Reading pre-Moore Supreme - The Legend of Supreme #3

 

Issue #3 (the final issue) came out in February 1995. The plot and layouts are by Keith Giffen. The co-plot and script is by Giffen's longtime partner Robert Loren Fleming. The pencils are by Jeff Johnson and Dan Panosian, who also handles the inks.  

We start this issue with a reporter covering the destruction of an apartment building caused by the fighting of the two Supremes. The reporters tell us the the United Nations is discussing using nuclear weapons against the rampaging Supremes.

At the TV station where Maxine works, her editor is looking for him, but she's been missing for days.

Meanwhile, the Supremes are fighting, each thinking the other is the impostor. They quote scripture at each other while they fight.

I like the idea of Supreme thinking he's a god/son of God, but all the scripture ultimately starts to feel like too much and doesn't really give us any insight into who Supreme is or how he got that way.

Meanwhile, Maxine is following up on the Gospel of Ethan Crane, which she discovered in her apartment last issue. The account tells of Ethan waking up from being dead and having escaped from Dr. Wells' experiments.

 

It was 1939 and he was naked in the snow when he entered a church. The priest offers him sanctuary and he works for his keep while listening to the news about the war on the radio. One day he starts hearing the Christ statue talking to him and he starts talking back to it. He is soon flying as though nailed to the cross, his identification with Christ complete.

Meanwhile, the two Washington powerful men we saw last issue are congratulating themselves over their solution to the problem and choose to not be worried about Maxine's story.

In space, the real Supreme realizes the fake Supreme is fighting just like he would. He realizes it's a clone from the sample he gave a year ago but that he's one year stronger and pokes the clone's eyes out with his fingers. 

He then breaks its neck and drops it in the sun to burn up. 

Maxine turns in her story about Supreme's origin and then goes home, refusing to read it on the air. She offers this bit about his origin: "Do you remember when he first showed up? What he said? 'I am Supreme!' I don't think he was telling us his name, Sid. I think he was trying to convince himself." I'm not sure what it means, except that maybe be doubts his godhood and is trying to convince himself to justify the things he's done? 

She goes home and Supreme is waiting for her. She quotes commandments to him, about having no other god before God and thou shall not kill. He thinks she doubts him even though he gave her his story to carry his message.

She says that she feels a reawakening of her faith, but not for him. But that she'll pray for his lost soul.

He demands that she'll tell his story, which she laughingly agrees to. He then says he's leaving Earth again. And she wants to know why he left Earth in the first place.

We get a flashback to the priest who took Ethan in. He is chastising Ethan for killing and Ethan slaps him to death. 

That caused him to flee Earth. 

Back in the present, we see Supreme departing again and get the pretentious quote, "There is no fundamental, but that every supreme power be arbitrary," from  George Savile, the Marquis of Halifax, 1633-1695. 

Basically, Savile was arguing against the supreme power of the English monarchy and arguing for the Glourious Revolution that brought William and Mary to power. He thought no one should have Supreme power as they won't act in a reasonable way with it. I guess this would work for an ending if anyone thought Supreme should have supreme power and act responsibly with it in the first place. But no one reading Supreme comes away with the thought that Supreme is a good guy or the right guy to have this power. That's the point. Supreme has always been the wrong guy.

Anyway, that was The Legend of Supreme. I'm not sure we really learned all that much new about Supreme. Does him being reborn and being found by a priest before accidentally killing him jibe with the origins we've read in the main series? No. Does the way he leaves Earth fit with what we learned in Glory Days? No. I appreciate the attempt to find more to the character and fill in his backstory, but ultimately it's not enough and doesn't really make him any more of a compelling character than he already was.

More than anything, it feels like more there's now another version of Supreme running around the universe. And in truth, we'll see this version of Supreme again. But for now, back to the regular series. 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - The Legend of Supreme #2

 

Issue #2 came out in January 1995. The plot and layouts are by Keith Giffen. The co-plot and script is by Giffen's longtime partner Robert Loren Fleming. The pencils are by Jeff Johnson and the inks are by Dan Panosian.  

