; perhaps the (presumably) magical nature of the mirror dimension strips him of his powers just as Satana’s sorcery nullified Suprema’s powers in the flashback story in issue #46. That would also explain why the Shadow Supreme, who appears to be as powerful as Supreme, has never been able to break through the mirror and escape.
Panels 2-3: Judy replies, ominously, “Judy’s not who he’s talking to.” The meaning of this statement, and the mystery of Hilda, will be explained next issue.
Supreme #52A
Issues 52A and 52B were originally intended to run as a single oversized comic book like those DC released beginning in the early sixties. 80-Page Giants featured reprints of older stories and occasional special features like diagrams of the Batcave (Batman #203, 1968). Apparently, the printing formats used by Awesome Entertainment precluded the creation of a single issue that size--hence the split into two issues with the unusual numbering. Title: “The Return of Darius Dax!”
Page 1-2:
Judy Jordan quotes the rest of the stanza from Shelly’s “Adonais” from which the epitaph on Darius Dax’s tombstone was taken (as seen in issue #42).
Page 2:
It is unclear if the Shadow Supreme possesses all his powers in the Mirror-Prison, since, as noted last issue, Supreme does not; he may just be willing to beat Supreme to death with his normal strength.
Page 3:
Panel 2: The Shadow Supreme’s dialogue reads: “Who are you, women? Why have you given the hated one to us?”
Panel 3: Hilda’s dialogue reads “Okay, Gran’ma. I’ll tell him.”
The Shadow Supreme was created by Darius Dax; similarly, both Bizarro and the Negative Superman, the Shadow Supreme’s antecedents in the Superman mythos, were created by Lex Luthor.
Page 5:
Page 3:
Panel 2: The Shadow Supreme’s dialogue reads: “Who are you, women? Why have you given the hated one to us?”
Panel 3: Hilda’s dialogue reads “Okay, Gran’ma. I’ll tell him.”
The Shadow Supreme was created by Darius Dax; similarly, both Bizarro and the Negative Superman, the Shadow Supreme’s antecedents in the Superman mythos, were created by Lex Luthor.
Page 5:
The truth about Judy Jordan is revealed.
Panel 4: This flashback sequence shows Dax stealing the Supremium meteor from Professor Wells immediately prior to the clash with Kid Supreme shown in issue #42.
Page 6:
Panel 1: Dax’s plan to kill Kid Supreme with the Supremium failed owing to the intervention of the League of Infinity; Dax apparently never realized they were involved.
Panel 2: In 1967 Darius Dax learned he had contracted cancer from his exposure to Supremium. Similarly, in current Superman continuity, Lex Luthor suffered radiation poisoning from a Kryptonite ring he wore to keep Superman at bay. The hand on which he had worn the ring was amputated and replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic (Action Comics #600), but Luthor later learned that the poisoning had spread and that he had less than a year to live. Luthor faked his own death and had his brain transplanted into a specially-created clone of himself as he’d appeared as a young man; he later returned to Metropolis (in Action Comics #670), claiming to be his own illegitimate son so as to lull his enemies into complacency.
Panel 4: The meaning of the book Life After Death and its cryptic dedication is made clear.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Dax notes that Judy was in Littlehaven “waiting for Supreme to return from space.” Issue #54 establishes that Judy received Dax’s book in “early 1969.”
Panels 2-3: The awful fate of Judy Jordan: her body now houses the intellect of Darius Dax.
Dax claims that the mind-overwriting process would only take instants today.
Panel 5: The secret of Hilda is revealed: she’s really a “High Impact Lethal Defense Automaton.”
Panel 6: Judy/Dax’s reversed dialogue reads: “Anyway, enough about me. You boys have fun with Supreme, now. Me and Hilda have things to do.”
Page 8:
Panel 1: The End still is imprisoned elsewhere in the Hell of Mirrors, although he’s not seen here.
Panel 6: The bazooka-like weapon is Korgo’s Planet Smasher, mentioned but not seen in issue #43.
Page 9:
Panel 3: This is the first time we’ve seen Suprema in her civilian identity of Sally Crane since her return to Earth. Note that like Supergirl’s alter ego, Linda Lee Danvers, Sally wears a wig with pigtails. However, Sally’s wig is blond; Supergirl was a natural blond and wore a brown wig as Linda.
Panel 4: Sally can’t resist a dig at Diana Dane: unlike Supergirl, who was genuinely sweet, Suprema’s squeaky-clean act apparently covers a real nasty streak.
Panel 5: Sally mentions that she is looking for an apartment with her dog, who we know is actually Radar the Hound Supreme.
Panel 6: One of the other patrons refers to Sally as “Gidget,” perhaps due to her overbearing personality. Gidget was the title character of a 1959 film based on a novel by Frederick Kohner, about a teenaged girl (played by Sandra Dee) who discovers the joys of surfing. The insufferably cheerful and wholesome Gidget (a nickname given her by her surfing buddies) went on to appear in several film sequels, as well as two sixties television series starring Sally Fields.
Page 10:
The Citadel Supreme’s presence is revealed to the world.
Page 11:
Panel 4: Sally prepares to switch to her identity as Suprema. Note that she has already discarded her blond wig.
Page 12:
Panels 2-6: The figure on the table is the inert body of Magno, the Super Humanoid, who Supreme retrieved from the former headquarters of the Allies in issue #44.
Panel 6: If Magno’s open eyes indicate that Dax’s personality had taken residence, then Dax’s claim that the mind transfer would taken only seconds with modern technology was no idle boast.
Page 13:
Panel 2: Radar, like all good fictional dogs, is not easily fooled by illusions and disguises.
Page 14:
Inset panel: Hilda refers to “that black shouty man” in the Hell of Mirrors, no doubt referring to the Shadow Supreme.
Page 15:
Panel 2: Hilda attacks Radar with the same artificial lightning generator she used to open the doors to the Citadel Supreme.
Page 16:
Panel 1: Diehard and Glory arrive.
Diehard, an android, can sense that Hilda is also an android.
Glory calls Hilda a “Cabbage Patch Kid.” Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cherubic dolls created by toymaker Xavier Roberts, first sold in 1978. During the eighties, the toy license was acquired by Coleco (later owned by Hasbro and more recently by Mattel), and for a time became the hottest toy on the American market: more than 50 million had been sold by 1987.
Panel 2: Hilda again employs her lightning generator.
Page 17:
Panel 1: Dax reappears, now occupying the body of Magno.
“The Artist Formerly Known as Magno” is a reference to the American rock star Prince, who in the early nineties changed his name to a symbol. Since his new “name” was unpronounceable, he has since been referred to as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”
Dax notes that Magno absorbed the powers of the Allied Supermen of America. Amazo, the android on whom Magno is based, absorbed the powers of the JLA; he never fought the Justice Society.
Panel 2: Magno uses his version of Supreme’s Stare Supreme. Note that the beams are green; when we’ve seen Supreme use this power, his “plasma beams” have been red.
Page 18:
Panel 2: The End is the figure in the chair, who we do not see clearly. Korgo calls him “Terminal One.” It is not clear who or what the End actually is, although he must be quite formidable, given the other villains’ deference towards him.
Page 19:
Panel 2: The End issues a cryptic proclamation: “The End? This. Is. Not. It. I. Am. It. Go. Away!” This may imply that the End is an incarnation of entropy, perhaps similar to the Legion of Superheroes villain the Time Trapper, who operated from a citadel at the end of time.
“Tales of the Supremacy Starring Squeak the Suprememouse in--What a Friend We Have in Cheeses’”
Page 20:
[Note: the annotator, still paralyzed by the appalling pun in the title of this story, offers no comment on the contents of panel 4 except to note that Supremouse, like Mickey Mouse, has only three fingers.]
Page 21:
Panel 1: Supremouse derives his powers from radioactive “Supremium Stilton.” Super-Mouse, the cartoon predecessor of Mighty Mouse on whom Supremouse is based, got his powers by eating super cheese.
Panel 2: Micro-Supreme, apparently a microscopic version of Supreme, complements Macro-Supreme, the gigantic alternate Supreme who appeared in issue #41.
Panel 3: Supremouse visits the Summit Supreme, the “distinctive mountaintop hideout” of Fifties Supreme. As previously mentioned, from 1942 through 1956, Superman had a similar mountain retreat, the predecessor of his later Fortress of Solitude. The mountain retreat first appeared in Superman #17 (July 1942), and was later attributed to the Earth-Two Superman.
Also seen here are some more Supreme counterparts:
Panel 4: This flashback sequence shows Dax stealing the Supremium meteor from Professor Wells immediately prior to the clash with Kid Supreme shown in issue #42.
Page 6:
Panel 1: Dax’s plan to kill Kid Supreme with the Supremium failed owing to the intervention of the League of Infinity; Dax apparently never realized they were involved.
Panel 2: In 1967 Darius Dax learned he had contracted cancer from his exposure to Supremium. Similarly, in current Superman continuity, Lex Luthor suffered radiation poisoning from a Kryptonite ring he wore to keep Superman at bay. The hand on which he had worn the ring was amputated and replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic (Action Comics #600), but Luthor later learned that the poisoning had spread and that he had less than a year to live. Luthor faked his own death and had his brain transplanted into a specially-created clone of himself as he’d appeared as a young man; he later returned to Metropolis (in Action Comics #670), claiming to be his own illegitimate son so as to lull his enemies into complacency.
Panel 4: The meaning of the book Life After Death and its cryptic dedication is made clear.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Dax notes that Judy was in Littlehaven “waiting for Supreme to return from space.” Issue #54 establishes that Judy received Dax’s book in “early 1969.”
Panels 2-3: The awful fate of Judy Jordan: her body now houses the intellect of Darius Dax.
Dax claims that the mind-overwriting process would only take instants today.
Panel 5: The secret of Hilda is revealed: she’s really a “High Impact Lethal Defense Automaton.”
Panel 6: Judy/Dax’s reversed dialogue reads: “Anyway, enough about me. You boys have fun with Supreme, now. Me and Hilda have things to do.”
Page 8:
Panel 1: The End still is imprisoned elsewhere in the Hell of Mirrors, although he’s not seen here.
Panel 6: The bazooka-like weapon is Korgo’s Planet Smasher, mentioned but not seen in issue #43.
Page 9:
Panel 3: This is the first time we’ve seen Suprema in her civilian identity of Sally Crane since her return to Earth. Note that like Supergirl’s alter ego, Linda Lee Danvers, Sally wears a wig with pigtails. However, Sally’s wig is blond; Supergirl was a natural blond and wore a brown wig as Linda.
Panel 4: Sally can’t resist a dig at Diana Dane: unlike Supergirl, who was genuinely sweet, Suprema’s squeaky-clean act apparently covers a real nasty streak.
Panel 5: Sally mentions that she is looking for an apartment with her dog, who we know is actually Radar the Hound Supreme.
Panel 6: One of the other patrons refers to Sally as “Gidget,” perhaps due to her overbearing personality. Gidget was the title character of a 1959 film based on a novel by Frederick Kohner, about a teenaged girl (played by Sandra Dee) who discovers the joys of surfing. The insufferably cheerful and wholesome Gidget (a nickname given her by her surfing buddies) went on to appear in several film sequels, as well as two sixties television series starring Sally Fields.
Page 10:
The Citadel Supreme’s presence is revealed to the world.
Page 11:
Panel 4: Sally prepares to switch to her identity as Suprema. Note that she has already discarded her blond wig.
Page 12:
Panels 2-6: The figure on the table is the inert body of Magno, the Super Humanoid, who Supreme retrieved from the former headquarters of the Allies in issue #44.
Panel 6: If Magno’s open eyes indicate that Dax’s personality had taken residence, then Dax’s claim that the mind transfer would taken only seconds with modern technology was no idle boast.
Page 13:
Panel 2: Radar, like all good fictional dogs, is not easily fooled by illusions and disguises.
Page 14:
Inset panel: Hilda refers to “that black shouty man” in the Hell of Mirrors, no doubt referring to the Shadow Supreme.
Page 15:
Panel 2: Hilda attacks Radar with the same artificial lightning generator she used to open the doors to the Citadel Supreme.
Page 16:
Panel 1: Diehard and Glory arrive.
Diehard, an android, can sense that Hilda is also an android.
Glory calls Hilda a “Cabbage Patch Kid.” Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cherubic dolls created by toymaker Xavier Roberts, first sold in 1978. During the eighties, the toy license was acquired by Coleco (later owned by Hasbro and more recently by Mattel), and for a time became the hottest toy on the American market: more than 50 million had been sold by 1987.
Panel 2: Hilda again employs her lightning generator.
Page 17:
Panel 1: Dax reappears, now occupying the body of Magno.
“The Artist Formerly Known as Magno” is a reference to the American rock star Prince, who in the early nineties changed his name to a symbol. Since his new “name” was unpronounceable, he has since been referred to as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”
Dax notes that Magno absorbed the powers of the Allied Supermen of America. Amazo, the android on whom Magno is based, absorbed the powers of the JLA; he never fought the Justice Society.
Panel 2: Magno uses his version of Supreme’s Stare Supreme. Note that the beams are green; when we’ve seen Supreme use this power, his “plasma beams” have been red.
Page 18:
Panel 2: The End is the figure in the chair, who we do not see clearly. Korgo calls him “Terminal One.” It is not clear who or what the End actually is, although he must be quite formidable, given the other villains’ deference towards him.
Page 19:
Panel 2: The End issues a cryptic proclamation: “The End? This. Is. Not. It. I. Am. It. Go. Away!” This may imply that the End is an incarnation of entropy, perhaps similar to the Legion of Superheroes villain the Time Trapper, who operated from a citadel at the end of time.
“Tales of the Supremacy Starring Squeak the Suprememouse in--What a Friend We Have in Cheeses’”
Page 20:
[Note: the annotator, still paralyzed by the appalling pun in the title of this story, offers no comment on the contents of panel 4 except to note that Supremouse, like Mickey Mouse, has only three fingers.]
Page 21:
Panel 1: Supremouse derives his powers from radioactive “Supremium Stilton.” Super-Mouse, the cartoon predecessor of Mighty Mouse on whom Supremouse is based, got his powers by eating super cheese.
Panel 2: Micro-Supreme, apparently a microscopic version of Supreme, complements Macro-Supreme, the gigantic alternate Supreme who appeared in issue #41.
Panel 3: Supremouse visits the Summit Supreme, the “distinctive mountaintop hideout” of Fifties Supreme. As previously mentioned, from 1942 through 1956, Superman had a similar mountain retreat, the predecessor of his later Fortress of Solitude. The mountain retreat first appeared in Superman #17 (July 1942), and was later attributed to the Earth-Two Superman.
Also seen here are some more Supreme counterparts:
- Snake Supreme
- Bulldog Supreme
- Cat Supreme
- Two-dimensional Supreme
- Shark Supreme
- Roller-skating Supreme
- Chicken Supreme
Panel 4: Note that Supremouse enters through a giant key-hole. Superman’s Fortress of Solitude was opened using a gigantic golden key that only Superman was strong enough to lift; the key was inserted into an equally massive keyhole. The key was first seen in Action Comics #241 (1958).
Note the galaxy in the corked-bottle behind Fifties Supreme. This may be another homage to the Bottle City of Kandor: Superman had a city in a bottle, the modern Supreme has an entire world in a prism (the Prism World of Amalynth, first seen in issue #43), and Fifties Supreme has an entire galaxy.
Fifties Supreme is bench pressing a steam-roller with his “Supreme-Breath.” By the fifties, even Superman’s super-breath had become tremendously powerful; in Superman #91 (1954), for example, Superman actually blows out a star with his super-breath.
Panel 5: “The White Death” is a nickname for Supremium; the radiation of normal white Supremium is harmful to many of Supreme’s incarnations.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Note the trophies visible in the background:
- A domed city labeled “Atlantis II”
- The liner HMS Titanic with a sign reading “Time Travel Rescue: 1951-1912,” implying that the ship was rescued from sinking by a time-traveling Supreme
- A statue of Abraham Lincoln.
These trophies are reminiscent of a 1961 story entitled “Superman’s Greatest Feats” (Superman #146), in which Superman travels back in time to undo several historical disasters, including the sinking of Atlantis and the assassination of Lincoln in 1865. (At the end of the story, Superman discovers that he has not affected his own history but rather that of a parallel universe; although time travel was commonplace in the sixties, a truism of the DC universe held that history could not be changed.) Superman did not rescue the Titanic in that story, although a large, damaged ocean liner often appeared in his trophy room; to the best of the annotator’s knowledge, the ship’s origins were never explained.
Supremouse warns Fifties Supreme that Grim Eighties Supreme may demand urine samples to prove that he is no longer abusing violet Supremium; as we see later in this story, Grim Eighties Supreme is suspicious of Fifties Supreme, who he says is “weak” and “deserves punishment” (page 27). In the eighties, the effort to crack down on the use of illegal drugs in the U.S. led to the imposition of mandatory urine analysis for people in certain professions; discovery of evidence of narcotics use was usually grounds for dismissal.
Panel 3: The reference to gaining the head of an ant under the influence of violet Supremium is probably a reference to a story in Action Comics #296 (January 1963), “The Invasion of the Super-Ants!” in which Superman was partially transformed into a giant ant. The transformation proved fortuitous, however, because it enabled Superman to communicate with an invading swarm of giant, intelligent ants and to persuade them to not turn Metropolis into their new home.
The Giant Turtle Supreme resembles Superturtle, a turtle version of Superman clad in a red cape with a red and yellow T-insignia who appeared in a series of gag strips in DC comics of the sixties.
Note “due for demolition” sign on the collapsed building, similar to the one on the building Professor Night accidentally smashed in the flashback story in issue #47. In the fifties and sixties, DC’s heroes were firmly Establishment figures who would never wantonly destroy public property, even by accident.
Panel 4: An addicts is sometimes referred to colloquially as having a monkey on his backs; thus, Fifties Supreme’s Supremium addiction constitutes a figurative “Simian Supreme” on his back.
Some more Supremes are displayed here:
- Zebra Supreme
- Old Supreme
- Dr. Jekyll Supreme
Panel 5: And even more:
- Caveman Supreme
- Horse Supreme
- Fly-Supreme
Panel 6: This is one of the most bizarre alternate Supremes, apparently a Whale Supreme.
Page 23:
Panel 1: Supremouse and Fifties Supreme visit the Creche Supreme, home of Supremite; as mentioned in the notes for issue #42, Supreme’s heroic career began shortly after he was exposed to the Supremium meteor, reminiscent of Superman’s early adventures as Superbaby.
Panel 2: These are Specky, Scrappy, and Shorty, the Sergeants Supreme, first glimpsed in issue #41. As previously mentioned, they are analogous to Tall Billy, Fat Billy, and Hill Billy, the Lieutenant Marvels from the Fawcett Comics Marvel Family series of the forties.
Panel 3: The unfortunate cetacean in Fat Supreme’s sandwich is a bizarre topical reference. In the late eighties, animal rights groups became concerned that dolphins were being caught and dying in the nets used to catch tuna; many leading tuna companies were pressured into changing their fishing techniques to avoid snaring dolphins, and subsequently began advertising their tuna as “dolphin safe.” The tuna in Fat Supreme’s sandwich, obviously, is not dolphin safe.
Fat Supreme apparently also takes the expression “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse” quite literally.
Note that the table is about to collapse under the weight of Fat Supreme’s belly.
Panels 4-5: This is Supreme-of-the-Future, first seen in issue #41. Note that he is depicted here as having green skin; in his first appearance, he had normal skin tones.
We see several more Supremes:
- A naked baby Supreme
- Liquid Supreme
- Cubist Supreme
Both of the latter two Supremes are reminiscent of the white Supremium transformations that Supreme underwent in the flashback story in issue #45.
Page 24:
Panels 1-6: Grim Eighties Supreme, with his pessimistic brooding and clipped dialogue, is a parody of the “grim and gritty” heroes of the eighties, particularly Batman in 1986's The Dark Knight Returns, which was written and drawn by Moore’s friend Frank Miller. Note that, like most of the characters in Miller’s Sin City stories, Grim Eighties Supreme smokes cigarettes. Kools are a real cigarette brand manufactured by the British‑American Tobacco Co. Ltd., which also produces Lucky Strikes; menthols are cigarettes whose tobacco is treated with a crystalline alcohol that produces a mint-like taste and smell.
Also note that Grim Eighties Supreme’s gauntlets have bullets - despite the fact that he does not even have a gun - reflecting the eighties and nineties fascination with gun-toting heroes like Marvel’s Punisher.
Page 25:
Panel 1: A veritable convention of Supremes:
- Aztec Supreme
- Whale Supreme (probably the same as seen on page 22, panel 6)
- A Supreme who bears a marked resemblance to Bizarro holding a sign reading, “Am Me Supreme?”
- A Supreme modeled after MAD Magazine’s trademark character Alfred E. Neuman, who first appeared in MAD #24.
- A Supreme whose head pops open
- Elastic Supreme
- Suprema, seen here selling Wieners Supreme; this is reminiscent of a Superman Sunday newspaper strip published on Sept. 28, 1947, in which Superman carries out a stunt to publicize “Teenie Weenies” brand hot dogs.
Panel 2: Sixties Supreme (who, according to issue #41, is also known as Supreme the Fifth) is at bat.
Page 26:
Panel 1: The pitcher is Mr. Hyde Supreme, presumably the counterpart of the Dr. Jekyll Supreme seen on page 22.
Panel 6: Note the mushroom cloud rising from bat. Sixties Supreme, like Superman of the same era, was described as having godlike powers; since Superman was at that time capable of destroying the Earth singlehandedly, it’s no surprise that Sixties Supreme can swing a bat hard enough to cause nuclear fission in the ball.
Page 27:
Panel 1: The poster contains another wretched pun: “The Green, Green Cheese of Home”
Panel 3: Here, Grim Eighties Supreme’s even-more clipped dialogue parodies Alan Moore’s own grim vigilante character Rorschach, from the 1987 series Watchmen, who had similar views (“Drug user. Weakling. Deserves Punishment.”) and a distinct aversion to pronouns.
Panel 5: Supremouse refers to the “Rich Roquefort of Reality” Roquefort is a pungent French blue cheese made from sheep’s milk; if reality is like a Roquefort, that implies that it may be unpleasant, but it’s certainly not dull or bland.
Pages 28-29: Map of Citadel Supreme
Note that this cutaway diagram of the Citadel is essentially similar to that drawn by Hilda in issue #50.
The depiction of the Roof Gardens is reminiscent of the garden atop Olympus, the sprawling, pyramid-shaped headquarters/temple of Marvelman (Miracleman in the U.S.) at the conclusion of Alan Moore’s radical revisionist version of that character in Warrior magazine in the mid-eighties. While Superman’s Fortress of Solitude had a variety of plant specimens, Superman was evidently not much for horticulture, and did not maintain any type of full-fledged garden.
Note that both Supreme and Suprema have quarters in the Citadel. Similarly, in the seventies Supergirl constructed her own annex of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Oddly, the living quarters of Superman and Supergirl were never included in the published diagrams of the Fortress.
Page 30: “Suprema -- The Has-Been Supreme!”
Panel 1: Note the “Space Roebuck” catalog: this is based on the mail-order catalog (first published in 1894) of Sears Roebuck & Co., the first truly mass-market mail-order concern. The Sears Roebuck catalog, along with the King James edition of the Bible, was a fixture of Americana found in a huge percentage of American homes in the early part of the 20th century.
Page 31:
Panel 3: Note the “outer space heater,” a throwaway joke of the sort popular in Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood’s work on MAD magazine.
Page 36:
Panels 3-4: Suprema’s tormentors are revealed as the League of Infinity. Shown here are:
- Future Girl
- Witch Wench
- Kid Supreme
- Kid Aladdin.
While this story is not based on any specific Legion story, it is characteristic of the practical jokes the Legionnaires often played on Superboy and Supergirl. Despite the Legionnaires’ repeated assertions that the Boy and Girl of Steel were history’s greatest heroes, they tried to keep the two heroes humble by subjecting them to a series of pranks, some of them rather cruel. Given the literally world-shattering level of their Kryptonian powers the Legionnaires were fortunate that Superboy and Supergirl were good sports.
Page 37:
Panels 3-5: Suprema joins the League of Infinity. Supergirl first attempted to join the Legion of Superheroes in 1960 (Action Comics #267) but was rejected on a technicality (she was temporarily transformed into an adult by exposure to Red Kryptonite, making her too old to be eligible for Legion membership). She applied again a year later and was accepted for membership in Action Comics #276 (May 1961), although her involvement with the Legion always was somewhat sporadic.
Page 38: Gallery of Villains
Darius Dax: Dax’s full name is given here as Darius Christian Dax; he is depicted with the Tremendoid he used in the flashback story in issue #43. Dax’s first appearance is given as Supreme #10, published in 1940. Lex Luthor’s first appearance was in Action Comics #23; however, Superman #10 was the first time he was depicted as bald (as previously mentioned he had red hair in the earliest stories), which he would remain in all subsequent appearances.
Optilux: His real name is given as Voran Glynn of the planet Sarto; he is shown converting Amalynth. As previously mentioned Optilux is based on the Superman villain Brainiac, whose real name was Vril Dox of the planet Colu. Optilux’s first appearance is given as Actual Comics #242 (1958); Brainiac debuted in Action Comics #242 in the same year.
Page 39:
Shadow Supreme: The Shadow Supreme is said to have been created by Darius Dax’s Negatizer. As previously mentioned, the Shadow Supreme’s origin is reminiscent of that of Bizarro, who was created by Lex Luthor’s flawed “duplicator ray” in 1959 (Action Comics #254). The Shadow Supreme’s first appearance is given as Kid Supreme #68 (1958). An early version of Bizarro, based on the teenaged Superboy, debuted in 1958 in Superboy #68. Unlike the later Bizarro, he was not created by Lex Luthor, although the story which introduced the “adult” Bizarro a year later stated that Luthor’s duplicator ray, which created Bizarro, was based on the design of the device that created the original Bizarro-Superboy.
Korgo the Space Tyrant: As mentioned in issue #42, Korgo originally was called Korgo the Space Bully. His first appearance is given as Advantage Comics #283 (1961). In this illustration, Korgo’s servants bear a striking resemblance to the Hunger Dogs, the “lowlies” of the planet Apokolips in Jack Kirby’s New Gods series.
Page 40:
Satana and Lord Sin: The arch-enemies of Suprema, seen in flashback in issue #46. Satana appears next in Youngblood #2. The two villains’ first appearance is given as Actual Comics #255 (1959).
The Televillain: The Televillain’s real name is given as Reuben Tube. He is shown in the Mayberry Sheriff’s Department threatening Barney Fife, the bumbling sheriff’s deputy played by Don Knots in the long-running situation comedy The Andy Griffith Show, which ran from 1960 to 1968. Since his debut (given as Supreme #104) was in 1956, the scene depicted presumably is not from his first appearance.
Supreme #52B
Page 1:
Panel 3: Radar can’t talk without his thought speakers, which were destroyed by Hilda last issue.
Panel 4: “Zayla” is Zayla Zarn, Future Girl, a member of the League of Infinity in the 25th century, as seen in issue #42.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Professor Night and Twilight arrive on the scene.
Panel 2: Professor Night’s aircraft is called the Night Flyer. Although we don’t see it very clearly here, it presumably is analogous to Batman’s Batplane. Note that it generates artificial clouds of darkness to cloak itself, much like Professor Night’s blackout bombs. Similarly, the Owlship piloted by Nite Owl in Moore’s Watchmen could generate artificial clouds as airborne camouflage.
Panel 3: Professor Night sets the Night Flyer in a holding pattern. The Batplane (somewhat improbably) could be left to fly unattended, allowing Batman and Robin to rappel to the ground.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Professor Night and Twilight active their “night-sight.” Unlike Doctor Mid-Nite, the Golden Age hero on whom he is partially based, Professor Night cannot see in the dark and, like Batman, must rely on night vision equipment.
Panel 2: Both Professor Night and Twilight use black-out bombs, as first seen in issue #49.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Enter the League of Infinity: Aladdin, Kid Achilles, Bill Hickok, Future Woman, Giganthro, and Witch Woman. Note their ages: this is presumably the “Adult League” first mentioned in the flashback story in issue #43, the equivalent of the various adult incarnations of the Legion of Superheroes.
Panel 3: Dax/Magno once again employs Supreme’s Stare Supreme.
Page 6:
Panel 1: Witch Woman’s real name is apparently Vivienne.
Hickok remarks that Magno has “Hoodoo power” stolen from Jack O’Lantern. As seen in previous issues, Jack O’Lantern was a member of the Allied Supermen of America; Magno possesses his powers as well as those of the other ASA members. Since Supreme and Suprema’s powers do not protect them from magic, this makes Magno a very dangerous opponent.
Panel 2: Aladdin must summon his genie to help him. Similarly, JSA member Johnny Thunder had no powers of his own and called on his magic Thunderbolt (by saying the magic word “Cei-U”) for assistance.
Panel 3: Zayla employs her ability to temporarily stop time, as we saw her do in the flashback story in issue #42.
Page 7:
Panel 4: Supreme remarks that “this showdown has been coming for sixty years.” According to issue #42, Supreme’s first encounter with Dax was in 1933; the two have been fighting for 64 years.
Page 8:
Panel 3: Darius Dax laments his past: “suffering indignity in Littlehaven, always being second best, despite my genius, to some dumb hick who’d stumbled over a meteorite.” Dax’s bitter recollections of his early days are reminiscent of the characterization of Lex Luthor in the stories of Elliot S. Maggin in the seventies, including his prose novels Superman: Last Son of Krypton (1978) and Miracle Monday (1980), which present Luthor as a tragic genius whose criminal nature is a product of his colossal intellect. In Maggin’s conception, Luthor suffered from having no one who understood him - let alone qualified as a peer - except for Superman, who frustrated Luthor by throwing his lot in with the mediocre common people Luthor disdained.
Note Supreme’s vulnerability to magic. Just as Suprema was vulnerable to the sorcery of Satana in issue #46, Supreme’s powers don’t protect him from the magical power of Jack O’Lantern. Similarly, as previously mentioned, Superman has no special protection from magic: he is just as vulnerable to spells, supernatural creatures, and enchanted weapons as any other mortal. In the seventies, the “World of Krypton” strip explained this vulnerability as a result of the rarity of sorcery and magic use on Krypton: because it was so rare, Kryptonians possess far less genetic predisposition towards magic than do humans, leaving them ill-equipped to deal with its effects.
Page 10:
Panel 1: This presumably is the same Supremium isotope seen in issue #45.
Panel 2: The Supremium is still in the early stages of its violet phase. Apparently, even when accelerated for experimental purposes (as we saw Supreme doing in issue #45), Supremium passes through its various stages fairly slowly, because it has not completed the change in the time that has elapsed since issue #45.
Panel 4: Here we see Billy Friday, finally back to normal and back in the real world. He apparently is making arrangements to attend a comic book convention. “Fancy-dress” is the British term for a an event in which the participants wear costumes.
Page 11:
Panel 1: Upon being exposed to the Supremium a second time, Billy’s “Elaborate Lad” transformation begins almost immediately.
Panel 2: Kid Aladdin refers to Billy as a “carrot-haired buffoon,” apparently having gotten a poor impression of him during Billy’s time with the League in the 25th century. Jimmy Olsen was a good friend of the Legion of Superheroes, but the obnoxious Billy Friday is considerably less genial.
Page 13:
Panel 3: Here, we see the beginning of events that took place in Littlehaven in 1958, as shown in flashback in issue #46.
Panel 4: The secret of the Supremium Man from issue #46 is revealed: he’s Darius Dax in the body of Magno, merged with the 1990's sample of Supremium.
Page 15:
Panel 1: The assembled heroes witness Supreme’s origin, which originally was shown in flashback in issue #42.
Panel 2: The young boy and the dog are, of course, Ethan Crane and Radar.
Page 16:
Panels 2-3: Supreme retrieves Judy’s body. Because Dax’s mind-transference was accomplished by dismantling her personality, Judy now is essentially mindless.
Panel 4: Zayla hints to Supreme that “maybe you’ll think of something to help her.” Being from the future, Zayla presumably already knows Judy’s fate. In the Superman mythos, various characters from future eras often dropped vague but leading clues to future events. In Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” for instance, the Legion’s farewell to Superman gives Superman the clue to his ultimate victory, even though the Legion steadfastly refuses to tell him outright what’s going to happen (Superman #423). Similarly, in his many adventures with the Legion in the 30th century, Superboy was given a post-hypnotic suggestion that made him forget any details he learned about his own future as soon as he returned to his native time.
Page 17:
Panel 1: Zayla refers to the Youngblood murder trial, which will be the subject of the Judgment Day mini-series.
Panels 3-4: This is the same scene that we saw in the second flashback story in issue #42, seen from the older Supreme’s perspective.
Page 20: National Flashlight Battery Inspection Day
This is a spoof of the one-page public service ads that ran in DC comics from 1949 through the late seventies. The ads, which were the brainchild of editor Jack Schiff, used DC characters to pass along socially positive messages encouraging cultural tolerance and other virtues.
Page 21: “The Secret Origin of the Professor Night/Supreme Team!”
This flashback story is highly reminiscent of a story published in Adventure Comics #275 (1960), which chronicled a meeting between Superboy and Bruce Wayne (the man who is secretly Batman) while both were still teenagers. In that story, Superboy learned that he would one day meet Batman after looking into the future with his “time telescope.” He subsequently encountered young Bruce Wayne, whose parents had temporarily moved to Superboy’s home town of Smallville and enrolled Bruce in Smallville High School.
(It should be noted that the Adventure story was not in keeping with most accounts of Batman’s origin, in which Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered when he still a young boy. In World’s Finest Comics #271 (September 1981), Roy Thomas and Len Wein attempted to reconcile this contradiction by stating that Bruce moved to Smallville with his guardians rather than his parents, who were already dead, although that account is at odds with a story in Superboy #182 (1972), explicitly a sequel to the Adventure story, which states that Bruce Wayne’s parents died after his earlier encounter with Superboy in Smallville.)
Panel 1: “Littlehaven Legend” and “Dean of Darkness” are two of the many nicknames for Supreme and Professor Night.
Panel 2: As mentioned in issue #47, the Walrus and Carpenter, who are the actual two characters from a Lewis Carroll poem, are enemies of Professor Night.
Page 22:
Panel 1: The photo shows Kid Supreme and Taylor Kendall together at age of thirteen, the approximate age of both Superboy and Bruce Wayne in the aforementioned story in Adventure Comics #275.
Panel 2-4: According to Twilight, Supreme and Professor Night met on an airline flight that was hijacked by terrorists. They discovered each others’ secret identities when they both feigned airsickness as an excuse to slip away and change into costume. This is reminiscent of the meeting of Batman and Superman in Superman #76 (1952); Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent were traveling together on an ocean liner and accidentally discovered each others’ identities when a searchlight outside their cabin window revealed them surreptitiously changing into costume. During the voyage, Clark Kent claimed to suffer from persistent sea sickness so that his absence would not be questioned while he was acting as Superman.
Page 23:
Panel 1: This is Taylor Kendall, who will later become Professor Night, as a young man. The reason he can’t stand the light, as explained in the notes for issue #47, is that he suffers from Porphyria, a disease that causes hypersensitivity to sunlight.
Note that Taylor is reading an adventure of the Phantom Aviator printed in the pulp magazine Masked Detective Mysteries. As seen in the Judgment Day mini-series, the Phantom Aviator was an actual World War One hero in the Maximum Press/Awesome universe who was killed in action in 1943. The Phantom Aviator is based on G-8 and other aviator heroes of the pulp era, and on the similar Fawcett Comics character Spy Smasher, who first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 (1940).
Panel 6: Taylor Kendall has adopted the guise of the Midnight Mask. In Adventure Comics #275, Bruce Wayne adopted a similar identity, the Flying Fox.
Page 25:
Panel 2: Kid Supreme and Taylor Kendall discover each others’ respective secrets. In the Adventure Comics story, Superboy knew from the outset that Bruce was the Flying Fox and that he would one day become Batman. Bruce managed to discover Superboy’s secret identity, but Superboy hypnotized him into forgetting that information, along with the fact that they would meet again as adults.
(According to World’s Finest Comics #84 (September-October 1956), Bruce Wayne had earlier visited Smallville in hopes of discovering Superboy’s identity as a test of his detective skills. World’s Finest Comics #271 explained that Bruce did know Clark was Superboy and only wanted to find definitive proof in order to impress Lana Lang. In any case, Superboy’s hypnosis stripped Bruce Wayne of all knowledge of his true identity until the two met again as adults years later.)
Panel 4: Kendall says he gets “extra strong and smart” at night. The Marvel Comics hero Moon Knight, another character similar to Batman (and one of the models for Professor Night), became stronger during the waxing of the moon; during a full moon, he could lift almost two tons.
Page 26:
Panel 3: The two heroes conclude that they’ve found the entrance to the legendary underworld depicted in Greek and Roman mythology. This area, also known as Hades (after its ruler, the Greek god of death), was the land of the dead, which, under some circumstances, mortals could visit while still alive.
Panel 5: The villain’s exclamation, “Curses! You meddlesome kids saw everything,” is reminiscent of the lament of every villain on Scooby-Doo after having their plans unraveled.
Page 27:
Panel 1: The river Lethe was one of the rivers running through the Underworld in Greek mythology. Its waters, the Waters of Oblivion, caused the dead to forget their former lives.
Panel 2-3: The fate of Hunkel, slipping into water and drowning, is reminiscent of the fate that befell the first criminal to find his way into the Batcave, Wolf Brando, who drowned in an underground stream in 1948 (Batman #48).
Panel 5: The water saps Kid Supreme’s strength because it’s magical; Supreme’s powers, as previously mentioned, are of little use against magic or sorcery.
Page 28:
Panel 2: The tunnels found by Kid Supreme and Taylor Kendall were later converted into Halls of Night, which, as discussed in the notes for issue #47, is Professor Night’s equivalent of Batman’s Batcave. The Batcave had a similarly illustrious history before becoming Batman’s headquarters; according to Detective Comics #205 (1954), it was the base of operations for a 19th century American army scout named Jeremy Coe, and according to Batman Secret Files and Origins (1997), at one time it was used as a hiding place for the Underground Railroad, smuggling escaped slaves to safety in the North.
Panel 3: As mentioned above, in Adventure Comics #275 Superboy hypnotized Bruce so that he would forget both Superboy’s identity and his own future career as Batman. He made no effort to remove his own knowledge of the future in that story or in its sequel in Superboy #182, although according to World’s Finest Comics #271, he later hypnotized himself to forget as well. His self-hypnosis occurred at some point prior to his third meeting with the teenaged Bruce Wayne, as shown in Superboy Spectacular (1980). In that adventure, neither he nor Bruce remembered having met before.
