Scan barcode
i_have_no_process's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
4.75
Alex Ross at the height of his powers. There is no better art in comics than this.
darylnash's review
2.0
Great opening. Then it turns out to be a dream. Blegh. Our heroes are in dire straits! How will they ever escape?!? Come back next volume... if you dare! Pretty artwork (if photo-realism is your thing) in service of a rather average script.
tightgenes's review
4.0
DC comics are apparently goofy as hell and everyone has an absolutely hysterical name and I'm here for it. The art also fucks so hard.
tita_noir's review
4.0
"When you write an antagonist, you always write him, in his mind, as the protagonist. That means, every villain of a story, to be a good villain, must believe himself to be the hero. Not the villain at all."
In his foreward in this book, Jim Kreuger speaks about how he writes a villain and what he has learned about writing effective villains. This really caught my attention because this is what I have always believed when I read a book that features a pronounced antagonist. I really can't stand to read books where the villain "raise[s:] his head from his pillow that morning to consider what "evil" he might do that day." People in my reading groups and anyone who reads my reviews know that I hate Evil for Evil's sakes villains. I want to villain to be someone who really thinks what he is doing, from his perspective, is right. Yes, what he is doing is...,well,...evil. But he doesn't think so and he has a real motive of why he's doing it.
In this very well done and provocative first volume, Kreuger does just that. He takes some very well known DC universe villains, (Lex Luthor, Riddler, Black Manta etc.) as has them banding together to solve Earth's woes. Their reasoning is that the Justice League heroes (Superman, Wonderwoman, Batman, Aquaman etc.) haven't really made the world a better place with all their super powers. They haven't cured diseases, they haven't eradicated poverty etc. And in fact their presence has made man lazy. Their ability to save men from dangers hasn't allowed man to grow and reach for the stars themselves. And actually, this is pretty darned sound reasoning. Really, what have they done except fight each other and other supervillains? So Lex and co. actually go about doing all that stuff. And it is pretty darned awesome.
Of course the painful part is seeing the heroes number among the fallen now. Knowing that the villains are carrying out a carefully constructed and well orchestrated plan to remove the heroes for good, is kinda awful to read and see. And it is a plan that looks like it just might work.
Of course this is just the first volume. There are, I believe, four or five total. This means that eventually the heroes will possibly come out of top again. Because, frankly, no matter how well drawn or reasonable a group of supervillains are, they are, at heart, villains. Somebody is going to do something that will make their fragile alliance collapse. But that is for a later installment possibly.
For now, this volume really works for me.
And let me take a minute to talk about Alex Ross. I FLOVE his art. If his art were human I'd have it's babies. It is beautiful, almost living. I try to buy any books he illustrates because his art just speaks to me. I have the giant posters of Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel that he did as a limited edition. And I love the character he puts in their faces. Especially Wonderwowan. She isn't just a pretty woman in satin tights. She looks like an Amazonian Warrior who just happens to be gorgeous. They all look like they've been fighting a lot and seen a lot.
Reccommend!
In his foreward in this book, Jim Kreuger speaks about how he writes a villain and what he has learned about writing effective villains. This really caught my attention because this is what I have always believed when I read a book that features a pronounced antagonist. I really can't stand to read books where the villain "raise[s:] his head from his pillow that morning to consider what "evil" he might do that day." People in my reading groups and anyone who reads my reviews know that I hate Evil for Evil's sakes villains. I want to villain to be someone who really thinks what he is doing, from his perspective, is right. Yes, what he is doing is...,well,...evil. But he doesn't think so and he has a real motive of why he's doing it.
