Company-owned comics often undergo dramatic creative shifts. It is the nature of the beast, and certainly is not inherently negative; a writer who is drastically different from the preceding writer can bring to light qualities of the character that the previous writer only glossed over. Erik Larsen is a incredibly different writer from Alan Moore, and the contrast transition from Moore to Larsen is interesting to behold – interesting, but not pleasant.
Written by Erik Larsen
Illustrated by Erik Larsen and Cory Hamscher
“STORMING HEAVEN”Following ALAN MOORE’s final SUPREME tale, legendary writer/artist ERIK LARSEN takes up where he left off. Supreme’s most hated nemesis, Darius Dax, has rallied a thousand versions of himself to face the Ivory Icon! Against such odds, Supreme turns to the Supremacy for aid – and ultimately the deadliest Supreme of them all! Is the world ready for the return of ROB LIEFELD’s Supreme? A shocker!
Alan Moore’s final issue of “Supreme” ended on quite the cliffhanger, designed to give whoever followed him a non-restrictive direction; so long as the new writer’s concept involved some version of Supreme and Darius Dax, the possibilities were – quite literally – endless. Moore gave Larsen a strong foundation on which to build the series’ new direction, and in a single issue, Larsen threw it all out the window. It is incredible, really; never before have I seen one writer get rid of every dangling plot thread the previous writer had left so quickly – though I certainly can’t say it was done deftly. Of course a writer who comes into a series with their own ideas of where to take the story is not going to be interested in taking their time to lay the previous writer’s ideas to rest, but writers in a position like Larsen’s need to understand that those readers that were interested in the cliffhanger the previous writer left on are not going to be happy if those are quickly brushed off the table, no matter how exciting the new direction is – especially if it is brushed off by a deus ex machina that is mentioned offhandedly in a single line of dialogue before it is enacted.
It is not just that Larsen is ignoring Moore’s intentions for the series following his departure – one cannot fault Larsen for wanting to tell his own story. Larsen’s story, however, does not seem as interesting as the direction he was left with. We see small signals near the beginning of the book: the violence gradually slips and slides away from the less visceral but still striking toward graphic depictions of blood and gore, until the original Supreme, as created by Rob Liefeld is released in all his blood-bathing glory. The appeal of Moore’s “Supreme” was the return to Silver Age goodheartedness, and stories that, while excellently written, could be a bit on the wacky side. With this issue, Larsen is also giving the readers a return, but a return to the comic’s ho-hum origins: the new/old Supreme is yet another gritty anti-hero who has no compunctions about killing and who grimaces a lot. It was not unique in the 1990’s, and it certainly is not today. The exciting thing about the Extreme relaunch has been the exciting new directions they have taken, particularly with “Prophet” and “Glory,” but Larsen’s “Supreme” seems to just be offering readers more of the same kind of grim and gritty comics the majority of the comic-reading population has hopefully grown out of.
Unfortunately, Cory Hamscher’s art is just as unremarkable as Larsen’s script. Last month, Hamscher earned respect for being able to blend the Image house style with a more whimsical look that fit the Silver Age-y feel of Moore’s script. As Larsen steps further and further away from what Moore set up, though, so too does Hamscher; up until the full-page spread revealing the locked-up main character, Hamscher’s style is more reminiscent of the previous issue, if slightly less animated, and from that page on, it just looks like any other 90’s-based superhero book – strange anatomy, dull backgrounds, and all. Hamscher’s panels are still just as clear to read as before, but he does not necessarily bring anything different to the table like he did in the previous issue. Instead, he is just a vehicle for Larsen’s dull tale, which is one of the worst situations for someone in a visual medium to be in.
The promise of an unpublished Alan Moore story was enough to get the hype ball rolling on the relaunch of “Supreme,” but Eric Larsen has managed to kill every bit of momentum within the span of a single issue. It is not even a matter of the comic being noticeably bad; rather, it is so noticeably not good. Perhaps the idea of “What if Superman was a dick” is appealing enough to you to warrant buying this comic, but I guarantee that concept has been done to death, and by better writers than Larsen.
Final Verdict: 3.0 – Pass