Page 29:
Cover Gallery
Supreme #155 (1962): “The Death of Supreme”
According to the text, this issue contains an “Impossible” story in which Darius Dax pretends to reform only to kill Supreme with Supremium. Dax is then tracked down by Professor Night, who becomes the new Supreme after taking an experimental serum to give him super-powers. This story, and the cover illustration, are closely modeled on Superman #149 (1961), an Imaginary Story in which Lex Luthor created a cure for cancer in order to secure his release from prison, and then pretended to befriend Superman in order to lead him into a deadly Kryptonite trap. After Superman’s death, Supergirl apprehended Luthor and took him to stand trial in the Bottle City of Kandor, where he was sentenced to spend eternity in the Phantom Zone. Supergirl then took Superman’s place in Metropolis.
The fictional comic book Supreme is equivalent to Superman, Superman’s own title, which was first published in 1939. In 1987 its title was changed to Adventures of Superman, and it continues today. It passed its 500th issue in 1993.
Supreme’s Girlfriend Judy Jordan #21: “Super-Judy, the Sweetheart Supreme!”
According to the text, in this story Judy Jordan gained super-powers and adopted the alternate identity of “Super Judy.” This story may be modeled on a story entitled “Lana Lang, Superwoman” that appeared in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #17 (1960). The costume Judy wears, which is seen again in issue #54, is a dead ringer for the costume Supergirl wore while disguised as “Mighty Maid” in Action Comics #260 (1960).
The fictional comic series itself is based on Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, a title solely devoted to the adventures of Superman’s long-time love interest. Lois Lane ran from 1958 to 1974 with a total of 137 issues.
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Kid Supreme #68 (November 1958): “The Shadow Kid Supreme”
According to the text, this story recounted the creation of the first version of the Shadow Supreme, an evil counterpart of Supreme created by Darius Dax. At the end of the story, the Shadow Supreme was destroyed by a good, negative version of Dax himself. The story is somewhat similar to the first appearance of Bizarro in Superboy #68 (also cover-dated November 1958), although the Bizarro Superboy in that story was destroyed at the story’s end, and is not the same as the later adult Bizarro. However, the Bizarro Superboy was not created by Lex Luthor.
The adventures of Superman when he was a boy first appeared in More Fun Comics #101 in 1945 and later in Adventure Comics. In 1949, Superboy gained his own title; it lasted until 1973, at which time it became Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes with issue #197. The series was retitled Legion of Superheroes with issue #259 as Superboy moved into a new title of his own, and ultimately survived (under the title Tales of the Legion of Superheroes) until 1987, with a total of 350 issues.
Advantage Comics #103
According to the text, this issue contained the debuts of Kid Supreme (with Radar) as well as those of the Fisherman and Skipper and Roy Roman, the Mer-Master. This cover is reminiscent of that of Adventure Comics #103, published in 1946, which began the runs of Superboy, Green Arrow, and Aquaman in that series; all three strips previously appeared in the discontinued More Fun Comics. The text also notes that Kid Supreme displaced Jack O’Lantern’s strip; similarly, Superboy’s original strip in More Fun Comics replaced the more macabre adventures of the Spectre.
Adventure Comics was one of the oldest books in the DC stable. Originally entitled New Comics, it was first published in 1935; the title became New Adventure Comics with issue #12 and Adventure Comics with issue #32 (1938). It lasted until 1981, when it became a digest-sized reprint series. It ended for good in 1983 with issue #503.
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America’s Greatest Comics
The cover shows a beleaguered Twilight in the Halls of Night trying to care for Professor Night and Supreme, who have both been transformed into infants. Being transformed into babies were just a few of the weird transformations Superman and Batman suffered in the fifties and sixties. Batman was transformed into an infant (albeit with his normal intelligence) in Batman #147 (May 1962); Superman was similarly transformed in Superman #66 (1950). Mort Weisinger, the editor of the Superman titles, was unaccountably fond of this gimmick and revisited it several times; for example, Superboy, along with his comrades in the Legion of Superheroes, reverted to infancy in Adventure Comics #356 (May 1967).
The series America’s Greatest Comics is modeled on World’s Finest Comics, which debuted in 1941 (the first issue was entitled World’s Best Comics; the title changed with #2). It was originally an oversized 100-page anthology book with a variety of features including Superman and Batman (in separate strips). Starting in 1954, it featured the adventures of the Superman-Batman team, which remained the staple of the series (except for a brief period in 1970-1971) until its cancellation in 1986 with issue #323.
Actual Comics #240 “Battle of the Biblical Behemoths”
The cover shows Supreme battling the biblical characters Samson and Goliath. Superboy met Samson in Adventure Comics #257 (1959), and met the biblical hero again in an Imaginary Story in Action Comics #279 (1961).
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Advantage Comics #284 “The Evil-Doers from Beyond Eternity!”
This cover, showing Kid Supreme bound with Supremium chains before a jury of villains presided over by Darius Dax, is highly reminiscent of the cover of Action Comics #286 (March 1962), in which Superman was put on trial by Lex Luthor and the Legion of Super-Villains.
The text notes that the League of Infinity debuted in Advantage Comics #247, April 1958. DC’s Legion of Superheroes, on which the League is based, debuted in the same month and year in Adventure Comics #247. The text also says that the League took over as the main feature of Advantage Comics in issue #300; the Legion took over Adventure in #300, also in September 1962.
Actual Comics #294: “Super-Dax vs. The Crook of Chrome!”
The text states that in this issue Supreme visited Contra Earth, a world where Professor Night and Supreme were evil, Judy was a “vicious gun moll,” and the counterparts of Darius Dax and Jack-a-Dandy were heroes. This story may be inspired by an Imaginary Story entitled “Killer Kent vs. Super-Luthor” which appeared in Superman #230 (October 1970), in which Lex Luthor was a superhero and Clark Kent a murderous gangster. Contra Earth also is similar to the parallel world of Earth-Three, first encountered by the Justice League of America in JLA #29-#30 (1964), where the counterparts of the Justice League including Superman and Batman were all villains. In 1982, Earth-Three’s counterpart of Lex Luthor was introduced as that world’s only hero (DC Comics Presents Annual #1); he later married Earth-Three’s Lois Lane.
The text indicates that Contra Earth, unlike Earth-Three, was not in a parallel dimension, but shared the same orbit as Earth on the opposite side of the sun. This is similar to Marvel’s Counter-Earth, a duplicate of the Earth created in the seventies by the High Evolutionary, which was briefly the home of hero Adam Warlock.
Page 33: Newspaper Strip
The fictional Supreme newspaper strip is modeled on the Superman daily newspaper comic strip, distributed by the McClure Syndicate starting in January 1939. Before selling Superman to DC, Siegel and Shuster tried unsuccessfully to sell the character to the syndicates as a newspaper strip; in the late thirties, newspaper comics had much greater prestige than comic books. However, it was only after the character was on his way to comic book success that the major newspaper syndicates showed any interest. The original strip ran until 1966 and was revived several times in the seventies and eighties. The newspaper strip, which in its heyday ran in more than 230 newspapers with a total circulation of almost 25 million, arguably was the largest single factor in making Superman a household name.
This “newspaper” story, “Supreme and the Funnybook Felonies!” is based on a story which ran in Superman #19 (November-December 1942), entitled “The Case of the Funny Paper Crimes.”
Strip 2, panel 2: "Upsy-Dazy” is a thinly-veiled version of Alley Oop, a time-traveling caveman created by Vince Hamlin who made his newspaper debut in 1934.
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Strip 2: Poopdeck the Sailor is based on Popeye, a character created by cartoonist Elzie Segar, who was introduced in the comic strip Thimble Theatre in 1929. Popeye, who had tremendous strength and was nearly indestructible, is considered a forerunner of Superman, although his adventures were played primarily for comedy. It should be noted that Popeye’s father was named Poopdeck Pappy.
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Strip 1, panel 2: Poopdeck downs a can of broccoli to increase his strength. Popeye boosted his muscle power with canned spinach.
Strip 2, panel 3: Note that the beachgoer is reading The Naked and the Dead, a 1948 novel by Norman Mailer about World War Two.
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Strip 1, panel 2: Prince Features Syndicate is a none-too-subtle reference to King Features, one of the leading syndicates of newspaper comic strips.
Panel 3: One of the Prince Features editors asks Supreme nervously if he’s “coming to take one of our characters to court, like you did Major Marvelous?” This is a reference to National’s aforementioned lawsuit against Fawcett Comics, alleging that Captain Marvel was an imitation of Superman, which was settled out of court in late 1953.
Strip 2, panel 2: “R. F. Overcoat” is a reference to R. F. Outcault, the creator of Hogan’s Alley and The Yellow Kid, the first American newspaper comic strips, which debuted in 1895. Good Oldberg is a stand-in for Rube Goldberg, a cartoonist and satirist best known for his cartoons depicting the convoluted contraptions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, mechanisms now known as “Rube Goldberg machines.” The cartoons first appeared in 1914 and appeared periodically through the mid-sixties.
Panel 3: Lil’ Abnorm is another thinly-veiled version of a well-known comic strip character, Al Capp’s noble country bumpkin Lil’ Abner, who debuted in 1934.
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Strip 1, panel 2: “Harold Beige” is a reference to Harold Gray, the creator of Little Orphan Annie, who made her debut in the Chicago Tribune in 1924.
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Strip 1: The cartoon characters are revealed as “Syndicatrons” created by Rube Oldberg, bitter at having been put out to pasture by Supreme and his superhero ilk. Indeed, the advent of comic books began the decline of adventure strips in the newspapers, which today are all but extinct. Similarly, the crimes in Superman #19 were masterminded by an unnamed, disgruntled cartoonist who disguised himself as a villain called Funnyface.
Judgment Day Sourcebook
Cover: On the cover is Rob Liefeld's creation Agent America, a character he drew a few times before licensing Fighting American from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.Page 1:
Panel 1: This is Hermes. I believe he is in his palace in the World Tree, but it's possible that he's in Demeter's palace. Hermes is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods (Dionysus being the youngest).
Hermes was the emissary and messenger of the gods. Hermes was also "the divine trickster" and "the god of boundaries and the transgression of boundaries, ... the patron of herdsmen, thieves, graves, and heralds." He is described as moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, and was the conductor of souls into the afterlife. He was also viewed as the protector and patron of roads and travelers.
In some myths, he is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind. His attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, satchel or pouch, winged sandals, and winged cap. His main symbol is the Greek kerykeionor Latin caduceus, which appears in a form of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff with carvings of the other gods.
Panel 2: Here are a group of pulp heroes from the '20s and '30s. The Phantom Aviator was an actual World War One hero in the Maximum Press/Awesome universe who was killed in action in 1943. The Phantom Aviator is based on G-8 and other aviator heroes of the pulp era, and on the similar Fawcett Comics character Spy Smasher, who first appeared in Whiz Comics #2. He also may be based on a comic-book aviator hero called the Phantom Eagle.
Next to him is John (also sometimes spelled Jon) Prophet. Prophet was created by Rob Liefeld. In Liefeld's comics, John Prophet, a poor and homeless man living in the World War II era, volunteered to participate in the medical experiments of Dr. Horatio Wells, a time-traveling scientist from the future who used DNA-enhancing methods to transform Prophet into a supersoldier. He was engineered to serve the evil Phillip Omen and programmed with murderous instincts. Wells had a change of heart though and changed Prophet's programming from evil to a strong belief in God. Wells planned for Prophet to be placed into stasis for many years and then re-emerge in the future to help Wells's people fight the evil Disciples. Eventually found by Youngblood, Prophet awakens disoriented, in a world he does not recognize, and he mistakes Youngblood for the Disciples and attacks.
It was later discovered that Prophet was not always in stasis after World War II, and had been used as "a mindless weapon of war" in Vietnam. Stephen Platt, Prophet artist from 1994 to 1996, explained that the character "feel[s] responsible for the things that people forced him to do, even though he can't remember them. He's always thought of himself as a good person, and now he's discovering that the things he did were hideous by all standards of human decency. He's going to [...] take a spiritual journey to discover who he really is."
Alan Moore reimagined Prophet into a Doc Savage-type of here (something he'd do again with Tom Strong).
We also see The Fog, a Shadow or Spirit-type mystery man.
I'm not sure who Dr. Lucifer is a reference to. Any thoughts?
Panel 3: John Prophet mentions Zantar, who, as we shall see, is an obvious Tarzan analog. Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 25 sequels, several authorized books by other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized.
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Panel 2: Here we see Future Girl/Future Woman and Giganthro heading up the League of Infinity's Time Tower from the Judgment Day/Youngblood trial. Coming down the stairs are other members of the League:
It was later discovered that Prophet was not always in stasis after World War II, and had been used as "a mindless weapon of war" in Vietnam. Stephen Platt, Prophet artist from 1994 to 1996, explained that the character "feel[s] responsible for the things that people forced him to do, even though he can't remember them. He's always thought of himself as a good person, and now he's discovering that the things he did were hideous by all standards of human decency. He's going to [...] take a spiritual journey to discover who he really is."
Alan Moore reimagined Prophet into a Doc Savage-type of here (something he'd do again with Tom Strong).
We also see The Fog, a Shadow or Spirit-type mystery man.
I'm not sure who Dr. Lucifer is a reference to. Any thoughts?
Panel 3: John Prophet mentions Zantar, who, as we shall see, is an obvious Tarzan analog. Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 25 sequels, several authorized books by other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized.
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Panel 2: Here we see Future Girl/Future Woman and Giganthro heading up the League of Infinity's Time Tower from the Judgment Day/Youngblood trial. Coming down the stairs are other members of the League:
- Another Future Woman
- Wild Bill Hickok
- Witch Woman
- Achilles
- Another Giganthro
The League first appeared in Supreme #42. The League going down the stairs are on their way to Supreme's Citadel for the events in Supreme #52B, to help Supreme fight Darius Dax in the body of MAGNO.
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Panel 2: The Brimstone Kid resembles several masked western heroes including the Two-gun Kid and the Outlaw Kid. Obviously his copper colored horse and Native American companion suggests the Lone Ranger. His companion Nighteagle may be inspired by Tonto and the Standing Bear version of Super-Chief.
The events that the pair are talking about will appear in Judgment Day.
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Panel 2: This is the aftermath of the accident that caused Leanna Creel to get her powers to become the Youngblood member Riptide. Riptide got her powers during an undersea accident that would have killed her if not for the mysterious Sea Witch. Her father, Storybook Smith, had carefully written a story on the origins of her powers many years earlier. Her father left before she was born, but she must have grown up with the story of her famous father and his book, which had been stolen.
When Leanna got her powers, she joined Youngblood. Originally she did it to make some quick money, but soon became an integral part of the team.
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Panel 2: These are the Allied Supermen of America, the golden-era superteam equivalent of the Justice Society of America. Pictured are:
- Jack O' Lantern
- Black Hand
- Professor Night
- Supreme
- Storybook Smith
- Glory
- Die Hard
- Alley Cat
- Roy Roman
Panel 3: This is the warlock Magnar Teufelsun, Troll's master, who is about to be killed by Bram, the Conan analog for Judgment Day. Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero who originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films (including Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer), television programs (cartoon and live-action), video games, role-playing games and other media. The character was created by writer Robert E. Howard in 1932 via a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.
Panel 4: The dead hand belongs to Riptide. Fellow Youngblood members Badrock, Masada and Vogue have come across her body, as we will see in Judgment Day.
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Panel 1: This is Mickey Tombs aka Knightsabre who first appeared in Youngblood #6.
Panel 3: Sentinel appeared in Youngblood #1.
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Judgment Day Alpha
Panel 1: This is Mickey Tombs aka Knightsabre who first appeared in Youngblood #6.
Panel 3: Sentinel appeared in Youngblood #1.
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Panel 1: The Brimstone Kid resembles several masked western heroes including the Two-gun Kid and the Outlaw Kid. Obviously his copper coloured horse and Native American companion suggests the Lone Ranger.
Panel 2: His companion Nighteagle may be inspired by Tonto and the Standing Bear version of Super-Chief. Kid Thunder's name may be based on the first Johnny Thunder, his costume resembles the Phantom Rider. However neither of those characters were African-American. The best known African-American western hero is Lobo.
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Panel 2: His companion Nighteagle may be inspired by Tonto and the Standing Bear version of Super-Chief. Kid Thunder's name may be based on the first Johnny Thunder, his costume resembles the Phantom Rider. However neither of those characters were African-American. The best known African-American western hero is Lobo.
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Panel 1: The Lonesome Rider is a probable reference to the Lone Ranger.
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Bram the Berserk is obviously based on Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian who appeared in several books including Conan the Conqueror and Conan the Freebooter. Wotan is the Germanic version of the Norse god Odin.
Update: Derek (aka Rogue Jupiter) emailed me to mention Bram's similarity to two other characters: Kull of Atlantis and Bran Mak Morn, both of whom were also created by Robert E. Howard.
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Panel 3: The Frost Giant's Daughter was one of Howard's original Conan stories. Moore samples from Conan's history to create a back-story for Bram.
Magnar Teufulsun appears to be based on one of Conan's arch foes Thoth-Amon, who was usually depicted in comics wearing a helmet with curved horns. Teufel is German for devil as Bram's warriors point out.
I suspect that Moore is NOT referring to the Decepticons' base when he places Teufulsun in the Fortress Sinister.
The blue furred Bartelmew is better known to Youngblood readers as Troll.
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Magnar Teufulsun appears to be based on one of Conan's arch foes Thoth-Amon, who was usually depicted in comics wearing a helmet with curved horns. Teufel is German for devil as Bram's warriors point out.
I suspect that Moore is NOT referring to the Decepticons' base when he places Teufulsun in the Fortress Sinister.
The blue furred Bartelmew is better known to Youngblood readers as Troll.
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Panel 1: Battlin' Baron and his Roarin' Roughnecks are counterparts of Sgt Fury's Howling Commandos.
Other comic equivalents: The Iron Cross may be based on Enemy Ace; the Stormbirds are the Blackhawks; the Super-Patriot is an Image comics' character created by Erik Larsen. and Agent America is a Captain America or Fighting American analogue created by Rob Liefeld.
Panel 2: The Phantom Aviator may be based on a comic-book aviator hero called the Phantom Eagle. Shamrock is Battlin' Baron's equivalent of Nick Fury's loyal number two Dum Dum Dugan.
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Other comic equivalents: The Iron Cross may be based on Enemy Ace; the Stormbirds are the Blackhawks; the Super-Patriot is an Image comics' character created by Erik Larsen. and Agent America is a Captain America or Fighting American analogue created by Rob Liefeld.
Panel 2: The Phantom Aviator may be based on a comic-book aviator hero called the Phantom Eagle. Shamrock is Battlin' Baron's equivalent of Nick Fury's loyal number two Dum Dum Dugan.
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Panel 1: The young soldier detailed to stay with the Phantom Aviator may be the Roughnecks' equivalent of Junior Juniper from the Howling Commandos.
Panel 2: As we discover later John Prophet might be based on Doc Savage the Man of Bronze.
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Panel 2: As we discover later John Prophet might be based on Doc Savage the Man of Bronze.
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Panel 2: Savage Dragon was created by Erik Larsen and featured in one of the first comics in the Image launch of 1992.
Panel 3: Diehard was one of the original line-up of Youngblood and appeared in issue 1.
Panel 4: Diehard refers to his encounter with some old allies which occurred in Alan Moore's revamp of Supreme in the Story of the Year storyline. Moore retconned a JSA/JLA analogue super-team called the Allies which included the Diehard.
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Panel 3: Diehard was one of the original line-up of Youngblood and appeared in issue 1.
Panel 4: Diehard refers to his encounter with some old allies which occurred in Alan Moore's revamp of Supreme in the Story of the Year storyline. Moore retconned a JSA/JLA analogue super-team called the Allies which included the Diehard.
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Zantar is clearly an analogue, and anagram, of Tarzan. Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle lord first appeared in Tarzan of the Apes in 1912. Tarzan's parents were killed by a Lion and he was raised by Great Apes. Moore has reversed that origin as well as the name to have Zantar raised by white lions.
Xanthea the Immortal Queen of the Silver City is probably a reference to Ayesha the immortal Queen from H Rider Haggard's novel She.
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Xanthea the Immortal Queen of the Silver City is probably a reference to Ayesha the immortal Queen from H Rider Haggard's novel She.
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Panel 2: This is the skeleton of Zantar's uncle Sir Edward Conqueror who is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger.
Panel 3: The designs of the natives' masks here and on the preceding pages may include some artistic jokes that I have missed.
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Panel 3: The designs of the natives' masks here and on the preceding pages may include some artistic jokes that I have missed.
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Panel 1: Supreme makes his first appearance here. Created by Rob Liefeld and Brian Murray and later rebooted by Moore.
His Suprematons are the equivalent of the silver-age Superman's decoy robots. Optilux is Supreme's version of Brainiac. The Citadel Supreme or Floating Fortress is obviously based on Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
His Suprematons are the equivalent of the silver-age Superman's decoy robots. Optilux is Supreme's version of Brainiac. The Citadel Supreme or Floating Fortress is obviously based on Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
Panel 2: Professor Night is the Supreme universe equivalent of Batman. I don't recall Lady Day cropping up in the Supreme comics but her real identity of Shona Shane suggests she is inspired by the Kathy Kane Batwoman.
Toby Tyler is the Fisherman's sidekick Skipper which makes him Speedy to the Green Arrow.
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Toby Tyler is the Fisherman's sidekick Skipper which makes him Speedy to the Green Arrow.
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Panel 4: In Supreme speak Doc Rocket equals the golden-age Flash and Alleycat was a Black Canary/Catwoman amalgam.
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Sentinel comments that he has barely heard of half of these old guys which is perhaps not surprising in view of Moore's Supreme retcon, although in the context of the Judgment Day storyline he must be lying.
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The Winter Knight is the Awesome universe equivalent of the Shining Knight, possibly with an added pinch of Marvel's Black Knight.
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Panel 1: The Shining Knight's horse is called Victory, I'm not aware if his sword had a name although the Black Knight wields the Ebony blade.
Panel 2. Faralanx may just be a generic dragon unless someone can enlighten me further?
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Panel 2. Faralanx may just be a generic dragon unless someone can enlighten me further?
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Panel 1: Supreme has a "Mythopoeic Zoo". The Giant Gorilla is Stupendo the Simian-Supreme who is Supreme's version of Titano the super-ape, the Hell of Mirrors may equate to the Phantom Zone.
Panel 3: The mermaid is based on Lori Lemaris although in the Supreme stories the mermaid became an angel called Luriel.
Panel 3: The mermaid is based on Lori Lemaris although in the Supreme stories the mermaid became an angel called Luriel.
Page 33: In the centre is Knightsabre with Toby Tyler, Shaft and Sentinel. Around them clockwise from bottom left are Badrock, the Fighting American, Polyman (Elongated Man/Plastic Man), the Fisherman (Green Arrow), Glory (Wonder Woman), Savage Dragon, Professor Night, Supreme, the SuperPatriot, Spacehunter (Martian Manhunter), and Kodiak and Dash of the New Men (I think).
Judgment Day Omega
Panel 1: Shaft, the Super Patriot, Glory, Professor Night, Spacehunter, Badrock, Mighty Man (Shazam Captain Marvel), Sentinel, Maximage & Supreme.
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Panel 4: The audience or jury appears to include the Silver Surfer, the Thing and She-Hulk?
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Panel 2: In appearance Major Blake Baron appears to be based on one of the members of DC comics' Trenchcoat Brigade, possibly Doctor Occult who was also a member of a paranormal group known as the Sentinels of Magic. However his past as Battlin' Baron makes him a Nick Fury equivalent with the Veil as an occult version of SHIELD.
Lou Mougin emailed me to point out that Nick Fury appeared in the 1960s Marvel comic Strange Tales along with Doctor Strange, and that Alan Moore is making another of his thematic jokes by merging the two dissimilar characters.
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Panel 3: Savage Dragon is possibly referring to the events at the end of the Supreme Story of the Year arc.
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Panel 1: I think the three characters in front of Badrock are the New Men Dash, Bird or Exit, and Reign.
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Glory is obviously the Wonder Woman analogue. Her full name is given as Princess Gloriana Demeter compared with Princess Diana who becomes Wonder Woman. Glory was created by Rob Liefeld for Image comics.
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Wonder Woman's mother was Hipolyta of the Amazons from the island of Themyscria. Glory's mother was the Greek Goddess Demeter from Ultima Thule which is a mythical island that appears in Greek writings. Demeter holds the Cornucopia, or horn of plenty.
Yggdrasil, the world tree is from Norse mythology.
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Yggdrasil, the world tree is from Norse mythology.
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Panel 2: Hermes was the Greek god of travellers and athletes. His winged helmet was the inspiration for the original Jay Garrick Flash. Hermes also wears his winged sandals and holds the Caduceus staff.
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Panel 1: We'll meet Storybook Smith later.
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Panel 1: Giganthro appears to be based on Anthro the first boy, a character who appeared in DC Showcase comics. Anthro has recently shown up in the Final Crisis event.
Panel 2: Giganthro is accompanied by Zayla Zarn from the 25th century. Zarn is based on Imra Ardeen aka Saturn Girl from the Legion of Super Heroes in the 30th century. Zarn leads the LSH analogue the League of Infinity which was created by Alan Moore as part of the Kid Supreme retcon in his Supreme stories.
Panel 3: The Miocene period ran from 25 million to 5 million years ago!
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Panel 2: Giganthro is accompanied by Zayla Zarn from the 25th century. Zarn is based on Imra Ardeen aka Saturn Girl from the Legion of Super Heroes in the 30th century. Zarn leads the LSH analogue the League of Infinity which was created by Alan Moore as part of the Kid Supreme retcon in his Supreme stories.
Panel 3: The Miocene period ran from 25 million to 5 million years ago!
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Panel 4: Giganthro encounters the other members of the League of Infinity for the first time: Witch Wench, Wild Bill Hickok, Zayla Zarn and Achilles.
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Panel 2: Troll refers to Judy Jetson the teenage daughter from the cartoon family The Jetsons.
Panel 1: The last of Robert E Howard's novels about Conan the Barbarian was called The Hour of the Dragon. It is appropriate that Bram the Berserk heads towards his end against a Frost-Wyrm.
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Panel 2: In the Marvel universe the original Black Knight was Sir Percy of Scandia. The first DC Shining Knight was Sir Justin.
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Panel 3: The Black Knight's Ebony Blade had several powers but not the ability to freeze water. Moore combines legends again because being frozen in ice was the fate that befell the Shining Knight and brought him from King Arthur's time to the modern world.
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Panel 2: The Black Corsair is probably based on DC's Black Pirate, whose ghost was a notable supporting character in James Robinson's Starman series.
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Panel 1: Maximage appeared in a seven issue Image comic series of the same name. Her costume here is notably less revealing than her Rob Liefeld designed outfit of the 90s. Her appearance and powers owe something to both Marvel's Scarlet Witch and DC's Zatana.
Dr. Mystic was the original name of DC's Doctor Occult. If anyone has spotted the Eddy Saint reference please let me know. See Chapter three for more about Eddie Saint.
Panel 2: As already mentioned Nighteagle may be based on DC's Super-Chief.
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Drue is probably based on Robert E. Howard's puritan adventurer Solomon Kane. Dr. Mystic was the original name of DC's Doctor Occult. If anyone has spotted the Eddy Saint reference please let me know. See Chapter three for more about Eddie Saint.
Panel 2: As already mentioned Nighteagle may be based on DC's Super-Chief.
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Panel 3: Dr. Daniel 'Blacky' Conqueror is the leader of the Conquerors of the Uncanny based on DC's Challengers of the Unknown who were created by Jack Kirby and led by Kyle 'Ace' Morgan. Moore has cleverly mixed the Challengers with a dash of Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger from The Lost World stories.
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Panel 1: And here is Sir Edward Conqueror standing in for Professor Challenger and going up against a Lost World Dinosaur.
Panel 3: More literary splicing as Moore makes Conqueror the brother of Tarzan's father.
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Panel 3: More literary splicing as Moore makes Conqueror the brother of Tarzan's father.
Page 30:
Panel 3: John Prophet, the Man of Marble is revealed to be a version of the pulp hero Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze.
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Page 31:
Panel 4: Moore makes some ironic comments about super-hero costuming and physical attributes in the 90s.
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Page 32:
Pnel 2. Alexander Graves was the executive director of the Youngblood group but also a human personification of Lucifer?! He was also Knightsabre's father.
Page 8:
Panel 1: In the background are Alley Cat, a combination of Catwoman and Black Canary, and Black Hand who is a Green Lantern equivalent. The Allied Supermen of America were the Supreme universe version of the Justice Society of America
This is also our first encounter with Storybook Smith. Storybook Smith may actually be based on Johnny Thunder from the JSA and his wish granting "thunderbolt" genie who lived in Johnny's pen for a while. Smith's also similar to the original Kid Eternity who could summon historical and mythological characters to help him fight evil.
Moore introduced Smith in issue 43 of Supreme in October 1996 and Judgment Day started in June 1997. As ever Alan Moore knew the score.
Panel 2: A group of occult comic characters joining hands around a table can also be seen in Moore's Swamp Thing #50.
Panel 3: Jack O'Lantern is the analogue of the original Spectre when he was more super-hero than agent of God.
Page 11:
Judgment Day Final Judgment
Panel 1: In the background are Alley Cat, a combination of Catwoman and Black Canary, and Black Hand who is a Green Lantern equivalent. The Allied Supermen of America were the Supreme universe version of the Justice Society of America
This is also our first encounter with Storybook Smith. Storybook Smith may actually be based on Johnny Thunder from the JSA and his wish granting "thunderbolt" genie who lived in Johnny's pen for a while. Smith's also similar to the original Kid Eternity who could summon historical and mythological characters to help him fight evil.
Moore introduced Smith in issue 43 of Supreme in October 1996 and Judgment Day started in June 1997. As ever Alan Moore knew the score.
Panel 2: A group of occult comic characters joining hands around a table can also be seen in Moore's Swamp Thing #50.
Panel 3: Jack O'Lantern is the analogue of the original Spectre when he was more super-hero than agent of God.
Page 11:
Panel 1: From left to right are Doc Rocket, Supreme, Jack O'Lantern, Black Hand, Glory, Storybook Smith, Mighty Man, Alley Cat, Professor Night, the Waxman & Roy Roman. The Waxman aka Waxy Doyle is based on the Wesley Dodds Sandman, and Roy Roman the Mer-Master is Aquaman.
Page 12:
Page 12:
Panel 3: The prank occurred in issue 43 of Supreme with the Allies pretending to be their waxwork equivalents in Supreme's citadel museum.
Panel 6: Rene Magritte's The Treachery of Images is on the wall in Smith's apartment. Considering what Moore is doing to the history of graphic storytelling here this seems an appropriate title.
Page 13:
Panel 6: Rene Magritte's The Treachery of Images is on the wall in Smith's apartment. Considering what Moore is doing to the history of graphic storytelling here this seems an appropriate title.
Page 13:
Panel 2: Detective Gorilla is Detective Chimp possibly with a dash of Sam Simeon as well.
Panel 3: Maila Nurmi played the character Vampira who hosted TV horror shows and notably appeared in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Page 21:
Panel 3: Maila Nurmi played the character Vampira who hosted TV horror shows and notably appeared in Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Page 21:
Panel 1: This image seems to be based on the cover of The Dark Knight Returns. Moore is commenting on the changes wrought on comics by Frank Miller and by himself. A little Watchmen reference might have been interesting as well.
Panel 2: "Heroes motivated only by money or psychopathology stalked a paranoid, apocalyptic landscape of post-nuclear mutants and bazooka wielding cyborgs" is a reasonably accurate description of comics in the late 1980s and early 90s, including Image themselves!
Page 26:
Panel 2: "Heroes motivated only by money or psychopathology stalked a paranoid, apocalyptic landscape of post-nuclear mutants and bazooka wielding cyborgs" is a reasonably accurate description of comics in the late 1980s and early 90s, including Image themselves!
Page 26:
Panel 1: Suprema is the Supreme version of Supergirl.
Page 28:
Page 28:
Panel 2: This must be the mysterious John Prophet?
Page 1:
The framing sections of this chapter are a tribute to Gil Kane and other classic comic creators. Kane, Jack Kirby and Wally Wood all get mentioned on this page.
The Fighting American aka Nelson Flagg is an obvious Captain America analogue.
Page 2:
Judgment Day: Aftermath
Page 1:The framing sections of this chapter are a tribute to Gil Kane and other classic comic creators. Kane, Jack Kirby and Wally Wood all get mentioned on this page.
The Fighting American aka Nelson Flagg is an obvious Captain America analogue.
Page 2:
Panel 3: Twilight refers to Hulver Ramik, a version of Kanjar Ro who enslaved the Allies in one of the back-story retcons in Moore's Supreme: The Story of the Year. Kanja Ro appeared in Justice League of America #3.
Page 15:
Page 15:
The New Men were an Image comics team with some similarities to the X-Men. They had a five issue mini-series in 1994. From the top are Kodiak, Reign, Byrd & Exit.
Page 16:
Page 16:
Panel 1: The fifth member of the New Men was Dash.
Moore continues to mine DC's history: Carson Cave is a reference to Cave Carson from DC Showcase comics.
Page 19:
Page 19:
Panel 3: The names refer to Fin Fang Foom and possibly Voltron.
Page 22: Note: most of the references in this story about magical comic-book characters were provided by Lou Mougin. Just about everything that follows is his work. Thanks, Lou.
The house resembles Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum but here in San Francisco and not Greenwich Village, New York. Lei-Ling is similar to Strange's assistant Wong.
Other occult characters mentioned include Eddie Saint (again), Della Psychic and Stephen Hush.
Lou Mougin suggests that Eddie Saint may take his name from the Leslie Charteris character The Saint. Della Psychic is based on the DC comics character Rose Psychic who appeared in the Doctor Occult stories. Her first name may refer to Perry Mason's secretary Della Street. Eddie Saint's title The Third Eye refers to the mystical concept of the same name.
Page 24:
Page 22: Note: most of the references in this story about magical comic-book characters were provided by Lou Mougin. Just about everything that follows is his work. Thanks, Lou.
The house resembles Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum but here in San Francisco and not Greenwich Village, New York. Lei-Ling is similar to Strange's assistant Wong.
Other occult characters mentioned include Eddie Saint (again), Della Psychic and Stephen Hush.
Lou Mougin suggests that Eddie Saint may take his name from the Leslie Charteris character The Saint. Della Psychic is based on the DC comics character Rose Psychic who appeared in the Doctor Occult stories. Her first name may refer to Perry Mason's secretary Della Street. Eddie Saint's title The Third Eye refers to the mystical concept of the same name.
Page 24:
Panel 1: Lou Mougin notes that Della Psychic's thought-balloon about Owsley probably refers to a high-powered form of LSD which was mentioned in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Gate Park would be the Golden Gate park in San Francisco where the Human Be-In was held in 1967.
“Need help against Qelepu or the Mauve Zone will be opened…” Lou also points out that the Mauve Zone refers to the Purple Dimension from a Doctor Strange story which was also referenced by Tom Wolfe. Qelepu is presumably Eddie Saint's version of the dread Dormammu.
"... until I tell Carnacki about this!" Thomas Carnacki was a ghost-hunting detective in a series of stories by William Hope Hodgson. He has recently shown up in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century
So from left to right in panel 1 we have Merlin, Nighteagle. the Alembic, Lori Saunders, Della Psychic & Eddie Saint.
Page 25:
“Need help against Qelepu or the Mauve Zone will be opened…” Lou also points out that the Mauve Zone refers to the Purple Dimension from a Doctor Strange story which was also referenced by Tom Wolfe. Qelepu is presumably Eddie Saint's version of the dread Dormammu.
"... until I tell Carnacki about this!" Thomas Carnacki was a ghost-hunting detective in a series of stories by William Hope Hodgson. He has recently shown up in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century
So from left to right in panel 1 we have Merlin, Nighteagle. the Alembic, Lori Saunders, Della Psychic & Eddie Saint.
Page 25:
Panel 7: This magician refers to John Dee and Edward Kelley both real people who experimented with, or researched into, alchemy and magic. The Red Powder was a chemical that Kelley claimed allowed him to transmute lead into gold. John Dee has turned up in numerous works of fiction including Alan Moore's Promethea.
Panel 8: A reference to a Mr. Hush. Just possibly this could refer to the mysterious Mr John Hussy who assisted John Dee and Edward Kelley in the alchemical experiments.
Page 26:
Panel 8: A reference to a Mr. Hush. Just possibly this could refer to the mysterious Mr John Hussy who assisted John Dee and Edward Kelley in the alchemical experiments.
Page 26:
Panel 3: Moore crosses the Miskatonic university from H.P.Lovecraft's stories with the DC universe Arkham asylum. In the books the Miskatonic university was located in the Lovecraft town of Arkham.
Page 27:
Page 27:
Panel 2: Supreme's alter ego Ethan Crane works for Dazzle Comics in his version of Metropolis. Diana Dane is his Lois Lane equivalent.
Page 28:
Page 28:
Panel 1: J'onn J'onzz the Martian Manhunter used his shapeshifting powers to masquerade as detective John Johns. His telepathic powers allowed him to communicate in many languages.
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Page 29:
Panel 2: Florax is based on Starro, the very first opponent of the JLA.
Panel 1: Hulver Ramik is Kanjar Ro. Prismalo may be based on Despero.
Panel 4: Magno refers to Amazo, an android that battled the JLA with their own powers.
Page 31:
Panel 4: Magno refers to Amazo, an android that battled the JLA with their own powers.
Page 31:
Panel 1: Wonder Woman's long time love interest is Steve Trevor.
Panel 2: The Martian Manhunter's long lost Martian wife was called M'yri'ah. Superman's underwater love interest was Lori Lemaris the mermaid.
Panel 4: See what happens if you don't use the vacuum cleaner?
Page 36:
Panel 2: The Martian Manhunter's long lost Martian wife was called M'yri'ah. Superman's underwater love interest was Lori Lemaris the mermaid.
Panel 4: See what happens if you don't use the vacuum cleaner?
Page 36:
Panel 1: Lou Mougin points out that this creature may be a version of the Martian Manhunter's sidekick Zook. Something of the look of Spacehunter and his bird-like companion also suggests the Falcon and Redwing.
Page 39:
Page 39:
Panel 4: Archie Goodwin is a longtime editor at DC and Marvel.
Page 40:
Panel 4. The tale that portrayed Gil Kane as a prisoner in an imaginary realm was called "His name is ... Kane!" and appeared in House of Mystery #180. The story was written by Mike Friedrich with art by Kane and Wally Wood and showed Gil Kane being trapped in his own artwork. The title and the last line of this chapter were a reference to another classic Gil Kane book "His name is... Savage!"
Title: “19th Dimensional Nervous Breakdown”
The title of this issue is a play on “19th Nervous Breakdown,” a song written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and performed by the Rolling Stones.
Page 1:
Panel 4: The Suprematons are fixing Radar’s speaker collar, which was destroyed by Hilda in issue #52A.
Page 2:
Panel 2: Korgo’s dialogue reads: “Supreme, we beg you! Take this prattling fool from our midst!”
