Alex Ross

Advantages: incredible artwork, meaningful storyline, classic comic characters
Disadvantages: passing comic fans may miss an awful lot of references

...What is the fate of a world that relies on super powered beings to keep control? That is the question set by this classic series created by the fantastic Alex Ross (best known to the mass populous from his stunning artwork recap of the first Spiderman movies shown through the credits of Spiderman 2) and Mark Waid (co-creator, with Brian Augustyn, of DC Comic's popular "Elseworld's" series which included the likes of "Gotham By Gaslight"). This is the collected graphic novel edition of the series, which carries some quality extras, which I will get to later. PLOT The story is set in the somewhat future. Earth has become a playground for the spoilt offspring of past generations of heroes. They play out their games of superbattles as if they were in a school playground, oblivious to the normal people who try to carry on about... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Truly amazing artwork
Disadvantages: May have to read it again...

...of heroes, or meta as they are refereed to taking over and using the cities and using them as effectively an exercising yard without any care of what is happening to the non-metas. As you can imagine the level of trust for all metas as a whole falls and this causes further problems that are explored throughout the story leading to a climax between two of DC's most powerful characters. The story is set approximately 30 years in the future, as everyone has aged accordingly with the exception of Superman and Wonder Woman who don't really look that much different than before. The artist who has managed to put what can only be described as a fan's dream together is called Alex Ross. Within the comic world he is a very well known artist renowned for his realism aspect in everything he depicts. Most recently he has been involved with movie concepts... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Thought provoking
Disadvantages: Very US centric, Could be misconstrued as patriotic or anti-US, Very complex and wordy

...gained freedom and equality for all but it should never stop striving for that goal. I have so far concentrated on the elements of the story, mainly because the story and the message is so powerful but the story and much of its raw emotion is supplied by Alex Ross’s artwork; the water colours are almost photo realistic and give towering strength and humbling pathos to the central character all in the same page, leaving a lasting mental image to go with Darnell’s ideas. In fact the very nature of the story, exploring the idea of iconic figures means the by definition the character of Uncle Sam, Columbia and Britannia (yes we get a look in too) is two dimensional, it couldn’t be a strong icon if the ideas behind it weren’t clear cut. But Ross’s artwork breathes life into the fallen figures of past glories... Read review

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