In this very well done and provocative first volume, Kreuger does just that. He takes some very well known DC universe villains, (Lex Luthor, Riddler, Black Manta etc.) as has them banding together to solve Earth's woes. Their reasoning is that the Justice League heroes (Superman, Wonderwoman, Batman, Aquaman etc.) haven't really made the world a better place with all their super powers. They haven't cured diseases, they haven't eradicated poverty etc. And in fact their presence has made man lazy. Their ability to save men from dangers hasn't allowed man to grow and reach for the stars themselves. And actually, this is pretty darned sound reasoning. Really, what have they done except fight each other and other supervillains? So Lex and co. actually go about doing all that stuff. And it is pretty darned awesome.
Of course the painful part is seeing the heroes number among the fallen now. Knowing that the villains are carrying out a carefully constructed and well orchestrated plan to remove the heroes for good, is kinda awful to read and see. And it is a plan that looks like it just might work.
Of course this is just the first volume. There are, I believe, four or five total. This means that eventually the heroes will possibly come out of top again. Because, frankly, no matter how well drawn or reasonable a group of supervillains are, they are, at heart, villains. Somebody is going to do something that will make their fragile alliance collapse. But that is for a later installment possibly.
For now, this volume really works for me.
And let me take a minute to talk about Alex Ross. I FLOVE his art. If his art were human I'd have it's babies. It is beautiful, almost living. I try to buy any books he illustrates because his art just speaks to me. I have the giant posters of Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel that he did as a limited edition. And I love the character he puts in their faces. Especially Wonderwowan. She isn't just a pretty woman in satin tights. She looks like an Amazonian Warrior who just happens to be gorgeous. They all look like they've been fighting a lot and seen a lot.
Reccommend!
ubalstecha's review
3.0
The villains of the DC Universe have been having nightmares about the end of the world and how the heroes can't stop it. So they band together for two purposes, 1) to save mankind by performing acts of good and 2) stop the apocalypse by stopping all the heroes.
In this first volume we see hero after hero fall to the onslaught of villains. It is a bit depressing watching the icons of my childhood fall so easily to the onslaught of the badguys. If it had been this easy, wouldn't it have happened before? Still there is enough here to make me want to read the next instalment.
In this first volume we see hero after hero fall to the onslaught of villains. It is a bit depressing watching the icons of my childhood fall so easily to the onslaught of the badguys. If it had been this easy, wouldn't it have happened before? Still there is enough here to make me want to read the next instalment.
redheadbeans's review
3.0
I read "Kingdom Come" first and really liked that, so when I found this I decided to check it out. The art style is still great - I love that the women are pretty muscular and how proportionate all the characters look (all the guys are still a bit funny-looking).
Overall, the story was somewhat enjoyable. It fell apart a bit over time. Every issue seemed to be leading up to something and it kind of led to half-second conspiracy explanations that were kind of off-putting and a bit of a let-down. One of the biggest problems was the Joker. I fail to see what relevance his part in the story had and it kept distracting from the plot. I suppose a case could be made for demonstrating how the villains would act if they WEREN'T mind-controlled (they'd just screw each other up), but it's kind of a long shot and it just didn't work.
I'm also confused about The Dream. If the characters are all already mind-controlled and their plan is to kill off the JLA and rule the planet, then why do they need The Dream? This seems like a fallback to one of my major issues with "Kingdom Come": the frequent biblical(?) text intermixed with shadowy fortellings of the future that broke up the story. It was irritating. It's kind of like overkill for what I'm sure is the primary story-telling purpose (besides sounding like an epic concept): in KC, it would be to explain to the human witness what MIGHT happen if things go badly so he has a stake in stopping things, and in J, it's part of the mind control to keep the villains in line. Except when they lose the overt mind control, all the villains abandon the cause anyway so... It's kinda stupid? The Dream fails to explain HOW the supers lose their powers or when all of this takes place or who is doing what's happening. It's full of so many unexplainables that I think SOMEONE among all the geniuses of the JLA would figure something out and cry foul.
There were a lot more cameos here that mattered than in KC, which I liked. More screen time was given to actual characters (particularly female characters) than oh... random human males that no one knows, and I liked that. The dismissive nature of Hawkman and Green Arrow was KIND of irritating, though. My favorite character interaction was probably Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman. Their friendship was quite sweet. I don't see Marvel being really smart and thoughtful in a lot of comics (or you know... using his Wisdom of Solomon) and this was a nice change.
