(I dropped the ball on my Shadowline posts, part 2 of which was supposed
to go live today. I just haven't had the energy to put toward the kind of post
I'd like to do about them. I really think they're important comics, so I want
to get it right. By way of apology, and I'll be keeping a few of these queued
up just in case I drop the ball again, here's some of the earliest
"critical" writing I did on comics, circa 2001. I haven't edited or
changed anything. I think it's important to recognize where you've come from.
Be gentle.)
Supreme
A review of issues #41 - 52b, by Alan Moore
and various artists
specifically, Rob Liefeld's, answer to the Man of Tomorrow. That the book lasted through 40 issues and various mini-series' is a testament to his popularity, but it wasn't until #41 that both fans and the industry sat up and took notice. Perhaps in an effort to tell the Superman stories he couldn't tell at DC, Alan Moore took over the book, and in many ways, the whole universe he existed in.
The effect these flashbacks have, especially in the later issues where Liefeld had departed from the ranks of Image and taken his characters with him, is to set up an entire super-hero history that you can get the scope of in only 13 issues, hence the 60 years of reading Supreme. In much the same way he parodied / tributed old Marvel titles in the 1963 series, Moore takes all the conventions of the DC universe and makes them new. For those familiar with comics there are in-jokes a-plenty, yet not so many that new readers will feel lost.
This is a comic for anyone who misses the wonder a
super-hero
title used to give. It's not grim, it's not violent, it's not full of sex, but
it will make you smile and laughand be moved. The opinion
I've most heard expressed about this series is it's contrast to Watchmen,
Moore's most well-known work. Where Watchmen seemed to be about
deconstructing the super-hero ideal, Supreme is about how wonderful an
ideal it is.
Supreme is only currently
available in back issue, and they're very scarce. There are plans to release a
hardcover of the issues I've reviewed, but no firm date. Supreme: The Return
#4 - 6 are supposed to be out in March - April 2000.
Supreme was
published monthly by Image, then by Maximum Press, and then by Awesome
Entertainment.
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