Weekly Reading: Supreme #56

Supreme #56

Published by Awesome Entertainment in February 1998

The covers:

Title: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side...

(As always: Supreme is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

This is it guys - the breaking point. The beginning of the end. This two-parter that begins with this issue is the last story Chris Sprouse will do. After this issue was published, Moore stops working for Awesome, leaving behind several scripts and proposals that Liefeld and company will release intermittently at best.

1998 was a very cruel year.

At least this is a fun two-parter, so we can go out with a smile. So, let's get into it. We get two covers for this issue, as Awesome was doing a company-wide set of variants by Ed McGuinness doing his sort of chibi versions of characters (as we saw on Judgment Day: Aftermath). The other cover shows that Chris Sprouse finally figured out how to draw Suprema's costume.

Then we have the last of Todd Klein's credits pages:

We start the story with two suprematons getting us up-to-date on everything. Supreme is off with Diana; Suprema is off with Twilight in Star City, Radar is off in space. Amalynth is complaining about being in close proximity to Optilux, who turned them into living light. All of the suprematons are getting upgrades in consciousness to match the former S-1, now Talos, and might need a bill of rights, though maybe they don't want consciousness.

In the background, we see the Televillain take over all the screens before appearing in person. There's a fun chase as the suprematons talk in robot while chasing the Televillain: "Rhetorical question: Isn't that the Tellevillain?"

They chase him to the Hell of Mirrors, where he has let out the other villains. In addition to the Tellevillain, Korgo, Shadow Supreme, Sentinel and Slaver Ant (a bug woman) all escape, with Slaver Ant telling us that The End refused to go with them. Sentinel quickly takes off (we'll see him later in the pages of Youngblood) leaving the others to decide what to do. The Televillain and Slaver Ant find Optilux's prison, which can only spell trouble.

We cut to Ethan and Diana in Diana's apartment, where she's about to turn on Friends. In 1998, it would have been in its fourth season, having become quite the hit by this point. As they watch, the Televillain turns up on the show and guns down Monica and Rachel, threatening the TV networks that unless they pay him, he's going to kill their ratings.

"Pay up by tomorrow or I whack Commander Picard and the fruity robot guy!" he says. (That's Captain Picard to you!)

What a wonderfully ridiculous comicbook villain scheme.

Ethan goes to the phone to call the Kendalls to check on Sally. Taylor Kendall replies that she was there taking a look at Linda's new Twilight costume, but left to meet Radar at the Citadel.

Just a note on that middle panel. So, Twilight, who mentioned in Judgment Day that she thought modern superheroines had an interesting look, has updated hers. Gone is the innocent "Robin" sort of look for a leather and chains look that looks like something the Comedian might appreciate. Also, isn't it a little odd how Taylor is just sort of sitting there watching, with Linda's civilian clothes tossed off to the side. I don't know, maybe it's just me.

Ethan tells Diana that he's going to alert Supreme and tells her to stay inside. As he leaves, the television reports that the cast of Friends were fine, but the fictional ones on the show were not. Just another little touch of Moore suggesting the power of story over reality.

Back at the Citadel, the Tellevillain joins Slaver Ant, Korgo and the lion-headed alien executioner Vor-Em, who also left the prison. They decide to go cause some mischief, leaving the Shadow Supreme to kill suprematons.

A little later, Suprema flies down and sees Supreme in the distance and starts explaining how ridiculous Twilight's new costume is. But as she gets closer, she realizes that it isn't Supreme, but the Shadow Supreme covered in blood with Radar's body tossed aside. Suprema isn't the only one horrified by this.

Shadow Supreme does a number on Sally, threatening her with death and far worse, all because she helped wo kill Darius Dax, the Shadow Supreme's creator. This part goes on too long and probably goes too far in my opinion, but has to so that when Supreme shows up and says, "Leave my sister alone!" while giving him a good pounding, it's awesome.

The heroes are shellshocked by the death of Radar. They realize they need to recapture all of the villains before things get even more out of hand. Suprema volunteers to take the others if Supreme will handle the Shadow Supreme. Supreme tries to think back to why he created the Hell of Mirrors in the first place, which leads us into a Rick Veitch flashback!