The villains’ concerns about their Constitutional rights seems misplaced given that, by all appearances, they’ve been imprisoned without trial.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Ethan remarks that Billy lost his laptop communicator after he was again transformed into “Elaborate Lad” (as shown last issue). This will prove to be very significant later.
Panel 3: The Miskatonic Mental Institution for the Homicidally Depressed is analogous to DC’s Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Arkham Asylum, which first appeared in Batman #258 (1974), was inspired by the works of seminal horror/fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft. In Lovecraft’s stories, Miskatonic University was a fictional college located in the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts; it specialized in the study of arcane texts. We get a glimpse inside the Miskatonic Mental Institution in Youngblood #2.
Panel 4: Diana recalls that Miskatonic houses “old, mad Professor Night villains like Jack-a-Dandy and the Lounge Lizard.” As shown in issue #47, the Jack-a-Dandy and the Lounge Lizard are two of Professor Night’s greatest enemies, who at the time of this story are still imprisoned. Both villains are seen next in Youngblood #2. Arkham Asylum, Miskatonic’s equivalent in the DC universe, is the home of such notable lunatics as the Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler.
The name of the coffee shop is “Apollo’s.” Apollo was the Greek god of music and poetry; he was also associated with prophecy, which may be intended as a subtle clue to the plot of this issue.
Page 4:
Panel 1: The murder at Youngblood headquarters and the subsequent trial in Supreme’s Stadium Supreme is the subject of the Judgment Day mini-series.
Panel 2: Ethan is holding a copy of this issue of Supreme, which is complete with logos and ads.
Panel 3: The comic book page Ethan is looking at shows him looking at a smaller version of the same page. This visual technique has often been used for comic book covers since the early forties; such illustrations are referred to as “infinity covers.”
Ethan’s concern that the mysterious comic book will give away his secret identity parallels Superman’s concerns in a tongue-in-cheek story entitled “Superman, Matinee Idol” that appeared in Superman #19 (November-December 1942). In that story, Clark Kent took Lois Lane to a theater to see one of the Superman animated shorts produced during that period by Max Fleischer Studios. During the film, he was forced to repeatedly distract Lois’s attention away from the screen because the cartoon showed him changing into Superman (although he seemed unconcerned about the rest of the audience).
There were seventeen of the Fleischer cartoons from 1941 to 1943; lavishly produced for the big screen, these cartoons are still considered classics in the field of animation.
Page 6:
This is our first glimpse of Omniman. With his blonde hair, he bears some resemblance to Mighty Man, Supreme’s colleague and a member of the Allied Supermen of America and the Allies, who was last seen in issue #49.
Page 9:
Panel 3: Diana warns Supreme of Omniman’s powers, which include “Omni-ventriloquism.” This power is presumably the same as “super-ventriloquism,” one of Superman’s lesser known powers. It allowed him to literally throw his voice, almost like a radio broadcast: for example, he could use his super-ventriloquism to carry on a normal conversation while he was busy miles away. Superman first employed this power in Superman #62 (1950).
Page 10:
Panel 1: Omni-exhalation is analogous to Superman’s super-breath. Despite Supreme’s confusion, this power is essentially the same as his “Shout Supreme,” albeit using an exhalation of breath rather than a shout.
Panel 2: “Some Mylar mausoleum.” Mylar is a clear, rigid plastic; because it does not promote acid decay, it is commonly used for archival storage of paper, including comic books. The “mausoleum” comment is a derisive remark about the tendency of comic book collectors to carefully seal away their books (to preserve their future value as collectibles) rather than read them.
Page 11:
Panel 2: Supreme pits his Stare Supreme against Omniman’s Omni-vision. Note that, despite what the Cyberzerk insisted in issue #51, Omniman obviously has not lost this power.
Panel 3: Lucas Tate wonders about the consequences of the fight, “with the industry in the state it’s in.” Sales for all comic books have dropped precipitously over the past ten years, with even the most popular comics selling barely a third as many copies as the industry leaders of the previous decade. Many professionals have wondered if the shrinking market is a death knell for comics as an industry; some point to the profusion of gimmicks and “stunt” storylines of the late eighties and early nineties as contributing to the decline.
Page 12:
Panel 2: This is the first appearance of Carl Chambers, a new assistant editor at Dazzle Comics. His presence here is intended mainly as a setup for the story in issue #55, in which he plays a minor but significant role.
Page 14:
Panel 1: This is Szazs, the Sprite Supreme, in the flesh. With his huge eyes and plastic hair, Szazs bears some resemblance to Astro Boy, a seminal Japanese manga and anime character who first appeared in Shonen magazine in 1951.
The “Impolympics” competition to which Szazs refers is reminiscent of the “Brxll Award,” a prize issued by the Fifth Dimension’s Academy of Practical Joking for which Mr. Mxyzptlk competed in Superman #154 (1962).
Page 15:
Panel 2: Note the other sprite counterparts: Nite Mite, Qyrk the Sea-Sprite, and sprites of Fisherman, Janet Planet, Glory, Spacehunter, and Mighty Man. NiteMite is a counterpart of Bat-Mite, a magical imp who pestered Batman and Robin between 1959 and 1965. Unlike Mr. Mxyzptlk, Bat-Mite did not intend Batman any harm, but used his magical powers to try to spur the Dynamic Duo to more spectacular feats of heroism. Bat-Mite first appeared in Detective Comics #267 (1959); after 1965, he made only a handful of appearances, generally as a joke (e.g., “Bat-Mite’s New York Adventure” in Detective Comics #482 or the hallucinatory Bat-Mite in Legends of the Dark Knight #38). Ambush Bug #3 (1985) showed Bat-Mite retired and married to Star-Mite, the sprite version of buxom heroine Starfire of the New Teen Titans. In the fifties and sixties many other DC characters also were saddled with cute alien or other comic relief sidekicks: Green Lantern had an alien starfish called Itty, Space Ranger (one of DC’s futuristic outer space heroes) a pink, trumpet-nosed creature called Cryll, and Aquaman a “water-sprite” called Quisp.
Page 17:
Panel 1: Diana Dane asks, “can’t you try getting him to speak his name in reverse or something?” This was the traditional method for getting rid of Mr. Mxyzptlk; speaking or writing his name backwards would cause him to vanish back into his home dimension for at least 90 days. In his more recent appearances, Mxzyptlk has set other conditions for returning to the Fifth Dimension.
Panel 4: “Great Ganymede...” Ganymede is a satellite of the planet Jupiter with an icy surface that may conceal an ocean of liquid water. In Greek mythology, Ganymede was a mortal youth taken to Olympus to become the cup-bearer of the gods.
Page 20:
Panels 1-3: Diana Dane and Supreme realize that the ending of the Supreme issue in their hands has the key to solving their dilemma. Since the eighties, there have been a number of comic series in which the characters are aware they are in a comic book, including Keith Giffen’s Ambush Bug for DC and John Byrne’s She-Hulk for Marvel, as well as the storyline in Grant Morrison’s Animal Man #17-#26, in which Animal Man confronts his author.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme disproves Szazs’s existence with a “Syllogism Supreme!” A syllogism is a logical but specious deductive argument, e.g., God lives on high, Denver is high, therefore God lives in Denver. Popular fiction’s most famous syllogist is Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, who was an expert in driving intelligent computers to self-destruction through the use of spurious logic.
Page 23:
Panel 2: Supreme’s former Allies teammate Diehard is here to make arrangements to hold a murder trial in the Stadium Supreme. As revealed in Judgment Day #1, Youngblood member Riptide was recently murdered, apparently by one of her own teammates.
Panel 3: Knightsabre, another member of Youngblood, was charged with Riptide’s murder.
Toby King is the secret identity of Skipper, the sidekick of the Fisherman. As shown in issues #49-#50, the Fisherman and Skipper were imprisoned in Hulver Ramik’s Alcatraz of the Soul and were only recently freed by their old comrades of the Allies.
Panel 4: Toby King is now a lawyer, which seems unusual given that he only recently returned to Earth after an absence of nearly 30 years. Toby’s DC counterpart, Roy Harper, Green Arrow’s longtime sidekick Speedy, became a narcotics agent after a bout with heroin addiction (as revealed in the classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85); he now uses the name Arsenal and has a young daughter named Lian.
Toby tells Supreme that Professor Night’s “old flame” Shona Shane will defend Knightsabre. As revealed in Judgment Day, Shona had a brief career as the costumed adventurer Lady Day. Shona may be based on DC’s Batwoman, a crimefighting partner and sometimes love interest of Batman during the late fifties and early sixties. Batwoman was secretly Kathy Kane, a former motorcycle stunt rider who became wealthy after inheriting the estate of her late uncle. Her niece, Betty Kane, occasionally worked with her as Bat-Girl. Batwoman made her debut in Detective Comics #233 (1956) and appeared regularly in the Batman strip until 1964, after which she vanished completely for almost 15 years. She reappeared briefly in the late seventies and was murdered in 1979 by agents of the League of Assassins (Detective Comics #485). “Lady Day,” incidentally, was a nickname for legendary blues singer Billie Holiday.
Title: “The Ballad of Judy Jordan”
Panel 3: At the time, there were four Baldwin brothers starring in movies in Hollywood.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Waxey Doyle was first seen in Supreme #44.
Panel 4: Chapel became a lord in hell way back in Todd MacFarlane's Spawn, while Alan Moore retconned Sentinel into a villain in Judgment Day.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Quinjets are the vehicles used by the Avengers in Marvel Comics.
Page 4:
Panel 1: We've seen Twilight quite a bit in Supreme. She showed off her new costume in Supreme #56.
Panel 2: Twilight has a rare disease that makes her sluggish during the day and more powerful at night, which would account for her paleness.
Panel 3: Suprema first appeared in Supreme #46. Interestingly, in Supreme #56 she said she would stick with her original costume, but here we see her with a new one.
Nancy Drew is a fictional American character in a mystery fiction series created by publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series. The character first appeared in 1930.
Page 5:
Panel 2: Sally "Suprema" Crane was adopted by Supreme's parents, as seen in Supreme #42.
Panel 3: Johnny Panic isn't a quote from Sylvia plath, it's the name of a character in the short story Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. In the story, Panic is the god of fear and madness, or at least the unreliable narrator believes him to be so.
Garbage was an alternative rock band popular in the mid- to late-1990s.
Panel 4: The original Doc Rocket also first appeared in Supreme #44.
Page 7:
Panel 2: Skipper was the Fisherman's sidekick. He's supposed to be a teenager (having been frozen in stasis by Hulver Ramik with Twilight). This is the first appearance of Lamprey.
Panel 3: The Allies, as seen in the pages of Supreme, are this universe's version of the Justice League.
Die Hard had been a member of Youngblood and the Allies.
Page 1:
Panel 2: Star City is the Awesome Universe equivalent of Gotham City.
Supreme #53
Title: “19th Dimensional Nervous Breakdown” The title of this issue is a play on “19th Nervous Breakdown,” a song written by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and performed by the Rolling Stones.
Page 1:
Panel 4: The Suprematons are fixing Radar’s speaker collar, which was destroyed by Hilda in issue #52A.
Page 2:
Panel 2: Korgo’s dialogue reads: “Supreme, we beg you! Take this prattling fool from our midst!”
The villains’ concerns about their Constitutional rights seems misplaced given that, by all appearances, they’ve been imprisoned without trial.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Ethan remarks that Billy lost his laptop communicator after he was again transformed into “Elaborate Lad” (as shown last issue). This will prove to be very significant later.
Panel 3: The Miskatonic Mental Institution for the Homicidally Depressed is analogous to DC’s Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Arkham Asylum, which first appeared in Batman #258 (1974), was inspired by the works of seminal horror/fantasy author H.P. Lovecraft. In Lovecraft’s stories, Miskatonic University was a fictional college located in the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts; it specialized in the study of arcane texts. We get a glimpse inside the Miskatonic Mental Institution in Youngblood #2.
Panel 4: Diana recalls that Miskatonic houses “old, mad Professor Night villains like Jack-a-Dandy and the Lounge Lizard.” As shown in issue #47, the Jack-a-Dandy and the Lounge Lizard are two of Professor Night’s greatest enemies, who at the time of this story are still imprisoned. Both villains are seen next in Youngblood #2. Arkham Asylum, Miskatonic’s equivalent in the DC universe, is the home of such notable lunatics as the Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler.
The name of the coffee shop is “Apollo’s.” Apollo was the Greek god of music and poetry; he was also associated with prophecy, which may be intended as a subtle clue to the plot of this issue.
Page 4:
Panel 1: The murder at Youngblood headquarters and the subsequent trial in Supreme’s Stadium Supreme is the subject of the Judgment Day mini-series.
Panel 2: Ethan is holding a copy of this issue of Supreme, which is complete with logos and ads.
Panel 3: The comic book page Ethan is looking at shows him looking at a smaller version of the same page. This visual technique has often been used for comic book covers since the early forties; such illustrations are referred to as “infinity covers.”
Ethan’s concern that the mysterious comic book will give away his secret identity parallels Superman’s concerns in a tongue-in-cheek story entitled “Superman, Matinee Idol” that appeared in Superman #19 (November-December 1942). In that story, Clark Kent took Lois Lane to a theater to see one of the Superman animated shorts produced during that period by Max Fleischer Studios. During the film, he was forced to repeatedly distract Lois’s attention away from the screen because the cartoon showed him changing into Superman (although he seemed unconcerned about the rest of the audience).
There were seventeen of the Fleischer cartoons from 1941 to 1943; lavishly produced for the big screen, these cartoons are still considered classics in the field of animation.
Page 6:
This is our first glimpse of Omniman. With his blonde hair, he bears some resemblance to Mighty Man, Supreme’s colleague and a member of the Allied Supermen of America and the Allies, who was last seen in issue #49.
Page 9:
Panel 3: Diana warns Supreme of Omniman’s powers, which include “Omni-ventriloquism.” This power is presumably the same as “super-ventriloquism,” one of Superman’s lesser known powers. It allowed him to literally throw his voice, almost like a radio broadcast: for example, he could use his super-ventriloquism to carry on a normal conversation while he was busy miles away. Superman first employed this power in Superman #62 (1950).
Page 10:
Panel 1: Omni-exhalation is analogous to Superman’s super-breath. Despite Supreme’s confusion, this power is essentially the same as his “Shout Supreme,” albeit using an exhalation of breath rather than a shout.
Panel 2: “Some Mylar mausoleum.” Mylar is a clear, rigid plastic; because it does not promote acid decay, it is commonly used for archival storage of paper, including comic books. The “mausoleum” comment is a derisive remark about the tendency of comic book collectors to carefully seal away their books (to preserve their future value as collectibles) rather than read them.
Page 11:
Panel 2: Supreme pits his Stare Supreme against Omniman’s Omni-vision. Note that, despite what the Cyberzerk insisted in issue #51, Omniman obviously has not lost this power.
Panel 3: Lucas Tate wonders about the consequences of the fight, “with the industry in the state it’s in.” Sales for all comic books have dropped precipitously over the past ten years, with even the most popular comics selling barely a third as many copies as the industry leaders of the previous decade. Many professionals have wondered if the shrinking market is a death knell for comics as an industry; some point to the profusion of gimmicks and “stunt” storylines of the late eighties and early nineties as contributing to the decline.
Page 12:
Panel 2: This is the first appearance of Carl Chambers, a new assistant editor at Dazzle Comics. His presence here is intended mainly as a setup for the story in issue #55, in which he plays a minor but significant role.
Page 14:
Panel 1: This is Szazs, the Sprite Supreme, in the flesh. With his huge eyes and plastic hair, Szazs bears some resemblance to Astro Boy, a seminal Japanese manga and anime character who first appeared in Shonen magazine in 1951.
The “Impolympics” competition to which Szazs refers is reminiscent of the “Brxll Award,” a prize issued by the Fifth Dimension’s Academy of Practical Joking for which Mr. Mxyzptlk competed in Superman #154 (1962).
Page 15:
Panel 2: Note the other sprite counterparts: Nite Mite, Qyrk the Sea-Sprite, and sprites of Fisherman, Janet Planet, Glory, Spacehunter, and Mighty Man. NiteMite is a counterpart of Bat-Mite, a magical imp who pestered Batman and Robin between 1959 and 1965. Unlike Mr. Mxyzptlk, Bat-Mite did not intend Batman any harm, but used his magical powers to try to spur the Dynamic Duo to more spectacular feats of heroism. Bat-Mite first appeared in Detective Comics #267 (1959); after 1965, he made only a handful of appearances, generally as a joke (e.g., “Bat-Mite’s New York Adventure” in Detective Comics #482 or the hallucinatory Bat-Mite in Legends of the Dark Knight #38). Ambush Bug #3 (1985) showed Bat-Mite retired and married to Star-Mite, the sprite version of buxom heroine Starfire of the New Teen Titans. In the fifties and sixties many other DC characters also were saddled with cute alien or other comic relief sidekicks: Green Lantern had an alien starfish called Itty, Space Ranger (one of DC’s futuristic outer space heroes) a pink, trumpet-nosed creature called Cryll, and Aquaman a “water-sprite” called Quisp.
Page 17:
Panel 1: Diana Dane asks, “can’t you try getting him to speak his name in reverse or something?” This was the traditional method for getting rid of Mr. Mxyzptlk; speaking or writing his name backwards would cause him to vanish back into his home dimension for at least 90 days. In his more recent appearances, Mxzyptlk has set other conditions for returning to the Fifth Dimension.
Panel 4: “Great Ganymede...” Ganymede is a satellite of the planet Jupiter with an icy surface that may conceal an ocean of liquid water. In Greek mythology, Ganymede was a mortal youth taken to Olympus to become the cup-bearer of the gods.
Page 20:
Panels 1-3: Diana Dane and Supreme realize that the ending of the Supreme issue in their hands has the key to solving their dilemma. Since the eighties, there have been a number of comic series in which the characters are aware they are in a comic book, including Keith Giffen’s Ambush Bug for DC and John Byrne’s She-Hulk for Marvel, as well as the storyline in Grant Morrison’s Animal Man #17-#26, in which Animal Man confronts his author.
Page 22:
Panel 1: Supreme disproves Szazs’s existence with a “Syllogism Supreme!” A syllogism is a logical but specious deductive argument, e.g., God lives on high, Denver is high, therefore God lives in Denver. Popular fiction’s most famous syllogist is Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, who was an expert in driving intelligent computers to self-destruction through the use of spurious logic.
Page 23:
Panel 2: Supreme’s former Allies teammate Diehard is here to make arrangements to hold a murder trial in the Stadium Supreme. As revealed in Judgment Day #1, Youngblood member Riptide was recently murdered, apparently by one of her own teammates.
Panel 3: Knightsabre, another member of Youngblood, was charged with Riptide’s murder.
Toby King is the secret identity of Skipper, the sidekick of the Fisherman. As shown in issues #49-#50, the Fisherman and Skipper were imprisoned in Hulver Ramik’s Alcatraz of the Soul and were only recently freed by their old comrades of the Allies.
Panel 4: Toby King is now a lawyer, which seems unusual given that he only recently returned to Earth after an absence of nearly 30 years. Toby’s DC counterpart, Roy Harper, Green Arrow’s longtime sidekick Speedy, became a narcotics agent after a bout with heroin addiction (as revealed in the classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85); he now uses the name Arsenal and has a young daughter named Lian.
Toby tells Supreme that Professor Night’s “old flame” Shona Shane will defend Knightsabre. As revealed in Judgment Day, Shona had a brief career as the costumed adventurer Lady Day. Shona may be based on DC’s Batwoman, a crimefighting partner and sometimes love interest of Batman during the late fifties and early sixties. Batwoman was secretly Kathy Kane, a former motorcycle stunt rider who became wealthy after inheriting the estate of her late uncle. Her niece, Betty Kane, occasionally worked with her as Bat-Girl. Batwoman made her debut in Detective Comics #233 (1956) and appeared regularly in the Batman strip until 1964, after which she vanished completely for almost 15 years. She reappeared briefly in the late seventies and was murdered in 1979 by agents of the League of Assassins (Detective Comics #485). “Lady Day,” incidentally, was a nickname for legendary blues singer Billie Holiday.
Supreme #54
The title of this issue may be
inspired by a song by Shel Silverstein entitled “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”.
Page 1:
Panel 1: Judy was born in
Littlehaven in 1920; technically, she is the same age as Ethan Crane, although
Ethan apparently stopped aging upon reaching adulthood.
Panel 2: This is a flashback to
Kid Supreme’s rescue of Judy from Darius Dax, as first seen in issue #43.
“Space-Bullies” refers to Korgo the Space Tyrant, who was known as the Space
Bully in his youth. “Evil doubles” presumably refers to the Shadow Supreme.
Panel 3: Jungle Judy is one of
the many identities adopted by Judy Jordan, as seen in issue #51.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Judy is said to have
been 48 when Supreme left for space; her birthday is presumably late in the
year, because Supreme left in 1969.
Trix is a breakfast cereal, made
by General Mills, which first went on sale in 1954. It was one of the first pre-sweetened
cereals.
Panel 2: This panel recaps events
first described in issue #52A.
Page 4:
This page is highly reminiscent
of the lurid covers of the science fiction pulps of the thirties, which
frequently featured scantily-clad women trapped in the laboratories of mad
scientists or in the clutches of BEMs (bug-eyed monsters).
Page 5:
Panel 1: We learn that Judy has
been revived not by Supreme but by Suprematon S-1.
Page 6:
Panel 1: Judy’s original body is
now 77 years old.
Panels 3-5: Radar explains that
Judy’s personality was rebuilt out of echoes remaining in her brain and placed
into a Suprematon body. This concept is
very similar to Alan Moore’s Miracleman #16 (1990), in which the
alien Mors discovered that “people recently deceased leave faint vibrations,
echoes of their personality which could be captured and embodied in an
android.” Miracleman and Mors consigned the resurrected androids to an
artificial “underworld” located beneath Miracleman’s London citadel.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Two notable new trophies
are visible here:
- The costume Judy wore as Supreme Woman in 1959, as shown in the cover gallery in issue #52A
- The copy of Supreme #53, Supreme’s souvenir of Szazs the Sprite Supreme’s latest exploit, as seen in Supreme #53.
Page 8:
Panel 3: Judy is now wearing the
Supreme Woman costume seen on the previous page.
Page 13:
Panel 2: Suprema recalls fighting
Clare DeLune on the moon in 1965. “Clare
Lune” was the alter ego of the Fiction House heroine Moon Girl, who appeared in
her own series in 1947 and 1948. Moon Girl, created by prolific comics writer
Gardner Fox (who wrote most of the adventures of the Justice Society of America
in All-Star Comics), was closely
based on Wonder Woman.
Page 15:
Panels 3-4: Suprema sympathizes
with Judy’s broken heart, “even if it is only made of silicone!” Presumably she means “silicon,” in reference
to Judy’s electronic nature; silicone is an inorganic polymer commonly used for
waterproofing, electrical insulation, and breast implants.
Page 20:
Panel 1: The creatures visible in
the Imaginary Menagerie include:
- A unicorn
- The Medusa, a snake-haired monster from Greek mythology with the power to turn men to stone
- A bat-like creature with a snake’s tail
- The angel Luriel.
Page 21:
Panels 1-2: S-1 recaps the events
of issue #43 and his “marriage” to a Suprematon duplicate of Judy.
Page 22:
Panel 3: S-1's new name is Talos,
after a metal man from Greek legend. In
Greek myth, Talos was a man made of bronze, given as a gift to Europa by
Zeus. He was the guardian of Crete.
With its headband and chest
insignia, S-1's new costume is nearly identical to the Kryptonian outfit worn
by Superman’s father Jor-El before Superman’s 1986 revision.
Diehard, Supreme’s former comrade
from the Allies, is present at the wedding.
Because Diehard is also largely cybernetic, he may be attending as a
show of moral support.
Page 23:
Panel 2: The Supremobile is
analogous to the Supermobile, a spacecraft Superman used in situations in which
he was unable to fly. It may be the same craft seen in the citadel Supreme in
issue #43.
S-1/Talos and Judy settle on a
planet in the Rigel system. Rigel is a
massive B-type star, a blue giant about 65 times the size of the sun and 50,000
times brighter. It is part of a trinary
star system located about 810 light-years from Earth. Rigel forms the foot of the constellation
Orion; the name is derived from rijl,
the Arabic word for foot.
Page 24:
Panel 3: Seen on the balcony of
their new home, Talos and Judy are dead-ringers for Superman’s parents, Jor-El
and Lara, as they were depicted before Superman’s 1986 revision.
The annotations from Aaron Severson for issues #55 and #56 were lost and have never been recovered. From this point forward, I'll be doing them on my own, as best I can. Obviously, I would appreciate any that you see. Just leave them in the comments or email me. Thanks, Mike
Page 1:
Panel 1: K-Zam is the name of the radio station Ethan Crane worked at, as seen in Supreme #42.
"An American Trilogy" is a real song that Elvis Presley. It is a medley of "Dixie," the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy; "All My Trials," an African American spiritual; and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the marching song of the Union Army during the Civil War. Elvis did not live to 60, he died at the age of 42 in 1977.
Panel 4: Supreme's costume now has elements of the Confederate battle flag, which has come to symbolize the Confederacy.
Page 2:
Panel 3: The advertisement on the bus is for Hammerlocke, a miniseries Chris Sprouse worked on for DC in 1992.
Panel 4: The advertisement at the bus stop is for Jimmy Osmond, the youngest member of the sibling group the Osmonds, a "wholesome" white, devoutly Mormon group from Utah.
Page 3:
Panel 6: Chapbooks were small, cheaply produced paper-covered booklets usually printed on a single sheet of paper and folded into books of 8, 12, 16 and 24 pages. They were often illustrated with crude woodcuts.
Page 4:
The Klansman is, of course, a reference to the Ku Klux Klan, a group devoted to white supremacy. The first Klan became active during the 1870s when it sought to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South during the Reconstruction Era, especially by using violence against African American leaders. With numerous chapters across the South, it was suppressed around 1871, through federal law enforcement. Members made their own, often colorful, costumes: robes, masks and conical hats, designed to be terrifying and to hide their identities. The second group was founded in the South in 1915 and it flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, including urban areas of the Midwest and West. Taking inspiration from the film Birth of a Nation, which mythologized the founding of the first Klan, it employed marketing techniques and a popular fraternal organization structure. Rooted in local Protestant communities, it sought to maintain white supremacy, often took a pro-prohibition stance, and it opposed Catholics and Jews, while also stressing its opposition to the Catholic Church at a time of high immigration from the mostly Catholic nations of Southern and Eastern Europe. This second organization adopted a standard white costume and used code words which were similar to those used by the first Klan, while adding cross burnings and mass parades to intimidate others.
There was a novel and a movie titled The Klansman that sounds truly awful.
Page 5:
Panel 1: A carpetbagger was a derogatory term for a Northerner who moved to the South after the American Civil War during the Reconstruction era (1863–1877). Many white Southerners denounced them, fearing they would loot and plunder the defeated South and be politically allied with the Republicans.
Jessie Helms, here the fictional president, was a senator from North Carolina. He helped shift the southern conservatives from the Democrats to the Republican Party. He fought what he considered to be liberalism whenever it was on the agenda, opposing civil rights at first, disability rights, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, access to abortions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and the National Endowment for the Arts. Helms brought an "aggressiveness" to his conservatism, as in his rhetoric against homosexuality. He used racially charged language in his campaigns and editorials.
Note the ad for Col. Crunch Hominy Bars. Hominy is the coarsely ground corn used to make grits, a typically southern food. Col. Crunch is probably a play on the many southern colonels that became popular in the U.S. culture, such as Colonel Sanders.
Panel 2:
A torchlight rally is a rally typically held by neo-Nazis and other white supremasist groups at night, lit by torchlight.
Panel 4: Stuart City is most likely the fictional Star City, renamed for J.E.B. Stuart, a Confederate general. White Night and Dixie are this timeline's versions of Professor Night and Twilight. The Integrator would be a villain who is trying to integrate the races.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Schrodinger refers to Erwin Schrodinger, whose theories and cat example, led to the popular idea of multiple timelines (such as this story).
RO-BOY is probably a play on the word robot, but also has the negative connotation slang of "boy," a term used to belittle African-American males.
In the background is a display of the Ironclad, deactivated by the Supremacist. The Ironclad was probably a villain referencing the USS Monitor, one of the first ironclad warships that made it's debut in the Civil War.
Panel 4:
The mint julep is a mixed alcoholic drink, or cocktail, consisting primarily of bourbon (or some other spirit), water, crushed or shaved ice, and fresh mint. As a bourbon-based cocktail, it is associated with the American South and the cuisine of the Southern United States in general, and the Kentucky Derby in particular.
The display notes "garbage used by the White Trasher." White trash is a derogatory American English racial slur referring to poor white people, especially in the rural southern United States. The label signifies lower social class inside the white population and especially a degraded standard of living. The term has been adopted for people living on the fringes of the social order, who are seen as dangerous because they may be criminal, unpredictable, and without respect for authority whether it be political, legal, or moral. The term is usually a racial slur.
Page 10:Panel 1: Hickok did become sherrif in Abilene 1871.
Panel 3: Hickok claimed that he didn't know Hardin was a wanted outlaw. Later, when Hardin supposedly killed a man for snoring too loud, he took off before Hickok could arrest him.
Page 11:
Moore has taken a bit of fictional license with the story of Hickok's shootout with Phil Coe. According to historical sources, the Bull's Head Tavern in Abilene had been established by the gambler Ben Thompson and Coe, his partner, businessman and fellow gambler. The two entrepreneurs had painted a picture of a bull with a large erect penis on the side of their establishment as an advertisement. Citizens of the town complained to Hickok, who requested that Thompson and Coe remove the bull. They refused, so Hickok altered it himself. Infuriated, Thompson tried to incite John Wesley Hardin to kill Hickok, by exclaiming to Hardin that "He's a damn Yankee. Picks on rebels, especially Texans, to kill." Hardin was in town under his assumed name Wesley Clemmons but was better known to the townspeople by the alias Little Arkansas. He seemed to have respect for Hickok's abilities and replied, "If Bill needs killing why don't you kill him yourself?" Hoping to intimidate Hickok, Coe allegedly stated that he could "kill a crow on the wing". Hickok's retort is one of the West's most famous sayings (though possibly apocryphal): "Did the crow have a pistol? Was he shooting back? I will be."
Both men did vie for the affection of Jessie Hazel, proprietor of an expensive bawdy house. Hickok lost out, and the madam decided to leave with Coe for Texas. On the evening of October 5, 1871, before he was to leave, Coe and some other Texans went on a shooting spree. Hickok was standing off the crowd when Coe fired two shots. Hickok ordered him to be arrested for firing a pistol within the city limits. Coe claimed that he was shooting at a stray dog, and then suddenly turned his gun on Hickok, who fired first and killed Coe. Hickok caught a glimpse of someone running toward him and quickly fired two more shots in reaction, accidentally shooting and killing Abilene Special Deputy Marshal Mike Williams, who was coming to his aid. This event haunted Hickok for the remainder of his life.
There is another account of the Coe shootout: Theophilus Little, the mayor of Abilene and owner of the town's lumber yard, recorded his time in Abilene by writing in a notebook which was ultimately given to the Abilene Historical Society. Writing in 1911, he detailed his admiration of Hickok and included a paragraph on the shooting that differs considerably from the reported account:
Supreme #55
The annotations from Aaron Severson for issues #55 and #56 were lost and have never been recovered. From this point forward, I'll be doing them on my own, as best I can. Obviously, I would appreciate any that you see. Just leave them in the comments or email me. Thanks, MikePage 1:
Panel 1: K-Zam is the name of the radio station Ethan Crane worked at, as seen in Supreme #42.
"An American Trilogy" is a real song that Elvis Presley. It is a medley of "Dixie," the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy; "All My Trials," an African American spiritual; and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the marching song of the Union Army during the Civil War. Elvis did not live to 60, he died at the age of 42 in 1977.
Panel 4: Supreme's costume now has elements of the Confederate battle flag, which has come to symbolize the Confederacy.
Page 2:
Panel 3: The advertisement on the bus is for Hammerlocke, a miniseries Chris Sprouse worked on for DC in 1992.
Panel 4: The advertisement at the bus stop is for Jimmy Osmond, the youngest member of the sibling group the Osmonds, a "wholesome" white, devoutly Mormon group from Utah.
Page 3:
Panel 6: Chapbooks were small, cheaply produced paper-covered booklets usually printed on a single sheet of paper and folded into books of 8, 12, 16 and 24 pages. They were often illustrated with crude woodcuts.
Page 4:
The Klansman is, of course, a reference to the Ku Klux Klan, a group devoted to white supremacy. The first Klan became active during the 1870s when it sought to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South during the Reconstruction Era, especially by using violence against African American leaders. With numerous chapters across the South, it was suppressed around 1871, through federal law enforcement. Members made their own, often colorful, costumes: robes, masks and conical hats, designed to be terrifying and to hide their identities. The second group was founded in the South in 1915 and it flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, including urban areas of the Midwest and West. Taking inspiration from the film Birth of a Nation, which mythologized the founding of the first Klan, it employed marketing techniques and a popular fraternal organization structure. Rooted in local Protestant communities, it sought to maintain white supremacy, often took a pro-prohibition stance, and it opposed Catholics and Jews, while also stressing its opposition to the Catholic Church at a time of high immigration from the mostly Catholic nations of Southern and Eastern Europe. This second organization adopted a standard white costume and used code words which were similar to those used by the first Klan, while adding cross burnings and mass parades to intimidate others.
There was a novel and a movie titled The Klansman that sounds truly awful.
Page 5:
Panel 1: A carpetbagger was a derogatory term for a Northerner who moved to the South after the American Civil War during the Reconstruction era (1863–1877). Many white Southerners denounced them, fearing they would loot and plunder the defeated South and be politically allied with the Republicans.
Jessie Helms, here the fictional president, was a senator from North Carolina. He helped shift the southern conservatives from the Democrats to the Republican Party. He fought what he considered to be liberalism whenever it was on the agenda, opposing civil rights at first, disability rights, feminism, gay rights, affirmative action, access to abortions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and the National Endowment for the Arts. Helms brought an "aggressiveness" to his conservatism, as in his rhetoric against homosexuality. He used racially charged language in his campaigns and editorials.
Note the ad for Col. Crunch Hominy Bars. Hominy is the coarsely ground corn used to make grits, a typically southern food. Col. Crunch is probably a play on the many southern colonels that became popular in the U.S. culture, such as Colonel Sanders.
Panel 2:
A torchlight rally is a rally typically held by neo-Nazis and other white supremasist groups at night, lit by torchlight.
Panel 4: Stuart City is most likely the fictional Star City, renamed for J.E.B. Stuart, a Confederate general. White Night and Dixie are this timeline's versions of Professor Night and Twilight. The Integrator would be a villain who is trying to integrate the races.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Schrodinger refers to Erwin Schrodinger, whose theories and cat example, led to the popular idea of multiple timelines (such as this story).
RO-BOY is probably a play on the word robot, but also has the negative connotation slang of "boy," a term used to belittle African-American males.
In the background is a display of the Ironclad, deactivated by the Supremacist. The Ironclad was probably a villain referencing the USS Monitor, one of the first ironclad warships that made it's debut in the Civil War.
Panel 4:
The mint julep is a mixed alcoholic drink, or cocktail, consisting primarily of bourbon (or some other spirit), water, crushed or shaved ice, and fresh mint. As a bourbon-based cocktail, it is associated with the American South and the cuisine of the Southern United States in general, and the Kentucky Derby in particular.
The display notes "garbage used by the White Trasher." White trash is a derogatory American English racial slur referring to poor white people, especially in the rural southern United States. The label signifies lower social class inside the white population and especially a degraded standard of living. The term has been adopted for people living on the fringes of the social order, who are seen as dangerous because they may be criminal, unpredictable, and without respect for authority whether it be political, legal, or moral. The term is usually a racial slur.
Page 10:Panel 1: Hickok did become sherrif in Abilene 1871.
Panel 3: Hickok claimed that he didn't know Hardin was a wanted outlaw. Later, when Hardin supposedly killed a man for snoring too loud, he took off before Hickok could arrest him.
Page 11:
Moore has taken a bit of fictional license with the story of Hickok's shootout with Phil Coe. According to historical sources, the Bull's Head Tavern in Abilene had been established by the gambler Ben Thompson and Coe, his partner, businessman and fellow gambler. The two entrepreneurs had painted a picture of a bull with a large erect penis on the side of their establishment as an advertisement. Citizens of the town complained to Hickok, who requested that Thompson and Coe remove the bull. They refused, so Hickok altered it himself. Infuriated, Thompson tried to incite John Wesley Hardin to kill Hickok, by exclaiming to Hardin that "He's a damn Yankee. Picks on rebels, especially Texans, to kill." Hardin was in town under his assumed name Wesley Clemmons but was better known to the townspeople by the alias Little Arkansas. He seemed to have respect for Hickok's abilities and replied, "If Bill needs killing why don't you kill him yourself?" Hoping to intimidate Hickok, Coe allegedly stated that he could "kill a crow on the wing". Hickok's retort is one of the West's most famous sayings (though possibly apocryphal): "Did the crow have a pistol? Was he shooting back? I will be."
Both men did vie for the affection of Jessie Hazel, proprietor of an expensive bawdy house. Hickok lost out, and the madam decided to leave with Coe for Texas. On the evening of October 5, 1871, before he was to leave, Coe and some other Texans went on a shooting spree. Hickok was standing off the crowd when Coe fired two shots. Hickok ordered him to be arrested for firing a pistol within the city limits. Coe claimed that he was shooting at a stray dog, and then suddenly turned his gun on Hickok, who fired first and killed Coe. Hickok caught a glimpse of someone running toward him and quickly fired two more shots in reaction, accidentally shooting and killing Abilene Special Deputy Marshal Mike Williams, who was coming to his aid. This event haunted Hickok for the remainder of his life.
There is another account of the Coe shootout: Theophilus Little, the mayor of Abilene and owner of the town's lumber yard, recorded his time in Abilene by writing in a notebook which was ultimately given to the Abilene Historical Society. Writing in 1911, he detailed his admiration of Hickok and included a paragraph on the shooting that differs considerably from the reported account:
"Phil" Coe was from Texas, ran the "Bull’s Head" a saloon and gambling den, sold whiskey and men’s souls. As vile a character as I ever met for some cause Wild Bill incurred Coe’s hatred and he vowed to secure the death of the marshal. Not having the courage to do it himself, he one day filled about 200 cowboys with whiskey intending to get them into trouble with Wild Bill, hoping that they would get to shooting and in the melee shoot the marshal. But Coe "reckoned without his host". Wild Bill had learned of the scheme and cornered Coe, had his two pistols drawn on Coe. Just as he pulled the trigger one of the policemen rushed around the corner between Coe and the pistols and both balls entered his body, killing him instantly. In an instant, he pulled the triggers again sending two bullets into Coe's abdomen (Coe lived a day or two) and whirling with his two guns drawn on the drunken crowd of cowboys, "and now do any of you fellows want the rest of these bullets?" Not a word was uttered.Hickok was relieved of his duties as marshal less than two months after accidentally killing Deputy Williams, this incident being only one of a series of questionable shootings and claims of misconduct.
