passing comic fans may miss an awful lot of references
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
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 their everyday lives. The Golden Age heroes are myth but, not sacred enough to be left alone, they are remembered in the stagnant commerciality of "Planet Krypton" - a fast food franchise, where waiters dress in costume and food has names like "The American Way" and "Black Condor".
The UN has taken steps to censure the "metahuman" community for their own safety, and all sport is dead, as no one could play against superpowered players.
Amongst all this Norman MacKay, a minister who's faith is waning, comforts a dying man who tells him of the coming apocalypse. The visions of the war to bring down Babylon now passed onto the minister force him to take his part in the final battle.
CHARACTERS Waid and Ross have gone above and beyond in creating a whole world of new metahumans, for the most part descended from classic heroes. They have also worked hard to show the toll taken on the remaining legends, who all have their own personal battles to contend with.
Superman is a bitter shell of his former self, living in a self imposed exile, living away from his own humanity and intent on restoring the balance.
Wonder Woman, desperate to relive the glory days as a warrior, is now looking to fight for any reason... including the wrong one.
The Batman runs Gotham with and iron fist, and an army of steel sentinels.
The Flash has ascended to another level of being, patrolling Keystone City "between the ticks of a second".
The Northwest pacific is held under the watch of the environmental terrorist called Hawkman, long since changed to more beast than man.
Green Lantern is almost as removed from civilisation as Superman, watching the skies from a self-built orbiting "Emerald City".
There are others, lurking in darkness, names that are known to all the above, names that o not want the return of balance and who will stop at nothing to prevent it.
ARTWORK The artwork, put simply, is sensational.
The entire book is drawn and painted with incredible detail and the effect is just magical. Alex Ross even has a section at the end of the book that lays out how his work goes from the written script page to the finished comic. To say it is a lot of work would be an understatement and an insult to Alex and all artists.
Alex Ross has used friends and family to model and as photo references for the majority of the major players, even using his own father for the elderly minister (and Point of View character) Norman MacKay.
WRITING The story is a complicated, twisting tale which encompasses not only war on a huge scale, but the minute personal battles and fears of each of the main characters. It bobs and weaves and leads us right up to the door of revelations. Each character is given a part to play and is written with the right amount of emotion and conviction, so as not to send us over the edge of righteous, maudlin word play and bold empty heroic statement.
EXTRAS The Graphic novel is finished off beautifully with a section concerning the creation of the series entitled APOCRYPHA, which includes :-
- short character breakdowns for the main players - detailed lists of all the characters included in the beautifully painted original book covers - the evolution of a page of artwork (mentioned before) - pages and pages of the specially created artwork that accompanied the series
ALL IN ALL The book is fantastic; be it as a great comic story, or a piece or artwork in its own right. It captures a feeling of real life amongst all the superpowered events, and serves as great piece of written fiction.
It is available from most online comic bookstores for a price(ISBN 1-85268-816-3). I got my copy online at eBay, where you can pick up good copies for a good price most days.
DC also ran a series of one-off works based on the periphery characters and descendants of the Golden Age, which are also widely available still from comic stores and online.
DC Direct also produced collectible figures based on the artwork of Alex Ross, all of which are beautifully detailed and capture the same spirit as the original art.
If you are still undecided please look into Alex Ross' art through his website and see just how beautiful this book is.
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