Written by Rob Liefeld, Robert Napton, Karl Altsaetter
Drawn by David Williams
Inked by Gary Martin
Published by Image Comics

This two-issue miniseries debuted in October 1994 It co-stars GLORY, who is Rob Liefeld’s analog of Wonder Woman. The first issue opens in Berlin in 1945, the last days of World War II, with a dramatic splash-page showing Adolf Hitler’s dead body moments after he’d committed suicide. What follows is an action-packed 9-page sequence of Supreme on the battlefield, helped allied troops fight the Nazi army. The art team of David Williams and Gary Martin do an excellent job in illustrating the action, as Supreme tosses tanks with his bare hands, and deflects an array of bullets. This all leads to Supreme crashing into the secret hideout of Baron Wilhelm Von Richter, a Nazi mad scientist. The Baron tries to attack Supreme with a giant robot, which Supreme easily defeats and then captures the Baron.

Next we see Supreme in the White House, alongside Glory and Die Hard, another Liefeld superhero (originally introduced in Youngblood), as Supreme tells President Roosevelt about his decision to leave Earth to explore outer space, now that the war is over. Despite Roosevelt’s pleas to stay, Supreme has made up his mind. Then Supreme and Glory have a private conversation where he asks her to come with him, but she tearfully declines. Flash-forward to the then-present day, it’s soon after Supreme has just returned to Earth after his 47 years in space.

I’ll note that it is unclear of exactly when this series takes place. My first guess it’s that it’s inbetween Supreme #1 and #2. Although in the opening of scene Supreme #2, Supreme refers to several of his comrades from WWII, including Glory, and says they’re all now “gone,” which would imply that he hadn’t seen her again yet. So more likely it’s inbetween the end of Supreme #2 and the beginning of Supreme #3, because after the latter issue Supreme’s return was now known to the general public, but when he and Glory meet in this story, she is surprised to see him back on Earth. This is all just due to the internal fan in me, trying make everything fit as best I can. As I said in the previous post, there were many continuity conflicts over the course of the original incarnation of this character.

Another conflict is the look of Supreme in this series, as his costume has big golden shoulder pads which were not seen in his ongoing series at this time, plus he does not have his receding hairline. These are all consequences of the multiple artists who worked on the character at the time.

Anyway, having returned to Earth, Supreme greets Glory at her apartment in Manhattan. But Glory is not exactly happy to see Supreme again after so long, and things get physical (not in a good way).

Meanwhile, a group of Neo-Nazis raid the grave of the now long-dead Baron Richter and retrieve his body for sinister purposes…

In this issue we learn that a secret Nazi cabal has used a top-secret rejuvenation project to revive the Baron, in hopes that he will lead a Fourth Reich. However, the technology is flawed, so although the Baron lives again he is still weak and confined to a wheelchair. In order to restore him to full health permanently, they need a blood transfusion from a superhuman, so Baron’s agents attack and kidnap Glory. By draining her blood the Baron can be restored, but the end result will kill Glory. When Supreme finds out about her disappearance, he joins with his old superhero allies from WWII, Die Hard, Super-Patriot (Erik Larsen’s analog of Captain America) and Roman (Rob Liefeld’s analog of Namor, the submariner) to rescue Glory before it’s too late…

This is an exciting story with lots of dramatic tension and action. The biggest significance of this tale is that it is where it was first established that Supreme and Glory had a romantic relationship in the past, which would become a major plot-point in future stories involving these characters.

SUPREME: GLORY DAYS #1 AND #2