Rating:  -
I bought this collection of Moore's work after having read The Watchmen. They seem to have been written by a different person than the man who wrote The Watchmen. They are certainly entertaining (as light stories, gotchas, time machines even), but they show none of the brillinace of Watchmen.
Rating:  -
The only story that I really liked in this was Batman: The Killing Joke. That said, I am glad I bought this. That story alone is worth the price, and I got to read some superhero stories that I normally would avoid.
Rating: -
DC Comics nearly hit a home run with this one - the book is absolutely worth the cover price and then some for the three Superman stories - "For the Man Who Has Everything" with "Watchmen" collaborator Dave Gibbons, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" with the legendary Curt Swan, and "The Jungle Line" with the excellent Rick Veitch - and of course, there's the now-classic Joker story with wonderful art by Brian Bolland ("The Killing Joke").
The Omega Men and Green Lantern 8-pagers are terrific, too (a couple have art by "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" penciler Kevin O'Neill), and the Clayface story from the Batman annual isn't half bad (although the art is a little lame).
There's a lengthy Green Arrow story that has a painful phoned-in feel to it, though, and the Dr. Fate origin story is fine, but the art isn't much to look at.
Those are both pretty minor niggles - the real gripe I have with this otherwise terrific book is that the lovely introductory prose section in "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" hasn't been restored on the first page (it was on a page of its own in the last reprint, and that page is gone now). DC pulls stuff like this all the time for no discernible reason other than lazy copy editing, but it gets old fast (there's a full page left out of "Swamp Thing: Love and Death").
At any rate, if you've never read the stories before you won't miss the little introduction to "Man of Tomorrow," and most of the stories in here are beyond reproach. Moore is a terrific writer and did things with the characters in this book that no one had ever thought to do before (he continued to do them, by the way, during his run on "Supreme" a few years later). An excellent purchase.
Rating: -
DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore (2006) - Alan Moore (writer) and Various (artists)
I will start off by saying that Alan Moore is the greatest writer that English comics have ever seen. In fact, he is one of the greatest literary artists alive today. I generally hate pointing out bests (since most of this is subjective), but I have been reading comics for many years and have read many different writers' works, and from what I can tell, there is just no one as good as Alan Moore. He has an amazing psychological acumen, with an uncanny ability to develop real personalities out of abstract myths. This is a collection of a lot (if not all) of the works he wrote for DC comics (with the exception of Swamp Thing, which you can buy separately). There is not a single bad story in the lot, although some are obviously more slight and less ambitious than others.
The highlight for me is without a doubt "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", which is pure Alan Moore brilliance. There are a few reasons I like this story so much: first of all, it is the longest story. Now, length obvious does not equate to quality, but I feel that in Alan Moore's case, the more room he gets to develop all of his ideas, the better. Next, the psychological realism is amazing. The ideal of Superman is almost so idealistic that it enters the realm of the abstract: Superman seems more ideas and notions than actual personality. Yet, Alan Moore gives this character true life, heart, and character. When Superman is despairing (and actually crying) over the suffering that he is causing all of his friends, I personally almost teared: it was so powerful and passionate. Plus, I have to really hand it to Curt Swan. This is tied for the best Superman art I have ever seen (tied with Frank Quitely on All-Star Superman). I don't know what it is, but something about Curt Swan's simplicity (although only on the surface, as one can never truly understand the complexity in the mind of a great artist) is absolutely captivating and magical, which fits perfectly with the feel of the Earth One Superman. Overall, this was a truly impressive story and a very strong collection; I recommend it without any reservations.
Rating: -
A wide and nice assortment of characters are featured from big guns such as Superman and Batman to Vigilante, Green Arrow and the Green Lantern Corps. The highlight is probably the Superman stories which capture the Silver Age feel while at the same time infusing the stories with a modern sensibility.
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