Creation

Originally, Supreme was created by artist Rob Liefeld as a violent, arrogant version of Superman for his independent comic book line Image Comics. However, after 40 issues he handed to reigns of the character over to Alan Moore. Much like his work on Swamp Thing and Marvelman, Alan Moore wiped aside all pre-existing character continuity for Supreme. Moore is reported to have said that before he took over, the comic was “not very good.” He then reinvented Supreme not as a violent clone, but as a loving tribute to Silver Age era Superman. Heavily influenced by Mort Weisinger, the writer of Superman during the 50s and 60s, Moore used his run on Supreme to explore the Superman mythos. Each issue explored cliches and gimmicks that made the old Superman stories endearing.

In one of the first stories he penned for the character, Supreme discovered that he was literally just the most recent incarnation of a character that had undergone several revisions. All of the past versions of Supreme lived in a specific reality called the Supremacy. Moore would also go on to reconstruct the Supreme family, incorporating such characters as Supreme's sister Suprema (a tribute to Supergirl) and his dog Radar (a tribute to Krypto). By the end, Moore had retconned Supreme with a mythos that stretched back several decades.

Major Story Arcs

Ethan Crane, the adoptive son of Joe and Joanne Crane of Littlehaven, USA gained his exceptional powers through exposure to Supremium radiation in 1925, when he was only five years old. The radiation caused his hair to turn white and gave him a variety of formidable abilities including flight, incredible strength, near invulnerability, super-senses, the ability to project heat beams from his eyes and speed-supreme. Supreme is vulnerable only to Supremium radiation. Supremium has ties to Radar the Hound Supreme, Suprema, Darius Dax and the Supremium Man as well as to magic. As a boy Ethan Crane had adventures in and around the small town of Littlehaven as "Kid Supreme." He also joined the time-traveling heroes of the League of Infinity. In 1939 he left Littlehaven for Omegapolis, changing his name to simply "Supreme." He served in the military during World War II and joined the Allied Supermen of America, the first superhero team. Supreme later became a founding member of the Allies, the premier superhero team of the 1960s.

In 1968 Supreme left Earth to explore deep space. He lost his memory following a confrontation with the mystic being Jack O'Lantern, and only recently returned to Earth after years of confusion and amnesia.

Eventually Supreme managed to find his way back to Earth by 1996. Upon his arrival, he witnesses world flicking between the 1940s and 1990s. While he was baffled about his new surrounding, Supreme meets dimensional duplicates of himself (The Original Supreme, Sister Supreme, Superion, and Squeak the Supremouse). After a minor scrimmage, they take Supreme to Supremacy, a paradise limbo realm where every variant of Supreme resides along with their partners/sidekicks (also referred as "secondary Supremes"), supporting casts, and love interests. At the Supremacy, Supreme learns that his entire history is periodically revised with old versions of himself and his friends and foes being wiped from existence and replaced with new, updated incarnations. Once everything was explained by the ruler of Supremacy, King Supreme, Supreme decides to return to Earth after the revision was ready.

In his secret identity as Ethan Crane, he is a comic book artist for Dazzle Comics. He is in love with comics writer Diana Dane, who in eventually learns of his dual identity. As his memories return, Supreme fights old foes like Groll the Living Galaxy, Hulver Ramik, Optilux, and the return of Darius Dax.

During the crossover series 'Judgment Day', Supreme allows Youngblood to use his Citadel Supreme for the murder trial of Riptide. After the trial was over, he reforms the Allied Supermen of American as The Allies.

Alternate Versions

Mean Supreme

This version of Supreme is most easily distinguished from others by his behavior, memories of being an early ally of Superpatriot and the shape of his wristbands and chest brand. Mean supreme has comparatively streamlined wristbands and his chest brand is rectangular in shape, calling back early renditions of Supreme in the 1990s.

While is is the original supreme by some perspectives, including arguably a "meta" perspective, he is explicitly not the same character that starred in issues #41-#63 of the Supreme solo book. Nor is he the "Original Supreme" character introduced in #41 and seen in most issues from #64 to #68, more often than not as an actual foe of Mean Supreme.

The matter is complicated somewhat because the issues before the Alan Moore run dealt extensively yet independently with appearances of alternate versions of Supreme.

Original Supreme

Original Supreme was born in 1920, son of Jack and Joanna Crane from Littlehaven. One day when he has ten he was walking his dog out into the woods, when he discovered a hidden cave and within that cave was a magic metal belt buckle. Just by rubbing the buckle he would become Supreme. He could jump buildings in a single bound, lift cars, and live ammo would bounce off his chest like it was nothing. He would come up with the identity of Ethan Crane, a reporter and would fight off crime in Omega City. Until 1940, in which his entire world would disappear and he ended up in the limbo that is known as Supramacy, during which it was all nothing but white space of nothingness. Similarly the original Darius Dax also experience this when Original Supreme took his car and smashed it upon a rock but instead of dying he too along with Omega City Chemical works ends up in a different limbo but similar to that of Supremacy called Daxia. Similarly to Dax a building related to Original Supreme went with him as well, that being Daily Record in which he worked as a reported as well as little scattered chunks of little haven. And so Supreme would be alone in this limbo until 1945 when the next Supreme arrived into this limbo. Soon other versions/variations of Supreme along with their Supporting cast would pop up, some being more powerful then Original Supreme, most notably Majesty Supreme who arrived in '68. Before the king arrived, Squeak, 50's Supreme, Three Sargents Supreme as well as other variations of Supreme arrived. What made things different when Majesty Supreme arrived is that his exploded planet Supron arrived with him and together with the resources of Supron, the scattered remains of the buildings from Original Supreme's world and the team work of all the other Supremes team work, they made the Valhalla Supreme that is known as Supremacy. We last see Original Supreme as he's done talking and getting ready to lead for the party ready for the current mainstream Supreme. This would be the last of what we've seen of Original Supreme as when the Current/Mainstream 90's Supreme entered his new world, his origin was completely different compared to his.

Powers and Abilities

• Powers - Superhuman strength, speed, durability, agility and endurance, flight, heat vision, ice breath, x-ray vision, a massive array of superhuman senses, energy absorption, resistance to many different types of attacks, limited atom manipulation, immortality via superhuman adaptation, regeneration, able to come back from "dying" (due to immortality) and become stronger to adapt to new enemies, superhuman adaptation grants him new abilities, skilled with alien technology and has notable hand-to-hand and superhuman combat skill.
• Notable Abilities - Invulnerability, molecular adaptation, expanded consciousness (mimics enhanced senses such as microscopic vision, telescopic vision, hyper-hearing), electrokinesis through static buildup, skilled with advanced technology and can break the fourth wall and reality with his Will Supreme.
• Attack Potency - Easily destroyed the Khromium planet, was shown as slightly more powerful than Omni-Man.
• Lifting Strength - Somewhat stronger than his cousin Suprema who could lift an entire universe.
• Durability
• Stamina - Nearly infinite.
• Teleportation
• Intelligence - Super genius intellect, more intelligent than supercomputers, vast knowledge on aliens and the universe.
• Weaknesses - Supreium radiation.