Page 12:
Panel 2: Nighteagle, The Brimstone Kid and Kid Thunder all appeared in the Judgment Day miniseries.
Panel 4: In an apparent link to the Elvis reference on page 1, the real Bill Hickok did not live to be 40, having died in 1876 at the age of 39.
Page 13:
Panel 2: General Lee is a refernece to General Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate States army.
Panel 2: Washington, DC looks nothing like that.
Page 18:
Panel 1: Sure enough, the heroes are going back to kill Hickok in 1876, the correct date for our history.
Panel 4: Moore has taken the license to place Hickok's death in Abilene. In fact, Hickok had become destitute and set off for Deadwood, SD, to try to make his fortune in the gold fields.
Page 20:
In reality, Hickok was never seated facing the door. Here's the real story of his death:
On August 1, 1876, Hickok was playing poker at Nuttal & Mann's Saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. When a seat opened up at the table, a drunk man named Jack McCall
sat down to play. McCall lost heavily. Hickok encouraged McCall to quit
the game until he could cover his losses and offered to give him money
for breakfast. Though McCall accepted the money, he was apparently
insulted.
The next day, Hickok was playing poker again. He usually sat with his
back to a wall so he could see the entrance, but the only seat available
when he joined the game was a chair facing away from the door. He asked
another man at the table, Charles Rich, to change seats with him twice,
but Rich refused.
McCall entered the saloon, walked up behind Hickok, drew his Colt's Model 1873 Single Action Army .45 caliber revolver and shouted, "Damn you! Take that!" He shot Hickok in the back of the head at point-blank range. Hickok died instantly.
Page 21:
Panel 1: Hickok was playing five-card stud when he was shot. He was holding two pairs, black aces and black eights as his "up cards". The identity of the fifth card (his "hole card") is the subject of debate. This hand is known as the "Dead Man's Hand." The cards displayed in this panel are not that hand.
Page 22:
Panel 2: In the background we see a female version of Fighting American from 2150. We'll find out more about her in Supreme: The Return #3.
Page 24:
Panel 4: These are The Shadow Supreme, the Televillain and Korgo.
Page 4:
Panel 1: The title "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side..." is a reference to an Agatha Christie Miss Marple mystery. Miss Marple investigates the murder of Heather Badcock, who consumed a poisoned cocktail apparently meant for American film actress Marina Gregg, Heather's idol. As Marple investigates, she discovers dark secrets in Marina's past, secrets which also link to other seemingly innocent citizens of St. Mary Mead.
Page 11:
Page 17:
Page 19:
Page 1:
Page 3:
Panel 1: Telepathic plants some with the territory of being a superhuman. Readers will remember that it was a telepathic plant that was the gift in Alan Moore's Superman story, For the Man Who Has Everything.
Panel 3: Amalynth is the Supreme version of Kandor, the bottled city. Kandor was once the capital of Krypton until it was shrunk and stolen by the supervillain Brainiac, several years before the planet was destroyed. Superman discovered the city in Brainiac's possession when the android came to Earth decades later to harvest more cities (Action Comics #242, July 1958) and rescued it, keeping it in his Fortress of Solitude while looking for a way to restore it to full size. It is later revealed the city had 6 million inhabitants when stolen. In return, the Kandorians provided the superhero with a place where he was an honored guest who was occasionally invited to participate in matters of local government, various professionals to assist him when asked and even occasionally assisted him in the outside with the Superman Emergency Squad who used an expanding gas that briefly grew them to a few inches tall.
Eventually (Superman #338, Aug 1979), Superman was able to restore the population to normal size and they settled on another planet that revolved around a red sun. Originally calling the planet New Krypton, the Kandorians decided to name their new homeworld Rokyn, which is the Kryptonian word for "gift from God" (Rokyn had first been revealed as existing in the 30th century in Adventure Comics #356, May 1967). Later it was revealed the planet was on a dimensional fault, which meant it would at times be sent to another dimension. Superman constructed a replica of the bottle-sized city to keep as a memento but was surprised when thousands of tiny aliens, fleeing the destruction of their home planet, moved into it (Superman #371, Aug 1982). When told the city's original name was Kandor, the aliens decided to call it that as well. On a trial basis, Superman restored two inhabitants to normal size to introduce them to life on Earth, but discovered that the population had a dangerous reaction to the planet's environment which transformed them into mindless, powerful and rampaging beasts who were difficult for Superman to control. As such, Superman decided that for the time being, the New Kandorians would have to remain in the bottled city with a carefully filtered atmosphere until that medical problem was solved.
McCall entered the saloon, walked up behind Hickok, drew his Colt's Model 1873 Single Action Army .45 caliber revolver and shouted, "Damn you! Take that!" He shot Hickok in the back of the head at point-blank range. Hickok died instantly.
Page 21:
Panel 1: Hickok was playing five-card stud when he was shot. He was holding two pairs, black aces and black eights as his "up cards". The identity of the fifth card (his "hole card") is the subject of debate. This hand is known as the "Dead Man's Hand." The cards displayed in this panel are not that hand.
Page 22:
Panel 2: In the background we see a female version of Fighting American from 2150. We'll find out more about her in Supreme: The Return #3.
Page 24:
Panel 4: These are The Shadow Supreme, the Televillain and Korgo.
Supreme #56
Panel 1: The title "The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side..." is a reference to an Agatha Christie Miss Marple mystery. Miss Marple investigates the murder of Heather Badcock, who consumed a poisoned cocktail apparently meant for American film actress Marina Gregg, Heather's idol. As Marple investigates, she discovers dark secrets in Marina's past, secrets which also link to other seemingly innocent citizens of St. Mary Mead.
Page 5:
Panel 2: Most of the villains we see in this issue were seen in Supreme #52, with the exception of Slaver Ant, who appears to be a new character. Slaver Ant may be a reference to Hellgrammite, a scientist who turns into an insect hybrid, who first appeared in the Brave and the Bold in 1968. He possesses superhuman strength and leaping abilities, the power to secrete adhesives and weave transformative or imprisoning cocoons, and a durable exoskeleton. A number of his schemes revolve around transforming others into weaker, subordinate versions of himself, leading to clashes with Batman and The Creeper in Brave and the Bold #80, and with Green Arrow and the Black Canary in World's Finest Comics #248-249.
Sentinel was found guilty of killing Riptide in the Judgment Day miniseries and sentenced to remain in the Hell of Mirrors.
Page 7:
Friends was an incredibly popular series on NBC in the 1990s, and if you haven't heard of it, I'm too old to explain it.
Page 8:
Panel 6: "Commander Picard and the fruity robot guy" is a reference to Captain Picard and data of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Page 9:
Panel 3: These are Taylor Kendall and Linda Kendall, Professor Night and Twilight. This is the first appearance of the new uniform Twilight will wear in Alan Moore's Youngblood series.
Page 10:
Panel 1: Gunsmoke was a western TV show that ran from 1955 until 1975.
Panel 2: Vor-Em is obviosly a refence to some villain, but I can't place him. If anyone has an idea, let me know.
Page 17:
Panel 2: Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, was actually a mathematician named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
Page 18:
Panel 2: Jaberwocky was a famous poem by Carroll.
Page 20:
Panel 1: The Supremium Man will appear in Supreme: The Return #5.
Page 1:
Panel 1: This is President Bill Clinton, of course. Moore's dialog for Clinton is littered with Saturday Night Live-like catchphrases ("Let me say this, firmly and calmly...", "speaking earnestly and sincerely...").
Panel 2: Most of the villains we see in this issue were seen in Supreme #52, with the exception of Slaver Ant, who appears to be a new character. Slaver Ant may be a reference to Hellgrammite, a scientist who turns into an insect hybrid, who first appeared in the Brave and the Bold in 1968. He possesses superhuman strength and leaping abilities, the power to secrete adhesives and weave transformative or imprisoning cocoons, and a durable exoskeleton. A number of his schemes revolve around transforming others into weaker, subordinate versions of himself, leading to clashes with Batman and The Creeper in Brave and the Bold #80, and with Green Arrow and the Black Canary in World's Finest Comics #248-249.
Sentinel was found guilty of killing Riptide in the Judgment Day miniseries and sentenced to remain in the Hell of Mirrors.
Page 7:
Friends was an incredibly popular series on NBC in the 1990s, and if you haven't heard of it, I'm too old to explain it.
Page 8:
Panel 6: "Commander Picard and the fruity robot guy" is a reference to Captain Picard and data of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Page 9:
Panel 3: These are Taylor Kendall and Linda Kendall, Professor Night and Twilight. This is the first appearance of the new uniform Twilight will wear in Alan Moore's Youngblood series.
Page 10:
Panel 1: Gunsmoke was a western TV show that ran from 1955 until 1975.
Panel 2: Vor-Em is obviosly a refence to some villain, but I can't place him. If anyone has an idea, let me know.
Page 17:
Panel 2: Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, was actually a mathematician named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
Page 18:
Panel 2: Jaberwocky was a famous poem by Carroll.
Page 20:
Panel 1: The Supremium Man will appear in Supreme: The Return #5.
Supreme: The Return #1
Panel 1: This is President Bill Clinton, of course. Moore's dialog for Clinton is littered with Saturday Night Live-like catchphrases ("Let me say this, firmly and calmly...", "speaking earnestly and sincerely...").
Panel 4: There's also a reference to Al Gore and his books on science.
Panel 5: Korgo thinks Bill Clinton is Clint Eastwood's son. Eastwood, of course, made his career in Western movies.
Page 7:
Panel 1: That subway looks a lot like Washington, DC's Metro System.
Page 9:
Panel 1: "The Children's Hour" is a 1934 American play by Lillian Hellman. It is a drama set in an all-girls boarding school run by two women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie. An angry student, Mary Tilford, runs away from the school and to avoid being sent back she tells her grandmother that the two headmistresses are having a lesbian affair. The accusation proceeds to destroy the women's careers, relationships and lives.
Page 11:
Panel 1: Bon Jovi is a popular American rock band.
Page 12:
Panel 2: Apparently, adhesive glitter is a thing!
Page 15:
Panel 4: "Nobody told him it was going to be this way..." is a reference to one of the lyrics to the theme music for Friends, although, the actual line is "So no one told you life was gonna be this way"
Page 17:
Panel 1: This is now the second time someone has killed a Radar suprematon and the reader has been led to believe it's the real thing, as seen way back in Supreme #43.
Page 19:
Panel 2: Hillary Clinton controversially led Bill Clinton's attempt at Health Care reform in 1993. Her longstanding aversion to the media is well documented, as well.
Panel 3: The "bimbo" reference is likely Gennifer Flowers.
Page 20:
Panel 3: Formic acid is an acid often found in ants.
Let me start off with an apology. I don't know enough about silver-age Superman and Lex Luthor to do the annotations for this issue justice, but seeing as no one else is doing it, I'll give it my best shot. Hopefull someone with more knowledge will come along and help me.
Page 1-2:
This page tells the events that happened at the end of Supreme #52b from the point of view of Darius Dax.
Supreme: The Return #2
Let me start off with an apology. I don't know enough about silver-age Superman and Lex Luthor to do the annotations for this issue justice, but seeing as no one else is doing it, I'll give it my best shot. Hopefull someone with more knowledge will come along and help me.
Page 1-2:
This page tells the events that happened at the end of Supreme #52b from the point of view of Darius Dax.
Page 3:
Original Dax is based on the original Lex Luthor. In a play on Luthor, who initially had red hair before going bald, original Dax was bald before getting red hair.
As far as I know, there was never a blaxploitation Lex Luthor.
Page 11:
Panel 2:
This image is an homage to the famous cover of Action Comics #1. However, Luthor did not appear in that issue and didn't turn up until Action Comics #23.
Page 12:
Panel 1: While Lex Luthor never had a planet of clones (that I've been able to find) there was a planet of Lexor, where he was considered a hero to the inhabitants.
In Superman #164, Lex challenged Superman to a fair fight, man-to-man, on even terms, without his super-powers to help him, the Man of Steel accepted the challenge. As Superman would have no powers on a planet like Krypton that revolved around a red sun, he built a spaceship to take the pair of them to such a world. It was agreed that if Superman won the fight, Luthor would return to Earth with him and serve out his prison sentence. But if Luthor won, he would leave Superman on that planet and return alone. Landing on a dying desert world, the two fought a boxing match, which resulted in Superman winning.
Believing Superman to have perished in a sandstorm which struck not long afterwards, Luthor came across a city where the people had once been a great scientific race, but presumably following a great war eons ago which wiped out their civilization, had returned to stone age life due to no longer having any understanding of science or technology. Luthor revived the planet's science, but the people's greatest problem was a shortage of water; the only source was a fountain in the city, which Luthor had discovered would soon fail. Although Luthor constructed robots to dig deep underground to find water, he was unsuccessful.
When Superman arrived in the city, the pair continued their fight in a ancient arena, this time each using sets of ancient inventions against each other. Eventually, the two ended up fighting man-to-man once more, during which Luthor suddenly weakened, giving himself up and vowing to go back to Earth, with Superman, to prison. As the spaceship left the solar system with the red sun and entered one with a yellow orb, Luthor – who had promised to get the people water – persuaded Superman (who had now regained his super-powers) to throw masses of frozen water from an icy planet back to the desert world. This Superman did, at the same time activating Luthor's robots by his x-ray vision to build canals like those on Mars which would bring water all over the planet, and leave its people forever grateful to Luthor.
In prison on Earth. Luthor received a present from Superman: a photograph taken through a super-telescope in Superman's Fortress of Solitude, showing a great statue of Luthor on the one world where he was a hero. The planet would later be named Lexor by its people.
In Superman #164, Lex challenged Superman to a fair fight, man-to-man, on even terms, without his super-powers to help him, the Man of Steel accepted the challenge. As Superman would have no powers on a planet like Krypton that revolved around a red sun, he built a spaceship to take the pair of them to such a world. It was agreed that if Superman won the fight, Luthor would return to Earth with him and serve out his prison sentence. But if Luthor won, he would leave Superman on that planet and return alone. Landing on a dying desert world, the two fought a boxing match, which resulted in Superman winning.
Believing Superman to have perished in a sandstorm which struck not long afterwards, Luthor came across a city where the people had once been a great scientific race, but presumably following a great war eons ago which wiped out their civilization, had returned to stone age life due to no longer having any understanding of science or technology. Luthor revived the planet's science, but the people's greatest problem was a shortage of water; the only source was a fountain in the city, which Luthor had discovered would soon fail. Although Luthor constructed robots to dig deep underground to find water, he was unsuccessful.
When Superman arrived in the city, the pair continued their fight in a ancient arena, this time each using sets of ancient inventions against each other. Eventually, the two ended up fighting man-to-man once more, during which Luthor suddenly weakened, giving himself up and vowing to go back to Earth, with Superman, to prison. As the spaceship left the solar system with the red sun and entered one with a yellow orb, Luthor – who had promised to get the people water – persuaded Superman (who had now regained his super-powers) to throw masses of frozen water from an icy planet back to the desert world. This Superman did, at the same time activating Luthor's robots by his x-ray vision to build canals like those on Mars which would bring water all over the planet, and leave its people forever grateful to Luthor.
In prison on Earth. Luthor received a present from Superman: a photograph taken through a super-telescope in Superman's Fortress of Solitude, showing a great statue of Luthor on the one world where he was a hero. The planet would later be named Lexor by its people.
Lexor appeared several times after that: In Superman #168, Luthor became a superhero on Lexor. In other appearances, Luthor marries and has a daughter on the planet. Much of it got erased during the Crisis on Infinite Earth storyline.
Page 20:
Panel 2: Doomsdax is a play on Doomsday, the villain who killed Superman in the Death of Superman storyline.
Page 22:
Panel 1: The League of Infamy is the equivalent for the Legion of Doom, a group of supervillains that battled the Justice League.
Supreme: The Return #3
Page 1:
Panel 1: Emerpus, the backwards Supreme, is a reference to Bizarro, the backward Superman, who comes from Bizzaro World, not the Backwards Zone.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Telepathic plants some with the territory of being a superhuman. Readers will remember that it was a telepathic plant that was the gift in Alan Moore's Superman story, For the Man Who Has Everything.
Panel 3: Amalynth is the Supreme version of Kandor, the bottled city. Kandor was once the capital of Krypton until it was shrunk and stolen by the supervillain Brainiac, several years before the planet was destroyed. Superman discovered the city in Brainiac's possession when the android came to Earth decades later to harvest more cities (Action Comics #242, July 1958) and rescued it, keeping it in his Fortress of Solitude while looking for a way to restore it to full size. It is later revealed the city had 6 million inhabitants when stolen. In return, the Kandorians provided the superhero with a place where he was an honored guest who was occasionally invited to participate in matters of local government, various professionals to assist him when asked and even occasionally assisted him in the outside with the Superman Emergency Squad who used an expanding gas that briefly grew them to a few inches tall.
Eventually (Superman #338, Aug 1979), Superman was able to restore the population to normal size and they settled on another planet that revolved around a red sun. Originally calling the planet New Krypton, the Kandorians decided to name their new homeworld Rokyn, which is the Kryptonian word for "gift from God" (Rokyn had first been revealed as existing in the 30th century in Adventure Comics #356, May 1967). Later it was revealed the planet was on a dimensional fault, which meant it would at times be sent to another dimension. Superman constructed a replica of the bottle-sized city to keep as a memento but was surprised when thousands of tiny aliens, fleeing the destruction of their home planet, moved into it (Superman #371, Aug 1982). When told the city's original name was Kandor, the aliens decided to call it that as well. On a trial basis, Superman restored two inhabitants to normal size to introduce them to life on Earth, but discovered that the population had a dangerous reaction to the planet's environment which transformed them into mindless, powerful and rampaging beasts who were difficult for Superman to control. As such, Superman decided that for the time being, the New Kandorians would have to remain in the bottled city with a carefully filtered atmosphere until that medical problem was solved.
Page 4:
Panel 2: Supreme has taken the reversed name of Taylor Kendal and given his guest(s) the name Linda Kendal, the secret identities of Professor Night and Twilight.
Page 5:
Panel 2: The fractal monster was Billy Friday.
Page 7:
Panel 2: The darker filaments is likely a reference to Judy Jordan's darker hair.
Page 9:
Panel 1: The Bon Jovi cultists are the fans who were transported to Amalynth by Optilux in Supreme: The Return #1.
Page 10:
Panel 1: How did Slaver Ant escape again, so soon after just being captured? Was this a story idea for Youngblood? Your guess is as good as mine.
Panel 2: The collapse of the Time Tower was from Wild Bill's alteration of time back in Supreme #55.
Page 11:
Panel 1: These heroes are descendants of Fighting American (created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and licensed to Awesome at the time) and Speedboy.
Page 12:
Panel 1: I'm going to do the best I can to translate Moore's future speak:
Gimiskin: hello
Nine'leven: assistance
Fezbollah: a merger of the fez hat and Hezbollah group of islamic terrorists
Tassle-tops: A reference to the Fezbollah
Baxter Frunnt: The descendant of Fighting American villain Double Header
Panel 2:
Allah Akbar! Allah Jeff!: Allah Akbar means that Allah is the greatest. Apparently, so is Jeff.
Adenalate: Hyperventilate?
Page 13:
Panel 2:
Disneyest: amazing
Nashed: seen
Tysoned: knocked out
Rubiks: puzzles
Seekays: PJs?
Panel 3:
C-20: 20th century
O.J.: Something not to be believed
Panel 4:
Sidechick: female sidekick
Page 15:
Panel 3: VALIS was a book by Philip K. Dick. VALIS stood for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God.
Page 20:
Panel 3: Diana Duck is a play on Daisy Duck, Disney's Donald Duck's girlfriend.
Page 21:
Panel 2: Superman's Lois Lane acted differently in the '50s, where she was trying to find out his secret identity, and the '60s, where she was trying to trick him into marrying her.
Panel 3: The phone in reference to the famous phone in to decide Robin's fate, which ultimately led to his death at the hands of the Joker in A Death in the Family.
Page 1:
Panel 3: Oprah is a reference to Oprah Winfrey, the African-American talk show host.
Supreme: The Return #4
Panel 3: Oprah is a reference to Oprah Winfrey, the African-American talk show host.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Ethan is referring to his adoptive parents house in Littlehaven, seen in Supreme #42.
Panel 3: Billy Friday is still in Miskatonic Asylum (as we'll see next issue).
Page 4:
Panel 1: Canis Major is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy's 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for "greater dog" in contrast to Canis Minor, the "lesser dog"; both figures are commonly represented as following the constellation of Orion the hunter through the sky. The Milky Way passes through Canis Major and several open clusters lie within its borders, most notably M41. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, known as the "dog star". It is bright because of its proximity to the Solar System.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Apparently Slaver Ant broke out of the Hell of Mirrors since Supreme: The Return #1.
Panel 4: Betelguese is one of the stars in the Orion constellation.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Lothario was a character from a story in Don Quixote. Lothario's friend wanted Lothario to discover if the friend's wife is having affair. She is not, but as the friend presses Lothario to investigate, he eventually falls in love with the wife and they ultimately run away together.
Page 12:
Panel 1: A blood test is often used to determine the proper paternity of a baby.
St. Bernard was the saint who founded a hostel in the third highest pass in Switzerland. The monks there named the dog breed after the hostel.
Page 13:
Panel 6: Cassiopeia is a constellation in the northern sky, named after the vain queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology, who boasted about her unrivalled beauty.
Page 14:
Panel 1: He's referring to the newly-named Talos and the Judy Jordan suprematon who left earth in Supreme #54.
Panel 2: Fido is a well-known dog name. Two notable Fidos were one belonging to Abraham Lincoln and another was an Italian dog who gained notice for his loyalty to his dead master.
Page 19:
Panel 2: Chu-Ko Liang (often spelled Zhuge Liang) lived from 181-234 A.D. and was a chancellor and regent of the state to
Shu Han (one of the three states vying for control of China during the
Three Kingdoms period. He was an accomplished strategist and has been
compared to Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War.
Zhuge Liang was believed to be the inventor of mantou, the landmine and a mysterious but efficient automatic transportation device (initially used for grain) referred to as the "wooden ox and flowing horse" (木牛流馬), which is sometimes identified with the wheelbarrow:
Panel 3: Zhuge Liang is also credited with constructing the Stone Sentinel Maze, an array of stone piles that is said to produce supernatural phenomenon, located near Baidicheng. It sounds like the array might we more of a work of fiction than fact, but as we've seen, that's never stopped Moore:
No documentation of this event is found in Records of the Three Kingdoms, the authoritative historical text for the history of the Three Kingdoms period.
Panel 6:Siegfried is the hero of an opera by Richard Wagner completed in 1871. In the opera, Siegfried is raised by the dwarf Mime to become a dragonslayer. However, Siegfried keeps destroying all the swords Mime makes. Eventually Siegfried recrafts the powerful sword Nothung and Mime takes the boy to the dragon.
Siegfried stabs the dragon Fafner in the heart with Nothung. When Siegfried withdraws his sword from Fafner's body, his hands are burned by the dragon's blood and he puts his finger in his mouth. On tasting the blood, he finds that he can understand the woodbird's song. Following its instructions, he takes a powerful magic ring and a magic helmet from the dragon's hoard. He soon can read thoughts and learns that Mime plans to poison him, so Siegfried stabs Mime, killing him.
Eventually Siegfried vanquishes the powerful god Wotan and falls in love with Brünnhilde, a beautiful woman.
Page 20:
Panel 1: Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle) was a Dutch woman who, after divorcing a terrible Dutch East-Indies husband, became an exotic dancer in the early modern dance movement (which took influence from Asia and Egypt). Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, Mata Hari captivated her audiences and was an overnight success in Paris in the early 1900s.
As was common for stage performers, she made up background information, and her Dutch East-Indies accent made her sound foreign and exotic. One evidently enthused French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was "so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms." One journalist in Vienna wrote after seeing one of her performances that Mata Hari was "slender and tall with the flexible grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair" and that her face "makes a strange foreign impression."
By the 1910s, she had become a courtesan and had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential positions in many countries. During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely.
A Russian lover was shot down and captured by the Germans and Mata Hari agreed to spy on the Germans in return for assistance to see her injured lover. While trying to get to see the German prince, she offered to share French secrets with Germany in exchange for money and became known as Agent H21.
She shared so little with the Germans that they retaliated by exposing her as a German spy to the French. The French tested her by giving her names that eventually led to the killing of a double agent and Mata Hari's arrest. Used as a scapegoat for all the problems in the war, the French prosecuted her and it was plastered in the newspapers.
Eventually she was executed by firing squad. Reportedly she was not bound and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad.
Panel 3: Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian pyschoanalyst who followed in the footsteps of Freud. He worked on character and the idea of muscular armour (the expression of personality in how the body moves). He also coined the phrase "the sexual revolution."
He believed that a major psychological problem was "orgastic impotence", or failure to attain orgastic potency (not to be confused with anorgasmia, the inability to reach orgasm) which always resulted in neurosis, because during orgasm that person could not discharge all libido (which Reich regarded as a biological energy).
Anyway, he moved to New York in the late 1930s to escape the Nazis and claimed to have discovered orgone, a biological energy which he said others called God. In 1940 he started building orgone accumulators, devices that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about sex boxes that cured cancer.
Reich said he had seen orgone when he injected his mice with bions and in the sky at night through an "organoscope," a special telescope. He argued that it is in the soil and air (indeed, is omnipresent), is blue or blue-grey, and that humanity had divided its knowledge of it in two: aether for the physical aspect and God for the spiritual. The colour of the sky, the northern lights, St Elmo's Fire, and the blue of sexually excited frogs are manifestations of orgone, he wrote.
Over the years, he became a cultist about the power of Orgone, to the point of trying to get Albert Einstein to confirm its existence and creating a secluded lab in Maine called Orgonon.
In 1951 Reich said he had discovered another energy that he called Deadly Orgone Radiation (DOR), accumulations of which played a role in desertification. He designed a "cloudbuster," rows of 15-foot aluminium pipes mounted on a mobile platform, connected to cables that were inserted into water. He believed that it could unblock orgone energy in the atmosphere and cause rain.
During a drought in 1953, two farmers in Maine offered to pay him if he could make it rain to save their blueberry crop. Reich used the cloudbuster on the morning of 6 July, and according to Bangor's Daily News, rain began to fall that evening. The crop survived, the farmers declared themselves satisfied, and Reich received his fee.
From at least early 1954, he came to believe that the planet was under attack by UFOs, or "energy alphas," as he called them. He said he often saw them flying over Orgonon – shaped like thin cigars with windows – leaving streams of black Deadly Orgone Radiation in their wake, which he believed the aliens were scattering to destroy the Earth. He and his son would spend their nights searching for UFOs through telescopes and binoculars, and when they believed they had found one would roll out the cloudbuster to suck the energy out of it. Reich claimed he had shot several of them down. Armed with two cloudbusters, they fought what Reich called a "full-scale interplanetary battle" in Arizona, where he had rented a house as a base station. In Contact with Space (1956), he wrote of the "very remote possibility" that his own father had been from outer space.
He eventually was forced to destroy his accumulators on a case of fraud and later was imprisoned, where he died in 1957.
Page 1:
Panel 1: This is Miskatonic Asylum.
Panel 2: That's longtime Professor Night villain Jack-A-Dandy on the phone and Fakeface waiting in line behind Billy Friday.
Panel 3: Fakeface is pretending to be wrestler and actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Page 2:
Panel 3: I can't find anything on a Demford Yates. it's possible he's referring to Dornford Yates, who wrote tales about the rich and indolent Brits rollicking around Europe in the Gilded Age, right before it all ended in the trenches of World War One. As one reviewer declared, "They are fascinating, insanely funny and totally engaging. And all this despite the fact that NOTHING EVER HAPPENS."
Panel 3: I don't recognize the lizard character, unless this is Ian Churchill's version of Lounge Lizard.
Panel 4: Of course in the Lewis Carroll poem about the Walrus and the Carpenter, they get into a big fight over the clams, trying to eat them.
Page 3:
Panel 4: The Eisner Awards are the awards for best comics. Kurt Busiek was up for best writer for Astro City at the time of Moore's writing this, though Moore had most recently won the award himself for Supreme and From Hell.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Torquemada was the monk in charge of the Spanish Inquisition.
Page 7:
Panel 4: He's referring to the story in Supreme #52 A and B.
Page 9:
Panel 1: In pre-Crisis (and some post-Crisis) DC Universe, there were many colors of Kryptonite, which had different effects:
Green Kryptonite – The classic and most common form of kryptonite, this rock severely weakens Kryptonians, and can even kill them when exposed long enough. (Superman #61)
Red Kryptonite – Severely weakens Kryptonians more so than the traditional green kryptonite, but has also been known to cause bizarre mood swings and even mutations. (Adventures Comics #252)
Anti-Kryptonite – This could easily be called Reverse-Kryptonite, but basically it has no effect on Kryptonians — but it is extremely lethal for humans. (Adventures Comics #252)
X-Kryptonite – Gives humans and other creatures superhuman powers. (Adventures Comics #261)
Blue Kryptonite – Commonly, Blue Kryptonite is used to stop Bizarro, Superman’s uncanny nemesis and frequent foe. It effects Bizarros in pretty much the same way green kryptonite effects Superman. (Superman #140)
White Kryptonite – This kills plants. (Adventures Comics #279)
Gold Kryptonite – Gold kryptonite removes superpowers, permanently! (Adventures Comics #299)
Silver Kryptonite – This rock gives Superman some pretty trippy hallucinations. (Superman/Batman #49)
Black Kryptonite – Splits a Kryptonian into two entities: good and evil. (Supergirl #2)
Orange Kryptonite – Orange kryptonite gives animals superpowers. (Krypto the Super Dog #4)
Pink Kryptonite – Pink kryptonite turns Superman gay. (Supergirl vol. 4 #79)
Periwinkle Kryptonite – Periwinkle kryptonite causes Superman to lose all of his inhibitions. (Superman Family Adventures #9)
Panel 3: Rasputin was a self-described holy man who gained considerable influence over the Tzar of Russia.
Page 10:
Panel 5: This story takes place a year after the first Kid Supreme flashback from Supreme #42.
Page 13:
Panel 5: Nero was a Roman emperor whose reign was seen as tyrannical and extravagent.
Page 17:
Panel 4: This is both a reference to the cover of Superman #1 but also of Supreme #41.
Panel 5: The quote attributed to Frank Miller is one he made about Moore's work on Supreme.
Page 18:
Panel 2: I can't put my hands on it, but Marvel did publish a story about Dr. Doom attacking Stan Lee. It was common in Marvel comics to acknowledge that Marvel Comics existed and that they published comics about the characters in them.
Page 20:
Panel 2: When exposed to supremium, Billy Friday generates multiple arms, as seen in Supreme #45.
Panel 3: It was a running gag in American media to make light of the politically correct reprasing of handicaps, such as vertically challenged for midgets.
Page 22:
Panel 2: Does anyone have any idea what leftons are?
Trekkies are extreme fans of Star Trek. Many wear pointy ears to pretend to be Vulcans, such as Mr. Spock.
Page 1:
Shangri-La. Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, and particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance.
Zhuge Liang was believed to be the inventor of mantou, the landmine and a mysterious but efficient automatic transportation device (initially used for grain) referred to as the "wooden ox and flowing horse" (木牛流馬), which is sometimes identified with the wheelbarrow:
Panel 3: Zhuge Liang is also credited with constructing the Stone Sentinel Maze, an array of stone piles that is said to produce supernatural phenomenon, located near Baidicheng. It sounds like the array might we more of a work of fiction than fact, but as we've seen, that's never stopped Moore:
The Stone Sentinel Maze was mentioned in Chapter 84 of the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. Liu Bei was defeated by Lu Xun at the Battle of Xiaoting and he fled towards Baidicheng with Lu Xun hot on pursuit. When Lu Xun arrived at Yufu Shore by the Yangtze River near Baidicheng, he felt a strong enemy presence and cautioned his troops of a possible ambush. He sent men to scout ahead, who reported that the area was deserted except for some scattered piles of rocks. Bewildered, Lu Xun asked a local, who told him that qi started emerging from the area after Zhuge Liang arranged the rocks there when he first entered Sichuan. Lu Xun personally inspected the area and believed that the "maze" was only a petty display of deception, so he led a few men inside. Just as he was about to leave, a strong gust of wind blew. Dust storms overshadowed the sky and the rocks seemed like swords, mountainous piles of dirt emerged while the river waves sounded like an attacking army. Lu Xun exclaimed, "I have fallen into Zhuge Liang's trap!", and attempted to escape from the maze but to no avail. Suddenly, Lu Xun saw an old man, who offered him assistance in exiting the labyrinth. Lu Xun followed him and got out of the maze unharmed. The old man identified himself as Huang Chengyan, Zhuge Liang's father-in-law. He explained to Lu Xun that the maze was constructed based on the ba gua concept. Huang Chengyan also told Lu Xun that Zhuge Liang had predicted that a Wu general would chance upon the maze when he first built it, and had asked him not to lead the general out when he fell into the trap. Lu Xun dismounted and thanked Huang Chengyan. When he returned to camp, he exclaimed that he was inferior to Zhuge Liang in terms of intelligence. He then made plans to return to Eastern Wu because he feared that their rival state Cao Wei might take advantage of the situation to attack Wu.
No documentation of this event is found in Records of the Three Kingdoms, the authoritative historical text for the history of the Three Kingdoms period.
Panel 6:Siegfried is the hero of an opera by Richard Wagner completed in 1871. In the opera, Siegfried is raised by the dwarf Mime to become a dragonslayer. However, Siegfried keeps destroying all the swords Mime makes. Eventually Siegfried recrafts the powerful sword Nothung and Mime takes the boy to the dragon.
Siegfried stabs the dragon Fafner in the heart with Nothung. When Siegfried withdraws his sword from Fafner's body, his hands are burned by the dragon's blood and he puts his finger in his mouth. On tasting the blood, he finds that he can understand the woodbird's song. Following its instructions, he takes a powerful magic ring and a magic helmet from the dragon's hoard. He soon can read thoughts and learns that Mime plans to poison him, so Siegfried stabs Mime, killing him.
Eventually Siegfried vanquishes the powerful god Wotan and falls in love with Brünnhilde, a beautiful woman.
Page 20:
Panel 1: Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle) was a Dutch woman who, after divorcing a terrible Dutch East-Indies husband, became an exotic dancer in the early modern dance movement (which took influence from Asia and Egypt). Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, Mata Hari captivated her audiences and was an overnight success in Paris in the early 1900s.
As was common for stage performers, she made up background information, and her Dutch East-Indies accent made her sound foreign and exotic. One evidently enthused French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was "so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms." One journalist in Vienna wrote after seeing one of her performances that Mata Hari was "slender and tall with the flexible grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair" and that her face "makes a strange foreign impression."
By the 1910s, she had become a courtesan and had relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and others in influential positions in many countries. During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. As a Dutch subject, Zelle was thus able to cross national borders freely.
A Russian lover was shot down and captured by the Germans and Mata Hari agreed to spy on the Germans in return for assistance to see her injured lover. While trying to get to see the German prince, she offered to share French secrets with Germany in exchange for money and became known as Agent H21.
She shared so little with the Germans that they retaliated by exposing her as a German spy to the French. The French tested her by giving her names that eventually led to the killing of a double agent and Mata Hari's arrest. Used as a scapegoat for all the problems in the war, the French prosecuted her and it was plastered in the newspapers.
Eventually she was executed by firing squad. Reportedly she was not bound and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad.
Panel 3: Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian pyschoanalyst who followed in the footsteps of Freud. He worked on character and the idea of muscular armour (the expression of personality in how the body moves). He also coined the phrase "the sexual revolution."
He believed that a major psychological problem was "orgastic impotence", or failure to attain orgastic potency (not to be confused with anorgasmia, the inability to reach orgasm) which always resulted in neurosis, because during orgasm that person could not discharge all libido (which Reich regarded as a biological energy).
Anyway, he moved to New York in the late 1930s to escape the Nazis and claimed to have discovered orgone, a biological energy which he said others called God. In 1940 he started building orgone accumulators, devices that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about sex boxes that cured cancer.
Reich said he had seen orgone when he injected his mice with bions and in the sky at night through an "organoscope," a special telescope. He argued that it is in the soil and air (indeed, is omnipresent), is blue or blue-grey, and that humanity had divided its knowledge of it in two: aether for the physical aspect and God for the spiritual. The colour of the sky, the northern lights, St Elmo's Fire, and the blue of sexually excited frogs are manifestations of orgone, he wrote.
Over the years, he became a cultist about the power of Orgone, to the point of trying to get Albert Einstein to confirm its existence and creating a secluded lab in Maine called Orgonon.
In 1951 Reich said he had discovered another energy that he called Deadly Orgone Radiation (DOR), accumulations of which played a role in desertification. He designed a "cloudbuster," rows of 15-foot aluminium pipes mounted on a mobile platform, connected to cables that were inserted into water. He believed that it could unblock orgone energy in the atmosphere and cause rain.
During a drought in 1953, two farmers in Maine offered to pay him if he could make it rain to save their blueberry crop. Reich used the cloudbuster on the morning of 6 July, and according to Bangor's Daily News, rain began to fall that evening. The crop survived, the farmers declared themselves satisfied, and Reich received his fee.
From at least early 1954, he came to believe that the planet was under attack by UFOs, or "energy alphas," as he called them. He said he often saw them flying over Orgonon – shaped like thin cigars with windows – leaving streams of black Deadly Orgone Radiation in their wake, which he believed the aliens were scattering to destroy the Earth. He and his son would spend their nights searching for UFOs through telescopes and binoculars, and when they believed they had found one would roll out the cloudbuster to suck the energy out of it. Reich claimed he had shot several of them down. Armed with two cloudbusters, they fought what Reich called a "full-scale interplanetary battle" in Arizona, where he had rented a house as a base station. In Contact with Space (1956), he wrote of the "very remote possibility" that his own father had been from outer space.
He eventually was forced to destroy his accumulators on a case of fraud and later was imprisoned, where he died in 1957.
Supreme: The Return #5
Page 1:Panel 1: This is Miskatonic Asylum.
Panel 2: That's longtime Professor Night villain Jack-A-Dandy on the phone and Fakeface waiting in line behind Billy Friday.
Panel 3: Fakeface is pretending to be wrestler and actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Page 2:
Panel 3: I can't find anything on a Demford Yates. it's possible he's referring to Dornford Yates, who wrote tales about the rich and indolent Brits rollicking around Europe in the Gilded Age, right before it all ended in the trenches of World War One. As one reviewer declared, "They are fascinating, insanely funny and totally engaging. And all this despite the fact that NOTHING EVER HAPPENS."
