Tor.com comics blogger Tim Callahan has dedicated the next twelve months more than a year to a reread of all of the major Alan Moore comics(and plenty of minor ones as well). Each week he will provide commentary on what he’s been reading. Welcome to the 41st installment.
Alan Moore not only revamped Supreme for Rob Liefeld’s Awesome Entertainment comic book company in the mid-to-late-1990s, but he also proposed a line-wide reimagining of Liefeld’s other characters for what would have been a significant relaunch following the Judgment Day miniseries – three issues that were meant to provide a comprehensive history for the Awesome Universe and then clean the slate for a new direction.
Think about that for a second.
Three issues, and in that time Moore planned to justify the Awesome Universe by creating fictional antecedents and also establish a new approach that would draw readers back to the kinds of comics that had long been written off as empty spectacle at best and enthusiastic hackwork at worst.
It was certainly an ambitious notion, with an attempt to redefine characters and concepts like Youngblood, Glory, Maximage, and the New Men so they would matter to an audience that was intrigued by Alan Moore’s previous work – and his playful approach to Supreme – but may never have read any previous issues of a Rob Liefeld-created comic in their lives.
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