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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You're correct. The original Supreme design had a tank top shirt and round section gauntlets.
Alan Moore gave Supreme a far more ornate shirt and rectangular-sectioned gauntlets.
Not a very radical change, but it is revisited later.
SUPREME SACRIFICE:
In 2006, Arcade Comics published Supreme's return in a comic by Robert Kirkman, Jon Malin, and Rob Liefeld. "Supreme Sacrifice" was to have been a story of unspecified length. I say "unspecified" because, being a Rob Liefeld project, only one issue was released. (I swear, a list of unreleased or unfinished Liefeld projects could be a topic of its own.) The first issue was a flip book featuring the first two chapters. Chapter one was written by Robert Kirkman and drawn in a truly ugly style by Jon Malin. (I posted the "flip" side, and believe me: I posted the pretty cover.) Chapter two was written and drawn by Rob Liefeld. It ends with the blurb "Stay Tuned for Part 3 of Supreme Sacrifice!" that was 18 years ago. Not much happened in either chapter; it was all set-up and easily ignored.
REVELATIONS!:
At New York Comic Con 2011, Rob Liefeld and Erik Larsen announced that Alan Moore's last unpublished Supreme story would be published and drawn by Larsen. Supreme #63 was published in 2012 by Image Comics, with Moore's final completed Supreme script. As editor Eric Stephenson put it: "Out of deference to what Alan had done with the book, I knew I didn't want someone to continue doing what he'd done. I felt that would be insulting to both Alan and to any potential new writer. I wanted something different, and thinking back to my initial excitement about SUPREME when Jim Valentino first described the concept to me, I wanted something more in keeping with Rob's original vision. Not a reversion to what the book was like before Alan took over, but something that more fully explored the idea of a superhero so self-possessed that he thought he knew better than literally everyone else o the planet."
Alan Moore is credited as sole writer of #63, and indeed it does read like a Moore script/plot, but the transition to Erik Larson's art style is jarring. Assuming no changes were made, Moore ended his second year on the title on a cliffhanger (perhaps he intended to stay on the book beyond that...?), but that's not really a problem because Larsen takes over as writer as well as artist with #64. This will be my first time reading #63-68, but it's not a "Buying new comics and not reading them is stupid" situation. Because it had been 12 years since the release of Supreme: The Return #6 (discounting Supreme Sacrifice), I intended all along to hold off until such a time I was in the mood to reread all of Moore's Supreme leading up to it, so everything is actually going according to plan. It just took me an additional 12 years to get to it is all.
Will you cover "Blue Rose" as well, Jeff?
I just finished reading it (one sitting). I'll post my thoughts on Thursday.
While the appearance is the same, Moore's character never met Liefeld's. Or maybe I should say that it did, but much later.
ERIK LARSEN'S SUPREME:
Alan Moore introduced the concept that the Supreme characters are aware of undergoing periodic "revisions" (although they are unaware that they are comic book characters); Larson's revision brings back Liefeld's original "Mean Supreme" (unseen since #40) and has him interact with Moore's "New Supreme." Eric Larsen is a guilty pleasure of mine. His art and writing is not to everyone's taste, but I do admire his work ethic. Sometimes, not often but sometimes, I just want to read something and have to think about it too hard. That's where titles such as Jack Kirby's Kamandi and Eric Larsen's Savage Dragon come in. It's like the term Frank Miller once coined: "nostalgia with a nosering." #67 brings Omni-Man in from Invincible, and the cover homages Superman #276. #68 ends with Diana Dane confiding in Suprema that she is pregnant (following Savage Dragon and Nova, that's the third time Larsen has used that particular cliffhanger by my count). the "next issues blurb reads: "NEXT: A new creative team and a bold new direction!"
SUPREME: BLUE ROSE:
I don't have any strong feeling about the work of Warren Ellis one way or the other. Sometimes I like his stuff, other times I don't. But if Erik Larson is someone whose work I can appraoch with no thought whatsoever, Ellis's work is the antithesis of that. It is said that "You can't judge a book by its cover," but look at the cover of #1. That alone should indicate that this version of Supreme will be different from everything that has come before. That's Diana Dane on the cover, BTW, a different "version" of her who is an unemployed investigative reporter, as opposed to a comic book writer. The pregnancy of the previous version isn't even mentioned. and Supreme does not appear (although Ethan Crane, his alter ego, does). The titular "Blue Rose" refers to something that doesn't occur in nature, and is a recurring motif throughout.