Panel 3: I don't recognize the lizard character, unless this is Ian Churchill's version of Lounge Lizard.
Panel 4: Of course in the Lewis Carroll poem about the Walrus and the Carpenter, they get into a big fight over the clams, trying to eat them.
Page 3:
Panel 4: The Eisner Awards are the awards for best comics. Kurt Busiek was up for best writer for Astro City at the time of Moore's writing this, though Moore had most recently won the award himself for Supreme and From Hell.
Page 6:
Panel 2: Torquemada was the monk in charge of the Spanish Inquisition.
Page 7:
Panel 4: He's referring to the story in Supreme #52 A and B.
Page 9:
Panel 1: In pre-Crisis (and some post-Crisis) DC Universe, there were many colors of Kryptonite, which had different effects:
Green Kryptonite – The classic and most common form of kryptonite, this rock severely weakens Kryptonians, and can even kill them when exposed long enough. (Superman #61)
Red Kryptonite – Severely weakens Kryptonians more so than the traditional green kryptonite, but has also been known to cause bizarre mood swings and even mutations. (Adventures Comics #252)
Anti-Kryptonite – This could easily be called Reverse-Kryptonite, but basically it has no effect on Kryptonians — but it is extremely lethal for humans. (Adventures Comics #252)
X-Kryptonite – Gives humans and other creatures superhuman powers. (Adventures Comics #261)
Blue Kryptonite – Commonly, Blue Kryptonite is used to stop Bizarro, Superman’s uncanny nemesis and frequent foe. It effects Bizarros in pretty much the same way green kryptonite effects Superman. (Superman #140)
White Kryptonite – This kills plants. (Adventures Comics #279)
Gold Kryptonite – Gold kryptonite removes superpowers, permanently! (Adventures Comics #299)
Silver Kryptonite – This rock gives Superman some pretty trippy hallucinations. (Superman/Batman #49)
Black Kryptonite – Splits a Kryptonian into two entities: good and evil. (Supergirl #2)
Orange Kryptonite – Orange kryptonite gives animals superpowers. (Krypto the Super Dog #4)
Pink Kryptonite – Pink kryptonite turns Superman gay. (Supergirl vol. 4 #79)
Periwinkle Kryptonite – Periwinkle kryptonite causes Superman to lose all of his inhibitions. (Superman Family Adventures #9)
Panel 3: Rasputin was a self-described holy man who gained considerable influence over the Tzar of Russia.
Page 10:
Panel 5: This story takes place a year after the first Kid Supreme flashback from Supreme #42.
Page 13:
Panel 5: Nero was a Roman emperor whose reign was seen as tyrannical and extravagent.
Page 17:
Panel 4: This is both a reference to the cover of Superman #1 but also of Supreme #41.
Panel 5: The quote attributed to Frank Miller is one he made about Moore's work on Supreme.
Page 18:
Panel 2: I can't put my hands on it, but Marvel did publish a story about Dr. Doom attacking Stan Lee. It was common in Marvel comics to acknowledge that Marvel Comics existed and that they published comics about the characters in them.
Page 20:
Panel 2: When exposed to supremium, Billy Friday generates multiple arms, as seen in Supreme #45.
Panel 3: It was a running gag in American media to make light of the politically correct reprasing of handicaps, such as vertically challenged for midgets.
Page 22:
Panel 2: Does anyone have any idea what leftons are?
Trekkies are extreme fans of Star Trek. Many wear pointy ears to pretend to be Vulcans, such as Mr. Spock.
Supreme: The Return #6
Page 1:Shangri-La. Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, and particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance.
Page 2-3:
Panel 1: These designs are an obvious homage to the work of
Jack Kirby.
Page 4:
Panel 1: The Little Tough Guys seem to be an homage to the
Yancy Street Gang from Fantastic Four. The Yancy Street Gang was created by Stan Lee and
Jack
Kirby, and first appeared in Fantastic Four #15 (June 1963),
though mostly off-panel; as in most of their appearances, only their arms are
visible as they throw objects at the Thing and yell insults. The gang was first
mentioned, although not seen, in Fantastic Four #6. Yancy Street is
named in reference to the real Delancey
Street, which extends from The Bowery in
Manhattan's Lower East Side eastward to the Williamsburg Bridge.
Panel 3: The Custodian is a reference to Kirby’s the
Guardian. Kirby and Joe Simon originated the Guardian (a Captain America knock
off) as a guardian angel of a group of paperboys, in 1942’s Star Spangled Comics, the
adventurer is actually Suicide Slum beat cop Jim Harper. The group headlined SSC until their disappearance after
the war.
Page 6:
Panel 1: Baragoom is a reference to many of the ‘50s
monsters Jack Kirby did for Atlas Comics. Doctor Dread is obviously an homage
to Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four’s main villain.
Page 8:
Panel 1: Sgt. Strong could be a reference to either Sgt.
Rock or Nick Fury and his Howlin’ Commandos, or more likely, both.
Page 10:
Panel 1: This has the appearance of Jack Kirby’s Fourth
World, which he created for DC Comics.
Panel 2: The New Breed appear to be stand-ins for the New
Gods. The New Gods are natives of the twin planets of New
Genesis and Apokolips. New Genesis is an idyllic planet
filled with unspoiled forests, mountains, and rivers and is ruled by the Highfather,
while Apokolips is a nightmarish, polluted and ruined dystopia
filled with machinery and fire pits and is ruled by the tyrant Darkseid. The
two planets were once part of the same world, a planet called Urgrund (German
for "primeval ground"), but it was split apart millennia ago after
the death of the Old Gods during Ragnarök.The
characters associated with the New Gods are often collectively referred to as
"Jack Kirby's Fourth World". Kirby began
the "Fourth World" in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #133
(Oct. 1970). The New Gods first appeared in New Gods #1 (Feb.-March 1971)
and Forever People #1 (Feb.-March 1971). Another
"Fourth World" title Mister
Miracle was launched in April 1971. Various New Gods, notably Darkseid,
went on to interact with other denizens of the DC
Universe.
Page 12:
Panel 1: According to Moore’s script for this issue, these
stairs are supposed to reference Thor’s rainbow bridge. In Norse
mythology, Bifröst is a burning rainbow bridge
that reaches between Midgard (Earth) and Asgard, the realm
of the gods.
Page 14:
Panel 1: Helmgaard is a reference to Heimdall from Thor. Heimdall
is the brother of the warrior Sif.
He is the all-seeing and all-hearing guardian sentry of Asgard
who stands on the rainbow bridge Bifröst to
watch for any attacks to Asgard.
Page 16:
Panel 1: The god on the left appears to be Odin from Thor.
Page 18:
Panel 1: That is the disembodied head of Jack Kirby (with
his trademark cigar). Figures are climbing out of his head. The ones I
recognize are: the Thing, Darkseid, Lockjaw and maybe the Hulk?
Page 1:
Panel 1: Jeff Terrell is Shaft. His journal is referencing the trial that found the Youngblood member Sentinel guilty of killing Riptide, as seen in the Judgment Day miniseries. It was supposed to have occurred in the month of September 1997.
Awesome Holiday Special #1
Page 1:Panel 1: Jeff Terrell is Shaft. His journal is referencing the trial that found the Youngblood member Sentinel guilty of killing Riptide, as seen in the Judgment Day miniseries. It was supposed to have occurred in the month of September 1997.
Panel 3: At the time, there were four Baldwin brothers starring in movies in Hollywood.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Waxey Doyle was first seen in Supreme #44.
Panel 4: Chapel became a lord in hell way back in Todd MacFarlane's Spawn, while Alan Moore retconned Sentinel into a villain in Judgment Day.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Quinjets are the vehicles used by the Avengers in Marvel Comics.
Page 4:
Panel 1: We've seen Twilight quite a bit in Supreme. She showed off her new costume in Supreme #56.
Panel 2: Twilight has a rare disease that makes her sluggish during the day and more powerful at night, which would account for her paleness.
Panel 3: Suprema first appeared in Supreme #46. Interestingly, in Supreme #56 she said she would stick with her original costume, but here we see her with a new one.
Nancy Drew is a fictional American character in a mystery fiction series created by publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series. The character first appeared in 1930.
Page 5:
Panel 2: Sally "Suprema" Crane was adopted by Supreme's parents, as seen in Supreme #42.
Panel 3: Johnny Panic isn't a quote from Sylvia plath, it's the name of a character in the short story Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. In the story, Panic is the god of fear and madness, or at least the unreliable narrator believes him to be so.
Garbage was an alternative rock band popular in the mid- to late-1990s.
Panel 4: The original Doc Rocket also first appeared in Supreme #44.
Page 7:
Panel 2: Skipper was the Fisherman's sidekick. He's supposed to be a teenager (having been frozen in stasis by Hulver Ramik with Twilight). This is the first appearance of Lamprey.
Panel 3: The Allies, as seen in the pages of Supreme, are this universe's version of the Justice League.
Die Hard had been a member of Youngblood and the Allies.
Youngblood #1+ (A Brief History of Twilight)
Page 1:Panel 2: Star City is the Awesome Universe equivalent of Gotham City.
Detective Gorilla has been mentioned in previous annotations.
Panel 3: I'm not sure Porphyria's Complaint is a real thing. According to Wikipedia: Porphyria is a group of diseases in which substances called porphyrins build up, negatively affecting the skin or nervous system. The types that affect the nervous system are also known as acute porphyria, as symptoms are rapid in onset and last a short time. Symptoms of an attack include abdominal pain, chest pain, vomiting, confusion, constipation, fever, high blood pressure, and high heart rate. The attacks usually last for days to weeks. Complications may include paralysis, low blood sodium levels, and seizures. Attacks may be triggered by alcohol, smoking, hormonal changes, fasting, stress, or certain medications. If the skin is affected, blisters or itching may occur with sunlight exposure.
Panel 4: Uncle Taylor is Professor Night.
Page 2:
Panel 2: That's the Lounge Lizard, who we'll see again soon.
Panel 3: That is Darius Dax (with the bluish gray hair, even though he's actually a redhead) with Jack-A-Dandy.
Page 3:
She's recounting what we saw in Supreme #48-#49.
Page 4:
Panel 1: This is from the Awesome Holiday Special #1.
Panel 2: The suggestion from this panel is that Twilight whitens her face when she's in uniform.
Page 29:
Panel 1: According to Alan Moore’s proposal, Johnny is the son of evil genius Darius Dax.
Page 1:
Panel 2: This is Marcus Langston, the former Youngblood leader called Sentinel. Sentinel was found guilty of killing Riptide in the Judgment Day miniseries. Supreme put him in his Hell of Mirrors prison at the end of that series. We saw him break out with the other inmates in Supreme #56. He wasn’t recaptured with the other villains in Supreme: The Return #1.
Panel 3: He’s talking about Satana, who apparently hasn’t left hell since the events in the flashback story in Supreme #46.
Panel 4-5: Atomo is a throwback to the giant sci-fi monsters drawn by Jack Kirby for the Atlas line of comics in the 1950s. The most famous Atlas monster is Fin Fang Foom.
Page 3:
Panel 2: The voice balloons are obviously incorrect for Suprema and Twilight as Suprema was the one who wrecked Star City in Youngblood #1.
Panel 3: The first balloon should point to Twilight.
Page 4:
Panel 2: She’s referring to Lord Sin’s wheel, as seen in Supreme #46.
Page 6:
Panel 1: According to Moore’s Youngblood proposal, Suprema is a virgin. How Satana knows that isn’t explained.
Page 7:
Panel 1: We’re having problems with the lettering again, as they repeat Doc Rocket’s line. According to the script, there was not supposed to be another line.
Page 11:
Panel 6: The “Mexican wave” is what the wave (where the audience stands in unison in a stadium) is called by English speakers outside the United States. The wave is not Mexican, it started in the USA in the state of Washington, and it got known in Mexico by the televised games of the Seattle Seahawks (American football). A lot of commentators call it the "Mexican wave" because they saw it for the first time by the Soccer World Cup in Mexico 1986.
When exactly did Johnny switch places with his illusion?
Page 14:
Panel 2: Korgo bested Bill Clinton in personal combat in Supreme: The Return 1, and declared himself president. He was ousted by Supreme by the end of that issue.
Page 17:
Panel 2: More adventures in lettering. It should say, “Never bet on the white guy!”
The Three Mile Island accident occurred on March 28, 1979, in Pennsylvania. It was the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.
Page 19:
Panel 1: The three members of the jury must be Twilight, Suprema and Shaft, as Doc Rocket and Johnny weren’t introduced yet. Then again, I think all of the heroes that were in the courtroom during the Youngblood trial may count as members of the jury.
Panel 2: The book Shaft refers to is Hermes’ Book of Destiny which Marcus altered to create a better life for himself.
Page 20:
Panel 1: The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were a superteam published in the 1960s by Tower Comics. The title was published by a number of companies and may or may not have fallen into the public domain. In 1984, David M. Singer's Deluxe Comics began publishing a new series, Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, featuring some of the best artists of the era, including George Pérez, Dave Cockrum, Keith Giffen, Murphy Anderson, Steve Ditko, Rich Buckler, and Jerry Ordway. Singer claimed the group was in the public domain. A lawsuit by John Carbonaro, who had bought the rights from Tower Comics, claimed otherwise. The lawsuit was eventually decided in US District Court in favor of Carbonaro, with Singer acknowledging Carbonaro’s registered copyrights and trademark. Under the decision, Carbonaro also received, among other things, an assignment of all rights to Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and an undisclosed sum of money. Interestingly, in the early 1990s, Rob Liefeld stated that had the rights to publish T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and advanced Dave Cockrum money to illustrate the series through Liefeld's Extreme Studios. Ads for a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series appeared in Extreme Studios and Maximum Press books cover-dated February 1996 indicating that the series would feature “stories by Rob Liefeld, Jim Valentino, Stephen Platt, Chap Yaep and Dan Fraga.”
Page 24:
Panel 1: That’s Fakeface, the Walrus and the Carpenter, old Professor Night villains.
Panel 3: That’s the Jack-A-Dandy, Professor Night’s arch nemesis.
Note: The page numbers refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Page 1:
Panel 1: Moore is being meta as he is also talking about the explosion of superhero characters in the early ‘90s.
Panel 2: The Professor is Professor Night.
Panel 3: A trollop is a woman perceived as sexually disreputable or promiscuous.
Page 2:
Panel 1: The master is Jack-A-Dandy and the wager was the one he made at the end of issue #2 with the Lounge Lizard.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Lilith was Adam’s first wife who left him and consorted with demons. We’ll see more of her when we get to Glory.
Panel 2: Cabaret was a 1966 musical set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on the nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub.
Panel 4: Doc is referring to the Allied Supermen of America while everyone else is referring to The Allies, another group that formed in the 1960s (as seen in Supreme).
The Allies of Evil were the group of villains made up of The Allies personal villains. They are probably a reference to the Anti-Justice League, which was formed by the alien conqueror Queen Bee as a group intended as the antithesis of the Justice League of America. In other words, Brainiac to Superman, Clayface to Batman, Sinestro to Green Lantern, Gorilla Grodd to Flash, Ocean Master to Aquaman, Merlyn to Green Arrow, a Harpy to Black Canary, and Chronos to Atom.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Darius Dax died in Supreme #52B (although he came back from the dead in Supreme: The Return #2).
Page 12:
Panel 3: Algol is a real place and is named for a demon’s head. It was discovered some 3,200 years ago. Historically, the star has received a strong association with bloody violence across a wide variety of cultures. In the Tetrabiblos, the 2nd-century astrological text of the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, Algol is referred to as "the Gorgon of Perseus" and associated with death by decapitation: a theme which mirrors the myth of the hero Perseus's victory over the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa. Astrologically, Algol is considered one of the unluckiest stars in the sky.
Page 13:
Panel 2: Ethan Crane is well known as a friend of Supreme.
Panel 5: Dax’s hideout is in the condemned museum seen in the background in this panel.
Page 14:
Panel 1: There’s an ongoing confusion whether it’s Jon Prophet or John Prophet.
The Nuremberg rally theme park reference is to the Nazi’s and their architecture that used large statues dedicated to the superman.
Panel 2: Remember phone books?
The statue thing on the left is the Cloud Gate, a well-known sculpture in Chicago.
Page 16:
Panel 1: We’ve seen the Knave & Toff building before. It was the headquarters for Jack-A-Dandy, as seen in Supreme #47.
Page 18:
Panel 2: I feel like Moore is referencing an actual story, but I can’t place it. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Page 20:
Panel 2: Tachyons have been referenced in time travel stories for a long time, and there is a basis for that, according to this explanation. Special Relativity states that nothing that is moving initially slower than the speed of light can be accelerated to exceed the speed of light. This is not strictly speaking the same as the statement that nothing can travel faster than light. It is in principle possible that particles exist which move faster than light from the moment they are created. If such particles did exist, however, Special Relativity implies that they could never be slowed down to velocities below the speed of light. The existence of such particles, called tachyons, has not been totally ruled out, but several experiments have tried, without luck to detect them. If they did exist, and they interacted with ordinary matter, it would give us the means to communicate with the past. Tachyons could literally be sent outwards, bounce off a tachyonic mirror, and return before they were sent.
Auf wiedersehen is German for goodbye.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Page 1:
Panel 2: Popular Geek is most likely a play on Popular Mechanics, the magazine about engineering.
Panel 4: It doesn’t really look like sunset, does it?
Page 2:
Panel 1: So, Omegapolis used to be Omegaville. Later on we’ll see it was Omega City, too.
Page 3:
Panel 3: The old woman from the painting is the woman from American Gothic, the painting by Grant Wood. She was actually Wood’s sister, while the man was their dentist.
A medicine wagon were used for medicine shows, touring acts (traveling by wagon teams) which peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments.
Panel 4: Johnny’s medicinal ointment promises the user will become “giddy, blissful & talkative.” It also cures “greaseless hair and darkening moods.” It’s “highly enjoyable at 5 cents a shot.”
Page 4:
Panel 1: We’ve seen most of these cowboys before. From left, we have Nighteagle (who we saw in Judgment Day), the Brimstone Kid (Judgment Day), Lady Lash (a new character, mentioned in Judgment Day, seemingly based on a female Zorro, but with a more American accent), young Bill Hickok (Supreme) and Kid Thunder (Judgment Day).
The ads in the background are for “Diet Choke” instead of Coke, “Fillet” instead of Gillete, “Popsi” instead of Pepsi, and Banana for Apple.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Nighteagle is a shaman and the master magus of his time, so if anyone knows about evil spirits, it’s probably him.
Bill has been to the future. In Supreme #42, he and the other League of Infinity battled Darius Dax in Littlehaven when Kid Supreme was active.
Panel 2: Brimstone Kid says this looks like the devil’s home town and he should know. According to legend Brimstone Kid sold his soul to the devil to get his speed at shooting a gun.
Kid Thunder mentions about seeing the colored folk. As a disguised escaped slave, this future would be a lot better than his past.
Page 6:
Panel 1: These are the Jackettes, Jack-A-Dandy’s henchwomen, as seen in Youngblood #3.
Jehoshaphat, according to 1 Kings 15:24, was the son of Asa, and the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah. The king's name in the oath jumping Jehosaphat was likely popularized by the name's utility as a euphemism for Jesus and Jehovah. The phrase, spelled "Jumpin' Geehosofat", is first recorded in the 1865-1866 novel The Headless Horseman by Thomas Mayne Reid. The novel also uses "Geehosofat", standing alone, as an exclamation. The longer version "By the shaking, jumping ghost of Jehosaphat" is seen in the 1865 novel Paul Peabody by Percy Bolingbroke St John.
Another theory is that the reference is to Joel 3, where the prophet Joel says, speaking of the judgment of the dead, "Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about."
The televised Batman live-action program of the 1960s also featured Robin, played by Burt Ward, uttering the phrase as an emphatic exclamation, and it was also incorporated into the talking alarm clock alarms voiced again by Burt Ward in 1974 in the "talking Batman & Robin alarm clock" made by Janex.
Panel 2: Tarnation is a form of damnation.
Page 8:
Panel 1: It sounds like Stooping Shadow knows some H.P. Lovecraft language.
Panel 2: How Suprema hasn’t figured out about the time door at this point is beyond me.
Page 10:
Panel 1: Why would snot become more slicker on a doorknob?
Page 11:
Panel 1: We saw the Great Table in the short Maximage story in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Panel 2: I think he means the Book of Dzyan, a reputedly ancient text of Tibetan origin. The Stanzas within the book formed the basis for The Secret Doctrine (1888), one of the foundational works of the theosophical movement, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. However, there is quite a lot of doubt that the book ever existed.
Madame Blavatsky claimed to have seen a manuscript of the Book of Dzyan while studying esoteric lore in Tibet. She claimed this and other ancient manuscripts were safeguarded from profane eyes by the initiates of an Occult Brotherhood. The work had originally, according to Blavatsky, been written in the sacred language of Senzar. She wrote
This first installment of the esoteric doctrines is based upon Stanzas, which are the records of a people unknown to ethnology; it is claimed that they are written in a tongue absent from the nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted; they are said to emanate from a source (Occultism) repudiated by science; and, finally, they are offered through an agency, incessantly discredited before the world by all those who hate unwelcome truths, or have some special hobby of their own to defend. Therefore, the rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand. No one styling himself a "scholar," in whatever department of exact science, will be permitted to regard these teachings seriously.
Max Müller and others have been skeptical. Max Müller is reported to have said that in this matter she was either a remarkable forger or that she has made the most valuable gift to archeological research in the Orient.
Panel 3: This is how Shaft defeated Sentinel in Judgment Day, as well.
Page 14:
Panel 2: Bonanza is an NBC television western series that ran from 1959 to 1973. The show is set in the 1860s and it centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who lives in the area of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe.
Page 15:
Panel 3: Shaft is talking about Future Girl and Giganthro from the League of Infinity.
Page 19:
Panel 3: We’ll see this come about in Youngblood #6.
Page 21:
Panel 1: Supreme’s Citadel was revealed to the public in Supreme #52A.
Panel 3: Supreme is talking about the interview with Ethan Crane from Youngblood #3.
Panel 4: I think Twilight doesn’t mean the Allied Supermen but means the Allies, as discussed in Youngblood #3.
Page 23:
Panel 4: Combat was a member of the previous incarnation of Youngblood. We learned that he left for outer space after the events of Judgment Day, as seen in the Awesome Holiday Special.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Page 3:
Panel 1: According to Fandom, Combat (also known as Kh'ambt) was an accomplished soldier for the Katellan forces. He had been trained under the renowned Admiral Kh'rk (seriously?). However, despite a promising career, he got accused of orchestrating a plot to overthrow the Katellan Emperor. Kh'ambt escaped with the Acuran Photon. He sought political asylum in exchange for knowledge of Katellan technology. He joined the government operated Youngblood program until its original demise. He then returned to space and the Katellan people, as we saw in the Awesome Holiday Special.
Also, according to Fandom, the Katellans are based on the Khunds from the DC Universe.
Jefter-rell is Jeff Terrell, Shaft.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Vogue also had a white face with colored areas around her eyes.
Panel 2: Len-Arrdoyle is Leonard Doyle, Big Brother.
Page 6:
Panel 1: Jeez-Uskrist is Jesus Christ.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Leann-Acreel is Leeana Creel, Riptide.
Panel 2: Jo-Neepanik is Johnny Panic.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Page 1:
Panel 1: In all of the Awesome stories we’ve seen up to this point, we’ve never seen an intersection like this in the League of Infinity's Time Tower. To this point. We’re also seeing a lot of separate League of Infinity Members repeating. In the past we’ve seen a younger character meet themselves, but never so many versions like this.
The Many Worlds Theory is a real theory devised by Bryce Seligman DeWitt as a way to explain a phenomenon in Quantum Theory. It was later popularized by the Schrodinger Cat metaphor.
Jericho Faust was the bad guy from the old west in Youngblood #4. The suggestion is that Bill Hickok hasn’t gone on that adventure in his timeline yet.
Panel 5: The box at the bottom is a device used in Choose Your Own Adventure books. Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's books where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based upon a concept created by Edward Packard and originally published by Constance Cappel's and R. A. Montgomery's Vermont Crossroads Press as the "Adventures of You" series, starting with Packard's Sugarcane Island in 1976.
Choose Your Own Adventure, as published by Bantam Books, was one of the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998. When Bantam, now owned by Random House, allowed the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark to lapse, the series was relaunched by Chooseco, which now owns the trademark.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Apparently Omegapolis used to be Omega City sometime after it was Omegaville.
Panel 2: Speedboy was Fighting American’s sidekick, as seen from the old Simon and Kirby series. We’ve seen Skipper in Supreme and Judgment Day.
Lamprey was briefly seen in the Awesome Holiday Special, where he appeared to still be a kid, suggesting that he was one of the heroes captured by Hulver Ramik or that he doesn’t age like normal humans. Most likely he is an analog for the original Aqualad:
Approximately four decades ago, King Thar and his wife Queen Berra became the reigning monarchs of Shayeris, the capital of a group of Idyllist colonies in the Hidden Valley. Radical Idyllists deposed and murdered King Thar and banished his pregnant wife Queen Berra to Poseidonis, the capital city of Atlantis; there she gave birth to Garth, a child with purple eyes. Superstitious Atlanteans claimed that Garth had been born genetically inferior due to his purple eyes and banished him to a barren seabed leagues away from Atlantis. He survived and later befriended Aquaman, the sometimes outcast King of Atlantis. He was a founding member of the Teen Titans, and later became known as Tempest.
Panel 5: The suggestion of Glory’s teenage self is an odd one, but since Glory is essentially an imaginary being, I guess it makes sense that she could appear at the same time in two different forms.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Suprema’s hair is short and she has bandages from the explosion after she caused the creation of the black hole in Youngblood #5.
Panel 5: Custer is the robot sparring partner that Shaft was fighting in Youngblood #1.
Page 5:
Panel 4: Youngblood ran into the League of Infinity in Youngblood #4.
Page 6:
Panel 1: The Mojave is a desert in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Since we saw Omegapolis expanded from a western town in Youngblood #4, perhaps Omegapolis is located somewhere in the western part of the U.S. near the Mojave.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Hulver Ramik kidnapped the souls of most of the ‘60s heroes in 1970 (including Twilight) and they remained in suspended animation until Supreme and the Allies rescued them in Supreme #49.
Panel 2: Linda is Twilight. Toby is Skipper.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Maximage is the master magus of this era. She was last seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Panel 3: Deathtide is the dark version of Riptide. Bloodrock is the dark version of Badrock.
Page 10:
Panel 2: Twilight’s uncle Taylor is Professor Night, the Batman analog.
Page 12:
Panel 1: Mata Hari, Siegfried and the Orgone Lad joined the League of Infinity in Supreme: The Return #4.
Page 15:
Panel 2: The Zip drive was a medium-to-high-capacity removable floppy disk storage system that was introduced by Iomega in late 1994. Originally, Zip disks launched with capacities of 100 MB. On a personal note, I had one and they were always messing up. I’m glad I never had one in my head!
Page 16:
Panel 4: Abseil means to rappel.
Page 18:
Panel 4: A hepcat is another term for a 1940s hipster, someone into the jazz beatnik subculture. Pop Art was a school of art that used images from popular culture, most recognized by the work of Andy Warhol.
Panel 5: The Black Hand was the Green Lantern analog in the 1940s Allied Supermen of America, seen in the pages of Supreme.
Page 19:
Panel 1: The heroes captured by Hulver Ramik (from left) are Roman, Spacehunter, Polyman, Janet Planet and Professor Night.
Page 26:
Panel 2: Again, Bill Hickok’s dialog suggests that he’s just about to go on the adventure in Youngblood #4, which would explain why he’s so upset at the end of that issue when he runs into Suprema.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Cover: The cover is a reference to the A-Team, the over-the-top action show that aired on NBC during the 1980s. In this depiction, Johnny Panic is the crazy H.M. (Howling Mad) Murdock, Big Brother is B.A. Baracus (who was portrayed by Mr. T), Leonard is Templeton (Faceman) Peck and Shaft is the leader, John (Hannibal) Smith.
Page 1.
Panel 1. Boy’s Own Stories is probably a reference to The Boy’s Own Paper, a story paper aimed at young and teenaged boys in Great Britain, published from 1879 until 1967. It mainly published adventure stories; notes on how to practise nature study, sports and games; puzzles; and essay competitions.
Shaft is in downtown Washington. As we’ll see, Shaft followed the Custer robot on foot, which suggests the House of Wax is near D.C.
Panel 3. The poster is for the Youngblood movie starring Badrock, which has been mentioned since the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 2.
Panel 1. The title “…And I Don’t Have a Wooden Heart” is a line from a bizarre, German-inspired Elvis Presley song, Wooden Heart, which has these as the first part of the lyrics:
Can't you see
I love you
Please don't break my heart in two
That's not hard to do
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart
And if you say goodbye
Then I know that I would cry
Maybe I would die
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart
We last saw Custer in Youngblood #1, though he was referenced in Youngblood #6.
Page 3.
Panel 3. Twilight was in suspended animation after being captured by Hulver Ramik, as we saw in Supreme #47-#49.
Page 4.
Panel 2. The movie is a fictionalized account of the actions from the Judgment Day miniseries. Very fictionalized. Crypt, one of Youngblood’s main villains, was not involved.
Page 5.
Panel 1. Will Smith is a movie star, well known for his role in the Men in Black series.
Panel 3. Unlike in the movie, Badrock and Vogue were never shown being romantically linked.
Page 6.
Panel 1. The Professor Night show is probably a reference to the 1960s version of Batman starring Adam West.
Panel 2. Lycra is the preferred term for spandex in Great Britain.
Page 10.
Panel 1. The Girl of His Dreams! Is a reference to Supreme #68, which was the first appearance of Suprema and titled The Girl of Our Dreams!
Page 12.
Panel 1. Rigel is generally the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Orion—though periodically it is outshined within the constellation by the variable Betelgeuse. With a visual magnitude of 0.13, it is a remote and luminous star some 863 light-years distant from Earth. The star as seen from Earth is actually a multiple star system of three to five stars.
Panel 3. This is obviously the Garden of Eden.
Page 15.
Panel 1. Suprema is based on Supergirl, who actually did date a horse. The horse she dated was Comet the Super-Horse, who was introduced in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962. he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with. You can see her make out with him here. Apparently, he also had a romance with Lois Lane. That was some horse!
Page 18.
Panel 1. Sparky seems inspired by Robin, Batman’s sidekick.
The phrase Better Living Through Chemistry was a play on DuPont’s slogan Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry.
Page 24.
Panel 1. “Death, Here is thy sting…” is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:55 in the Bible. It means that death can no longer cause any more pain when the soul has been resurrected.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Cover: The cover is a reference to Charlie’s Angels that aired on ABC from 1976 until 1981. It follows the crime-fighting adventures of three women working in a private detective agency in Los Angeles, California, and originally starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith in the leading roles and John Forsythe providing the voice of their boss, the unseen Charlie Townsend, who directed the "Angels" crime-fighting operations over a speakerphone. On the cover, Twilight is in the position of streetwise Kelly Garrett (played by Jaclyn Smith), Suprema is in the position of intelligent Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson) and Doc Rocket is in the position of athletic, race-car driving Jill Munroe (Farrah Fawcett). Doc Rocket is wearing a shirt that says, “Who needs Charlie?”
Page 1.
Panel 1. True Girls’ Adventures is probably a reference to Girls’ Love Stories, an American romance comic book magazine published by DC Comics from 1949 until 1973. The stories covered such topics as girls worrying about getting a man, or marrying out of pressure, not love. Some of the early covers were photographs. The book's initial tagline was "True to Life!"
Panel 2. Twilight is in Star City, the Awesome Universe equivalent to Gotham City, Professor Night’s stomping ground.
Page 2.
Panel 1. The bad guys are the Carpenter and the Walrus, the literal characters from the Lewis Carroll poem. Basically, the Walrus and Carpenter entice young oysters to come with them with the promise of a pleasant walk and talk and then they eat them. In Alan Moore’s script for Youngblood #2, he instructed Steve Skroce to draw the characters just as they were drawn in the illustrations that accompany that poem.
The clam cannon was referenced in Professor Night’s Halls of Night as one of his trophies.
Page 3.
Panel 3. Kendall Manor is Prof. Night’s equivalent of Wayne Manor. Pratap was their manservant, the equivalent of Bruce Wayne’s Alfred.
Page 4.
Panel 1. We saw Prof. Night tell Twilight about the Youngblood auditions in Judgment Day: Aftermath and saw Twilight go through the auditions in the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 7.
Panel 3. Minimal is an American television series that ran from September 30 to December 17, 1983, on NBC. The show centers on the character Dr. Jonathan Chase (Simon MacCorkindale), a shape-shifting man who possessed the ability to turn himself into any animal he chose. He used this ability to help the police solve crimes.
Panel 4. Taylor if Prof. Night’s first name.
Page 9.
Panel 3. Suprema and Leonard’s date was seen in Youngblood #7.
Panel 4. Sputnik was the first satellite launched into space by the Soviet Union.
Page 10.
Panel 1. The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees is a line from the Jewel Akens’ song The Birds & The Bees. The lyrics:
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees
And the flowers and the trees
The moon up above, and the thing called love
Let me tell you 'bout the stars in the sky
The girl and the guy
And the way they could kiss
On a night like this
When I look into your big brown eyes
It's very plain to see
That it's time you learn about the facts in life
Startin' from A to Z
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees
When I look into your big brown eyes...
Well, let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees...
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees
The flowers and the trees
The stars in the sky, a girl and a guy
The birds and the bees
The flowers and the trees
The stars in the sky and a girl and a guy...
Page 11.
Panel 1. Suprema’s marriage to Gorrl was seen in Supreme #46.
Panel 2. Troy Taylor was Sally Crane’s boyfriend seen in the flashback story in Supreme #46.
Page 12.
Panel 4. Paul McCartney was one of the Beatles and married Linda McCartney in 1969.
Page 13.
Panel 3. Davey Jones was a singer in The Monkees. Jagger is likely Mick Jagger from The Rolling Stones. Apparently Suprema hung out with quite the list of celebrities in the late ‘60s.
Page 16.
Panel 1. Venus’s atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide and nitrogen, though its clouds are made of sulfuric acid. Venus, the second planet from the sun, is named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty. The planet — the only planet named after a female — may have been named for the most beautiful deity of her pantheon because it shone the brightest of the five planets known to ancient astronomers.
Panel 3. Supreme’s Hell of Mirror is where he imprisons his foes.
Page 17.
Panel 1. It appears Johnny is a fan of Madness, an English ska band from Camden Town, north London, who formed in 1976. One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s 2 Tone ska revival, they continue to perform with six of the seven members of their classic line-up. He also has a poster for Nightmare. Nightmare is a power metal band, native of Grenoble, France. The band was influenced by the new wave of British heavy metal phenomenon developing in the UK in the 1980s and started their career playing classic heavy metal, that later changed to power metal with death metal and thrash metal influences. Then again, they could be foreshadowing references to Johnny’s background, which we’ll see in Youngblood #11 and #12.
The Chipettes were the girl version of The Chipmunks from the animated show of the same name.
Panel 2. That is Dr. Rex Richards, Rachel’s grandfather and the original Doc Rocket.
Page 19.
Panel 3. Magnum P.I. was a private eye detective show starring Tom Selleck that aired from 1980-1988. Saved By The Bell was a preteen sitcom that aired from 1989-1993.
Page 20.
Panel 1. The Allied Supermen of America were the superhero group from the 1940s that were seen in Supreme.The Black Hand was the Green Lantern equivalent, though he had a full mask over his head and mouth.
Page 21.
Panel 3. Leukemia is a cancer of the blood.
Panel. 4. Johnny’s reference to being “Master of the universe…” could also be more foreshadowing.
Page 22.
Panel 3. I believe Doc Rocket is referring to radiation therapy, but I’m not a doctor.
Page 23.
Panel 3. Coming out of the closet is a euphemism for a homosexual person admitting that they’re gay.
Panel 4. Johnny’s mom was seen in the Awesome Holiday Special and will be seen again in Youngblood #11.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Page 1.
Panel 1. In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Often depicted in art, Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned.
Panel 2. A Jackdaw is a black-plumaged bird with a grey nape and distinctive pale-grey irises. It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings. Like its relatives, Jackdaws are intelligent birds, and have been observed using tools.
Interestingly, Jackdaw was a character in Captain Britain, one of Moore’s first superhero comics, though I believe he was created prior to Moore taking over the writing.
Panel 4: Morrigan is a figure from Irish mythology. The Morrígan is mainly associated with war and fate, especially with foretelling doom and death in battle. In this role she often appears as a crow.
Page 2.
Panel 1. The collective plural of jackdaws is called a clattering.
The title Crow John, What you done? likely refers to the Ray Bonneville song Crow John. The lyrics:
Shadows on the road across the silver tracks
a murder of crows along a desolate flat
one of their brothers something gone wrong
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Desperate echoes through the risin’ fog
a murder crows vigilant law
did they catch you stranded nowhere to hide
your cries unanswered til the end of time
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Into the comin’ storm they raggedly fly
a dozen or more against the darkening sky
a murder of jokers with laughing eyes
they killed Crow John for who knows why
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Page 3.
Panel 1. Violet Dax probably refers to the pre-Crisis version of Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor;s sister. She worked with Supergirl, sometimes as a friend and sometimes as a rival.
Panel 4. Johnny drugged Doc Rocket with a slowing tab in issue #8.
Page 4.
Panel 2. Corvus is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the family Corvidae. The genus includes species commonly known as crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws.
Panel 3. Blake Baron, occult agent, is a government operative working for the top secret occult group, The Veil, as seen in Youngblood #1.
Page 6.
Panel 1. Threshold is The Veil’s base, which we saw in Youngblood #1.
Shaft used to have government clearance when Youngblood was a government-sponsored group, but lost it when they lost their funding during Judgment Day.
“The monkey and the Occupant” is a reference to the events in Youngblood #1.
Panel 5. John Prophet’s gyro rider was seen in Judgment Day, as was the Phantom Aviator’s biplane. We only briefly saw the Stormbirds in Supreme #49 when they were rescued from Hulver Ramik, but I don’t believe we ever saw the Fantasmatic.
Panel 6. Baron is referring to Chapel, one of the original Youngblood who killed himself to become a lord of Hell while interacting with Spawn.
Page 7.
Panel 1. A raven is one of several larger-bodied species of the genus Corvus. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", and these appellations have been assigned to different species chiefly on the basis of their size, crows generally being smaller than ravens.
Panel 3. One of the collective plural for ravens is a conspiracy. Another is an unkindness.
An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds.
Page 8.
Panel 1. Flying squirrels are not capable of flight in the same way as birds or bats but are able to glide from one tree to another with the aid of a patagium, a furry, parachute-like membrane that stretches from wrist to ankle.
