Supreme: The Return
$24.95 from Checker
Words: Alan Moore
Art: Rick Veitch, Chris Sprouse, Jim Starlin, Gill Kane
Sold at comics stores and sales@checkerbpg.com.

Stand back; I'm going to gush.

For foreign readers, "to gush" means I'm going to use superlatives about Supreme: The Return.

First, younger comics readers must prepare themselves for a shock. There was a time, the 1950s and 1960s, in which comic books were fun. That doesn't mean they were better than today's fare, it means they were different. Supreme is of that time. So am I.

Let's get the art critique out of the way. Because of multiple artists, the visual quality of Supreme varies but is more than sufficient throughout and often excellent. In addition, flashback sequences in which old art styles are imitated are a hoot and a half. For foreign readers, "hoot..." means they add to the fun.

Next, plot. There is too much of it to review here because Supreme is packed with plot, and imagination and epic spectacle. It may shock some younger readers that 'in the day' entire stories were told in eight pages!!! This reprint that emulates those stories is 252 pages. WOW!!

So, what is Supreme about? It's about the rich and wonderfully creative world of Superma....Supreme, a super-hero who can do almost anything, and does it. It's about an older, simpler style of comics that concentrated on entertaining story and art. It's about super-men and super-women and super-dogs and their super adventures, and super- villains and super-civilizations and a thing long forgotten called the "Sense of Wonder". For younger readers, Sense of Wonder means saying WOW!!! after reading a title.

And it means fun, fun, fun until your daddy takes this title away.

This collection reprints the final ten issues of the series published in '96-'97. Supreme earns the highest accolades for readers who love the '50s--'60s, and very high recommendation for anyone reading comics for fun.

Michael Vance

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