Supreme: Blue Rose came in entirely beneath my radar in 2014; I hadn't even heard of it until I started doing a little bit of background research for this discussion. Unlike the Alan Moore run, fortunately, Blue Rose is readily available in tpb at cover price. (I can't really count this as an instance of "trade waiting" because I hadn't previously known the series even existed.) Warren Ellis pulls in current versions of many of Supreme's "Golden Age" characters (as created by Alan Moore), including Doc Rocket, Storybook Smith, Jack O'Lantern and Professor Night, among others. He also explains exactly what a "revision" is, but don't expect me to explain it here. Heady heady stuff stuff indeed indeed. I couldn't possibly recommend this series to anyone unfamiliar with Alan Moore's run. That would be akin to reading Neil Gaiman's Miracleman without the benefit of having read Moore's first. Such a reader would get something out of it, to be sure, but couldn't possibly enjoy it fully. As it is, this is the type of the story I will appreciate more a second time around, now that I know where Ellis is going with it, so that I can pick up on everything I missed the first time.
The end leads to a new Revision.
NOTE: I just realized that Larsen's cover of Supreme #64 is an homage to his own Nova #1.
Wow, this issue came as a surprise!
YOUNGBLOOD #2:
It's been a while since I bought a comic book solely to ridicule it, but Supreme has had such a colorful history I couldn't resist. First of all, I have no idea what's going on here. Granted, I'm coming in on the second issue, but I get the impression I wouldn't have been that much better off if I had started with #1. From what I gather, Supereme showed up at the tail of of the first issue, so I should be coming in at the "beginning" from his POV. Supreme is fighting an opponent who goes unnamed for the entire issue. I get the impression readers are supposed to know him from the original series, but for someone who learned his craft only from reading comics, Rob Liefeld certainly didn't learn his lessons very well (such as identifying who your characters are). All aspects of this comic are firmly mired in the 1990s, from his asymetrical firgures to his lack of backgrounds.If anything, his art has gotten worse.
One character who is identified is The Shepherd, "Harbinger of The Keep." A footnote helpfully points out that "The Shepherd and the Keep first arrived in Extreme Destroyer Prologue #1," which was published in 1996 (I had to look it up). It is labled "Part 1 of 9"; whether or not the other eight chapters were ever published is anybody's guess. The Shepard is definitely not the Silver Surfer. For one thing, he is gold and has a full head of hair, and for another he has a shepherd's crook instead of a surfboard. See? Totally different! Another character, Battlestone (who "operate(s) as curator of extreme occurrences across multiple timelines"), is definitely not The Watcher. He "observe(s) the condition of mankind from [his] lofty perch here in D.O.C." ("Direct Orbital Command" which is definitely not OMAC's "Brother Eye"). "Not-the-Thing" is rescued by "Not-the-Sub-Mariner" and "Not-Namorita," and Brigade makes a dramatic full-page appearance on the last page.
I can hardly wait until next issue.
If there ever is a next issue.
"Extreme Destroyer" was apparently a 9-issue (or twelve-issue, depending on how you count them) event that involved, besides the Prologue and the Epilogue, such memorable titles named with remarkable originality as "Maxi-Mage", "New Man", "NewMen", "Knightstrike" and "New Force". It even shares an issue with the gender-reversion story "Babewatch".
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/extreme-extreme-destroyer/4045-55715/
I will venture a guess that the only two issues of this event that anyone remembers are Supreme #35 and Youngblood #4. I am sure that it is a complete coincidence that the decision was made to reinvent Supreme six issues later with barely any remnant of previous continuity. You would not believe how many alternate Supremes existed before Alan Moore took control of the character, or how badly explained their existences were. In any case, IIRC what was then understood to be the true Supreme was once thought to have vanished for some issues after his dramatic participation in this "Extreme Destroyer" event. #35 even seems to be his most important issue before Alan Moore came along in #41.
Oddly enough, the last panel of #1 of this 2025 volume of Youngblood shows what appears to be Kid Supreme and a particularly immodest take on Suprema (two characters who AFAIK never shared a continuity, let alone a panel) arriving alongside what looks like the Alan Moore Supreme, but is probably meant to be - I don't know, Rob Liefeld's?
You probably could publish this series right back in 1996 with no change whatsoever. For all I can figure, it is meant at some level to be a continuity implant, or more likely a divergent, branching continuity sprounting directly from the aftermath of "Extreme Destroyer". #1 even shows the shadowed profiles of Spawn, Shadowhawk, Savage Dragon and someone who is probably meant to be Cyberforce's Ripclaw before the actual Youngblood members are even seen on panel.
...what looks like the Alan Moore Supreme, but is probably meant to be - I don't know, Rob Liefeld's?
I'd be willing to bet that, as far as Liefeld is concerned, those characters are one and the same.
Probably. You almost get the sense that he is writing for himself.
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