Panel 2. King Midas was a figure from mythology who could turn anything to gold by touching it.
Panel 4. The Simurgh is a benevolent, mythical bird in Iranian mythology and literature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as a phoenix.
The Roc is an enormous legendary bird of prey in the popular mythology of the Middle East.
Page 9.
Panel 1. This is a faithful version of the Simurgh mythology (as much as I’ve found of it).
Panel 4. Big Bird is a giant muppet character from Sesame Street (please tell me you knew that).
Page 11.
Panel 3. The poster on the wall is for The Iron Man, the children’s book about a giant robot by Ted Hughes.
Page 13.
Panel 2. Twilight was possessed by the Occupant in Youngblood #1. In that issue, the Occupant says that he likes to clean (kill) his former hosts because they remember things.
Page 14.
Panel 1. Johnny is disguised as Leonard. This is exactly what Suprema accused Johnny of doing in Youngblood #6.
Page 16.
Panel 4. This issue was supposed to be taking place in 1998. America online (A.O.L.) was a major internet provider back then.
Page 17.
Panel 1. I don’t get much from the chanting, but Khvarenah is an Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept literally denoting "glory" or "splendour" but understood as a divine mystical force or power projected upon and aiding the appointed.
Page 20.
Panel 2. Swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds.
Page 24.
Panel 1. The collective plural for crows is a murder.
Panel 3. [spoiler] Johnny’s DNA contains a match with Darius Dax, Supreme’s villain, as described in Alan Moore’s Youngblood proposal.[end spoiler]
Panel 4. The monkey in the corner is the current host of the Occupant, as seen in Youngblood #1.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Page 1.
Panel 1. Supergirl, as Linda Danvers, starred in a soap opera in the Supergirl comics, on a soap opera called Secret Hearts.
Panel 2. The Televillain is a Supreme villain we last saw in Supreme: The Return #1.
Panel 3. The poster on the wall is for Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man, better known to U.S. audience as the Iron Giant, a story about a robot who is inadvertently used as a weapon. Hughes wrote the book in 1968.
Panel 5. As we’ve seen, Suprema is a member of The League of Infinity and can use their time tower stairs to travel in time.
Page 2.
Panel 2. What Leonard proposes is a time paradox, where if she changed time, it would stop her from being Suprema, which wouldn’t have allowed her to change time.
Panel 3. Suprema’s adoptive family is the Crane’s, Ethan “Supreme” Crane’s family.
Page 3.
Panel 3. Twilight’s parents died when she was little, as seen in the Twilight story in Youngblood 1+.
Page 4.
Panel 1. If/then/else is a logical device used in computer programming to force how a program should act.
Page 5.
Panel 5. Leonard mentions that the design is similar to his. As we’ll find, it’s that his design was inspired by submerged memories from seeing his parents killed by this very same robot.
Page 6.
Panel 1. Adding them up, Youngblood fought 1) Stormhead, 2) The Occupant, 3) Bad Blood, 4)Jack-a-Dandy/old west duo (I guess she’s combining these), 5) the League of Infinity, 6) Crow John. Shaft says there was a seventh, but it’s actually the back-up story in this issue.
In the background are images from Youngblood 1, Crow John’s mask, the whistle arrow from Youngblood #7, a drawing from the back-up story in this issue, and (I believe) an image from the crucifixes from Youngblood #2.
Page 8.
Panel 3. The Allied Supermen of America are a superhero team from the 40s, as seen in the pages of Supreme. MAGNO was a robot that was designed to be powerful enough to fight all of the Allied Supermen. Darius Dax put his essence into the MAGNO robot in Supreme #52a. There’s a bit of an error in timing, as the robot they’re now in is supposed to be a prototype (or a Mark 1, maybe?) but was in action well after the other MAGNO had been deactivated. I’m sure a Marvel No Prize could explain it, but it seems wrong.
Page 9.
Panel 1. We see Supreme, Waxman and the original Doc Rocket from the Allied Supermen. However, if this is from a poetry reading in the ‘50s, this was after the Allied Supermen disbanded. The poetry reading in London, I think, is a reference to Ted Hughes again, suggesting that the MAGNO attack at his poetry reading inspired The Iron Man.
Panel 4. Young Leonard sees the MAGNO robot, even though he later told Waxey he didn’t remember anything from the attack (as seen in Youngblood #9).
Page 12.
Panel 1. Supreme’s Iron Giant reference further references Ted Hughes.
Panel 6. The Black Hand was one of the Allied Supermen.
Page 14.
Panel 1. Moore did mention that Suprema would be more conservative than the others, so I think the church reference works.
Page 16.
Panel 2 (I think). Glory was a member of the Allied Supermen, too.
Panel 6. Professor Night and Die Hard were also members of the Allied Supermen.
Page 17.
Panel 4. Waxman and Alley Cat were also members of the Allied Supermen.
Page 18.
Panel 5. That is the actual cover of Sylvia Plath’s collection of stories, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. It was published after her death. And Plath was famously married to Ted Hughes when she committed suicide.
Page 19.
Panel 4. I don’t think this is how dimensions actually work. My understanding is that the 4th dimension is time. The 5th dimension is an abstract that occurs in mathematics. Still, it’s an interesting idea and suggests that the Awesome universe is one based on ideas more than physics.
Panel 5. This is Szazs, the imp version of Supreme last seen in Supreme #53. He is a play on Mr. Mxyzptlk from Superman. Supreme got rid of him by explaining that Szazs was in the 4th dimension.
Page 22.
Panel 1. Big Brother’s reference about saying the name backwards applies to Mr. Mxyzptlk.
Panel 2. I believe that might be the same nurse from Youngblood #8.
Panel 3. Operation is the kid’s board game.
Page 23.
Panel 4. Farragut North is a stop on the Washington, DC subway system, the Metro.
Page 24.
Panel 1. I assume Twi-Mite is the imp version of Twilight and Aszazsa is the version of Suprema.
Page 26.
Panel 1. That’s the drawing from page 6 earlier in this comic.
Panel 2. According to Leonard, alternate dimensions, like we saw in Youngblood #6, represent the 6th dimension, which can only be witnessed through imagination. We knew that Idea Space is treated like a real science concept in this universe, so it’s interesting that it would then tie to a higher dimension.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Covers: There appears to be two covers. One is of the teenage Sylvia Plath. The other is of Plath as Lady Lazarus as she appears in the Azure in issue #12.
Page 1:
Panel 1. This is an obvious play on the layout of the first page of issue #1, where Blue Boy was floating in the Azure and the Veil’s mechanical arms were grabbing at him.
Page 2.
Panel 1. Johnny has an issue of Supreme on his floor!
Johnny’s mom is doing the Tarot. The first card drawn is the Fool, which bears a similarity to Johnny in panel 2.
Panel 2. She then draws the Tower, the reversed Moon and the Star. Here are their meanings:
In her room, she has a Ouija board and a statue of Cthulhu.
Panel 3. I think that’s a statue of Isis in the background. According to several sources, Sylvia Plath was into Ouija, Tarot and other mystical trappings.
Check out the first letters of her institute, the
Dream
Administration and
Research
Institute of the
United
States
Panel 4. She’s in love with the institute!
Extreme was the name of the Rob Liefeld’s comic studio at Image.
Page 3.
Panel 2. Cuckoo’s Nest is a reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the novel and movie about a psychiatric hospital.
Panel 3. Sylvia Plath was a figure in the literary scene in Boston, Massachusetts.
Panel 5. The story he’s referring to is called Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. It’s the story of a woman who while working in a Psychiatric Hospital starts a collection of dream stories. Slowly she goes insane in the service of Johnny Panic, the god of fear.
Page 4.
Panel 4. That might be a reference to Alan Moore’s Twilight of the Superheroes proposal, which is itself a reference to the Twilight of the Gods opera (Götterdämmerung) by Wagner.
Panel 5. And we’re back to the Youngblood tryouts again, from the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 5.
Panel 1. The joke was Johnny drugging Rachel and almost killing her grandfather, as seen in issue #8.
Panel 2. There’s a plaque dedicated to the Exorcist steps in Georgetown in Washington, DC. The Exorcist was another story about a demon possessing a young girl.
Panel 4. Star City is the Awesome Universe version of Gotham City, Omegapolis is Metropolis and I’m not sure what Coast City is.
Page 6.
Panel 1. The CGI Big Brother in the background is likely a reference that he should be put into the film with computer imagery later.
The action being dramatized in this movie is the events of issue #1, which Badrock was not a part of, nor was Vogue, seen lying on the ground. I think that might be a joke about Vogue and Twilight looking alike.
Page 7.
Panel 4. The two entourage kids use the words Awesome and Maximum, two of Rob Liefeld’s comic companies.
There is the swift bird last seen at the end of issue #9 interacting with the monkey host of the real Occupant from issue #1.
Page 8.
Panel 1. Leonard broke up with Sally in issue #10.
Linda has a rare disease that makes her sluggish during the day.
Panel 3. MaxiMage is a character from the Extreme Universe. Lori Sanders started out on the streets. She became the Maximage after being visited by an ancient man who was imprisoned on Easter Island. She had her own series for a while.
Page 9.
Panel 1. The abandoned Omega Museum is the secret hideout of Darius Dax, as seen in Supreme: The Return #2 and Supreme #63. Notice the tower image in the background.
Panel 3. Ruh-roh is a reference to ScoobyDoo, the cartoon dog that investigated ghosts and monsters (which were mostly fake).
Panel 5. Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father, as revealed in Empire Strikes Back and has become a trope of stories ever since.
Page 10.
Panel 1. Esther Greenwood was the name of the character in The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath’s semi-fictional autobiography about her mental illness.
Panel 2. Cosmo Wican is a reference to a character in Superboy that I will explain in a minute.
Panel 3. Dax died in prison, as seen in Supreme #42.
Panel 4. The Flying Nun was a TV show starring Sally Fields.
Panel 5. The gibberish isn’t as gibberish as Dax thinks. The Tower is the tarot card about a disastrous realization (like Dax being Johnny’s father). The Moon is coming up. Possessed rocks sounds like the Occupant-possessed Badrock.
Panel 6. Torquemada is Dax’s computer servant.
Page 11.
Panel 2. That’s the great table with Nighteagle and MaxiMage, as seen in the MaxiMage story in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 13.
Panel 1. The last time was in Youngblood #1.
Page 14.
Panel 2. The line the young girl Sylvia says is from her poem, Mad Girl’s Love Song:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”
Panel 3. The real Sylvia found a crawlspace in her basement and tried to kill herself by swallowing some pills.
Panel 4. This is the demonic form of Lord Sin, seen in Supreme #46.
Page 15.
Panel 2. Sylvia was found after several days and rushed to the hospital where she was given electric shock therapy, as seen in panel 3.
Page 16.
Panel 1. This is the Azure again. Sylvia is seeing Johnny Panic, the god of fear and madness.
Page 17.
Panel 1. And now the reveal that Sylvia Plath is Johnny’s mother.
Panel 3. That’s Sylvia with Ted Hughes and their two children.
Panel 4. Sylvia committed suicide in her kitchen in England after a rift between her and Hughes over an affair and the possibility of a permanent split. She stopped the drafts under the doors and put her head in the gas oven.
Page 18.
Panel 3. The lines from Johnny’s mom is adapted from Sylvia Plath’s poem Lady Lazarus, about her previous attempts at suicide, except in the poem, like in real life, Plath had red hair:
I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it——
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?——
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me
And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.
This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.
What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see
Them unwrap me hand and foot——
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies
These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,
Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.
The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut
As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.
It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.
It’s the theatrical
Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’
That knocks me out.
There is a charge
For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart——
It really goes.
And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.
I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash—
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——
A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
Page 19.
Panel 2. The Kid Supreme cover is a reference to Superboy #175 from June 1971. According to Fandom: Synopsis for "Doomsday for a Super-Phantom!" Through a marriage of sorcery and cybernetics, Faustus Coven separates Superboy's spirit from his body, gives it telekinetic power, and makes it the servant of himself and young Asmo Coven. But Superboy manages to get himself back into his body after a period of servitude, and Faustus Coven is destroyed by his own apparatus. Asmo, who has reformed, is taken to Smallville Orphanage by Superboy.
Page 20.
Panel 2. The events of the next two panels are from Youngblood #1.
Blake Baron and Mark Tyme both came back from being abducted by Hulver Ramik in Supreme #49.
Panel 5. The line about “The world will go up in a shriek, and your head with it!” is from the Plath poem A Birthday Present:
What is this, behind this veil, is it ugly, is it beautiful?
It is shimmering, has it breasts, has it edges?
I am sure it is unique, I am sure it is what I want.
When I am quiet at my cooking I feel it looking, I feel it thinking
'Is this the one I am too appear for,
Is this the elect one, the one with black eye-pits and a scar?
Measuring the flour, cutting off the surplus,
Adhering to rules, to rules, to rules.
Is this the one for the annunciation?
My god, what a laugh!'
But it shimmers, it does not stop, and I think it wants me.
I would not mind if it were bones, or a pearl button.
I do not want much of a present, anyway, this year.
After all I am alive only by accident.
I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way.
Now there are these veils, shimmering like curtains,
The diaphanous satins of a January window
White as babies' bedding and glittering with dead breath. O ivory!
It must be a tusk there, a ghost column.
Can you not see I do not mind what it is.
Can you not give it to me?
Do not be ashamed--I do not mind if it is small.
Do not be mean, I am ready for enormity.
Let us sit down to it, one on either side, admiring the gleam,
The glaze, the mirrory variety of it.
Let us eat our last supper at it, like a hospital plate.
I know why you will not give it to me,
You are terrified
The world will go up in a shriek, and your head with it,
Bossed, brazen, an antique shield,
A marvel to your great-grandchildren.
Do not be afraid, it is not so.
I will only take it and go aside quietly.
You will not even hear me opening it, no paper crackle,
No falling ribbons, no scream at the end.
I do not think you credit me with this discretion.
If you only knew how the veils were killing my days.
To you they are only transparencies, clear air.
But my god, the clouds are like cotton.
Armies of them. They are carbon monoxide.
Sweetly, sweetly I breathe in,
Filling my veins with invisibles, with the million
Probable motes that tick the years off my life.
You are silver-suited for the occasion. O adding machine-----
Is it impossible for you to let something go and have it go whole?
Must you stamp each piece purple,
Must you kill what you can?
There is one thing I want today, and only you can give it to me.
It stands at my window, big as the sky.
It breathes from my sheets, the cold dead center
Where split lives congeal and stiffen to history.
Let it not come by the mail, finger by finger.
Let it not come by word of mouth, I should be sixty
By the time the whole of it was delivered, and to numb to use it.
Only let down the veil, the veil, the veil.
If it were death
I would admire the deep gravity of it, its timeless eyes.
I would know you were serious.
There would be a nobility then, there would be a birthday.
And the knife not carve, but enter
Pure and clean as the cry of a baby,
And the universe slide from my side.
Page 22.
Panel 2. That’s Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, last seen in Supreme: The Return #1. The reference to the intern is Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinski.
Suprema is lamenting that Clinton is not as good as Dwight Eisenhower (1952-1960).
Panel 3. The Secret Service is talking about Vice President Al Gore.
Page 25.
Panel 1. I believe that is Marine One which they stole.
Panel 2. Notice the shining pool. I suspect the prophesy may have had to do with this mansion, not the White House.
Page 26.
Panel 2. The godling and his light will become clear next issue.
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Page 1.
Panel 1. That’s Johnny’s mom, who we now know is the demonic-possessed, immortal Sylvia Plath. The line about Fear comes from her story, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams.
Panel 5. That is The Allies’ asteroid base, as seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 2.
Panel 1. From left are Doc Rocket, Janet Planet (only seen in the Judgment Day Sourcebook extra material), Glory, Johnny Panic, MaxiMortal, Badrock, Suprema, Supreme, Die Hard, Wax Man, Shaft, Professor Night, Big Brother and Twilight.
“He forgets not his own” is the final line of the Sylvia Plath story. It is about the god of fear and nightmares embracing the narrator, who has clearly gone crazy.
Page 3.
Panel 1. The family connection is to Sylvia Plath, who can enter the Azure realm.
Panel 2. That’s Spacehunter. He speaks in symbols, but everyone understands him in their native tongue, as seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Panel 3. The New Men decided to help with research on Conqueror Island, as seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 4.
Panel 3. Glory is turning back into Gloria West, who she shares a body with, as seen in the Glory series.
Page 6.
Panel 2. Blacky Conqueror was seen in Judgment Day. The Conquerors were the Awesome Universe version of the Challengers of the Unknown.
Panel 3. Magman was seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath. I can’t find any references for Amazarilla. Anyone recognize it?
Panel 4. He’s referencing the events from Youngblood 8. That issue has had a lot of long-lasting effects, as we’ll see later.
Page 8.
Panel 3. This is the same Idea Space we saw in Supreme 48.
Page 10.
Panel 1. That’s Demeter, Glory’s mom (and the god). Glory is in part of Idea Space where the world tree is.
Panel 2. Selene is Glory’s aunt and the goddess of dreams. We saw her in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 11.
Panel 1. This is Helios, the god of light and reason. He was seen briefly in Glory #2.
Panel 4. Glory goes back and forth between her mother’s realm by thinking and describing the feeling of the other place.
Page 12.
Panel 2. Die Hard is a WWII hero, sort of like Captain America.
Page 13.
Panel 2. Shirow might be a reference to Masamune Shirow, the manga creator of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell.
Panel 4. It’s suggested that Die Hard is very old, but I don’t think he’s ever been suggested to be as old as having been alive when Teddy Roosevelt was alive.
Page 18.
Panel 1. If you notice Lady Lazarus’s cape and some of the forms at the bottom of this panel, you’ll notice this image looks like the tarot card for the reversed moon, as referenced in Youngblood 11.
Lady Lazarus’s dialog is very reminiscent of Sylvia Plath’s poems, but I can’t place them.
Page 20.
Panel 2. Lady Lazarus is repeating the line from the story about loving fear.
Panel 3. These are the villains Johnny has faced in Youngblood. From left: Sentinel, Atomo, Speedwell, Poppy, Satana, Lounge Lizard, Stormhead, Dax, the drug-fueled nightmare Baron Tallow, Jericho Faust and Stopping Shadow.
Panel 4. There’s the Goat and Rachel’s grandfather, the original Doc Rocket, who Johnny almost killed in Youngblood 8.
Panel 5. Apparently Johnny is afraid of spiders and the dark.
Page 21.
Panel 2. This is Sparky, Johnny’s side-effect sidekick from Youngblood 7. He died at the end of that issue.
Page 22.
Panel 1. This is the scene from Youngblood 11 when Sylvia was electrocuted the first time.
Page 23.
Panel 2. This is another scene from Youngblood 11, when Sylvia was older and looking for confirmation to put her plan into effect.
Panel 3. The floating figure is blue boy from Youngblood 1.
Page 24.
Panel 1. So Sparky (in the Azure) is really the Occupant. As we find out in a bit, this is from prior to him going out in the world in Youngblood 1.
Panel 3. As he was burned, he lost his memory and possessed blue boy.
Panel 4. Blue boy has now been pulled out by the Veil, setting in motion the events from issue 1.
Page 26.
Panel 4. Moore has stated many times that there is no time in Idea Space, and this is a great explanation of how that works.
Page 27.
Panel 3. There’s a lot going on in this map of Idea Space, which seems to be based upon the travel Supreme took in Idea Space in Supreme #47-49. At the center of it is the World Tree. But it’s surrounded by the Azure realm, along with Lord Sin’s realm of shame and despair, and a few others. The figures around it all include Spock, the Toyota logo, the Playboy Bunny logo, maybe Martin Luther King Jr., the Mercedes Benz logo and others I don’t recognize.
Page 28.
Panel 1. I believe this is a reference to Elvira.
Panel 4. This is Jabber Jaw, from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
Page 29.
Panel 3. Apparently Johnny’s fears are all coming to life, including all the villains he has faced in Youngblood.
Page 30.
Panel 3. I suspect the concept of transforming Sentinel to Big Brother is in reference to the joke from the Awesome Holiday Special about all the black characters in Youngblood becoming villains.
Page 32.
Panel 1. So Johnny is both a youngster and seeing himself as a teenager. This scene was referenced in Youngblood 11, when Johnny said he had a dream that changed how he viewed reality, which is what happens in this scene. It either suggests that he’s recreating that dream or the dream was a way that he tapped into idea Space.
Page 33.
Panel 1. The saying about daddy longlegs being poisonous is not true, but is an idea that exists as a common belief.
Page 34.
Panel 2. So Johnny was responsible for turning Lord Sin into the cartoon image from Supreme #46.
Page 35.
Panel 1. This is Maximage as she appeared in Youngblood #78.
Panel 2. There are a lot of references to comics that have come out since Alan Moore’s run on Youngblood:
Panel 3. So, the Doc Rocket from idea space was really an older version of Johnny from a world where he puts things right. So, maybe one from a future that doesn’t follow what actually happened to the Awesome Universe?
Page 37.
Panel 1. I think the suggestion is that this is how Satana ended up on Lord Sin’s wheel in Supreme #46.
Page 38.
Panel 1. So Johnny was able to destroy whatever was possessing Sylvia and she’s back to where she was after trying to kill herself, as seen in issue 11.
Panel 3. And there’s the famous Bell Jar and words from Sylvia’s explanation of what a bell jar feels like.
Page 39.
Panel 1. Johnny is taking Sylvia through a walk of her future life, through the metaphor of the fig tree. The fig tree was a famous image in The Bell jar, symbolizing the many paths her life could take on the various branches. But Sylvia Plath felt that she hated choosing any one branch, because it meant death for the other branches that she couldn’t live. And she’d rather die than choose. But Johnny is walking her through it, giving her a life worth choosing. It ends with her reciting the fear line again. But now the fear line, about loving fear, isn’t about loving insanity, but about loving and choosing life instead of death, as she returns through the bricked up wall where she tried to kill herself.
Page 40.
Panel 4 (I think). Johnny returns to his Maximage and Glory. Note the stars about him, as foretold in the tarot reading.
Page 42.
Panels 1-3. Note Leonard and Sally making up wordlessly in the background. Blink and you’ll miss it.
Page 43.
Panel 2. The LSD line is probably a reference to Alan Moore’s well-documented use of LSD.
Page 45.
Panel 1. This epilogue is structured the same as the prologue from the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 46.
Panel 4. I believe the Imagineer to the right and above Johnny, floating upside down is Alan Moore.
Page 47.
Panel 1. I guess Crow John wasn’t murdered by the Corvus.
Page 48.
Panel 1. Doogie Howser M.D. was a show from the 1980s about a child prodigy who became a medical doctor.
A Q score is a measurement of the familiarity and appeal of a brand, celebrity, company, or entertainment product (e.g., television show) used in the United States. The higher the Q Score, the more highly regarded the item or person is among the group familiar with them.
The trophies on this page include:
Page 1.
Panel 2. Cystitis is the medical term for inflammation of the bladder. Most of the time, the inflammation is caused by a bacterial infection, and it's called a urinary tract infection.
In the background is Stan from South Park. South Park premiered on Comedy Central in 1997.
Panel 3. The characters in the foreground are the love interest and Amelia Earhart. Moore said in his proposal that he intended this to be the real Earhart.
Panel 4. When she mentions the Lady Selene, she’s referring to the events in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 2.
The Gate of Tears is a reference to a Jewish legend: “Kabbala, Jewish mystic tradition, teaches that the prayers said by any one, all round the word, ascend to heaven from the western wall in Jerusalem. Jewish tradition tells us that when the Temple was destroyed, all the Gates of Heaven were shut, but one. The only gate to remain open: the Gate of Tears. So for thousands of years, people have come to pour out their hearts and their tears at this wall. This is why you’ll often hear it called the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.” From http://www.jerusalem-insiders-guide.com/western-wall-in-jerusalem.html.
Page 3.
Panel 3. In Greek tradition, a sphinx has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion, and sometimes the wings of a bird. It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster.
Page 4.
Panel 1. Young Glory at the top of the page is referring to seeing the Earth be born in Judgment Day Omega.
The Glory at left is referring to WWII, where she joined The Allies. But she’s also hinting at WWI, an allusion to Wonder Woman, who appeared during WWI.
The Glory on the right is referring to the Danger Damsels. This corresponds with Wonder Woman’s friendship with the Holiday Girls.
The Glory at the bottom refers to the important issues of the day in the 1970s. Wonder Woman famously lost her powers and took up kung-fu in the ‘70s.
Panel 2. Demeter’s other daughter is Persephone, who, according to myth, is married to Hades, and must live with him for half the year (accounting for the change of seasons).
Page 5.
Panel 4. Moore has written the world tree as a symbol for the Kabbala, so the higher realms correspond with different aspects, such as emotions and intellect.
Page 6.
Panel 2. According to the Kabbala, the material realm, the tenth, is at the bottom of the tree. The higher you go in the tree, the less physical it becomes.
Page 7.
Panel 2. I think that’s supposed to be Brandon Peterson on the left.
Panel 3. The myrmidons are Demeter’s helpers. Moore took the name from a legendary people of Greek mythology, native to the region of Thessaly. During the Trojan War, they were commanded by Achilles, as described in Homer's Iliad. According to Greek legend, they were created by Zeus from a colony of ants and therefore took their name from the Greek word for ant, myrmex.
Page 8.
Panel 2. Harvey was a 1950 Jimmy Stewart movie about a man who became friends with a pooka (a benign but mischievous creature from Celtic mythology who is especially fond of social outcasts), an invisible (and possibly imaginary) six-foot rabbit.
Panel 4. What’s with the Sphinx? It’s a mystery.
Page 2.
Panel 1. The name of this issue, The Seventh Dagger refers to the seven of swords from the Tarot, which is a card of deception and betrayal. It indicates the difficulty of trying to ‘get away with something’ undetected and unnoticed. Often when you do something in secret, hoping that you are safe and undiscovered, something goes awry and your secret is revealed to your embarrassment. This card therefore urges caution when attempting to use cunning or deception to gain an advantage over someone or something else.
Page 4.
According to Alexx Kay, “Page 4's layout is a nifty homage to Winsor McCay, who often depicted scenery rising out of the ground in a similar fashion.” McCay was an innovator of American comics and the creator of Little Nemo.
Panel 4. The Qlippoth is the representation of evil forces in the mystical teachings of Judaism, such as in the Kabbalah.
Page 5.
Panel 2. The shells Demeter refers to are from a specific line of thought on the Kabbalah. In Jewish Kabbalistic cosmology of Isaac Luria, the qlippot are metaphorical "shells" surrounding holiness. They are spiritual obstacles receiving their existence from God only in an external, rather than internal manner. Divinity in Judaism connotes revelation of God's true unity, while the shells conceal holiness, as a peel conceals the fruit within.
Page 6.
Panel 1. That’s Roman, an underwater hero similar to Aquaman.
Panel 2. Lemuria is the name of a "lost land" located either in the Indian or the Pacific Ocean, as postulated by a now-discredited 19th century scientific theory. The idea was then adopted by the occultists of the time and consequently has been incorporated into pop culture.
Page 8.
Panel 1. I can’t find anything on Mr. Zo-Zo. Anyone? Pez is the American candy dispenser with the head of cartoon characters. The three wise robots includes Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space. Images on the wall from left are:
Panel 2. The images on the wall are:
Panel 3. Temptation Comics is a reference to Sensation Comics, where Wonder Woman first appeared in the first issue in 1942.
Panel 4. The ad on the back of the comic is for Avatar comics of the 2000s, including Coven, Threshold, Avengelyne and Pandora. Two of those were properties that were licensed by Rob Liefeld to Avatar along with Glory.
Page 9.
Panel 3. Moore is telling the legend of Persephone.
Page 10.
Panel 2. Hecate or Hekate is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches or a key and in later periods depicted in triple form. She was variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, light, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery. She appears in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
Panel 3. Helios is the god and personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. In Moore’s version, the sun represents the light of reason.
Panel 5. Eleusis is a town and municipality in West Attica, Greece. It is situated about 11 miles northwest from the centre of Athens.
Page 11.
Panel 3. More presents Lord Silverfall, a character that had already existed in previous issues of Glory as the fifth duke of the underworld. The idea of demons as dukes probably originates with the Dictionnaire Infernal (also known as the Infernal Dictionary). It’s a book on demonology, organized in hellish hierarchies. It was written by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy and first published in 1818. There were several editions of the book, but perhaps the most famous is the edition of 1863, in which sixty-nine illustrations were added to the book. These illustrations are drawings which depict the descriptions of the appearance of a number of demons. Many of these images were later used in S. L. MacGregor Mathers's edition of The Lesser Key of Solomon though some of the images were removed.
The book was first published in 1818 and then divided into two volumes, with six reprints and many changes between 1818 and 1863. This book attempts to provide an account of all the knowledge concerning superstitions and demonology.
De Plancy presented a hierarchy of demons based in modern European courts:
Panel 4. According to Moore, “Lord Silverfall” is just a nickname because that’s how he impregnated Demeter. Though this is in line with typical Greek myths, it also lends credence to the argument that Moore depicts rape an awful lot in his comics.
Page 12.
Panel 2. Argos (also known as Argus) Panoptes, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor and probably Mycene. He was a primordial giant whose epithet, "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and was taken up as an epithet by Zeus, Zeus Panoptes. "In a way," Walter Burkert observes, "the power and order of Argos the city are embodied in Argos the neatherd, lord of the herd and lord of the land, whose name itself is the name of the land.”
The epithet Panoptes, reflecting his mythic role, set by Hera as a very effective watchman of Io, was described in a fragment of a lost poem Aigimios, attributed to Hesiod: “And set a watcher upon her, great and strong Argus, who with four eyes looks every way. And the goddess stirred in him unwearying strength: sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.”
In the 5th century and later, Argus' wakeful alertness was explained for an increasingly literal culture as his having so many eyes that only a few of the eyes would sleep at a time: there were always eyes still awake. In the 2nd century AD Pausanias noted at Argos, in the temple of Zeus Larissaios, an archaic image of Zeus with a third eye in the center of his forehead, allegedly Priam's Zeus Herkeios purloined from Troy.
Argus was Hera's servant. His great service to the Olympian pantheon was to slay the chthonic serpent-legged monster Echidna as she slept in her cave. Hera's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io from Zeus, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. She charged him to "Tether this cow safely to an olive-tree at Nemea". Hera knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of the many nymphs Zeus was coupling with to establish a new order. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. The messenger of the Olympian gods, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus' eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone, the first stain of bloodshed among the new generation of gods.
The sacrifice of Argus liberated Io and allowed her to wander the earth, although tormented by a gadfly sent by Hera.
According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in a peacock's tail.
All that’s to say that Zeus called for Hermes, whom we have already seen in the Judgment Day Sourcebook story.
Page 13.
Panel 2. Chang'e or Chang-o, originally known as Heng'e, is the Chinese goddess of the Moon. She is the subject of several legends in Chinese mythology, most of which incorporate several of the following elements: Houyi the archer, a benevolent or malevolent emperor, an elixir of life and the Moon.
Panel 3. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love. Horus is a major Egyptian god, serving many functions, most notably being a god of kingship and the sky. Kali is a Hindu goddess. Her earliest appearance is that of a destroyer of evil forces. Over time, she has been worshipped by devotional movements and tantric sects as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe.
Panel 4. Thor is the Norse god of thunder.
Panel 5. Lilith was said to have lots of husbands, so it’s a bit disingenuous to say that was her cheating husband.
Page 14.
Panel 5. The image on the wall is Scooby Doo.
Page 15.
Panel 4. The three highest palaces are the three highest spheres of Kabbalah. They are where the tree of life moves from the individual to the universal. To get to them the climber must move through the abyss. Moore went on to illustrate this journey in Promethea.
Page 16.
Panel 2. Hitler loved mythology and in speeches talked about Greece as part of the foundation that led to the Third Reich.
Panel 3. Demeter is referring to when the gods got involved in the Trojan War.
Panel 5. That’s President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Page 17.
Panel 1. This lines up with Wonder Woman and the Justice Society of America, where Wonder Woman first joined as the secretary. From right are Glory, Super Patriot, Mighty Man, Storybook Smith and I don’t recognize the last one.
Panel 2. The Siamese Cat lines up with Cheetah, one of Wonder Woman’s villains. The first woman to become the Cheetah, in Wonder Woman #6 (October 1943), is Priscilla Rich, a 1940s-era blonde Washington, D.C. debutante of aristocratic upbringing who also has an overwhelming inferiority complex and suffers from a split personality and self-importance. After being eclipsed by Wonder Woman at a charity event and failing to kill her during an escapology act, Priscilla retreats to her room and collapses before her makeup mirror. There she sees an image of a woman dressed like a cheetah. "Horrors!" she cries, as she gazes at her evil inner-self for the first time. "Don't you know me?" replies the reflection. "I am the REAL you—the Cheetah—a treacherous, relentless huntress!" The image commands her to fashion a Cheetah costume from a cheetah-skin rug. "From now on," intones the reflection, "when I command you, you shall go forth dressed like your TRUE self and do as I command you..." The Cheetah frames Wonder Woman for a robbery by hiding the money in her apartment and tipping off the police, then sets fire to a warehouse Wonder Woman is in, although Wonder Woman escapes. She is presumed dead, but survives thanks to her fireproof costume.
Panel 3. Madame Manacle might be the equivalent of Baroness von Gunther. Wonder Woman's first recurring nemesis, Paula von Gunther is a German baroness, ruthless Nazi spymaster, evil scientist, and femme fatale.
Tribadic is the adjective for tribadism, a lesbian practice in which one partner lies on top of the other and simulates the movements of the male in heterosexual intercourse.
Page 19.
Panel 1. I think she’s saying that her conscience is as outdated as the diaphragm is as a form of birth control.
Panel 2. Jim Carrey is the comedian who acts crazy. Norman Bates was the killer in the Hitchcock film Psycho.
Page 21.
Panel 1. Krishna is a supreme god and is the god of compassion, tenderness, and love in Hinduism. Allah is the god of Islam.
Page 23. Panel 1. Some interesting symbolism here as daggers were seen as a symbol for manhood.
Page 2.
Panel 1. I can’t find a reference for The End of Delight, but it comes up in the story.
Page 4.
Panel 2. Montel Williams was the host of a talk show.
Page 5.
Panel 4. The Ten of Swords in the Tarot represents ruin. It shows a man lying face down with ten long swords embedded in his back. A red cape is draped over the lower half of his body, while his top half remains unclothed. The sky above him is pitch black and there is a general feeling of pain, loss, and misfortune. However, despite these ominous images, there are positive aspects to this card. The sea before which the body lies is still and calm and the sun is rising in the distance beyond the mountains, indicating that the darkness will soon be dispelled. Thus, each new beginning must come from an end, and with every defeat are sown the seeds of future victory.
The Ten of Swords usually symbolizes a sudden and unexpected failure or disaster, whereby a power beyond your control crushes you without warning or mercy. Sometimes you will be able to alter the course of this impending disaster but most of the time you will simply have to let go and take the hit. This card can also indicate a time when you have been backstabbed or betrayed by someone you thought you could trust. You feel incredibly hurt and shocked by such a betrayal.
Page 7.
Panel 6. According to this website, pissing off a scorpio is a bad idea because they will just return the aggression until you’re nothing. The other rules come from A Walk on the Wild Side. A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, also adapted into the 1962 film of the same name. Set in Depression era, it is "the tragi-comedy of Dove Linkhorn," a naive Texan drifting from his hometown to New Orleans.
Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind."
It is most often quoted for Algren's "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."
Page 9.
Panel 1. The Danger Damsels correspond to the Holiday girls from Wonder Woman, girls from a sorority at Holiday College who help Wonder Woman.
Page 10.
Panel 5. The characteristics of the Danger Damsels are summed up quickly here (and by their punny names). They were supposed to be drawn to match, but for some reason Matt Martin decided to draw them all looking virtually alike.
Page 12.
Panel 1. To defeat the trap, Glory must shift her weight. Weight is the defining characteristic of Lotta Scoops.
Panel 5. To defeat the trap, Glory must use her intelligence, the defining characteristic of Athena Bright.
Page 13.
Panel 2. To defeat the trap, Glory must use her charm, the defining characteristic of Princess Darling.
Panel 3. Trevor Tracey is the equivalent of Wonder Woman’s love interest Steve Trevor, the government secret agent. It’s interesting that this trap involves a woman pretending to be a boy, the defining characteristic of Wanda Beerboy.
Page 14.
Panel 3. If this story appeared more dated, it would correspond to the tone of comics in the ‘40s and ‘50s that showed a woman’s place is in the home, taking care of her husband.
Page 17.
Panel 4. I might be the only one, but for the longest time I didn’t know that women’s dress coats have their buttons on the opposite size as men’s.
Panel 7. Haloperidol is a real antipshychotic drug.
Page 20.
Panel 1. Moore has described the process of creating art as Imagineering, where the artist travels into idea space and develops the idea and then brings it back to the material world. This is another representation of how that might work.
William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).
Panel 2. Sir Edward William Elgar was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.
Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory.
In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras.
Page 22.
Panel 2. This panel shows that Moore has made Hectate the embodiment of the ninth kingdom or sphere. In Kaballah, the ninth sphere is represented by the hermit (which Hecate is drawn to look like). You can find out more about the ninth sphere at that link, but it’s essentially about knowing thyself completely so that you may become a better person. It’s the trial that Jesus had to go through by himself in order to follow through with his duty.
Page 23. Panel 1. Helios is the embodiment of the sixth kingdom or sphere. In the Bahir it states: "Sixth is the adorned, glorious, delightful throne of glory, the house of the world to come. Its place is engraved in wisdom as it says 'God said: Let there be light, and there was light.'" It has the common association of "Spirituality", "Balance", "Integration", "Beauty", "Miracles", and "Compassion.”
Cover (this refers to the Eric Larsen cover because I’m trying to forget the others exist): On the back of the issue of Supreme in Dax’s hands is an advertisement for Charles Atlas, which was common for older comicbooks. Charles Atlas was a bodybuilder who sold his training techniques.
Contents page: This is the same layout by Todd Klein as was used during Moore’s first year on Supreme. This story has nothing to do with the Story of the Year storyline.
Page 1.
Panel 1. This is Omniman as drawn by Ethan Crane and written by Diana Dane. It’s a reference to Supreme #41.
Page 2.
Panel 1. Some of the comics I recognize:
Panel 2. Yes, they should have gotten Chris Sprouse.
Page 4.
Panel 1. Back in issue #42, Ethan told Dax in the body of Judy Jordan that he was the son of the Ethan Crane she knew in her younger days.
Page 5.
Panel 1. That’s the Shadow Supreme in the foreground.
Page 7.
Panel 1. The serpents at the bottom suggest Medusa.
Panel 2. The creatures of imagination think the creatures of matter are not real and only exist because the creatures of imagination are imagining them.
Page 8.
Panel 1. Despite references to Youngblood in this conversation, Suprema is still wearing her old costume that she only wears in the pages of Supreme.
