Glory before Moore and Moore's proposal

Alright, so now we move on to Moore's brief run on Glory, the last of the series he did for Awesome. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Glory:

Glory was the result of an alliance between the Lady Demeter of the Amazonians and the demon Lord Silverfall of the Underworld. Raised in her mother's world and trained by the Amazonians, she emerged as their finest warrior. However, she also struggled to control the savagery which was her paternal gift/curse.

Not at home in either Amazonia or the Underworld, Glorianna went to the world of man. During World War II, Glorianna fought for the Allied forces against the Nazis, alongside Supreme. For a time she worked with Die-Hard and SuperPatriot as the team called 'Allies'. She was part of the second and third Brigade teams with other superheroes.

I've read most of her series and it is forgettable. They even skipped issue #16 when the series went from Image to Maximum and no one seemed to care. But they did give us this cover...

 

...so clearly they were an example of high art.

Moore's Glory would only see two short previews appear in print for Awesome before Liefeld licensed the series out to Avatar. When Avatar started publishing their run, they included this handy illustrated history (written by Robert Lugibihl, who wrote Avatar's versions of Coven and Avengelyn) to help people catch up. It also includes a bit about where Moore was planning to go with it, but we'll talk more about that below when we get into Moore's fascinating proposal for Glory.

If you read Moore's Youngblood proposal, you can easily see the comic that it would become. Moore's Glory proposal is a horse of a different color. He's more interested in talking about tangential aspects, like how the magic in the Awesome universe operates and how he wants to handle topics of sex. It's brilliant, even if it doesn't tell you what Glory would be.

Awesome published this proposal before Glory came out in the Alan Moore's Awesome Universe Handbook in April 1999. Have a read:

 

  

  

  

  

I'm not going to go over it word for word, but let's touch on some points:

• The idea of taking Glory's Isle of Paradise and turning it into another realm was a good one and opened the door to explore the Kabbalah "Tree of Life" idea that is clearly important to Moore. 
• It would have been cool to see Ceres and the Egyptian Geb hanging out with Demeter, but unfortunately, Moore never got that far.
• The map Moore is drawing up for the world tree should sound familiar considering he replicated it in Promethea. 
• The idea of a Christian God co-existing with the Greek pantheon is an interesting idea, and it fits into Moore's view of the gods as representing ideas. Because the most important thing to remember is that this world tree is just an extension of Idea Space.
• I regret that we never got to see the Chromocean, as that sounds trippy. But it also sounds a lot like the barrier Gil Kane traveled through in Judgment Day: Aftermath. Again, it's all Idea Space.
• The references to outgrown boyfriend Howard Henry are interesting, and I would have liked to see the elder family man, but when Glory referenced a love interest in Judgment Day: Aftermath, she pictured '40s reporter Trevor Tracy. Maybe this was an idea he had already abandoned or changed.
• The diamond chariot, especially as it was conceived and drawn by Brandon Peterson, was an especially cool idea. In a way, it was like the singing sword in Top Ten/Smax.
• I love that Moore calls Wonder Woman creator Dr. Charles Moulton a "barely-suppressed psycho-sexual lunatic who [wrote] Wonder Woman with one hand in his pocket." Ha!
  That said, that Moore would decide to bring this into Glory as an element to play with has always made me a little queasy.
• The Danger Damsels, as an idea, seems like it couldn't miss. But Avatar managed to screw it up, as we'll see in Glory #2.
• Dr. Clock turned up (kind of) in Youngblood #3. 
• Lilith seems like a perfect villain for Glory and it's a real shame Moore never got to explore it more, as it would have been cool to see how she embodies the evil side of the material world while also having a demonic force in the idea one.
• Real Man sounds awful.
• Glory as a waitress is interesting. It grounded Glory in a world that you don't often see in superhero secret identities.
• Interesting idea for the headpiece/lie detector, but Moore never used it.
• Notice that Moore's story ideas really aren't fleshed out in the slightest: Glory in space, an adventure in the world tree, etc. 
• "As to how this should be structured, that's largely up to you, I guess." Does anyone else read this as though he wasn't actually planning on writing Glory, but was turning it over to another writer? 