Supreme is babysitting Judy Jordan's niece and nephew, Janey and Jimmy, and they want to know where the mirrors came from. Supreme explains that the mirrors are a barrier of hard light between our world and another. In the home of a vanished mathematician named Dodgson, he found a mirror that led into Lewis Carroll's Wonderland from the Alice books.

A literary world that was real. Of course.

Another thing to consider about this. Professor Night has a pair of villains, the Walrus and the Carpenter, whom we've seen a little bit of here and there. Up until this point, everyone who thought about it believed they were themed after the Alice villains, like the Mad Hatter in Batman books. But they're not. They're the real Walrus and carpenter!

Moore's idea of a shared literary universe in the Awesome universe just got a lot bigger.

Anyway, Supreme used the technology to construct his mirror prison. Supreme captured Korgo the space tyrant and Vor-Em and put them there. He tells Janey and Jimmy that he added the Shadow Supreme in 1958 and then the Televillain. Slaver Ant was added later after she tried to steal children and raise them as servants.

There's an interesting cut away to the statues of the League of Infinity in the Citadel, showing a smiling Wild Bill next to a smiling Witch Woman. Obviously this is intended to remind us that Bill died last issue and that Witch Woman was the one who suggested it. It's that interplay of the old and innocent with the modern and experience that makes Supreme work so well, even just casually as this image is.

Supreme tells about a time the Supremium Man II tricked his way out and the time the backward Supreme Emerpus tried to un-jail the prisoners as he would do in his own world. Jimmy asks why Supreme doesn't execute them, but Supreme says it's against his oath.

Back in the modern story, Supreme goes to confront the Shadow Supreme while Suprema puts out a fire he started. The Tellevillain goads her into chasing him as he leaps from TV antenna to TV antenna. He tells her that Korgo and Vor-Em headed to Washington while Slaver Ant is checking out maternity hospitals. Meanwhile, he set up a guest act in the form of Optilux at a Bon Jovi concert.

What happens next? Well, for those of us following along back then, we had to wait more than a year to find out. You just have to wait a week.

In the letters section, there was this little bit from a letter that caught my eye:

 

If sales were weak for Supreme and the other Awesome titles, you can see why an investor might pull out of the company. 

Drat.

This is where I say, "As always, please check out the Supreme Annotations Page, for all of the details and references that I completely missed," except I've run out of the Supreme annotations by Aaron Severson and am now doing them myself. Please help me by letting me know anything I missed that can be added to the annotations. Thanks!

The Awesome Army Online

I talked a little about the Awesome Army Online after Judgment Day: Aftermath, but it deserves some going into, which I'll do now.

Fan groups and fanzines have sprung up around comics forever. In fact, back in the early '80s, Alan Moore wrote a regular column in a British magazine reviewing fanzines. So it shouldn't be surprising that Awesome had one, too.

The Awesome Army Online was created in 1997 by Andy Wolfe, who wanted to create a forum for Awesome fans free of "Liefeld-bashers." Soon Chris Milnar, president of the Supreme Fan Club, came on, as well as a guy named Mick Swinarski. Swinarski was a longtime Captain America fan who contacted Jeph Loeb and followed Loeb to Fighting American and Awesome.

Swinarski became the editor of the fanzine, the AAO Outpost. The first edition of the Outpost came out in March/April of 1999. The Outposts were filled with fan fiction text and comics about all of the Awesome characters, as well as interviews and random fan pieces. (It helps to have a passing knowledge of most of the Awesome comics to get all the references.)

The stories, like most fan fiction, are a mixture of good and bad, but the love of the characters is palpable throughout. And, as we saw in the Gil Kane story, some of the stories are well worth remembering.

Professor Night was a favorite, as you can see in this story from the second Outpost:

Here's another good one, an origin story for the Winter Knight from Judgment Day:

 

  

  

  

 

The Outpost lasted seven issues (and the Gil Kane supplement) before they realized that Awesome was dead and all of the creators went their ways. However, they've left this wonderful little treasure chest of love for the Awesome universe. As there aren't going to be any more Awesome stories from Alan Moore or Jeph Loeb, you can do a lot worse than check out the hidden gems in here. A few of the creators have gone to work as artists or writers on comics or in the comics field.