The events they’re referencing happened in Supreme #52a.
Page 9.
Panel 5. Twilight does the impression at the beginning of Youngblood #3 (also known as Awesome Adventures #1), which Moore planned to come out at about the same time as this issue.
Page 11.
Panel 2. Apparently the Darius Dax of the Omniman comics is Silas Strang.
Page 12.
Panel 1. The Dax at the left appears to be a version like the Incredible Hulk. I don’t recognize the others.
Page 21.
Panel 3. I can’t help but think that Moore is suggesting human creation of this universe through the hand of the artist drawing the comic.
Page 22.
Panel 3. It’s weird that Maxi-Dax says that he’s in the shock-troops with Doomsdax when on page 18 it’s announced that there are no plans to deploy Doomsdax. Things change fast on Daxia!
Page 24.
Panel 1. Some of the Daxes I recognize:
Youngblood #1
Page 1:
Panel 1: This is the Azure. The Major is Blake Baron, the
Occult Agent, rescued from Ramik Hulver by Supreme and the Allies in Supreme
#49. Baron is in charge of the VEIL, a SHEILD-like secret agency dedicated to
researching the supernatural.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Apparently the VEIL uses codenames for their
employees based upon chess pieces. I think Threshold refers to the VEIL’s
secret base.
Page 6:
Panel 1: This is Twilight. I think this is the first
appearance of her motorcycle. Interestingly, Twilight is on patrol in Star
City, the Gotham City equivalent in the Awesome universe. However Youngblood is
located in Washington, DC. That’s a long way for her to go to perform her
patrol. There’s a running theme to Youngblood that Twilight is not fully
committed to Youngblood.
Page 8:
Panel 2: Fake Shaft/Johnny is singing the theme song to Shaft, the
blaxploitation movie.
Panel 3: Tracey
Lords was a porno star in the ‘90s. I’m sure Moore is referencing some
Golden-age heroes here, but I’m not capable of figuring out who they are. If
anyone knows, please email me or put them in the comments.
Page 10:
Panel 2: “That thing with Stormhead” is the adventure started
in Awesome Holiday Special #1 and finished in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 11:
Panel 2: The Chipmunks were an animated group of singing
chipmunks featured in a long-running cartoon and movie series. If you record
the voice of Alvin and slow it down, it sounds like the voice of their human
father, Dave.
Panel 3: I’m pretty sure the color is messed up as she’s
supposed to be wearing blue jeans.
Panel 4: There’s a running joke about where Doc keeps her
costume.
Panel 5: Miskatonic is the Arkham Asylum equivalent. Professor
Night’s villains frequently end up here, as we’ll see in future issues.
Page 15:
Panel 1: DC’s the Flash has used after images for decades.
Page 18:
Panel 3: Baron was never in charge of Youngblood. As seen
from Judgment Day, Agent Graves was the government agent in charge of
Youngblood. Shaft is talking about Baron as any government official.
Page 19:
Panel 2: A spook is a term for a government spy.
Page 21:
Panel 2: Johnny is referencing Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 23:
Panel 1: Star Trek: First Contact had come out in 1996 and
Star Trek Insurrection would appear later in 1998.
Panel 2: Wrath of Khan was the second Star Trek movie.
Page 25:
Panel 3: Variety is the trade publication for the Hollywood
film industry.
Page 26:
Panel 2: Anyone have any idea who the Bikini Blonde refers
to?
Panel 1: According to Alan Moore’s proposal, Johnny is the son of evil genius Darius Dax.
Youngblood #2
Page 1:
Panel 2: This is Marcus Langston, the former Youngblood leader called Sentinel. Sentinel was found guilty of killing Riptide in the Judgment Day miniseries. Supreme put him in his Hell of Mirrors prison at the end of that series. We saw him break out with the other inmates in Supreme #56. He wasn’t recaptured with the other villains in Supreme: The Return #1.
Panel 3: He’s talking about Satana, who apparently hasn’t left hell since the events in the flashback story in Supreme #46.
Panel 4-5: Atomo is a throwback to the giant sci-fi monsters drawn by Jack Kirby for the Atlas line of comics in the 1950s. The most famous Atlas monster is Fin Fang Foom.
Page 3:
Panel 2: The voice balloons are obviously incorrect for Suprema and Twilight as Suprema was the one who wrecked Star City in Youngblood #1.
Panel 3: The first balloon should point to Twilight.
Page 4:
Panel 2: She’s referring to Lord Sin’s wheel, as seen in Supreme #46.
Page 6:
Panel 1: According to Moore’s Youngblood proposal, Suprema is a virgin. How Satana knows that isn’t explained.
Page 7:
Panel 1: We’re having problems with the lettering again, as they repeat Doc Rocket’s line. According to the script, there was not supposed to be another line.
Page 11:
Panel 6: The “Mexican wave” is what the wave (where the audience stands in unison in a stadium) is called by English speakers outside the United States. The wave is not Mexican, it started in the USA in the state of Washington, and it got known in Mexico by the televised games of the Seattle Seahawks (American football). A lot of commentators call it the "Mexican wave" because they saw it for the first time by the Soccer World Cup in Mexico 1986.
When exactly did Johnny switch places with his illusion?
Page 14:
Panel 2: Korgo bested Bill Clinton in personal combat in Supreme: The Return 1, and declared himself president. He was ousted by Supreme by the end of that issue.
Page 17:
Panel 2: More adventures in lettering. It should say, “Never bet on the white guy!”
The Three Mile Island accident occurred on March 28, 1979, in Pennsylvania. It was the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.
Page 19:
Panel 1: The three members of the jury must be Twilight, Suprema and Shaft, as Doc Rocket and Johnny weren’t introduced yet. Then again, I think all of the heroes that were in the courtroom during the Youngblood trial may count as members of the jury.
Panel 2: The book Shaft refers to is Hermes’ Book of Destiny which Marcus altered to create a better life for himself.
Page 20:
Panel 1: The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents were a superteam published in the 1960s by Tower Comics. The title was published by a number of companies and may or may not have fallen into the public domain. In 1984, David M. Singer's Deluxe Comics began publishing a new series, Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, featuring some of the best artists of the era, including George Pérez, Dave Cockrum, Keith Giffen, Murphy Anderson, Steve Ditko, Rich Buckler, and Jerry Ordway. Singer claimed the group was in the public domain. A lawsuit by John Carbonaro, who had bought the rights from Tower Comics, claimed otherwise. The lawsuit was eventually decided in US District Court in favor of Carbonaro, with Singer acknowledging Carbonaro’s registered copyrights and trademark. Under the decision, Carbonaro also received, among other things, an assignment of all rights to Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and an undisclosed sum of money. Interestingly, in the early 1990s, Rob Liefeld stated that had the rights to publish T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and advanced Dave Cockrum money to illustrate the series through Liefeld's Extreme Studios. Ads for a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series appeared in Extreme Studios and Maximum Press books cover-dated February 1996 indicating that the series would feature “stories by Rob Liefeld, Jim Valentino, Stephen Platt, Chap Yaep and Dan Fraga.”
Page 24:
Panel 1: That’s Fakeface, the Walrus and the Carpenter, old Professor Night villains.
Panel 3: That’s the Jack-A-Dandy, Professor Night’s arch nemesis.
Awesome Adventures #1/Youngblood #3
Note: The page numbers refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Page 1:
Panel 1: Moore is being meta as he is also talking about the explosion of superhero characters in the early ‘90s.
Panel 2: The Professor is Professor Night.
Panel 3: A trollop is a woman perceived as sexually disreputable or promiscuous.
Page 2:
Panel 1: The master is Jack-A-Dandy and the wager was the one he made at the end of issue #2 with the Lounge Lizard.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Lilith was Adam’s first wife who left him and consorted with demons. We’ll see more of her when we get to Glory.
Panel 2: Cabaret was a 1966 musical set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on the nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub.
Panel 4: Doc is referring to the Allied Supermen of America while everyone else is referring to The Allies, another group that formed in the 1960s (as seen in Supreme).
The Allies of Evil were the group of villains made up of The Allies personal villains. They are probably a reference to the Anti-Justice League, which was formed by the alien conqueror Queen Bee as a group intended as the antithesis of the Justice League of America. In other words, Brainiac to Superman, Clayface to Batman, Sinestro to Green Lantern, Gorilla Grodd to Flash, Ocean Master to Aquaman, Merlyn to Green Arrow, a Harpy to Black Canary, and Chronos to Atom.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Darius Dax died in Supreme #52B (although he came back from the dead in Supreme: The Return #2).
Page 12:
Panel 3: Algol is a real place and is named for a demon’s head. It was discovered some 3,200 years ago. Historically, the star has received a strong association with bloody violence across a wide variety of cultures. In the Tetrabiblos, the 2nd-century astrological text of the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, Algol is referred to as "the Gorgon of Perseus" and associated with death by decapitation: a theme which mirrors the myth of the hero Perseus's victory over the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa. Astrologically, Algol is considered one of the unluckiest stars in the sky.
Page 13:
Panel 2: Ethan Crane is well known as a friend of Supreme.
Panel 5: Dax’s hideout is in the condemned museum seen in the background in this panel.
Page 14:
Panel 1: There’s an ongoing confusion whether it’s Jon Prophet or John Prophet.
The Nuremberg rally theme park reference is to the Nazi’s and their architecture that used large statues dedicated to the superman.
Panel 2: Remember phone books?
The statue thing on the left is the Cloud Gate, a well-known sculpture in Chicago.
Page 16:
Panel 1: We’ve seen the Knave & Toff building before. It was the headquarters for Jack-A-Dandy, as seen in Supreme #47.
Page 18:
Panel 2: I feel like Moore is referencing an actual story, but I can’t place it. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Page 20:
Panel 2: Tachyons have been referenced in time travel stories for a long time, and there is a basis for that, according to this explanation. Special Relativity states that nothing that is moving initially slower than the speed of light can be accelerated to exceed the speed of light. This is not strictly speaking the same as the statement that nothing can travel faster than light. It is in principle possible that particles exist which move faster than light from the moment they are created. If such particles did exist, however, Special Relativity implies that they could never be slowed down to velocities below the speed of light. The existence of such particles, called tachyons, has not been totally ruled out, but several experiments have tried, without luck to detect them. If they did exist, and they interacted with ordinary matter, it would give us the means to communicate with the past. Tachyons could literally be sent outwards, bounce off a tachyonic mirror, and return before they were sent.
Auf wiedersehen is German for goodbye.
Youngblood #4
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Page 1:
Panel 2: Popular Geek is most likely a play on Popular Mechanics, the magazine about engineering.
Panel 4: It doesn’t really look like sunset, does it?
Page 2:
Panel 1: So, Omegapolis used to be Omegaville. Later on we’ll see it was Omega City, too.
Page 3:
Panel 3: The old woman from the painting is the woman from American Gothic, the painting by Grant Wood. She was actually Wood’s sister, while the man was their dentist.
A medicine wagon were used for medicine shows, touring acts (traveling by wagon teams) which peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments.
Panel 4: Johnny’s medicinal ointment promises the user will become “giddy, blissful & talkative.” It also cures “greaseless hair and darkening moods.” It’s “highly enjoyable at 5 cents a shot.”
Page 4:
Panel 1: We’ve seen most of these cowboys before. From left, we have Nighteagle (who we saw in Judgment Day), the Brimstone Kid (Judgment Day), Lady Lash (a new character, mentioned in Judgment Day, seemingly based on a female Zorro, but with a more American accent), young Bill Hickok (Supreme) and Kid Thunder (Judgment Day).
The ads in the background are for “Diet Choke” instead of Coke, “Fillet” instead of Gillete, “Popsi” instead of Pepsi, and Banana for Apple.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Nighteagle is a shaman and the master magus of his time, so if anyone knows about evil spirits, it’s probably him.
Bill has been to the future. In Supreme #42, he and the other League of Infinity battled Darius Dax in Littlehaven when Kid Supreme was active.
Panel 2: Brimstone Kid says this looks like the devil’s home town and he should know. According to legend Brimstone Kid sold his soul to the devil to get his speed at shooting a gun.
Kid Thunder mentions about seeing the colored folk. As a disguised escaped slave, this future would be a lot better than his past.
Page 6:
Panel 1: These are the Jackettes, Jack-A-Dandy’s henchwomen, as seen in Youngblood #3.
Jehoshaphat, according to 1 Kings 15:24, was the son of Asa, and the fourth king of the Kingdom of Judah. The king's name in the oath jumping Jehosaphat was likely popularized by the name's utility as a euphemism for Jesus and Jehovah. The phrase, spelled "Jumpin' Geehosofat", is first recorded in the 1865-1866 novel The Headless Horseman by Thomas Mayne Reid. The novel also uses "Geehosofat", standing alone, as an exclamation. The longer version "By the shaking, jumping ghost of Jehosaphat" is seen in the 1865 novel Paul Peabody by Percy Bolingbroke St John.
Another theory is that the reference is to Joel 3, where the prophet Joel says, speaking of the judgment of the dead, "Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about."
The televised Batman live-action program of the 1960s also featured Robin, played by Burt Ward, uttering the phrase as an emphatic exclamation, and it was also incorporated into the talking alarm clock alarms voiced again by Burt Ward in 1974 in the "talking Batman & Robin alarm clock" made by Janex.
Panel 2: Tarnation is a form of damnation.
Page 8:
Panel 1: It sounds like Stooping Shadow knows some H.P. Lovecraft language.
Panel 2: How Suprema hasn’t figured out about the time door at this point is beyond me.
Page 10:
Panel 1: Why would snot become more slicker on a doorknob?
Page 11:
Panel 1: We saw the Great Table in the short Maximage story in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Panel 2: I think he means the Book of Dzyan, a reputedly ancient text of Tibetan origin. The Stanzas within the book formed the basis for The Secret Doctrine (1888), one of the foundational works of the theosophical movement, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. However, there is quite a lot of doubt that the book ever existed.
Madame Blavatsky claimed to have seen a manuscript of the Book of Dzyan while studying esoteric lore in Tibet. She claimed this and other ancient manuscripts were safeguarded from profane eyes by the initiates of an Occult Brotherhood. The work had originally, according to Blavatsky, been written in the sacred language of Senzar. She wrote
This first installment of the esoteric doctrines is based upon Stanzas, which are the records of a people unknown to ethnology; it is claimed that they are written in a tongue absent from the nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted; they are said to emanate from a source (Occultism) repudiated by science; and, finally, they are offered through an agency, incessantly discredited before the world by all those who hate unwelcome truths, or have some special hobby of their own to defend. Therefore, the rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be accepted beforehand. No one styling himself a "scholar," in whatever department of exact science, will be permitted to regard these teachings seriously.
Max Müller and others have been skeptical. Max Müller is reported to have said that in this matter she was either a remarkable forger or that she has made the most valuable gift to archeological research in the Orient.
Panel 3: This is how Shaft defeated Sentinel in Judgment Day, as well.
Page 14:
Panel 2: Bonanza is an NBC television western series that ran from 1959 to 1973. The show is set in the 1860s and it centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who lives in the area of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe.
Page 15:
Panel 3: Shaft is talking about Future Girl and Giganthro from the League of Infinity.
Page 19:
Panel 3: We’ll see this come about in Youngblood #6.
Page 21:
Panel 1: Supreme’s Citadel was revealed to the public in Supreme #52A.
Panel 3: Supreme is talking about the interview with Ethan Crane from Youngblood #3.
Panel 4: I think Twilight doesn’t mean the Allied Supermen but means the Allies, as discussed in Youngblood #3.
Page 23:
Panel 4: Combat was a member of the previous incarnation of Youngblood. We learned that he left for outer space after the events of Judgment Day, as seen in the Awesome Holiday Special.
Youngblood #5
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Page 3:
Panel 1: According to Fandom, Combat (also known as Kh'ambt) was an accomplished soldier for the Katellan forces. He had been trained under the renowned Admiral Kh'rk (seriously?). However, despite a promising career, he got accused of orchestrating a plot to overthrow the Katellan Emperor. Kh'ambt escaped with the Acuran Photon. He sought political asylum in exchange for knowledge of Katellan technology. He joined the government operated Youngblood program until its original demise. He then returned to space and the Katellan people, as we saw in the Awesome Holiday Special.
Also, according to Fandom, the Katellans are based on the Khunds from the DC Universe.
Jefter-rell is Jeff Terrell, Shaft.
Page 5:
Panel 1: Vogue also had a white face with colored areas around her eyes.
Panel 2: Len-Arrdoyle is Leonard Doyle, Big Brother.
Page 6:
Panel 1: Jeez-Uskrist is Jesus Christ.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Leann-Acreel is Leeana Creel, Riptide.
Panel 2: Jo-Neepanik is Johnny Panic.
Youngblood #6
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Page 1:
Panel 1: In all of the Awesome stories we’ve seen up to this point, we’ve never seen an intersection like this in the League of Infinity's Time Tower. To this point. We’re also seeing a lot of separate League of Infinity Members repeating. In the past we’ve seen a younger character meet themselves, but never so many versions like this.
The Many Worlds Theory is a real theory devised by Bryce Seligman DeWitt as a way to explain a phenomenon in Quantum Theory. It was later popularized by the Schrodinger Cat metaphor.
Jericho Faust was the bad guy from the old west in Youngblood #4. The suggestion is that Bill Hickok hasn’t gone on that adventure in his timeline yet.
Panel 5: The box at the bottom is a device used in Choose Your Own Adventure books. Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's books where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based upon a concept created by Edward Packard and originally published by Constance Cappel's and R. A. Montgomery's Vermont Crossroads Press as the "Adventures of You" series, starting with Packard's Sugarcane Island in 1976.
Choose Your Own Adventure, as published by Bantam Books, was one of the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998. When Bantam, now owned by Random House, allowed the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark to lapse, the series was relaunched by Chooseco, which now owns the trademark.
Page 2:
Panel 1: Apparently Omegapolis used to be Omega City sometime after it was Omegaville.
Panel 2: Speedboy was Fighting American’s sidekick, as seen from the old Simon and Kirby series. We’ve seen Skipper in Supreme and Judgment Day.
Lamprey was briefly seen in the Awesome Holiday Special, where he appeared to still be a kid, suggesting that he was one of the heroes captured by Hulver Ramik or that he doesn’t age like normal humans. Most likely he is an analog for the original Aqualad:
Approximately four decades ago, King Thar and his wife Queen Berra became the reigning monarchs of Shayeris, the capital of a group of Idyllist colonies in the Hidden Valley. Radical Idyllists deposed and murdered King Thar and banished his pregnant wife Queen Berra to Poseidonis, the capital city of Atlantis; there she gave birth to Garth, a child with purple eyes. Superstitious Atlanteans claimed that Garth had been born genetically inferior due to his purple eyes and banished him to a barren seabed leagues away from Atlantis. He survived and later befriended Aquaman, the sometimes outcast King of Atlantis. He was a founding member of the Teen Titans, and later became known as Tempest.
Panel 5: The suggestion of Glory’s teenage self is an odd one, but since Glory is essentially an imaginary being, I guess it makes sense that she could appear at the same time in two different forms.
Page 3:
Panel 1: Suprema’s hair is short and she has bandages from the explosion after she caused the creation of the black hole in Youngblood #5.
Panel 5: Custer is the robot sparring partner that Shaft was fighting in Youngblood #1.
Page 5:
Panel 4: Youngblood ran into the League of Infinity in Youngblood #4.
Page 6:
Panel 1: The Mojave is a desert in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Since we saw Omegapolis expanded from a western town in Youngblood #4, perhaps Omegapolis is located somewhere in the western part of the U.S. near the Mojave.
Page 7:
Panel 1: Hulver Ramik kidnapped the souls of most of the ‘60s heroes in 1970 (including Twilight) and they remained in suspended animation until Supreme and the Allies rescued them in Supreme #49.
Panel 2: Linda is Twilight. Toby is Skipper.
Page 9:
Panel 1: Maximage is the master magus of this era. She was last seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Panel 3: Deathtide is the dark version of Riptide. Bloodrock is the dark version of Badrock.
Page 10:
Panel 2: Twilight’s uncle Taylor is Professor Night, the Batman analog.
Page 12:
Panel 1: Mata Hari, Siegfried and the Orgone Lad joined the League of Infinity in Supreme: The Return #4.
Page 15:
Panel 2: The Zip drive was a medium-to-high-capacity removable floppy disk storage system that was introduced by Iomega in late 1994. Originally, Zip disks launched with capacities of 100 MB. On a personal note, I had one and they were always messing up. I’m glad I never had one in my head!
Page 16:
Panel 4: Abseil means to rappel.
Page 18:
Panel 4: A hepcat is another term for a 1940s hipster, someone into the jazz beatnik subculture. Pop Art was a school of art that used images from popular culture, most recognized by the work of Andy Warhol.
Panel 5: The Black Hand was the Green Lantern analog in the 1940s Allied Supermen of America, seen in the pages of Supreme.
Page 19:
Panel 1: The heroes captured by Hulver Ramik (from left) are Roman, Spacehunter, Polyman, Janet Planet and Professor Night.
Page 26:
Panel 2: Again, Bill Hickok’s dialog suggests that he’s just about to go on the adventure in Youngblood #4, which would explain why he’s so upset at the end of that issue when he runs into Suprema.
Youngblood #7
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.
Cover: The cover is a reference to the A-Team, the over-the-top action show that aired on NBC during the 1980s. In this depiction, Johnny Panic is the crazy H.M. (Howling Mad) Murdock, Big Brother is B.A. Baracus (who was portrayed by Mr. T), Leonard is Templeton (Faceman) Peck and Shaft is the leader, John (Hannibal) Smith.
Page 1.
Panel 1. Boy’s Own Stories is probably a reference to The Boy’s Own Paper, a story paper aimed at young and teenaged boys in Great Britain, published from 1879 until 1967. It mainly published adventure stories; notes on how to practise nature study, sports and games; puzzles; and essay competitions.
Shaft is in downtown Washington. As we’ll see, Shaft followed the Custer robot on foot, which suggests the House of Wax is near D.C.
Panel 3. The poster is for the Youngblood movie starring Badrock, which has been mentioned since the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 2.
Panel 1. The title “…And I Don’t Have a Wooden Heart” is a line from a bizarre, German-inspired Elvis Presley song, Wooden Heart, which has these as the first part of the lyrics:
Can't you see
I love you
Please don't break my heart in two
That's not hard to do
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart
And if you say goodbye
Then I know that I would cry
Maybe I would die
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart
We last saw Custer in Youngblood #1, though he was referenced in Youngblood #6.
Page 3.
Panel 3. Twilight was in suspended animation after being captured by Hulver Ramik, as we saw in Supreme #47-#49.
Page 4.
Panel 2. The movie is a fictionalized account of the actions from the Judgment Day miniseries. Very fictionalized. Crypt, one of Youngblood’s main villains, was not involved.
Page 5.
Panel 1. Will Smith is a movie star, well known for his role in the Men in Black series.
Panel 3. Unlike in the movie, Badrock and Vogue were never shown being romantically linked.
Page 6.
Panel 1. The Professor Night show is probably a reference to the 1960s version of Batman starring Adam West.
Panel 2. Lycra is the preferred term for spandex in Great Britain.
Page 10.
Panel 1. The Girl of His Dreams! Is a reference to Supreme #68, which was the first appearance of Suprema and titled The Girl of Our Dreams!
Page 12.
Panel 1. Rigel is generally the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Orion—though periodically it is outshined within the constellation by the variable Betelgeuse. With a visual magnitude of 0.13, it is a remote and luminous star some 863 light-years distant from Earth. The star as seen from Earth is actually a multiple star system of three to five stars.
Panel 3. This is obviously the Garden of Eden.
Page 15.
Panel 1. Suprema is based on Supergirl, who actually did date a horse. The horse she dated was Comet the Super-Horse, who was introduced in Adventure Comics #293 in February 1962. he was originally a centaur in ancient Greece named Biron. The witch Circe gave him a potion to turn him fully human after he prevented an evil sorcerer poisoning her water, but by mistake made him fully horse instead due to the Sorcerer. Unable to reverse the spell, she instead gave him superpowers, including immortality. The Sorcerer asked his teacher to help him against Biron and they were able to imprison him on an asteroid in the constellation of Sagittarius, which he had been born under. However, when Supergirl's rocket passed, it broke the force field, enabling him to escape. Later, after meeting Supergirl, he went on a mission with her to the planet Zerox, where a magic spell was cast that turned him into a human, but only while a comet passes through the solar system he is in. As a human, he adopted the identity of "Bronco" Bill Starr, a rodeo trick-rider, whom Supergirl fell in love with. You can see her make out with him here. Apparently, he also had a romance with Lois Lane. That was some horse!
Page 18.
Panel 1. Sparky seems inspired by Robin, Batman’s sidekick.
The phrase Better Living Through Chemistry was a play on DuPont’s slogan Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry.
Page 24.
Panel 1. “Death, Here is thy sting…” is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:55 in the Bible. It means that death can no longer cause any more pain when the soul has been resurrected.
Youngblood #8
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Cover: The cover is a reference to Charlie’s Angels that aired on ABC from 1976 until 1981. It follows the crime-fighting adventures of three women working in a private detective agency in Los Angeles, California, and originally starred Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith in the leading roles and John Forsythe providing the voice of their boss, the unseen Charlie Townsend, who directed the "Angels" crime-fighting operations over a speakerphone. On the cover, Twilight is in the position of streetwise Kelly Garrett (played by Jaclyn Smith), Suprema is in the position of intelligent Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson) and Doc Rocket is in the position of athletic, race-car driving Jill Munroe (Farrah Fawcett). Doc Rocket is wearing a shirt that says, “Who needs Charlie?”
Page 1.
Panel 1. True Girls’ Adventures is probably a reference to Girls’ Love Stories, an American romance comic book magazine published by DC Comics from 1949 until 1973. The stories covered such topics as girls worrying about getting a man, or marrying out of pressure, not love. Some of the early covers were photographs. The book's initial tagline was "True to Life!"
Panel 2. Twilight is in Star City, the Awesome Universe equivalent to Gotham City, Professor Night’s stomping ground.
Page 2.
Panel 1. The bad guys are the Carpenter and the Walrus, the literal characters from the Lewis Carroll poem. Basically, the Walrus and Carpenter entice young oysters to come with them with the promise of a pleasant walk and talk and then they eat them. In Alan Moore’s script for Youngblood #2, he instructed Steve Skroce to draw the characters just as they were drawn in the illustrations that accompany that poem.
The clam cannon was referenced in Professor Night’s Halls of Night as one of his trophies.
Page 3.
Panel 3. Kendall Manor is Prof. Night’s equivalent of Wayne Manor. Pratap was their manservant, the equivalent of Bruce Wayne’s Alfred.
Page 4.
Panel 1. We saw Prof. Night tell Twilight about the Youngblood auditions in Judgment Day: Aftermath and saw Twilight go through the auditions in the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 7.
Panel 3. Minimal is an American television series that ran from September 30 to December 17, 1983, on NBC. The show centers on the character Dr. Jonathan Chase (Simon MacCorkindale), a shape-shifting man who possessed the ability to turn himself into any animal he chose. He used this ability to help the police solve crimes.
Panel 4. Taylor if Prof. Night’s first name.
Page 9.
Panel 3. Suprema and Leonard’s date was seen in Youngblood #7.
Panel 4. Sputnik was the first satellite launched into space by the Soviet Union.
Page 10.
Panel 1. The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees is a line from the Jewel Akens’ song The Birds & The Bees. The lyrics:
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees
And the flowers and the trees
The moon up above, and the thing called love
Let me tell you 'bout the stars in the sky
The girl and the guy
And the way they could kiss
On a night like this
When I look into your big brown eyes
It's very plain to see
That it's time you learn about the facts in life
Startin' from A to Z
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees
When I look into your big brown eyes...
Well, let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees...
Let me tell you 'bout the birds and the bees
The flowers and the trees
The stars in the sky, a girl and a guy
The birds and the bees
The flowers and the trees
The stars in the sky and a girl and a guy...
Page 11.
Panel 1. Suprema’s marriage to Gorrl was seen in Supreme #46.
Panel 2. Troy Taylor was Sally Crane’s boyfriend seen in the flashback story in Supreme #46.
Page 12.
Panel 4. Paul McCartney was one of the Beatles and married Linda McCartney in 1969.
Page 13.
Panel 3. Davey Jones was a singer in The Monkees. Jagger is likely Mick Jagger from The Rolling Stones. Apparently Suprema hung out with quite the list of celebrities in the late ‘60s.
Page 16.
Panel 1. Venus’s atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide and nitrogen, though its clouds are made of sulfuric acid. Venus, the second planet from the sun, is named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty. The planet — the only planet named after a female — may have been named for the most beautiful deity of her pantheon because it shone the brightest of the five planets known to ancient astronomers.
Panel 3. Supreme’s Hell of Mirror is where he imprisons his foes.
Page 17.
Panel 1. It appears Johnny is a fan of Madness, an English ska band from Camden Town, north London, who formed in 1976. One of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s 2 Tone ska revival, they continue to perform with six of the seven members of their classic line-up. He also has a poster for Nightmare. Nightmare is a power metal band, native of Grenoble, France. The band was influenced by the new wave of British heavy metal phenomenon developing in the UK in the 1980s and started their career playing classic heavy metal, that later changed to power metal with death metal and thrash metal influences. Then again, they could be foreshadowing references to Johnny’s background, which we’ll see in Youngblood #11 and #12.
The Chipettes were the girl version of The Chipmunks from the animated show of the same name.
Panel 2. That is Dr. Rex Richards, Rachel’s grandfather and the original Doc Rocket.
Page 19.
Panel 3. Magnum P.I. was a private eye detective show starring Tom Selleck that aired from 1980-1988. Saved By The Bell was a preteen sitcom that aired from 1989-1993.
Page 20.
Panel 1. The Allied Supermen of America were the superhero group from the 1940s that were seen in Supreme.The Black Hand was the Green Lantern equivalent, though he had a full mask over his head and mouth.
Page 21.
Panel 3. Leukemia is a cancer of the blood.
Panel. 4. Johnny’s reference to being “Master of the universe…” could also be more foreshadowing.
Page 22.
Panel 3. I believe Doc Rocket is referring to radiation therapy, but I’m not a doctor.
Page 23.
Panel 3. Coming out of the closet is a euphemism for a homosexual person admitting that they’re gay.
Panel 4. Johnny’s mom was seen in the Awesome Holiday Special and will be seen again in Youngblood #11.
Youngblood #9
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Page 1.
Panel 1. In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Often depicted in art, Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned.
Panel 2. A Jackdaw is a black-plumaged bird with a grey nape and distinctive pale-grey irises. It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings. Like its relatives, Jackdaws are intelligent birds, and have been observed using tools.
Interestingly, Jackdaw was a character in Captain Britain, one of Moore’s first superhero comics, though I believe he was created prior to Moore taking over the writing.
Panel 4: Morrigan is a figure from Irish mythology. The Morrígan is mainly associated with war and fate, especially with foretelling doom and death in battle. In this role she often appears as a crow.
Page 2.
Panel 1. The collective plural of jackdaws is called a clattering.
The title Crow John, What you done? likely refers to the Ray Bonneville song Crow John. The lyrics:
Shadows on the road across the silver tracks
a murder of crows along a desolate flat
one of their brothers something gone wrong
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Desperate echoes through the risin’ fog
a murder crows vigilant law
did they catch you stranded nowhere to hide
your cries unanswered til the end of time
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Into the comin’ storm they raggedly fly
a dozen or more against the darkening sky
a murder of jokers with laughing eyes
they killed Crow John for who knows why
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Crow John what you done
What you done what you done
Page 3.
Panel 1. Violet Dax probably refers to the pre-Crisis version of Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor;s sister. She worked with Supergirl, sometimes as a friend and sometimes as a rival.
Panel 4. Johnny drugged Doc Rocket with a slowing tab in issue #8.
Page 4.
Panel 2. Corvus is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the family Corvidae. The genus includes species commonly known as crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws.
Panel 3. Blake Baron, occult agent, is a government operative working for the top secret occult group, The Veil, as seen in Youngblood #1.
Page 6.
Panel 1. Threshold is The Veil’s base, which we saw in Youngblood #1.
Shaft used to have government clearance when Youngblood was a government-sponsored group, but lost it when they lost their funding during Judgment Day.
“The monkey and the Occupant” is a reference to the events in Youngblood #1.
Panel 5. John Prophet’s gyro rider was seen in Judgment Day, as was the Phantom Aviator’s biplane. We only briefly saw the Stormbirds in Supreme #49 when they were rescued from Hulver Ramik, but I don’t believe we ever saw the Fantasmatic.
Panel 6. Baron is referring to Chapel, one of the original Youngblood who killed himself to become a lord of Hell while interacting with Spawn.
Page 7.
Panel 1. A raven is one of several larger-bodied species of the genus Corvus. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", and these appellations have been assigned to different species chiefly on the basis of their size, crows generally being smaller than ravens.
Panel 3. One of the collective plural for ravens is a conspiracy. Another is an unkindness.
An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds.
Page 8.
Panel 1. Flying squirrels are not capable of flight in the same way as birds or bats but are able to glide from one tree to another with the aid of a patagium, a furry, parachute-like membrane that stretches from wrist to ankle.
Panel 2. King Midas was a figure from mythology who could turn anything to gold by touching it.
Panel 4. The Simurgh is a benevolent, mythical bird in Iranian mythology and literature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as a phoenix.
The Roc is an enormous legendary bird of prey in the popular mythology of the Middle East.
Page 9.
Panel 1. This is a faithful version of the Simurgh mythology (as much as I’ve found of it).
Panel 4. Big Bird is a giant muppet character from Sesame Street (please tell me you knew that).
Page 11.
Panel 3. The poster on the wall is for The Iron Man, the children’s book about a giant robot by Ted Hughes.
Page 13.
Panel 2. Twilight was possessed by the Occupant in Youngblood #1. In that issue, the Occupant says that he likes to clean (kill) his former hosts because they remember things.
Page 14.
Panel 1. Johnny is disguised as Leonard. This is exactly what Suprema accused Johnny of doing in Youngblood #6.
Page 16.
Panel 4. This issue was supposed to be taking place in 1998. America online (A.O.L.) was a major internet provider back then.
Page 17.
Panel 1. I don’t get much from the chanting, but Khvarenah is an Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept literally denoting "glory" or "splendour" but understood as a divine mystical force or power projected upon and aiding the appointed.
Page 20.
Panel 2. Swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds.
Page 24.
Panel 1. The collective plural for crows is a murder.
Panel 3. [spoiler] Johnny’s DNA contains a match with Darius Dax, Supreme’s villain, as described in Alan Moore’s Youngblood proposal.[end spoiler]
Panel 4. The monkey in the corner is the current host of the Occupant, as seen in Youngblood #1.
Youngblood #10
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Page 1.
Panel 1. Supergirl, as Linda Danvers, starred in a soap opera in the Supergirl comics, on a soap opera called Secret Hearts.
Panel 2. The Televillain is a Supreme villain we last saw in Supreme: The Return #1.
Panel 3. The poster on the wall is for Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man, better known to U.S. audience as the Iron Giant, a story about a robot who is inadvertently used as a weapon. Hughes wrote the book in 1968.
Panel 5. As we’ve seen, Suprema is a member of The League of Infinity and can use their time tower stairs to travel in time.
Page 2.
Panel 2. What Leonard proposes is a time paradox, where if she changed time, it would stop her from being Suprema, which wouldn’t have allowed her to change time.
Panel 3. Suprema’s adoptive family is the Crane’s, Ethan “Supreme” Crane’s family.
Page 3.
Panel 3. Twilight’s parents died when she was little, as seen in the Twilight story in Youngblood 1+.
Page 4.
Panel 1. If/then/else is a logical device used in computer programming to force how a program should act.
Page 5.
Panel 5. Leonard mentions that the design is similar to his. As we’ll find, it’s that his design was inspired by submerged memories from seeing his parents killed by this very same robot.
Page 6.
Panel 1. Adding them up, Youngblood fought 1) Stormhead, 2) The Occupant, 3) Bad Blood, 4)Jack-a-Dandy/old west duo (I guess she’s combining these), 5) the League of Infinity, 6) Crow John. Shaft says there was a seventh, but it’s actually the back-up story in this issue.
In the background are images from Youngblood 1, Crow John’s mask, the whistle arrow from Youngblood #7, a drawing from the back-up story in this issue, and (I believe) an image from the crucifixes from Youngblood #2.
Page 8.
Panel 3. The Allied Supermen of America are a superhero team from the 40s, as seen in the pages of Supreme. MAGNO was a robot that was designed to be powerful enough to fight all of the Allied Supermen. Darius Dax put his essence into the MAGNO robot in Supreme #52a. There’s a bit of an error in timing, as the robot they’re now in is supposed to be a prototype (or a Mark 1, maybe?) but was in action well after the other MAGNO had been deactivated. I’m sure a Marvel No Prize could explain it, but it seems wrong.
Page 9.
Panel 1. We see Supreme, Waxman and the original Doc Rocket from the Allied Supermen. However, if this is from a poetry reading in the ‘50s, this was after the Allied Supermen disbanded. The poetry reading in London, I think, is a reference to Ted Hughes again, suggesting that the MAGNO attack at his poetry reading inspired The Iron Man.
Panel 4. Young Leonard sees the MAGNO robot, even though he later told Waxey he didn’t remember anything from the attack (as seen in Youngblood #9).
Page 12.
Panel 1. Supreme’s Iron Giant reference further references Ted Hughes.
Panel 6. The Black Hand was one of the Allied Supermen.
Page 14.
Panel 1. Moore did mention that Suprema would be more conservative than the others, so I think the church reference works.
Page 16.
Panel 2 (I think). Glory was a member of the Allied Supermen, too.
Panel 6. Professor Night and Die Hard were also members of the Allied Supermen.
Page 17.
Panel 4. Waxman and Alley Cat were also members of the Allied Supermen.
Page 18.
Panel 5. That is the actual cover of Sylvia Plath’s collection of stories, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. It was published after her death. And Plath was famously married to Ted Hughes when she committed suicide.
Page 19.
Panel 4. I don’t think this is how dimensions actually work. My understanding is that the 4th dimension is time. The 5th dimension is an abstract that occurs in mathematics. Still, it’s an interesting idea and suggests that the Awesome universe is one based on ideas more than physics.
Panel 5. This is Szazs, the imp version of Supreme last seen in Supreme #53. He is a play on Mr. Mxyzptlk from Superman. Supreme got rid of him by explaining that Szazs was in the 4th dimension.
Page 22.
Panel 1. Big Brother’s reference about saying the name backwards applies to Mr. Mxyzptlk.
Panel 2. I believe that might be the same nurse from Youngblood #8.
Panel 3. Operation is the kid’s board game.
Page 23.
Panel 4. Farragut North is a stop on the Washington, DC subway system, the Metro.
Page 24.
Panel 1. I assume Twi-Mite is the imp version of Twilight and Aszazsa is the version of Suprema.
