Supreme #64 is another mention of a comic that came out a while back that I just got around to reading.

The character of Supreme has traveled a strange path from creation to disappearance to re-birth. Initially he appeared in Rob Liefeld's corner of the Image Comics universe as a crazy violent poorly drawn and written Superman. Like all of Rob Liefeld's work it was all levels of terrible. Go and type in Rob Liefeld to Google and look up some images, I guarantee you that you will not find even a single well drawn piece of art.

Then with issue 41, by some unbelievable chain of events, Rob Liefeld tricked Alan Moore to take over the writing reigns on the series. Rob Liefeld is the worst artist in the history of comic books, Alan Moore is one of the best writers in the history of the medium. Maybe Alan needed a paycheck, maybe he just wanted to tell some Superman stories without having to go back to the DC Comics company that he despises so.

Not so surprisingly, the stories were great. Along the normal Alan Moore style and tradition, these tales were inspired (or ripped off depending on your point of view) by recent mythology, in this case the Silver Age of Superman.

Rob Liefeld left Image, started a failed comic book company or two of his own, and Alan Moore and Supreme went away. A decade or so later, Rob Liefeld started publishing comics through Image again, and he brought back a bunch of his books at the next number in the line instead of re-booting at number 1.

Supreme #63, making use of the final long last Alan Moore script, was to be adapted by Erik Larsen. This put me in a precarious position of not wanting to support Rob Liefeld, while at the same time I am a major fan-boy for the work of Erik Larsen. Back in the day I loved his Spidey stuff, and have read all 20 years of his Savage Dragon comics from Image Comics.

Supreme #64 marks the first full Erik Larsen written issue, which also features his artwork as finished by Cory Hamscher. As per usual with Erik's work it's full of imagination and action and is a good old fashioned comic book. It's not photo realistic, it's not filled with pages of talking heads, it doesn't take itself too seriously. It has a Superman kind of guy with a Mickey Mouse head in the background on the cover.

I am looking forward to his run on the book as long as it doesn't distract him from his Savage Dragon duties, and as long as Rob Liefeld doesn't draw a fill-in issue.