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Author Topic: SUPREME = unused Alan Moore Superman ideas?  (Read 5127 times)
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JulianPerez
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« on: June 04, 2006, 04:08:16 AM »

SUPREME contains elements that could only have been told using Alan Moore's character, however, there was one thing that leads me to suspect that the "meat" of the story itself (our flying superstrong hero's fortress lair is seized by a deadly enemy) perhaps might be based on an idea for a Superman story that Alan Moore had while he worked on the character, that he did not have an opportunity to tell.

Why do I suspect this?

The plot detail involving Magno, who is clearly an Amazo stand-in. Supreme obtained Magno from the ruins of the headquarters of a team he is not a part of. Later on, Supreme's archenemy, a Luthor-esque character with mind-transfer abilities, places his mind into that of the Magno robot.

Supreme is all about using the blueprint of Silver Age Superman; there's a stand-in for Kandor, and so forth. Something as idiosyncratic as Superman owning Amazo's inert body...well, that's something that happened in the eighties, when the League moved to Detroit and the JLA Sattellite was abandoned, Superman took the body of his enemy, Amazo, to the Fortress. Amazo was later reactivated to threaten Superman, notably in SUPERMAN SPECIAL #3 (1985) an amazing special by the incredible E. Nelson Bridwell.

Here's the thing: the "window" to write a story involving Amazo's inert body at the Fortress is a brief one, and one that coincides with Alan Moore's career at DC. Is it possible that Alan Moore had plans that didn't see fruition, and he re-used the idea when it came to SUPREME?

I'm not saying SUPREME is whole-cloth taken from early Alan Moore ideas that weren't greenlit. For instance, Moore could not have told a story about the Adult Legion, a story that had been out of continuity for some time.

I also highly doubt that the breakout of the criminals from the "Mirror Zone" was an Alan Moore idea, either; after all, in the time Moore was writing Superman, the Phantom Zone breakout (the one where Jer-Em died) was the big story that year, like the Lord Satanus split had been for 1982.

If Magno is meant to be an unused Amazo story, that would explain one thing about Magno: he was an enemy of the "Golden Age" Supreme's team, which was roughly equivalent to the Justice Society. Amazo, however, was a foe of the Silver Age Justice League, which flies in the face of the fairly direct parallels the book creates. One wonders why this would be, until one considers that Moore's Justice League equivalent group has no magic-users!

And magic-use is something that was vital to the plot of SUPREME. I've often wondered why it is that Amazo never used Zatanna's powers to attack Superman in their various battles. I mean, couldn't he zap Superman with a spell that turns him into a super-toad? Strange that Moore would feature Magno using magic powers...unless he was thinking along the same lines I was.
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TELLE
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« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2006, 05:58:19 AM »

Some interesting questions.  I never read Supreme (art issues) but often fantasize about picking up the Moore issues in cheap trades or quarter bins.

From what I understand about Moore's run, and based on your characterization, I feel it is safe to say that the entire run, and not just the Amazo homage, is one big unused Superman idea.  I wouldn't put too much stock in the differences between Gold/Silver/Bronze-Age continuities --Moore is a shameless borrower from all in the Superman stories he did write, with little regard for then-current continuity (I think that Moore would have disregarded any editorial imperative that pretended the Adult Legion didn't exist, for example).

And the Lex villain sounds like he might have a bit of Ultra-Humanite in him.

The Zatanna idea is interesting.  How would a scientifically created robot "absorb" or mimic non-scientific, non-rational, occult magic?
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« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2006, 07:04:38 PM »

I like how Moore had his "Suprematrons" talk among themselves---I wish we could have seen more of that with Superman's robots, when he had them.----Al
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« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2006, 09:43:32 PM »

Quote from: "TELLE"
Some interesting questions.  I never read Supreme (art issues) but often fantasize about picking up the Moore issues in cheap trades or quarter bins.


The art is mostly early 90's style and inconsistant but I think is still worth going through for the story.  Chris Sprouse does a good job when he was on there, at least.

And I personally prefer the regular issues as opposed to the TPB; the TPB while using glossy paper, looks somewhat grainy.

Quote
From what I understand about Moore's run, and based on your characterization, I feel it is safe to say that the entire run, and not just the Amazo homage, is one big unused Superman idea.  I wouldn't put too much stock in the differences between Gold/Silver/Bronze-Age continuities --Moore is a shameless borrower from all in the Superman stories he did write, with little regard for then-current continuity (I think that Moore would have disregarded any editorial imperative that pretended the Adult Legion didn't exist, for example).



I doubt the entire run would be a big unused Superman idea from the time period Julian mentions--

The Supremacy, created in SUPREME #41, is supposed to be important to the overall arc (this is including the issues that never got published).  Its concept is basically a limbo where all the previous continuities of Supreme go; instead of the Crisis making people non-existant, characters like the Golden Age Supreme, Grim 80's Supreme, Silver Age Supreme, Squeek the Supremouse (a Mighty Mouse homage), etc are just placed there until the next revision.

Theoretically this idea opens up a possibility--if you don't want to use a particular continuity, place it back on the shelf so that others can use it if they want to.  I'd think this would be Moore's response to how DC jettisoned a lot of the Pre-Crisis stuff.
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« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2006, 10:04:04 PM »

Quote from: "The Spider"
Squeek the Supremouse (a Mighty Mouse homage), etc are just placed there until the next revision.




no he wasn't...



look here: http://superman.nu/tales4/kryptomouse/
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« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2006, 03:12:03 AM »

Quote from: "Super Monkey"
Quote from: "The Spider"
Squeek the Supremouse (a Mighty Mouse homage), etc are just placed there until the next revision.




no he wasn't...



look here: http://superman.nu/tales4/kryptomouse/




Hm...



Okay, I could see that, but Squeak the Supremouse had a cartoon duck girlfriend and a cartoon duck villain.  Maybe Squeak would be a combo of Krypto Mouse and Mighty Mouse (or the funny animal genre in general)?
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