Page 26.
Panel 1. That’s the drawing from page 6 earlier in this comic.
Panel 2. According to Leonard, alternate dimensions, like we saw in Youngblood #6, represent the 6th dimension, which can only be witnessed through imagination. We knew that Idea Space is treated like a real science concept in this universe, so it’s interesting that it would then tie to a higher dimension.
Youngblood #11
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Covers: There appears to be two covers. One is of the teenage Sylvia Plath. The other is of Plath as Lady Lazarus as she appears in the Azure in issue #12.
Page 1:
Panel 1. This is an obvious play on the layout of the first page of issue #1, where Blue Boy was floating in the Azure and the Veil’s mechanical arms were grabbing at him.
Page 2.
Panel 1. Johnny has an issue of Supreme on his floor!
Johnny’s mom is doing the Tarot. The first card drawn is the Fool, which bears a similarity to Johnny in panel 2.
Panel 2. She then draws the Tower, the reversed Moon and the Star. Here are their meanings:
- The Fool represents new beginnings, having faith in the future, being inexperienced, not knowing what to expect, having beginner's luck, improvisation and believing in the universe.
- The Tower is commonly interpreted as meaning danger, crisis, destruction, and liberation. It is associated with sudden unforseen change.
- The Moon is a card of illusion and deception, and therefore often suggests a time when something is not as it appears to be. Moore has often associated the Moon with dreams. Reversed, it suggests nightmares. One interpretation suggests that it may suggest an absent mother or the absence of a mother figure.
- When the Star card appears, you are likely to find yourself feeling inspired. It brings renewed hope and faith and a sense that you are truly blessed by the universe at this time.
In her room, she has a Ouija board and a statue of Cthulhu.
Panel 3. I think that’s a statue of Isis in the background. According to several sources, Sylvia Plath was into Ouija, Tarot and other mystical trappings.
Check out the first letters of her institute, the
Dream
Administration and
Research
Institute of the
United
States
Panel 4. She’s in love with the institute!
Extreme was the name of the Rob Liefeld’s comic studio at Image.
Page 3.
Panel 2. Cuckoo’s Nest is a reference to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the novel and movie about a psychiatric hospital.
Panel 3. Sylvia Plath was a figure in the literary scene in Boston, Massachusetts.
Panel 5. The story he’s referring to is called Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams. It’s the story of a woman who while working in a Psychiatric Hospital starts a collection of dream stories. Slowly she goes insane in the service of Johnny Panic, the god of fear.
Page 4.
Panel 4. That might be a reference to Alan Moore’s Twilight of the Superheroes proposal, which is itself a reference to the Twilight of the Gods opera (Götterdämmerung) by Wagner.
Panel 5. And we’re back to the Youngblood tryouts again, from the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 5.
Panel 1. The joke was Johnny drugging Rachel and almost killing her grandfather, as seen in issue #8.
Panel 2. There’s a plaque dedicated to the Exorcist steps in Georgetown in Washington, DC. The Exorcist was another story about a demon possessing a young girl.
Panel 4. Star City is the Awesome Universe version of Gotham City, Omegapolis is Metropolis and I’m not sure what Coast City is.
Page 6.
Panel 1. The CGI Big Brother in the background is likely a reference that he should be put into the film with computer imagery later.
The action being dramatized in this movie is the events of issue #1, which Badrock was not a part of, nor was Vogue, seen lying on the ground. I think that might be a joke about Vogue and Twilight looking alike.
Page 7.
Panel 4. The two entourage kids use the words Awesome and Maximum, two of Rob Liefeld’s comic companies.
There is the swift bird last seen at the end of issue #9 interacting with the monkey host of the real Occupant from issue #1.
Page 8.
Panel 1. Leonard broke up with Sally in issue #10.
Linda has a rare disease that makes her sluggish during the day.
Panel 3. MaxiMage is a character from the Extreme Universe. Lori Sanders started out on the streets. She became the Maximage after being visited by an ancient man who was imprisoned on Easter Island. She had her own series for a while.
Page 9.
Panel 1. The abandoned Omega Museum is the secret hideout of Darius Dax, as seen in Supreme: The Return #2 and Supreme #63. Notice the tower image in the background.
Panel 3. Ruh-roh is a reference to ScoobyDoo, the cartoon dog that investigated ghosts and monsters (which were mostly fake).
Panel 5. Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father, as revealed in Empire Strikes Back and has become a trope of stories ever since.
Page 10.
Panel 1. Esther Greenwood was the name of the character in The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath’s semi-fictional autobiography about her mental illness.
Panel 2. Cosmo Wican is a reference to a character in Superboy that I will explain in a minute.
Panel 3. Dax died in prison, as seen in Supreme #42.
Panel 4. The Flying Nun was a TV show starring Sally Fields.
Panel 5. The gibberish isn’t as gibberish as Dax thinks. The Tower is the tarot card about a disastrous realization (like Dax being Johnny’s father). The Moon is coming up. Possessed rocks sounds like the Occupant-possessed Badrock.
Panel 6. Torquemada is Dax’s computer servant.
Page 11.
Panel 2. That’s the great table with Nighteagle and MaxiMage, as seen in the MaxiMage story in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 13.
Panel 1. The last time was in Youngblood #1.
Page 14.
Panel 2. The line the young girl Sylvia says is from her poem, Mad Girl’s Love Song:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”
Panel 3. The real Sylvia found a crawlspace in her basement and tried to kill herself by swallowing some pills.
Panel 4. This is the demonic form of Lord Sin, seen in Supreme #46.
Page 15.
Panel 2. Sylvia was found after several days and rushed to the hospital where she was given electric shock therapy, as seen in panel 3.
Page 16.
Panel 1. This is the Azure again. Sylvia is seeing Johnny Panic, the god of fear and madness.
Page 17.
Panel 1. And now the reveal that Sylvia Plath is Johnny’s mother.
Panel 3. That’s Sylvia with Ted Hughes and their two children.
Panel 4. Sylvia committed suicide in her kitchen in England after a rift between her and Hughes over an affair and the possibility of a permanent split. She stopped the drafts under the doors and put her head in the gas oven.
Page 18.
Panel 3. The lines from Johnny’s mom is adapted from Sylvia Plath’s poem Lady Lazarus, about her previous attempts at suicide, except in the poem, like in real life, Plath had red hair:
I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it——
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?——
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me
And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.
This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.
What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see
Them unwrap me hand and foot——
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies
These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,
Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.
The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut
As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.
Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.
It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.
It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.
It’s the theatrical
Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:
‘A miracle!’
That knocks me out.
There is a charge
For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart——
It really goes.
And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood
Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.
I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby
That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.
Ash, ash—
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there——
A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
Page 19.
Panel 2. The Kid Supreme cover is a reference to Superboy #175 from June 1971. According to Fandom: Synopsis for "Doomsday for a Super-Phantom!" Through a marriage of sorcery and cybernetics, Faustus Coven separates Superboy's spirit from his body, gives it telekinetic power, and makes it the servant of himself and young Asmo Coven. But Superboy manages to get himself back into his body after a period of servitude, and Faustus Coven is destroyed by his own apparatus. Asmo, who has reformed, is taken to Smallville Orphanage by Superboy.
Page 20.
Panel 2. The events of the next two panels are from Youngblood #1.
Blake Baron and Mark Tyme both came back from being abducted by Hulver Ramik in Supreme #49.
Panel 5. The line about “The world will go up in a shriek, and your head with it!” is from the Plath poem A Birthday Present:
What is this, behind this veil, is it ugly, is it beautiful?
It is shimmering, has it breasts, has it edges?
I am sure it is unique, I am sure it is what I want.
When I am quiet at my cooking I feel it looking, I feel it thinking
'Is this the one I am too appear for,
Is this the elect one, the one with black eye-pits and a scar?
Measuring the flour, cutting off the surplus,
Adhering to rules, to rules, to rules.
Is this the one for the annunciation?
My god, what a laugh!'
But it shimmers, it does not stop, and I think it wants me.
I would not mind if it were bones, or a pearl button.
I do not want much of a present, anyway, this year.
After all I am alive only by accident.
I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way.
Now there are these veils, shimmering like curtains,
The diaphanous satins of a January window
White as babies' bedding and glittering with dead breath. O ivory!
It must be a tusk there, a ghost column.
Can you not see I do not mind what it is.
Can you not give it to me?
Do not be ashamed--I do not mind if it is small.
Do not be mean, I am ready for enormity.
Let us sit down to it, one on either side, admiring the gleam,
The glaze, the mirrory variety of it.
Let us eat our last supper at it, like a hospital plate.
I know why you will not give it to me,
You are terrified
The world will go up in a shriek, and your head with it,
Bossed, brazen, an antique shield,
A marvel to your great-grandchildren.
Do not be afraid, it is not so.
I will only take it and go aside quietly.
You will not even hear me opening it, no paper crackle,
No falling ribbons, no scream at the end.
I do not think you credit me with this discretion.
If you only knew how the veils were killing my days.
To you they are only transparencies, clear air.
But my god, the clouds are like cotton.
Armies of them. They are carbon monoxide.
Sweetly, sweetly I breathe in,
Filling my veins with invisibles, with the million
Probable motes that tick the years off my life.
You are silver-suited for the occasion. O adding machine-----
Is it impossible for you to let something go and have it go whole?
Must you stamp each piece purple,
Must you kill what you can?
There is one thing I want today, and only you can give it to me.
It stands at my window, big as the sky.
It breathes from my sheets, the cold dead center
Where split lives congeal and stiffen to history.
Let it not come by the mail, finger by finger.
Let it not come by word of mouth, I should be sixty
By the time the whole of it was delivered, and to numb to use it.
Only let down the veil, the veil, the veil.
If it were death
I would admire the deep gravity of it, its timeless eyes.
I would know you were serious.
There would be a nobility then, there would be a birthday.
And the knife not carve, but enter
Pure and clean as the cry of a baby,
And the universe slide from my side.
Page 22.
Panel 2. That’s Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, last seen in Supreme: The Return #1. The reference to the intern is Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinski.
Suprema is lamenting that Clinton is not as good as Dwight Eisenhower (1952-1960).
Panel 3. The Secret Service is talking about Vice President Al Gore.
Page 25.
Panel 1. I believe that is Marine One which they stole.
Panel 2. Notice the shining pool. I suspect the prophesy may have had to do with this mansion, not the White House.
Page 26.
Panel 2. The godling and his light will become clear next issue.
Youngblood #12
Note: The annotations refer to the version of this issue completed by anonymous fans.Page 1.
Panel 1. That’s Johnny’s mom, who we now know is the demonic-possessed, immortal Sylvia Plath. The line about Fear comes from her story, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams.
Panel 5. That is The Allies’ asteroid base, as seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 2.
Panel 1. From left are Doc Rocket, Janet Planet (only seen in the Judgment Day Sourcebook extra material), Glory, Johnny Panic, MaxiMortal, Badrock, Suprema, Supreme, Die Hard, Wax Man, Shaft, Professor Night, Big Brother and Twilight.
“He forgets not his own” is the final line of the Sylvia Plath story. It is about the god of fear and nightmares embracing the narrator, who has clearly gone crazy.
Page 3.
Panel 1. The family connection is to Sylvia Plath, who can enter the Azure realm.
Panel 2. That’s Spacehunter. He speaks in symbols, but everyone understands him in their native tongue, as seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Panel 3. The New Men decided to help with research on Conqueror Island, as seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 4.
Panel 3. Glory is turning back into Gloria West, who she shares a body with, as seen in the Glory series.
Page 6.
Panel 2. Blacky Conqueror was seen in Judgment Day. The Conquerors were the Awesome Universe version of the Challengers of the Unknown.
Panel 3. Magman was seen in Judgment Day: Aftermath. I can’t find any references for Amazarilla. Anyone recognize it?
Panel 4. He’s referencing the events from Youngblood 8. That issue has had a lot of long-lasting effects, as we’ll see later.
Page 8.
Panel 3. This is the same Idea Space we saw in Supreme 48.
Page 10.
Panel 1. That’s Demeter, Glory’s mom (and the god). Glory is in part of Idea Space where the world tree is.
Panel 2. Selene is Glory’s aunt and the goddess of dreams. We saw her in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 11.
Panel 1. This is Helios, the god of light and reason. He was seen briefly in Glory #2.
Panel 4. Glory goes back and forth between her mother’s realm by thinking and describing the feeling of the other place.
Page 12.
Panel 2. Die Hard is a WWII hero, sort of like Captain America.
Page 13.
Panel 2. Shirow might be a reference to Masamune Shirow, the manga creator of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell.
Panel 4. It’s suggested that Die Hard is very old, but I don’t think he’s ever been suggested to be as old as having been alive when Teddy Roosevelt was alive.
Page 18.
Panel 1. If you notice Lady Lazarus’s cape and some of the forms at the bottom of this panel, you’ll notice this image looks like the tarot card for the reversed moon, as referenced in Youngblood 11.
Lady Lazarus’s dialog is very reminiscent of Sylvia Plath’s poems, but I can’t place them.
Page 20.
Panel 2. Lady Lazarus is repeating the line from the story about loving fear.
Panel 3. These are the villains Johnny has faced in Youngblood. From left: Sentinel, Atomo, Speedwell, Poppy, Satana, Lounge Lizard, Stormhead, Dax, the drug-fueled nightmare Baron Tallow, Jericho Faust and Stopping Shadow.
Panel 4. There’s the Goat and Rachel’s grandfather, the original Doc Rocket, who Johnny almost killed in Youngblood 8.
Panel 5. Apparently Johnny is afraid of spiders and the dark.
Page 21.
Panel 2. This is Sparky, Johnny’s side-effect sidekick from Youngblood 7. He died at the end of that issue.
Page 22.
Panel 1. This is the scene from Youngblood 11 when Sylvia was electrocuted the first time.
Page 23.
Panel 2. This is another scene from Youngblood 11, when Sylvia was older and looking for confirmation to put her plan into effect.
Panel 3. The floating figure is blue boy from Youngblood 1.
Page 24.
Panel 1. So Sparky (in the Azure) is really the Occupant. As we find out in a bit, this is from prior to him going out in the world in Youngblood 1.
Panel 3. As he was burned, he lost his memory and possessed blue boy.
Panel 4. Blue boy has now been pulled out by the Veil, setting in motion the events from issue 1.
Page 26.
Panel 4. Moore has stated many times that there is no time in Idea Space, and this is a great explanation of how that works.
Page 27.
Panel 3. There’s a lot going on in this map of Idea Space, which seems to be based upon the travel Supreme took in Idea Space in Supreme #47-49. At the center of it is the World Tree. But it’s surrounded by the Azure realm, along with Lord Sin’s realm of shame and despair, and a few others. The figures around it all include Spock, the Toyota logo, the Playboy Bunny logo, maybe Martin Luther King Jr., the Mercedes Benz logo and others I don’t recognize.
Page 28.
Panel 1. I believe this is a reference to Elvira.
Panel 4. This is Jabber Jaw, from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
Page 29.
Panel 3. Apparently Johnny’s fears are all coming to life, including all the villains he has faced in Youngblood.
Page 30.
Panel 3. I suspect the concept of transforming Sentinel to Big Brother is in reference to the joke from the Awesome Holiday Special about all the black characters in Youngblood becoming villains.
Page 32.
Panel 1. So Johnny is both a youngster and seeing himself as a teenager. This scene was referenced in Youngblood 11, when Johnny said he had a dream that changed how he viewed reality, which is what happens in this scene. It either suggests that he’s recreating that dream or the dream was a way that he tapped into idea Space.
Page 33.
Panel 1. The saying about daddy longlegs being poisonous is not true, but is an idea that exists as a common belief.
Page 34.
Panel 2. So Johnny was responsible for turning Lord Sin into the cartoon image from Supreme #46.
Page 35.
Panel 1. This is Maximage as she appeared in Youngblood #78.
Panel 2. There are a lot of references to comics that have come out since Alan Moore’s run on Youngblood:
- The image of Glory is a reference to Joe Keatinge’s run of Glory starting in #23.
- The image of Supreme is a reference to Erik Larsen’s run of Supreme starting in #64.
- The image of Youngblood Vs. the Televillain is from Joe Casey’s run in Youngblood.
- The image of Bloodstrike is from Tim Seeley’s run starting in #26.
- The image of Prophet is from Brandon Graham’s run starting in #21.
Panel 3. So, the Doc Rocket from idea space was really an older version of Johnny from a world where he puts things right. So, maybe one from a future that doesn’t follow what actually happened to the Awesome Universe?
Page 37.
Panel 1. I think the suggestion is that this is how Satana ended up on Lord Sin’s wheel in Supreme #46.
Page 38.
Panel 1. So Johnny was able to destroy whatever was possessing Sylvia and she’s back to where she was after trying to kill herself, as seen in issue 11.
Panel 3. And there’s the famous Bell Jar and words from Sylvia’s explanation of what a bell jar feels like.
Page 39.
Panel 1. Johnny is taking Sylvia through a walk of her future life, through the metaphor of the fig tree. The fig tree was a famous image in The Bell jar, symbolizing the many paths her life could take on the various branches. But Sylvia Plath felt that she hated choosing any one branch, because it meant death for the other branches that she couldn’t live. And she’d rather die than choose. But Johnny is walking her through it, giving her a life worth choosing. It ends with her reciting the fear line again. But now the fear line, about loving fear, isn’t about loving insanity, but about loving and choosing life instead of death, as she returns through the bricked up wall where she tried to kill herself.
Page 40.
Panel 4 (I think). Johnny returns to his Maximage and Glory. Note the stars about him, as foretold in the tarot reading.
Page 42.
Panels 1-3. Note Leonard and Sally making up wordlessly in the background. Blink and you’ll miss it.
Page 43.
Panel 2. The LSD line is probably a reference to Alan Moore’s well-documented use of LSD.
Page 45.
Panel 1. This epilogue is structured the same as the prologue from the Awesome Holiday Special.
Page 46.
Panel 4. I believe the Imagineer to the right and above Johnny, floating upside down is Alan Moore.
Page 47.
Panel 1. I guess Crow John wasn’t murdered by the Corvus.
Page 48.
Panel 1. Doogie Howser M.D. was a show from the 1980s about a child prodigy who became a medical doctor.
A Q score is a measurement of the familiarity and appeal of a brand, celebrity, company, or entertainment product (e.g., television show) used in the United States. The higher the Q Score, the more highly regarded the item or person is among the group familiar with them.
The trophies on this page include:
- The drawing from the Szazs adventure in issue 10.
- Crow John’s mask from issue 9.
- The whistle arrow from issue 7.
- The newspaper referenced the Stormhead adventure from the Judgment Day: Aftermath story.
- Images from the Occupant adventure in issue 1.
- And Shaft’s journal from the prologue and the epilogue.
Glory #0 (Awesome)
Panel 2. Cystitis is the medical term for inflammation of the bladder. Most of the time, the inflammation is caused by a bacterial infection, and it's called a urinary tract infection.
In the background is Stan from South Park. South Park premiered on Comedy Central in 1997.
Panel 3. The characters in the foreground are the love interest and Amelia Earhart. Moore said in his proposal that he intended this to be the real Earhart.
Panel 4. When she mentions the Lady Selene, she’s referring to the events in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
Page 2.
The Gate of Tears is a reference to a Jewish legend: “Kabbala, Jewish mystic tradition, teaches that the prayers said by any one, all round the word, ascend to heaven from the western wall in Jerusalem. Jewish tradition tells us that when the Temple was destroyed, all the Gates of Heaven were shut, but one. The only gate to remain open: the Gate of Tears. So for thousands of years, people have come to pour out their hearts and their tears at this wall. This is why you’ll often hear it called the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.” From http://www.jerusalem-insiders-guide.com/western-wall-in-jerusalem.html.
Page 3.
Panel 3. In Greek tradition, a sphinx has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion, and sometimes the wings of a bird. It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster.
Page 4.
Panel 1. Young Glory at the top of the page is referring to seeing the Earth be born in Judgment Day Omega.
The Glory at left is referring to WWII, where she joined The Allies. But she’s also hinting at WWI, an allusion to Wonder Woman, who appeared during WWI.
The Glory on the right is referring to the Danger Damsels. This corresponds with Wonder Woman’s friendship with the Holiday Girls.
The Glory at the bottom refers to the important issues of the day in the 1970s. Wonder Woman famously lost her powers and took up kung-fu in the ‘70s.
Panel 2. Demeter’s other daughter is Persephone, who, according to myth, is married to Hades, and must live with him for half the year (accounting for the change of seasons).
Page 5.
Panel 4. Moore has written the world tree as a symbol for the Kabbala, so the higher realms correspond with different aspects, such as emotions and intellect.
Page 6.
Panel 2. According to the Kabbala, the material realm, the tenth, is at the bottom of the tree. The higher you go in the tree, the less physical it becomes.
Page 7.
Panel 2. I think that’s supposed to be Brandon Peterson on the left.
Panel 3. The myrmidons are Demeter’s helpers. Moore took the name from a legendary people of Greek mythology, native to the region of Thessaly. During the Trojan War, they were commanded by Achilles, as described in Homer's Iliad. According to Greek legend, they were created by Zeus from a colony of ants and therefore took their name from the Greek word for ant, myrmex.
Page 8.
Panel 2. Harvey was a 1950 Jimmy Stewart movie about a man who became friends with a pooka (a benign but mischievous creature from Celtic mythology who is especially fond of social outcasts), an invisible (and possibly imaginary) six-foot rabbit.
Panel 4. What’s with the Sphinx? It’s a mystery.
Glory #1
Panel 1. The name of this issue, The Seventh Dagger refers to the seven of swords from the Tarot, which is a card of deception and betrayal. It indicates the difficulty of trying to ‘get away with something’ undetected and unnoticed. Often when you do something in secret, hoping that you are safe and undiscovered, something goes awry and your secret is revealed to your embarrassment. This card therefore urges caution when attempting to use cunning or deception to gain an advantage over someone or something else.
Page 4.
According to Alexx Kay, “Page 4's layout is a nifty homage to Winsor McCay, who often depicted scenery rising out of the ground in a similar fashion.” McCay was an innovator of American comics and the creator of Little Nemo.
Panel 4. The Qlippoth is the representation of evil forces in the mystical teachings of Judaism, such as in the Kabbalah.
Page 5.
Panel 2. The shells Demeter refers to are from a specific line of thought on the Kabbalah. In Jewish Kabbalistic cosmology of Isaac Luria, the qlippot are metaphorical "shells" surrounding holiness. They are spiritual obstacles receiving their existence from God only in an external, rather than internal manner. Divinity in Judaism connotes revelation of God's true unity, while the shells conceal holiness, as a peel conceals the fruit within.
Page 6.
Panel 1. That’s Roman, an underwater hero similar to Aquaman.
Panel 2. Lemuria is the name of a "lost land" located either in the Indian or the Pacific Ocean, as postulated by a now-discredited 19th century scientific theory. The idea was then adopted by the occultists of the time and consequently has been incorporated into pop culture.
Page 8.
Panel 1. I can’t find anything on Mr. Zo-Zo. Anyone? Pez is the American candy dispenser with the head of cartoon characters. The three wise robots includes Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space. Images on the wall from left are:
- An angel
- Calvin and Hobbes
- Homer Simpson
- Mighty Mouse
- The Starship Enterprise
- Jesus
Panel 2. The images on the wall are:
- Woodstock and Snoopy
- Another angel?
Panel 3. Temptation Comics is a reference to Sensation Comics, where Wonder Woman first appeared in the first issue in 1942.
Panel 4. The ad on the back of the comic is for Avatar comics of the 2000s, including Coven, Threshold, Avengelyne and Pandora. Two of those were properties that were licensed by Rob Liefeld to Avatar along with Glory.
Page 9.
Panel 3. Moore is telling the legend of Persephone.
Page 10.
Panel 2. Hecate or Hekate is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches or a key and in later periods depicted in triple form. She was variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, light, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery. She appears in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
Panel 3. Helios is the god and personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. In Moore’s version, the sun represents the light of reason.
Panel 5. Eleusis is a town and municipality in West Attica, Greece. It is situated about 11 miles northwest from the centre of Athens.
Page 11.
Panel 3. More presents Lord Silverfall, a character that had already existed in previous issues of Glory as the fifth duke of the underworld. The idea of demons as dukes probably originates with the Dictionnaire Infernal (also known as the Infernal Dictionary). It’s a book on demonology, organized in hellish hierarchies. It was written by Jacques Auguste Simon Collin de Plancy and first published in 1818. There were several editions of the book, but perhaps the most famous is the edition of 1863, in which sixty-nine illustrations were added to the book. These illustrations are drawings which depict the descriptions of the appearance of a number of demons. Many of these images were later used in S. L. MacGregor Mathers's edition of The Lesser Key of Solomon though some of the images were removed.
The book was first published in 1818 and then divided into two volumes, with six reprints and many changes between 1818 and 1863. This book attempts to provide an account of all the knowledge concerning superstitions and demonology.
De Plancy presented a hierarchy of demons based in modern European courts:
- Princes and dignitaries: Belzebuth, supreme chief of the empire of hell, founder of the order of the Fly. Satan, prince dethroned and chief of the opposition party. Eurynome,[21] prince of death, Grand Cross of the order of the Fly. Moloch, prince of the country of tears, Grand Cross of the order. Pluton, Prince of Fire, also Grand Cross of the order and governor of the regions in flames. Pan, prince of incubi and Lilith, princess of succubi. Leonardo, the great lord of the Sabbath, Knight of the Fly. Balberith, great pontiff, lord of alliances. Proserpina, archdiablesse, princess of evil spirits.
- Ministers of the Office: Adrammelech, Grand Chancellor and Grand Cross of the Order of the Fly. Ashtaroth, general treasurer, Knight of the Fly. Nergal, chief of the secret police. Baal, commander in chief of the armies of Hell, Grand Cross of the Order of the Fly. Leviathan, Grand Admiral, Knight of the Fly.
- Ambassadors: Belfegor, Ambassador of France. Mammon, of England. Belial, of Italy. Rimmon, of Russia. Thamuz, of Spain. Hutgin, of Turkey. Martinet, of Switzerland.
- Justice: Lucifer, chief of (in)justice, Knight of the Fly. Alastor, executor of his sentences.
- House of the princes: Verdelet, master of ceremonies. Succor Benoth, chief of the eunuchs of the seraglio. Chamos, Grand Chambelain, Knight of the Fly. Melchom, payer treasurer. Nisroch, chief of the kitchen. Behemoth, chief cupbearer. Dagon, grand pantler. Mullin, first valet.
- Secret expenses: Robals, director of theaters. Asmodeus, superintendent of the gambling houses. Nybbas, grand buffoon. Antichrist, charlatan and necromancer.
Panel 4. According to Moore, “Lord Silverfall” is just a nickname because that’s how he impregnated Demeter. Though this is in line with typical Greek myths, it also lends credence to the argument that Moore depicts rape an awful lot in his comics.
Page 12.
Panel 2. Argos (also known as Argus) Panoptes, guardian of the heifer-nymph Io and son of Arestor and probably Mycene. He was a primordial giant whose epithet, "Panoptes", "all-seeing", led to his being described with multiple, often one hundred, eyes. The epithet Panoptes was applied to the Titan of the Sun, Helios, and was taken up as an epithet by Zeus, Zeus Panoptes. "In a way," Walter Burkert observes, "the power and order of Argos the city are embodied in Argos the neatherd, lord of the herd and lord of the land, whose name itself is the name of the land.”
The epithet Panoptes, reflecting his mythic role, set by Hera as a very effective watchman of Io, was described in a fragment of a lost poem Aigimios, attributed to Hesiod: “And set a watcher upon her, great and strong Argus, who with four eyes looks every way. And the goddess stirred in him unwearying strength: sleep never fell upon his eyes; but he kept sure watch always.”
In the 5th century and later, Argus' wakeful alertness was explained for an increasingly literal culture as his having so many eyes that only a few of the eyes would sleep at a time: there were always eyes still awake. In the 2nd century AD Pausanias noted at Argos, in the temple of Zeus Larissaios, an archaic image of Zeus with a third eye in the center of his forehead, allegedly Priam's Zeus Herkeios purloined from Troy.
Argus was Hera's servant. His great service to the Olympian pantheon was to slay the chthonic serpent-legged monster Echidna as she slept in her cave. Hera's defining task for Argus was to guard the white heifer Io from Zeus, keeping her chained to the sacred olive tree at the Argive Heraion. She charged him to "Tether this cow safely to an olive-tree at Nemea". Hera knew that the heifer was in reality Io, one of the many nymphs Zeus was coupling with to establish a new order. To free Io, Zeus had Argus slain by Hermes. The messenger of the Olympian gods, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus' eyes asleep with spoken charms, then slew him by hitting him with a stone, the first stain of bloodshed among the new generation of gods.
The sacrifice of Argus liberated Io and allowed her to wander the earth, although tormented by a gadfly sent by Hera.
According to Ovid, to commemorate her faithful watchman, Hera had the hundred eyes of Argus preserved forever, in a peacock's tail.
All that’s to say that Zeus called for Hermes, whom we have already seen in the Judgment Day Sourcebook story.
Page 13.
Panel 2. Chang'e or Chang-o, originally known as Heng'e, is the Chinese goddess of the Moon. She is the subject of several legends in Chinese mythology, most of which incorporate several of the following elements: Houyi the archer, a benevolent or malevolent emperor, an elixir of life and the Moon.
Panel 3. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love. Horus is a major Egyptian god, serving many functions, most notably being a god of kingship and the sky. Kali is a Hindu goddess. Her earliest appearance is that of a destroyer of evil forces. Over time, she has been worshipped by devotional movements and tantric sects as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe.
Panel 4. Thor is the Norse god of thunder.
Panel 5. Lilith was said to have lots of husbands, so it’s a bit disingenuous to say that was her cheating husband.
Page 14.
Panel 5. The image on the wall is Scooby Doo.
Page 15.
Panel 4. The three highest palaces are the three highest spheres of Kabbalah. They are where the tree of life moves from the individual to the universal. To get to them the climber must move through the abyss. Moore went on to illustrate this journey in Promethea.
Page 16.
Panel 2. Hitler loved mythology and in speeches talked about Greece as part of the foundation that led to the Third Reich.
Panel 3. Demeter is referring to when the gods got involved in the Trojan War.
Panel 5. That’s President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Page 17.
Panel 1. This lines up with Wonder Woman and the Justice Society of America, where Wonder Woman first joined as the secretary. From right are Glory, Super Patriot, Mighty Man, Storybook Smith and I don’t recognize the last one.
Panel 2. The Siamese Cat lines up with Cheetah, one of Wonder Woman’s villains. The first woman to become the Cheetah, in Wonder Woman #6 (October 1943), is Priscilla Rich, a 1940s-era blonde Washington, D.C. debutante of aristocratic upbringing who also has an overwhelming inferiority complex and suffers from a split personality and self-importance. After being eclipsed by Wonder Woman at a charity event and failing to kill her during an escapology act, Priscilla retreats to her room and collapses before her makeup mirror. There she sees an image of a woman dressed like a cheetah. "Horrors!" she cries, as she gazes at her evil inner-self for the first time. "Don't you know me?" replies the reflection. "I am the REAL you—the Cheetah—a treacherous, relentless huntress!" The image commands her to fashion a Cheetah costume from a cheetah-skin rug. "From now on," intones the reflection, "when I command you, you shall go forth dressed like your TRUE self and do as I command you..." The Cheetah frames Wonder Woman for a robbery by hiding the money in her apartment and tipping off the police, then sets fire to a warehouse Wonder Woman is in, although Wonder Woman escapes. She is presumed dead, but survives thanks to her fireproof costume.
Panel 3. Madame Manacle might be the equivalent of Baroness von Gunther. Wonder Woman's first recurring nemesis, Paula von Gunther is a German baroness, ruthless Nazi spymaster, evil scientist, and femme fatale.
Tribadic is the adjective for tribadism, a lesbian practice in which one partner lies on top of the other and simulates the movements of the male in heterosexual intercourse.
Page 19.
Panel 1. I think she’s saying that her conscience is as outdated as the diaphragm is as a form of birth control.
Panel 2. Jim Carrey is the comedian who acts crazy. Norman Bates was the killer in the Hitchcock film Psycho.
Page 21.
Panel 1. Krishna is a supreme god and is the god of compassion, tenderness, and love in Hinduism. Allah is the god of Islam.
Page 23. Panel 1. Some interesting symbolism here as daggers were seen as a symbol for manhood.
Glory #2
Panel 1. I can’t find a reference for The End of Delight, but it comes up in the story.
Page 4.
Panel 2. Montel Williams was the host of a talk show.
Page 5.
Panel 4. The Ten of Swords in the Tarot represents ruin. It shows a man lying face down with ten long swords embedded in his back. A red cape is draped over the lower half of his body, while his top half remains unclothed. The sky above him is pitch black and there is a general feeling of pain, loss, and misfortune. However, despite these ominous images, there are positive aspects to this card. The sea before which the body lies is still and calm and the sun is rising in the distance beyond the mountains, indicating that the darkness will soon be dispelled. Thus, each new beginning must come from an end, and with every defeat are sown the seeds of future victory.
The Ten of Swords usually symbolizes a sudden and unexpected failure or disaster, whereby a power beyond your control crushes you without warning or mercy. Sometimes you will be able to alter the course of this impending disaster but most of the time you will simply have to let go and take the hit. This card can also indicate a time when you have been backstabbed or betrayed by someone you thought you could trust. You feel incredibly hurt and shocked by such a betrayal.
Page 7.
Panel 6. According to this website, pissing off a scorpio is a bad idea because they will just return the aggression until you’re nothing. The other rules come from A Walk on the Wild Side. A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, also adapted into the 1962 film of the same name. Set in Depression era, it is "the tragi-comedy of Dove Linkhorn," a naive Texan drifting from his hometown to New Orleans.
Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind."
It is most often quoted for Algren's "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."
Page 9.
Panel 1. The Danger Damsels correspond to the Holiday girls from Wonder Woman, girls from a sorority at Holiday College who help Wonder Woman.
Page 10.
Panel 5. The characteristics of the Danger Damsels are summed up quickly here (and by their punny names). They were supposed to be drawn to match, but for some reason Matt Martin decided to draw them all looking virtually alike.
Page 12.
Panel 1. To defeat the trap, Glory must shift her weight. Weight is the defining characteristic of Lotta Scoops.
Panel 5. To defeat the trap, Glory must use her intelligence, the defining characteristic of Athena Bright.
Page 13.
Panel 2. To defeat the trap, Glory must use her charm, the defining characteristic of Princess Darling.
Panel 3. Trevor Tracey is the equivalent of Wonder Woman’s love interest Steve Trevor, the government secret agent. It’s interesting that this trap involves a woman pretending to be a boy, the defining characteristic of Wanda Beerboy.
Page 14.
Panel 3. If this story appeared more dated, it would correspond to the tone of comics in the ‘40s and ‘50s that showed a woman’s place is in the home, taking care of her husband.
Page 17.
Panel 4. I might be the only one, but for the longest time I didn’t know that women’s dress coats have their buttons on the opposite size as men’s.
Panel 7. Haloperidol is a real antipshychotic drug.
Page 20.
Panel 1. Moore has described the process of creating art as Imagineering, where the artist travels into idea space and develops the idea and then brings it back to the material world. This is another representation of how that might work.
William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).
Panel 2. Sir Edward William Elgar was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924.
Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion in some quarters; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work, The Dream of Gerontius (1900), based on a Roman Catholic text that caused some disquiet in the Anglican establishment in Britain, but it became, and has remained, a core repertory work in Britain and elsewhere. His later full-length religious choral works were well received but have not entered the regular repertory.
In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras.
Page 22.
Panel 2. This panel shows that Moore has made Hectate the embodiment of the ninth kingdom or sphere. In Kaballah, the ninth sphere is represented by the hermit (which Hecate is drawn to look like). You can find out more about the ninth sphere at that link, but it’s essentially about knowing thyself completely so that you may become a better person. It’s the trial that Jesus had to go through by himself in order to follow through with his duty.
Page 23. Panel 1. Helios is the embodiment of the sixth kingdom or sphere. In the Bahir it states: "Sixth is the adorned, glorious, delightful throne of glory, the house of the world to come. Its place is engraved in wisdom as it says 'God said: Let there be light, and there was light.'" It has the common association of "Spirituality", "Balance", "Integration", "Beauty", "Miracles", and "Compassion.”
Supreme #63
Cover (this refers to the Eric Larsen cover because I’m trying to forget the others exist): On the back of the issue of Supreme in Dax’s hands is an advertisement for Charles Atlas, which was common for older comicbooks. Charles Atlas was a bodybuilder who sold his training techniques. Contents page: This is the same layout by Todd Klein as was used during Moore’s first year on Supreme. This story has nothing to do with the Story of the Year storyline.
Page 1.
Panel 1. This is Omniman as drawn by Ethan Crane and written by Diana Dane. It’s a reference to Supreme #41.
Page 2.
Panel 1. Some of the comics I recognize:
- Savage Dragon (also by Erik Larsen)
- Spawn
- Shadowhawk
- Daredevil
- Captain America
Panel 2. Yes, they should have gotten Chris Sprouse.
Page 4.
Panel 1. Back in issue #42, Ethan told Dax in the body of Judy Jordan that he was the son of the Ethan Crane she knew in her younger days.
Page 5.
Panel 1. That’s the Shadow Supreme in the foreground.
Page 7.
Panel 1. The serpents at the bottom suggest Medusa.
Panel 2. The creatures of imagination think the creatures of matter are not real and only exist because the creatures of imagination are imagining them.
Page 8.
Panel 1. Despite references to Youngblood in this conversation, Suprema is still wearing her old costume that she only wears in the pages of Supreme.
The events they’re referencing happened in Supreme #52a.
Page 9.
Panel 5. Twilight does the impression at the beginning of Youngblood #3 (also known as Awesome Adventures #1), which Moore planned to come out at about the same time as this issue.
Page 11.
Panel 2. Apparently the Darius Dax of the Omniman comics is Silas Strang.
Page 12.
Panel 1. The Dax at the left appears to be a version like the Incredible Hulk. I don’t recognize the others.
Page 21.
Panel 3. I can’t help but think that Moore is suggesting human creation of this universe through the hand of the artist drawing the comic.
Page 22.
Panel 3. It’s weird that Maxi-Dax says that he’s in the shock-troops with Doomsdax when on page 18 it’s announced that there are no plans to deploy Doomsdax. Things change fast on Daxia!
Page 24.
Panel 1. Some of the Daxes I recognize:
- Reed Richards
- Thor
- Silver Surfer
- The Thing
- Iron Man
- Green Goblin
While unlikely there is a Dr. Lucifer The G.I. Joe episode "Cobra's Creatures"
ReplyDeleteWell, that episode of G.I.Joe would predate Judgment Day by more than 10 years, so it's possible Moore got it from there, but if so, it's probably unintentional.
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