Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #33

 

Supreme issue 33 came out in November 1995. Eric Stephenson was the writer. Penciled by Joe Bennett and Karl Alstaetter. Inked by Norm Rapmund and Eric Cannon. Lettered by Kurt Hathaway. 

Oh yay... another company wide event. What's this one called? Oh. Right. Babewatch. 

Hang on a sec, I need to give myself a pep talk. Okay, Mike, you can do this. Yes, this is a stupid comic even in normal circumstances. Yes, it's terribly written, pretty badly illustrated and lacks any redeeming value. And yes, Babewatch is pretty much the bottom of the barrel in terms of immaturity. But you're only about 8 issues away from being done with this and then I never have to pretend there were any comics before Alan Moore's run. Now get out there and recap this issue! 

Okay, sorry about that. We start the issue with Kid Supreme staring at herself in the mirror and then pull out to see Amnesia Supreme shocked by her appearance as well. They get into a bit of a shoving match for the mirror before Amnesia Supreme gets mad and flies up through Kid Supreme's roof. At which point Kid Supreme thinks, "Great. A woman for all of five minutes and he's already got PMS."

 

Hooboy. This issue is a struggle. 

Amnesia Supreme flies off into space to ditch Kid Supreme while Kid Supreme goes off to check on Original Kid Supreme, who has also turned into a woman. Which is when Amnesia Supreme returns and says that the change has cleared her mind and she has figured out that she's not Supreme. 

She then tells about how Star Guard (the Supreme "children" from the future) fought some battle in our recent past and lost. Supreme went searching for an alien device that could defeat their foe. Probe, the telepath, refused to flee without her brother Val-En. She switched souls with his body and when an explosion killed everyone else, only his body remained. 

Probe/Val-En flew to Earth where people were fighting Hell Lord Chapel. Probe/Val-En pitched in, but he was obliterated and his atoms were blown across existence. But don't worry, they reformed over Tokyo back in issue 24.

Hang on. I need another second. This makes absolutely no sense and is such a stupid explanation for how we got Amnesia Supreme. But this nonsense is what passes for plot. Fine. Fine. Fine. Let's just finish this stupid thing.

So Probe/Val-En concludes that she is Probe and intends to stay that way. Thanks Babewatch for such an empowering tale of feminism!

But Kid Supreme wants to know where the real Supreme is and we cut to the alien "Earth" we saw last issue where two guys are talking about the Supreme we see there. Balthazar and Lord Ardath conclude that even though Supreme is sure this isn't Earth, he can't fly on this planet and is powerless to leave. 

Balthazar leaves and Lord Ardath goes and talks to Supreme. Ardath tells Supreme that he abandoned this Earth and much has changed since. But they're going to throw a parade in his honor, which sets Supreme off.

Ahh... there's that senseless rage that was missing from this comic!

As Ardath leaves, he thinks that he also hates Supreme and that one day Supreme will be dead!

Um... ok. So that's where it ends and thank god, we're one step closer to being done with this run. 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #32

Supreme issue 32 came out in October 1995. Eldon Asp (likely a pseudonym for Eric Stephenson and friends) was the writer. Penciled by Brian Denham and Jeff Johnson. Inked by Norm Rapmund and Eric Cannon. The framing sequence was written by Stephenson. Penciled by Karl Alstaetter and inked by Eric Cannon. Lettered by Kurt Hathaway.

In the 0 issue, we saw someone who looked like Supreme, smells like Supreme and is Probably Supreme shot into space in a tube. Well, the tube has landed on a planet that looks like Earth and Probably Supreme is investigating.

We cut to Chi on his world, last seen in the Supreme annual. Chi had hired an assassin to kill the Religious Fanatic Supreme and that Religious Fanatic Supreme had vowed revenge. Chi gets a message that says "Soon. -Supreme". Chi gets some girl named Tohreen and his armor. 

We then get a little recap of the annual story, before we see Religious Supreme show up at Chi's doorstep. 

