Rob Liefeld came to Image bursting with "neat ideas" but he was unskilled at developing them. For example, his "high concept" for Youngblood was that, if superheroes existed in real life, they would be treated as celebrities, much the same as movie stars and athletes. It took 15 months to produce six issues, and not much was done with that initial concept. At the time of its release, Youngblood #1 was the highest selling independent comic book ever published, but it was poorly received because of unclear storytelling, poor anatomy, incorrect perspective, non-existent backgrounds, poor dialogue and the late shipping of the book. In an interview in Hero Illustrated #4, Liefeld conceded disappointment: “Youngblood #1 was a disaster, period, end of story. Put it behind me. It will always exist, but disaster. I worked with a friend, who I let go after that, who scripted the book. And when we reprint the first four issues, or zero through four, the whole probably will be rescripted and people will see how different, a different script on top of it. I did not write that. People, I was doing on that what I did on X-Force. I plotted it, and Fabian Nicieza would come in and script on me on X-Force."
Or, as Peter David put it in his "But I Digress" column: "There it is, folks. From Rob himself–the reason that Youngblood had such an abysmal launch. Never mind that the first test of a comic book page is that you should be able to look at it unscripted and still be able to have some idea of what’s happening (it’s called “storytelling”). Never mind the bad anatomy, lack of correct perspective, and non-existent backgrounds. Never mind that the book shipped, and continued to ship, months late. Rob squarely gives credit for the pure lousiness of Youngblood to 'friend' Hank Kanalz." David went on to say: "[Liefeld] seems truly flummoxed that Kanalz was not able to do for him what Nicieza did for him: Namely, make him look good." But, for what it's worth, Liefeld did learn from the experience, as we shall see.
David's interpretation of events does jibe with Liefeld's concept of "creation." I recall reading (probably in Comics Buyer's Guide "back inna day") of Liefeld addressing the question "Why Image?" He replied something along the lines of, "What if I want to creat a fast guy? DC already has a fast guy. Marvel already has a fast guy. At Image I can create my own fast guy." What I took from that is "create = design a costume." We had already seen his version of "creation" with Deadpool (Spider-Man/Wolverine/Deathstroke) and Youngblood (various members of the Teen Titans and the Legion of Super-Heroes). Now we're about to see it again. Let's look at Supreme.
The "high concept" behind Supreme is a "Superman" archetype with no moral restraints, a character who would do anything and everything to win, a character who would not hold back, ever. But this time, instead of doing it himself or turning it over to a friend, he hired Brian Murray to develop the concept. Murray was credited in the first issue as penciler, writer, and with color design; Liefeld took the credits of creator, writer and inker. In later issues, he credited himself with "plot" and Murray with "co-plot"; later still, it was Liefeld "story" and Murray "script"; more recently he has been listed as sole creator. I didn't read much beyond the first issue, but from what I understand, what Supremem was mostly was brutal and ultra-violent. According to Wikipedia: "His history varies; at one point, he is an angel of vengeance who quotes The Bible to justify his actions. At other times, such as when he defeats the Norse god Thor and takes his mystical hammer Mjölnir, Supreme considers himself a god."
Before moving on, I would like to mention that I did buy those "Thor" issues of Supreme (#8-9). Editor (and by that time, writer) Kurt Hathaway provided a series of "helpful" footnotes for "unfamiliar" names (such as Mjollnir¹, Baldr², The Ragnarok³ and Valhalla⁴), as if anyone reading Supreme would have been unfamiliar with the Norse myths (or, more likely, Marvel Comics). Who did he think he was fooling?
- Thor's hammer
- Thor's brother, who was killed by another sibling, Loki
- The End of the World in which Thor's death is predestined to take place
- The Region of the Dead reserved for warriors who have died in battle
NEXT: Enter Alan Moore
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Eh, I can see that not everyone who reads comic books are also familiar with Norse mythology.
As to Supreme, my only exposure to him was the Alan Moore run. I bought a trade..15? 20 years ago?
Eh, I can see that not everyone who reads comic books are also familiar with Norse mythology.
Yeah, but I'll bet there weren't too many who were reading Image Comics in 1992 who weren't familiar with Marvel's Thor.
As to Supreme, my only exposure to him was the Alan Moore run. I bought a trade..15? 20 years ago?
Yeah, that's about right. Checker BPG (Book Publishing Group) reprinted #41-52 in 2002 and #53-56 & The Return #1-6 in 2003.
I once attempted to read early Supreme stories to see how well they fit with Alan Moore's version.
The best way I have to describe my ultimate conclusion is "discreet yet complete reboot-in-place".
While the appearance is the same, Moore's character never met Liefeld's. Or maybe I should say that it did, but much later.
