Trivia / Supreme

• Troubled Production:
  • Liefeld's original version went through a series of rotating artists and writers and struggled to find direction, leading to Kudzu Plot issues, especially near the end as the comic struggled to tie up as many loose ends as possible before time ran out. To give you an idea how crazy things got: Supreme switches bodies with an alternate universe version of himself, battles multiple clones, has a daughter from the future who switches bodies with a son from the future, and other confusing plot points.
  • Moore's run was plagued by long delays, internal company squabbling, changing publishers and budgetary cutbacks. Several story arcs were trimmed or removed entirely to save time and money, multiple spinoff books were cancelled, and the book itself came to a fairly abrupt end when the original ending was cut due to the publisher's closure. The ending left everyone in a good place, but didn't quite pay off on a few key subplots. Attempts at revivals and spinoffs were fairly fruitless until the Larson run.
  • Larson's revival itself wasn't safe. Though critical and fan feedback was initially positive, sales and reception tanked as it went on, leading the comic to be cancelled after a mere five issues. The entire creative team, including Larson himself, was totally replaced and nearly everything from his version was discarded by the next team for Blue Rose.
  • Around 2019, Andrew Rev bought the license to all of Liefeld's Youngblood characters, and the results were disastrous. Liefeld outright refused to work with him, and many artists who tried to work with him quit, alleging he didn't pay them for their art and violated his contracts. This led to at least two cancelled attempts at a Supreme revival, with the spited artists releasing their work publicly. Thankfully, its incredibly likely Rev's license expired, considering Liefeld returned to Image to republish Prophet #1.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A miniseries starring the Starguard, referenced in the letters column soon after their first appearance.
  • Issue #25 was published as a flash-forward between issues #12 and #13 as part of the "Images of Tomorrow" event, formatted as if it were a regular issue from the future – including a fake letters column referencing various story arcs that hadn't been published yet. By the time the series caught up to the flash-forward there were some clear discrepancies:
    • Most obviously, the main character is still the original older white-haired Supreme, de-powered and wielding Thor's hammer. He was apparently killed in issue #23, in the Extreme Sacrifice crossover; beginning in #24 the main character was younger, at full power, with no hammer.
    • Issue #25 is the climax of a story arc in which Simple Simon possesses the body of the Supreme from the Deathmate universe; apparently, #24 would've featured the possessed Supreme wrecking Washington D.C. as well as the return of the Starguard. The series did then lay groundwork for this story arc – but never actually began it, and had gone in a very different direction by the time of the actual issue #24.
    • An editorial response in the fake letters column says that the Starguard's origin would be revealed "very, very soon" – possibly in the aforementioned Starguard miniseries. It also implies that Supreme and Thor would soon fight over control of the hammer for a third time.
    • A different fake letter puts Kid Supreme's debut in issue #18 rather than #19, and references him being African-American rather than white.
  • Later, Kid Supreme was planned to debut in his own Kid Supreme title. An ongoing Kid Supreme series was eventually made, but about eighteen months later.
  • According to editorial replies in the letters column, Supreme would have learned in issue #26 exactly what was wrong with his powers, and would have to confront his "greatest enemy" to get them back. It isn't specified who his greatest enemy is – but notably, Extreme Sacrifice is also described as having a very different plot to how it turned out, involving Quantum returning and allying with Darkthornn.
  • To Moore's and fandom's regret, the last issue of the series never came to be, because Liefeld had to close his company. Even when his final script was produced, Moore had his own plans for a new ending that never even made it to the scripting phase. Including entire planets of both Suprema and Radar coming to help in the final battle against the army of Daxes after the Supremacy fell.
  • Erik Larson continued the story, but his run ended abruptly after five issues due to low sales and lukewarm critical reception. Blue Rose sort of picks up where it left off — or rather, uses elements from it to tell a new story. The last issue of Larson's run seemed to set up a conclusion where the remaining Supremes would travel to the moon to enter the Citadel Supreme and open a portal to the Supremacy, possibly battling Mean Supreme with the aide of technology supplied Darius Duck. But none of this ever materialized, and Blue Rose went a very different direction.
  • Robert Kirkman's Supreme Sacrifice mini-series, which was supposed to tell a story of Liefeld's Supreme dealing with being revisioned and replaced by Moore's Supreme, ended up as an idea and nothing more.
  • Alex Ross's redesign of Suprema's costume was never seen in action.
  • Seems to be a recurring theme for the entire franchise. Characters like Kid Supreme, Professor Night and Lady Supreme were all meant to appear in their own solo series, spinoffs, crossover events and team books, but none of them ended up going very far.
  • Under Andrew Rev's ownership, Supreme was going to have two different revivals: a limited series about Supreme's WW2 adventures, and a new series about Kid Supreme growing up and taking up Supreme's mantle. These projects eventually died an abrupt death when Rev and the artists/writers fell out due to him not paying them.

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