Something changed though, and Moore wrote four scripts, two of which got published, which we'll start looking at next week.

A history of The Allies

Derek Mont-Ros asked me if he could fill in some more details on The Allies, and I'm always happy to have anyone share more information on the Awesome Universe. And with the Allies making an appearance in the fan-created Youngblood #12, now seemed like a great time. So here is his guest post.


The Allies first appeared in Youngblood: Strikefile #1.

 

The group was Image's answer to the Avengers and the Justice League of America and consisted of Glory (in her first appearance), the "Golden Age" Die-Hard (there's a debate if this Die-Hard is the one fans have come to know in the modern stories or another Allies member named Free Agent) and Super Patriot (at first having Superman powers, but later more like Captain America).

Later on in Brigade #3, Supreme #0, and Battlestone #1, more members appeared, including Battlestone, Supreme, Roy Roman and Mighty Man.

Brigade #3

Supreme #0

 

Battlestone #1

  

In the '90s, Alan Moore created new characters to fit the obvious DC pastiche theme he had created. With characters such as Professor Night, Storybook Smith, Doc Rocket, Alleycat, Fisherman, Black Hand and Wax Man, he created (in continuity) a pre-Allies team called the Allied Supermen of America.

 

The modern Allies also appeared in the Fighting American miniseries and Holiday Special story, with Thor (not Marvel).

In the early and late '90s two attempts were made to give the Allies their own story. Back when Extreme was still part of Image Comics, an advertisement appeared in Brigade #22 for an Allies series, but it never came out. A series was planned from Moore's Allies proposal, and advertisements were shown in Supreme: The Return. At a 1997 comic convention, an Awesome Allies Preview book was produced but only included sketches of Thor and Loki and a poster. Eric Stephenson was quoted about the series, which you can read here.

The advertisement in Brigade #22

  

 

  

Their last, full appearance was in Youngblood: Imperial #1 and featured Thor, Troll, Free Agent (previously mentioned), and Diehard 2.0.

 

They were referenced in the recent Glory series.

 

Their latest cameo was in Youngblood 2017 #2.

 

Thanks Derek! I'm sure we'll see more of The Allies in future comics, and maybe one day we'll actually get to read Moore's Allies proposal.

The Moore seeds for Youngblood #12

• Moore had the idea for a two-part conclusion with an Allies team up, as described in the proposal:

 

• Moore had proposed doing a New Men series. We never saw more than what was shown in Judgment Day: Aftermath.
• We saw Selene in Judgment Day: Aftermath, Helios appeared in Glory #2, which I'll get to very soon.
• The way Glory changes bodies is very much in keeping with how Moore had her switch bodies, as we'll also see soon.
• Moore hinted at Die Hard being either a robot or a cyborg in the Judgment Day miniseries. We know that he fought in World War II as part of The Allies, but I don't believe Moore ever suggested he was old enough to have known Teddy Roosevelt.
• Moore had plans to use Janet Planet in the Youngblood issue dealing with the Goat, but never did:

• It's very much a Moore idea to have the first issue wrap time back to start the whole series, as Johnny does with the Occupant. 
• The cool page showing Johnny and Doc walking through the lab is reminiscent of this page from Moore's Big Numbers. I'm not sure if he's done it elsewhere.

• Doc's description of Idea Space is pretty much in keeping with Moore's ideas of Idea Space we've talked about repeatedly.
• The joke about turning Sentinel into Big Brother is one Moore tackled early on with Leonard complaining about all the black Youngblood members turning into villains.
• Moore actually planned for Sally and Leonard to remain split up, but I guess our fan-creators decided to go a different way.
• The epilogue's format is taken directly from the Awesome Holiday Special.
• Moore planned to have Stormhead return:

• Suprema's Away Team has two members that Moore had Suprema recommend to Shaft during the formation stage in the Awesome Holiday Special: Skipper and Lamprey.
• Johnny in Idea Space looks very much like Gil Kane's appearance in Judgment Day: Aftermath. And of course, the joke about Idea Space is like LSD is a nod to Moore who has mentioned on several occasions that LSD has affected the way he views time and space, to his benefit as a writer.