COVER STORY: Supreme #41

What makes the best comic book covers? It is a great topic for debate. For us, as individuals, there is no wrong answer, of course; it is purely subjective. But, with a little thought it’s possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best images are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously planning to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.

Not long ago, we spotlighted the American Entertainment variant of Supreme #41 in our “Cover Story” column. Published by Rob Liefeld’s Maximum Press imprint, it has all these years later become quite a collector’s item. But it wasn’t as cool as the original.

Needless to say, DC Comics’ Superman #1 – the issue Supreme #41 pays homage to – is one of the most iconic covers of comicdom. And, that cover image stands for everything that comic book grandmaster Alan Moore was trying to communicate through his inventive run on Liefeld’s Supreme beginning with this landmark issue first published by Image Comics. Not to mince words, it capitalized on Moore providing what would become an award-winning series, which had previously been considered rather vapid, with a sense of comic history past, present, and future through the creative lens of cover artist extraordinaire, Jerry Ordway. 

It all started here with Moore dreaming up new adventures with Liefeld’s resident super-man – none other than what would become the “Man of Majesty,” Supreme. According to Joseph P. Rybandt in his article, “Moore is Always Better,” from 1996’s Overstreet’s FAN #16, “Moore is not here to retell old Superman stories, but to start something new.”

In the article, Moore said, “In the original Superman mythology you had Brainiac, who was wandering around shrinking cities and saving them in bottles for no apparent purpose, other than some sort of collector mania. [Within the pages of a future Supreme issue], we have a villain called Optilux who transforms whole worlds into a form of coherent light which he stores in prisms. He’s on almost a religious mission to transform everything material in the universe into light. It’s reminiscent of the Brainiac concept, but there’s something different to it. There’s perhaps more of a chance for poetry with it.”

This copy of Supreme #41 also sports a flipbook of Eric Stephenson and Chris Sprouse’s New Men – way before the flipbook in comics became a thing. Now, all these factors have made a comic whose value is only going up, up, and away!

–Scott Braden