Superman Analogues: Supreme
182Case Aiken's a big fan of Superman (if you couldn't tell)! He's got a lot to say about the characters who are based on him or who fit the same archetype! This week, we're talking about Supreme, a Superman who's been revised so many times, even he's caught on to it!
Find the original thread here: https://twitter.com/CaseAiken/status/...
Original text: Strap in, boys and girls, because today we're going to be talking about one of my favorite comics of all time. Today we're talking about @ROBLIEFELD 's Supreme.
#Supreme was part of the early Image run of comics. He first appeared in #Youngblood and then went on to have his own book.
Liefeld writes very eloquently about his characters. I remember a forward to possibly the first issue that stated the idea was to do Superman type ramped up to near omnipotence then strip the assumed morality away and watch him interact in a densely populated world of superheroes
The execution ultimately fell a little flat for readers. Part of this was that everyone wanted either Wolverine or Batman. As a result, the character was rebooted several times in what I think ended up being only 70ish issues of a book (though it took nearly 2 decades)
Now, while I read those early books, my favorite and probably the most famous run was Alan Moore's. Who turned it into a metacommentary on the medium, drawing heavily on Silver Age Superman iconography.
The book was still not a top seller, despite critical acclaim, so issues were hard to find back in the day. This was my OTHER book that I quested for, along with the aforementioned Miracleman.
More recently, it's been collected, so one can find reprints fairly easily. Which I would encourage people to seek out. Usually with Alex Ross art on the cover (generally a good idea, though I wish it was art with the costume that he actually wears in the books)
But, look, you might be asking "why is this one worth it?" And that's fair. For starters, the Alan Moore run is fairly short, so it's not a huge investment. The first volume is a complete story that deals with the changing nature of comics while also being filled with twists
The second volume is...not...a complete story. There are several stand alone stories (some amazing ones), but the final arc was left incomplete.
It was picked up MANY years later by @ErikJLarsen who attempted to do justice to the earlier run, but it was ultimately a different book and didn't get enough attention to keep it going so it eventually petered out.
It's hard to properly explain how fun this book was. I mean, the character was aware that he was just the latest in a long line of rebooted superheroes and he was able to go see them in a sort of Valhalla for retconned characters, including Golden Age and cartoon animal versions
And look, this was an early reconstructionist work that challenged the deconstructionist movement that spawned the original character, but the medium has moved on. We've seen material like this since, but goshdarnit this was such a breath of fresh air at the time.
We got to see multipart scheme's by classically evil supervillains, interesting time travel stories, introspection on humanity when stuck in a robot duplicate of your younger self, and a super dog in heat. It applied the latest innovations in comics to a silver age setting.
Image 1 – Chris Sprouse poster
Image 2 – Youngblood #3, Art by Rob Liefeld
Image 3 – Supreme #1, Art by Brian Murray
Image 4 - Troll Poster, Art by Jeff Matsuda
Image 5 - Bloodstrike #1, Art by Rob Liefeld
Image 6 - Brigade #1, Art by Rob Liefeld
Image 7 - Supreme #25, Illustrated by Shawn McManus, Corky Lehmkuhl
Image 8 - Supreme #41, Art by Jerry Ordway
Image
9 - Supreme Concept, Art by Alex Ross
Image 10 – Supreme Poster, Art by Alex Ross
Image 11 - Supreme #41, Art by Joe Bennett
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12 - Supreme #50, Art by Chris Sprouse
Image 13 - Supreme #53, Art by Chris Sprouse
Image 14 - Supreme #63, Art by Erik Larsen
Image 15 - Supreme #41, Art by Joe Bennett
Image 16 - Supreme #42, Art by Rick Veitch
Image 17 - Supreme #53, Art by Chris Sprouse
Image 18 - League of Infinity Chris Sprouse
Image 19 – Supreme #54, Art by Rick Veitch
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20 – Supreme: The Return #4, Art by Matt Smith
Image 21 - Supreme #41, Art by Jerry Ordway
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22 - Supreme Blue Rose, Art by Tula Lotay
Music by Bret Eagleston - www.breteagleston.bandcamp.com
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