Religious Fanatic Supreme shows up and he and Chi start fighting. As they're fighting, Religious Fanatic Supreme chases Chi into a tunnel inside a waterfall where he sees the mangled form of Father Beam, the priest Religious Fanatic Supreme killed in Legend of Supreme. 

 

Beam accuses Religious Fanatic Supreme of being a sinful murderer. Religious Fanatic Supreme realizes that Beam would never equate the sinner with the sin and that it must be Chi, who Religious Fanatic Supreme then incinerates. 

Religious Fanatic Supreme then flies off. How that links to the story of Probably Supreme on the planet like Earth, I have no idea. But I guess they wanted to finish off that subplot from the annual, which I guess I appreciate. That said, Religious Fanatic Supreme will still show up one more time. 

On not Earth, Probably Supreme gets a ride in a hover farm truck toward Capital City and the farmer tells him that it is Earth. 

 Meanwhile, Amnesia Supreme is flying around Washington, DC, when Kid Supreme shows up. Just as Amnesia Supreme is about to tell Kid Supreme that he is not Supreme, they both turn into women. 

 

Yeah, this whole Eric Stephenson run is really off to a great start.

 

Reading pre-Moore Supreme - Supreme #0

 

Supreme issue 0 came out in August 1995. Eric Stephenson came on as the writer. Penciled by Todd Nauck. Inked by Norm Rapmund, Robert Lacko and Eric Cannon. Lettered by Kurt Hathaway. 

When most people think of a 0 issue, they think of a story that happens before issue 1. In Eric Stephenson's mind, it's a story to catch up readers to a very specific point... in this case to after issue 31.  What!?!

For those who don't know, Rob Liefeld plucked Eric Stephenson out of his fandom to write Youngblood. He eventually became the editor of the Extreme books while writing some not particularly good ones. He was Moore's editor during the Awesome years. And later he became the editor in chief of all of Image.

The issue begins with a car driving down a stretch of road. 

In the car are Amnesia Supreme and his guide, Jack Simon. Jack Simon is a reference to Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the creators of Captain America. Jack takes Amnesia Supreme to an abandoned military compound in the desert. Jack tells him this is where Supreme comes from, but for Amnesia Supreme, he has no memory of this place.

Jack says he's a former journalist turned comic book writer and that he's here to tell Amnesia Supreme about the myth of Supreme, but that Amnesia Supreme is not actually Supreme. 

Jack was initially hired by the Smithsonian to research Supreme's involvement in WWII, and his monstrous acts, which we've seen illustrated before. He tells Amnesia Supreme about Dr. Wells and his experiments, pretty much following the story told in Legend of Supreme. That at some point Supreme disappeared and popped up fighting in Germany. 

Jack started writing comics in the post-war era about Glory, Die Hard, etc., but the people wanted comics about Supreme. As he investigated, he found that Supreme hadn't escaped Dr. Well's lab, he had been stolen and moved to a lab in Arizona... the one they're at now. In Arizona, a computer recorded everything about Supreme to be able to recreate him.  

Jack then jumps back to tell about Supreme returning to Earth, as we've seen in the last 31 issues of this comic, up until Supreme was killed by Crypt and the body disappeared. 

Despite telling us very little that is new, Amnesia Supreme demands, "Why should I believe any of this? You're a comic book writer!" 

Jack tells him that he kept investigating even as the government confiscated his evidence. But then Amnesia Supreme showed up. But that only makes the mystery more confusing. According to Jack, either the real Supreme either didn't return from space or he did and now he's gone again. 

Amnesia Supreme has had enough and I'm pretty much with him at this point.  

We then get an epilogue on an alien planet where a battle-scarred Supreme is loaded into a tube and shot into space. 

 

So, I guess I get that Stephenson wanted to make sure new readers were caught up on all the backstory. A problem is that the backstory of Supreme has never been all that interesting or important. And it definitely doesn't work as a 0 issue.

And it doesn't matter because we'll never see Jack Simon again. Oh well, maybe Stephenson's run gets better from here. 

Narrator: "It doesn't."