THE SUPREME STORY OF THE YEAR:
When it came time for Supreme to be revamped, creator Rob Liefeld and editor Eric Stephenson hired Alan Moore to do it. Moore agreed on the condition that he could reinvent the character since he felt that the comic was "not very good." From Wikipedia: "Beginning with issue #41 of Supreme in 1996, Moore began retooling the character, with each issue containing commentary on storytelling, comics history in general and Superman in particular... Moore said in later interviews that his re-imagining of Supreme's background and origin was partly an apology for the darkness of his previous works at other publishers." Moore's Supreme was like a love letter to Mort Weisinger's Silver Age Superman stories. It was set in the present day, but often supplemented by "flashbacks" drawn by Rick Veitch in a Silver Age style (like Moore's Image-published homage to Silver Age Marvel comics, 1963 ,but not as vicious).
You may have noticed that the cover of #1 is "cleverly" identified as "Volume Two." That is because the conceit of the original series is that Supreme has been away from Earth for decades and is only just returning. This status quo played right into Moore's plans. His reboot was so complete, so total, that new readers need not be familiar with any of the previous issues. Whether by accident or design (although, being familiar with Moore's work, I would suspect "design"), issue #41 "just so happens" to pick up exactly where #1 left off (visually, anyway; or it can be interpreted that way). I think Moore's Supreme is among the best comics he's ever written, but I don't think it gets the recognition it deserves (although it did earn him an Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1997).
Moore originally signed on for a year's worth of stories, which would have culminated in an "80-Page Giant" issue, #52, but he was enjoying himself so much that he signed on for another twelve issues well before the end of his initial run, with the "80-Page Giant" split into two issues, #52a and #52b, with #52b becoming the first issue of his second set of twelve. The first two issues were published by Image and the next six by Liefeld's Maximun Press. With issue #49, Liefeld's company became Awesome Entertainment, but the series came to an abrupt and premature end with #56, with an additional seven plots/scripts already completed.
I didn't buy the original Supreme even when it was written by Alan Moore -- my disgust with Rob Liefeld's work (and that of his Image colleagues) was so total that I ignored everything they did as best I could after I sampled the earliest Image offerings. (And I'm no Critic-Come-Lately -- I disliked their work when they worked at Marvel. You could hear my jaw hit the floor when I found out that six of what I considered the worst artists at Marvel were starting their own company with the proud battle cry "We don't need no stinkin' writers.") I just checked Amazon, and the first paperback is selling from third parties for $81. At Mycomicshop, issue #41 is going for $55. I'm not committed enough to the bit to spend that kind of money, so I'll just limit my participation to learning about Supreme and offering general comments.
Like this one: It's probably obvious enough that Jeff didn't bother to mention it, but Supreme #41 is an homage to Superman #1 (1940). That cover has been homaged enough that it's entirely possible that Supreme was homaging another homage!
With issue #49, Liefeld's company became Awesome Entertainment, but the series came to an abrupt and premature end with #56, with an additional seven plots/scripts already completed.
Will those become Supreme: The Return #1-6?
I didn't buy the original Supreme even when it was written by Alan Moore...
That is unfortunate because, as I indicated earlier, IMHO I think it ranks among his best work.
I just checked Amazon, and the first paperback is selling from third parties for $81. At Mycomicshop, issue #41 is going for $55.
It's not that good, however. Keep your eyes open, and if you ever see this run at a reasonable price, my recommendation is "Buy it."
It's probably obvious enough that Jeff didn't bother to mention it...
That one. (That's a Jerry Ordway variant cover, BTW...the one I bought.)
This is the main cover:
...and this is another (even more obvious) homage:
Will those become Supreme: The Return #1-6?
They will indeed. (Up next.)
SUPREME: THE RETURN:
After a 15-month hiatus, the title returned for an additional six issues. It was public knowledge that Moore had written Supreme through #63, and 56 issues of the original run plus six of The Return equals only 62. By that time, circumstances dictated that Liefeld's titles come out through Awesome Entertainment, separate from Image, so when Awesome collapsed, The Return was cancelled with one issue still in the can. According to artist Rick Veitch, this series' "biggest failing is that the final issue of the story was never produced. This volume takes care of that little problem by ignoring it completely and just tacking 'The End' on the last story." That's not entirely true. (It does, however, end with some heavy foreshadowing.) Actually, the "next issue" blurb of #6 says: "Next: Revelations!."
NEXT: Revelations!
I don't know if it has been spelled out at any time, but Moore made some small but noticeable changes in Supreme's costume.
That may prove significant later.
What were the changes?
What were the changes?
It's a very minor change and is reflected on the covers posted above (compare #1 with #41). I didn't realize at the time he originally posted, but I'm up to that point now and I believe Luis has been foreshadowing Erik Larsen's run (which I will post about here on Wednesday).
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