I've made a page dedicated to the AAO here, where you can download all the issues for yourself. I had the good fortune to talk to a number of the creators of these and appreciated their answering my pedantic questions and allowing me to share these with you.

I'll probably reprint some more of the stories in some future posts where it makes sense (or I'm desperate for something to write about.

The dead man's hand

As you probably gathered from the Weekly Reading, I think an awful lot of issue #55 and its story about the killing of Wild Bill Hickok. I think there's a lot to be read into the story and the details that one could just gloss over (such as Elvis' song mentioned at the beginning).

Something that has always struck me as odd is this panel, the cutaway we get as Achilles shoots Bill in the back. We see the cards go flying and the sound of the gunshot. Moore is precise in his scripts and would have told Chris Sprouse exactly which cards to illustrate. But why these cards?

 

The hand Bill had at the time of his death was recorded and has been well known as the dead man's hand. But this isn't it.

Of the four cards he had, there were two black aces, two black eights and an unknown hole card. So we only have one correct card.

Here's the thing, though. Moore is a big believer in the Tarot. He worked it into his script for the Fashion Beast movie and deeply into Promethea. He believes in numbers and symbols.

So, let's look at what these four cards tell us. Reading them from left to right (as the reader does in Tarot) we first get the Queen of Hearts. 

According to The Cards of Life:

Charming, magnetic and often quite attractive, the Queen of Hearts has an innate ability to have favorable influence over others. The “Mother of Higher Love” commands powerful emotions of empathy and compassion with a flair for the dramatic, a potent combination that makes this card, when in a tight spot, prone to excitability or moodiness.

I think this represents the love Bill feels for Jessie.

Next up is the Six of Clubs. Again, according to The Cards of Life:

Finding and aligning with truth is the highest expression of the Six of Clubs. They represent the power, and the karma, of the spoken word. When they are meticulous with their words and thoughts, positive karma flows. Conversely, being less than honest brings consequences of that negative energy as well. Finding one’s truth and living by it, opens limitless possibilities for constructive contribution to life. Six of Clubs people are natural way-showers, light bearers, messengers, and often feel called to share their truth with others.

Until the Six of Clubs finds their truth, they can feel directionless and adrift. A classic procrastinator, the Six of Clubs can struggle to find their purpose and direction in life. 

With such power, however, comes responsibility. ...[L]earning the true meaning of power, and how it can corrupt the holder, is a life lesson for one who seeks their true purpose. Once their direction in life is clear, Six of Clubs people have all the innate resources to make a positive contribution to life whether it’s within their immediate circle of influence or on a larger, global scale.

I take this to be Bill, who when he was living honestly, was a force for good. He was well liked and respected. However, when he became corrupted and changed time, terrible things happened.

Then comes the Ace of Spades. The Cards of Life:

The Ace of Spades is the most spiritual card in the deck. It is the symbol of ancient mysteries... and the card that represents transformation.

It's also long been known in many traditions as the death card.

Finally comes the Two of Hearts. The Cards of Life:

Born into the Venus/Neptune position in the Master Life Script, the Two of Hearts comes to the world with a concept of ideal love and spends much of their life seeking it. They appreciate their friendships and make others feel appreciated and valued. Evident by their words and deeds, the focus is on the other. Often called the “sweetheart card,” they are pleasant and amiable people. Reality can at times be a harsh teacher so when the inevitable breach in the idealized relationship with friends or lovers occurs, the Two of Hearts feels more severely the dashing of their dreams rather than the actual unkindness.

And this is Future Woman, who has to pretend to be Jessie, who loves Bill as a friend, who has to see his face as he dies. The death of her ideal is the strongest felt blow.

Anyway, maybe this is what Moore meant, maybe not. Maybe it didn't mean anything other than the legends about Wild Bill's famous dead man's hand were untrue. Maybe reality is still not what it's supposed to be.

As with reading Tarot, ultimately it's in how the story is heard and processed and chosen to mean that gives it its power.

If you'd like a more traditional reading of the death of Hickok, there's this one from PokerStrategy.com: