The Maximortal soars both as a heady exploration of how the genre has continued to swing back and forth along the continuum of shit and sublime, and a damning testament to how the comics business can chew up and spit out the very talent responsible for its success. In 1989, Veitch launched his own imprint, King Hell Press, which published BRAT PACK, THE MAXIMORTAL and RARE BIT FIENDS. Superheroes started as disposable cheap thrills but became something more valuable than anyone could have predicted. He became regular penciller of SWAMP THING and collaborated for a year and a half with Alan Moore on a critically acclaimed run on the title before taking over as writer. The collected edition’s epigraph is a quote from philosopher Paracelsus: “In the shit, the gold.” Veitch threads the metaphor all throughout The Maximortal in a way that constantly reminds readers of the humble, pulpy beginnings of the superhero idea and the more crassly mercenary executions of the genre. Nods at the terrible turns that Siegel and Shuster’s lives took – a dead-end office courier job for one, blindness for the other – get at the truth behind Superman’s origins. The exploitative nature of old-school work-for-hire contracts get alluded to in slimy fashion, right alongside references to the meteoric rise of Wesley True-Man/Superman as a cultural icon. Get FREE shipping on The Maximortal by Rick Veitch, from. Until legendary artist Neal Adams started a campaign for Siegel and Shuster to get recognised and compensated for their legacy and work – tied to the first big Superman movie – the two men suffered destitute lives in near-total obscurity. The Maximortal is, in the main, broad, polemic caricature but there are cutting edges of truth to much of it.
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