Supreme: The Story Of The Year
Supreme was originally a very bad Superman rip-off created by Rob Liefeld to interact with the other creations in his books at Image Comics in the 1990s.
But once turned over to Alan Moore, with free reign to do as he pleased, the character and his book became a unique meditation on the history of comics and a sort of love letter specifically for the Silver Age Superman.
Alan Moore was asked by publisher Rob Liefeld to write further adventures of Supreme. Moore agreed, on the condition that he could throw out everything previously done with the character, as he felt the comic was not very good.
Beginning with issue 41 of Supreme, Moore began developing a new approach to comic storytelling and the concept of the superhero. His Supreme was a complex comic, containing layers upon layers of metafiction, each issue containing further comment on the nature of comics history, storytelling, and the Superman mythos. While Moore’s plotlines were characteristically complex, there was an element of simplicity in Supreme’s actions and personality; the clichés of the superhero genre often went unquestionaled and were more often than not purposefully embraced, albeit usually with a sense of awareness and fun. This purposeful lack of irony was a new approach for Moore, and he stated in interviews that it was also something of an apology, as he had become famous for deconstructing superhero characters in various dark ways. Now he set about reconstructing the genre.
The Story Of The Year is the collection of the first volume of Moore’s work on the title. It somehow manages to be simultaneously complex and simple. Most of all, though, it’s quite entertaining. When a writer — especially one as skilled as Moore — appears to have so much unbridled fun writing a project, it shines through and magnifies the experience. Worthy of special note are the flashback sequences, each one illustrated and written in the style of comic books from the period which they flash back to.