We pick up this issue still in flashback to 1939 and Ethan Crane is dead from the experimenting by Dr. Wells. Ethan lasted far longer than the previous test subjects.

We then see that Maxine is listening to the interview with a lab assistant. She is making a list of pros and cons about moving ahead with her story and "Supreme destroying the entire planet" goes on the cons list.

Speaking of which, Supreme is in Illinois visiting a prison that happens to have buildings structured in the sign of the beast: 666. This sets Supreme on his guard from his arrival and asking to be pointed to Death Row. There he finds a bunch of paranormal killers, one of whom likens Supreme to a vision from Revelations.

Supreme kills them all.

As he's leaving, we hear him talking to God as his father, lamenting the time he was a Bible salesman selling Bibles in the Dust Bowl to needy farmers. The farmers would cast aside their faith when the rain fell. But Ethan learned his lesson. To reward every man what he deserves.

Back in 1939, Wells and his assistant are excited when Crane's body comes back to life. 

Wells has a theory that they're seeing evolution in process, making whatever is in Ethan stronger. Wells proposes killing Crane again and again to further the evolutionary process. Or like the Hindus believe that each death brings a soul closer to enlightenment.

Maxine learns this process went on for months. She also learns that eventually Ethan escaped. His last words were "Ecce homo," which refers to Christ on the Cross. It means "Behold the man."

As she is listening to the recording of this interview we see Supreme looming outside her window.

In Washington, two powerful men are talking about Supreme's killings in the prison and their concerns that he might kill more paranormal figures. 

It comes out that one of them took samples of Supreme when he returned from space and made a clone of Supreme, complete with memories. They go to see the clone in Iowa and it turns out the clone has been quoting scripture in his sleep. If released, the clone will believe it is Supreme and they'll have no control of it. 

One of them orders the other to wake up the clone. They show the clone TV footage of the real Supreme's destruction. They tell clone Supreme that the real one is the imposter and is branding people with 666. 

 

The clone flies off to kill real Supreme and one of the men wonders if they'll destroy half the planet. But the other says to stop worrying, that they'll likely kill each other.

This is a really bad plan.

Meanwhile, Maxine dreams that real Supreme breaks into Maxine's house and kills her by crushing her head with his hand. 

After awaking and throwing up, she goes to her computer to see that Supreme was there and left his story, "The Gospel according to Ethan Crane." 

 We'll find out more next time.

I mostly like this series. It's well written and I find the characterization of Supreme as an overtly Christ-like figure, but much more wrathful, to be interesting. But that doesn't really feel like enough narrative thrust for a story. Supreme is treated more as a villain but there are no heroes. And his backstory isn't really that interesting. So, it's not bad, but considering this is as good as Supreme ever gets until Moore takes over, it's not like anyone who chose to skip these stories were really missing out. 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - The Legend of Supreme #1

We're on the second miniseries spinoff of Supreme! The series that wasn't good enough for its own series now has two more! Extreme!

Issue #1 came out in December 1994. The plot and layouts are by Keith Giffen. The co-plot and script is by Giffen's longtime partner Robert Loren Fleming. The pencils are by Jeff Johnson and the inks are by Dan Panosian. 

We start with Maxine watching her TV interview with Supreme from issue 10, in which he claims to be a god and that he was a product of an experiment against the Nazis in the 1930s. Maxine doesn't believe Supreme's story and decides to investigate. Holy $#!%, you mean she's going to do her job rather than stalk Supreme, swearing her need for revenge!?! 

We then jump to Supreme in Connecticut, where he has destroyed the headquarters of the Genetech company, and threatening to kill anyone who tries to meddle in matters beyond their comprehension.

We should pause for a minute to acknowledge that this neither sounds like the Supreme we're used to nor looks like him. The red of his costume now comes down to his belt and the white is now a gray/black with stars in it. I like the design, but it really feels like a different version of the character. Which, considering how little there is to the Supreme character, I'm fine with. Supreme spares one survivor as his messenger that mankind must stop this genetic research. 

