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Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Taking a break from cleaning. ]
Just recently finished this book, and I made some observations I thought I would share.
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.
I also have a problem with Alex Ross’s artwork. I know that a collective gasp just broke out, like the voices of a thousand Geeks could not believe that I said that. But Ross is all about the strong chin and defiant stance, which is awesome when you have male heroes wearing masks. The results with the females of the DC Universe are not so pretty. Black Canary and Wonder Woman end up looking quite manish, almost transvestite like, especially in the covers. Gone are any suggestions of delicate beauty. I get that they will be muscled, but Canary was designed after femme fatales of Hollywood, she should not look like she has a chin you can cut cheese on.
And so that one thing puts me off much of Ross’s work. I don’t doubt he’s one of those artists who takes pictures of models posing to achieve his photorealistic art, but it’s just slightly creepy.