I also really liked how they played with Wonder Woman's character. That was interesting and enjoyable. And I love that she refused to stop believing in Rich. Batman also gets some interesting story moments, and I liked how Marvel came to Clark's rescue. It was quite interesting to see Marvel carrying Superman in his arms.
Overall... worth a read if you like JLA comics and "Kingdom Come". If you haven't read KC first, go read it. It's better.
Overall, the story was somewhat enjoyable. It fell apart a bit over time. Every issue seemed to be leading up to something and it kind of led to half-second conspiracy explanations that were kind of off-putting and a bit of a let-down. One of the biggest problems was the Joker. I fail to see what relevance his part in the story had and it kept distracting from the plot. I suppose a case could be made for demonstrating how the villains would act if they WEREN'T mind-controlled (they'd just screw each other up), but it's kind of a long shot and it just didn't work.
I'm also confused about The Dream. If the characters are all already mind-controlled and their plan is to kill off the JLA and rule the planet, then why do they need The Dream? This seems like a fallback to one of my major issues with "Kingdom Come": the frequent biblical(?) text intermixed with shadowy fortellings of the future that broke up the story. It was irritating. It's kind of like overkill for what I'm sure is the primary story-telling purpose (besides sounding like an epic concept): in KC, it would be to explain to the human witness what MIGHT happen if things go badly so he has a stake in stopping things, and in J, it's part of the mind control to keep the villains in line. Except when they lose the overt mind control, all the villains abandon the cause anyway so... It's kinda stupid? The Dream fails to explain HOW the supers lose their powers or when all of this takes place or who is doing what's happening. It's full of so many unexplainables that I think SOMEONE among all the geniuses of the JLA would figure something out and cry foul.
There were a lot more cameos here that mattered than in KC, which I liked. More screen time was given to actual characters (particularly female characters) than oh... random human males that no one knows, and I liked that. The dismissive nature of Hawkman and Green Arrow was KIND of irritating, though. My favorite character interaction was probably Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman. Their friendship was quite sweet. I don't see Marvel being really smart and thoughtful in a lot of comics (or you know... using his Wisdom of Solomon) and this was a nice change.
I also really liked how they played with Wonder Woman's character. That was interesting and enjoyable. And I love that she refused to stop believing in Rich. Batman also gets some interesting story moments, and I liked how Marvel came to Clark's rescue. It was quite interesting to see Marvel carrying Superman in his arms.
Overall... worth a read if you like JLA comics and "Kingdom Come". If you haven't read KC first, go read it. It's better.
ladydewinter's review
4.0
I overheard a guy talking about this at the comic book store I frequent. I thought it looked interesting and bought it without knowing much about it.
First of all, it's a painted comic, and the artwork is stunning, if a little unusual. But mostly stunning.
The story itself is an interesting idea - the villains deciding that the superheroes have committed a crime because they never used their powers to really make life better for people, whether by watering the desert or healing the handicapped or whatever. The villains start doing all that while at the same time starting to eradicate the Justice League. I'm very curious to see how this'll turn out.
What I found *extremely* helpful were Batman's notes at the back of the book. I am still very easily confused when it comes to the DC Universe, and these notes made some things clearer, at least.
First of all, it's a painted comic, and the artwork is stunning, if a little unusual. But mostly stunning.
The story itself is an interesting idea - the villains deciding that the superheroes have committed a crime because they never used their powers to really make life better for people, whether by watering the desert or healing the handicapped or whatever. The villains start doing all that while at the same time starting to eradicate the Justice League. I'm very curious to see how this'll turn out.
What I found *extremely* helpful were Batman's notes at the back of the book. I am still very easily confused when it comes to the DC Universe, and these notes made some things clearer, at least.