Alan Moore's Supreme

[Blader5489]

Has anyone else read this? I just got done reading the first arc, "Supreme Story of the Year", and I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Supreme started out as a Liefield creation that was essentially a violent caricature of Superman. Moore came on board with issue #41 and rebooted the whole thing, transforming Supreme from a (pathetically) serious character to a tongue-in-cheek throwback to the Golden/Silver Age of superheroes, particularly focusing on the Superman mythos.

The artists on this book did an amazing job with the flashback sequences, which are portrayed as 50s/60s style comic books (reinforcing the whole idea of a 90s superhero reflecting on the "good old days" of his past). The word "metafiction" is very appropriate in describing Supreme, in that Moore treats Supreme as a real character in the context of the story, but also treats it as kind of a comic book within a comic book (e.g. one issue contains a gallery of classic Supreme covers, like "the Death of Supreme" and "Judy Jordan: Supreme's Girlfriend"). It's a great way of paying homage to the Golden and Silver Ages, and that's pretty much what Moore's Supreme is all about: taken at face value, it's a fun and entertaining Superman analogue, but below the surface is an absolutely genius work of metafiction. It's the antithesis of Watchmen; whereas Watchmen is a deconstruction of the superhero genre, Supreme is a celebration of it.

It's available in two trades, Supreme: The Supreme Story of the Year and Supreme: The Return. It's a shame that Moore was unable to finish that second arc (due to the publisher collapsing just two months before), because I don't think I would've loved the first arc as much if it hadn't been for the mind-blowing ending. But this is really, really damn good.

Has anyone else read it? I don't think I've seen this run mentioned a lot, if ever.

 

[fifthfiend]

Alan Moore's Supreme was excellent. I think it doesn't get mentioned a lot because there's not a lot to say about it other than "Alan Moore's Supreme was excellent." You can only gush for so long about something being an utterly perfect comic book before you start to feel a little embarrased.

You should also if at all possible look up Alan Moore's Glory, which was the best comic I'd ever read for the three issues of it he was ever able to write.

 

[Harlekin]

Supreme by Moore was awesome.

 

[Addendum]

A website that I used to visit which had an index of comics (sequart.com) summed it up best: Supreme was **** until Alan Moore took it over.

 

[fifthfiend]

Also awesome: Alan Moore's Spawn/WildCATs crossover.

I think it was WildCATs, maybe it was a Spawn/Youngblood crossover or whichever other X-Men ripoff they were pushing those days.

Whatever, Alan More took dog**** and turned it into fine raspberry sorbet.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

I was thinking of getting this paperback a while ago. I may have to rethink that.

 

[SonOfCthulhu]

I've read and treasure both. Alan Moore showed what was important wasn't the countless reboots/retcons a character goes through, but was instead good storytelling. His homage to the Superman mythos that most Superman readers might not even find.

 

[Andy C.]

Supreme felt like Moore was basically giving DC the finger and going "No, you idiots, this is how you write a Superman story!" Needless to say, I love it.