Maxine watches footage of the story and convinces her editor to let her chase down the real story of Supreme's origin, which he reluctantly does: "It's your funeral!" The foreshadowing isn't really subtle, but the literary tool of foreshadowing is so beyond the abilities of the main series that I still see it as a positive.

We cut back to 1944 in France, where Supreme, not in his costume, is killing some Nazis. 

We find out that this is a flashback by way of an interview Maxine is doing with the WWII vet who was Supreme's commanding officer. He was in charge of making sure Supreme kept killing, but eventually came to realize Supreme was prolonging the war as part of the "weeding out process" of evolution of mankind. 

Maxine finds out that rather than a superior candidate, Ethan (is that still his name?) was actually a convict. He sends her to talk to Sophie Miles next.

Meanwhile Supreme is in the Himalayas. There's a weird caption that reads "On the fortieth night of the fortieth day..." which means what, exactly? Fortieth day since what? Since he returned to Earth? It's trying to be Biblical, but it doesn't really mean anything.

Supreme is talking to himself about Maxine's pursuit. This Supreme quotes scripture... a lot. I find this version of Supreme to be the most interesting. A guy who has convinced himself that he is a god and is drawing direction from his misunderstanding of the Bible. He's so much scarier this way than the sort of pointless version we've seen in the main series.

We cut back to 1937 in St. Louis. He goes into a speakeasy to confront someone who raped a 1t-year-old. The guy asks Ethan, "Didja come to impose penance, 'Father' Crane?" But Ethan pulls out a gun and shoots the guy. 

As he's leaving, the police move to stop him and end up shooting him.

Maxine learns this from interviewing the then-15-year-old, Sophie Miles, and learns that Ethan survived and was sentenced to life in jail. Apparently Ethan still visits her and proceeds to quote some scripture herself. 

 

This sets Maxine off from her parochial school days, and starts recalling the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible. Mainly she remembers how Lot's wife was told not to turn back and watch this destruction, but did anyway and paid for it with her life.

We cut to Salem, Massachusetts, "deep in the heart of a Covenant cell..." the Covenant being the weird religious cult of Extreme villains that pop up in those big crossovers. 

They realize that it's only a matter of time before Supreme confronts them and must be preemptive. Supreme is attacking their genetic engineering fronts. In order to divert Supreme, they are going to help Maxine discredit Supreme.

There's a kind of beautiful one page scene where Supreme is in space and seems to be talking to God, saying "Soon..." So often, we see Superman as a Christ or religious figure of someone extremely powerful but with a belief in forgiveness and kindness. Supreme is a religious figure, but of a wrathful god, which makes it so much scarier. It's a nice twist on expectations and handled well here.

We cut to Maxine listening to the rest of her recorded interview with Sophie. Sophie says that Ethan was given the opportunity to volunteer for the experiments and that afterwards he came to her. He still blamed himself for overhearing the guys who raped her and not stopping them. She says that he used to say in his sleep that he was firing the gun at himself as much as them. Of course, she'd overhear that while sleeping with Supreme, which surprises Maxine. 

There's a question of continuity here. Is Supreme sleeping with Sophie during the war? Is it after the war but before he flew into outer space? What about Louise, the love of Supreme's life, whose grave he visits? It doesn't really add up. 

Anyway, Maxine gets a call about the last person still living connected with the experiments and knows her next step.  

In Las Vegas, the mobsters are conferring about Supreme threatening to shut them down. They think about getting a superpowered minion to fight Supreme, but it's a lose-lose situation for them. But then they get a call from Maxine.

We cut to 1939 in a secret lab. Dr. Wells is experimenting on Ethan. 

 

This is a flashback to Maxine's interview with a bedridden assistant. She thinks Ethan mutated into Supreme. But he tells her that Ethan died, as the six test subjects before him did. And then he says, "And then came... the horrible part!"

To be continued.

This is an actual compelling issue that is about so much more than mindless fighting. I'll take more of this, please!