Alex Ross, as always, makes beautiful art, but I didn't think the story was up to par with the imagery. ( )

The Justice League's A team members are attacked will the bad guys win this time? What happens when the bad guys argue that the super powered heroes are not helping solve the worlds problems, and offer a better life at a price? What would you give up to be free from hunger and pain? What's in it for the villains? These are the questions this comic books asks. The artwork makes the novel worth getting the library on its own merit. The story is an added bonus. You can pick this book up without knowing anything about heroes in the Justice League or the Villains in the Axis of Evil. Definitely a fun read ( )

An excellent epic adventure that needs to retread to get the most out of it. Good plotting & a truly epic threat. Beautiful art ( )

The hardcover collects the full 12 issues maxi-series published by DC in 2005/2007. But don't let the timing scare you - this is one of those out of time stories that DC had been publishing under different labels (Elseworlds, All-star) or without banners at all (such as Kingdom Come).

The story premise is pretty basic - a huge number of the villains in the DC universe dream of the same thing - the destruction of the Earth and the inability of the superheroes to save it or the people on it. And surprisingly all of them decide to try to change this. Of course none of them finds this surprising, the public loves the good deeds that the villains of yesterday are doing and the Justice League is... missing. At least this is what everyone believes. The truth as always is not exactly what everyone believes to be.

Jim Krueger and Alex Ross go deep in the history of JLA and the DC universe to pull some of the heroes and the villains. Most of them would be named eventually; some of their back stories will be told but 12 issues are not enough to introduce the huge stuff that they are using. And they find the balance between adding the back stories and not cluttering the story; the relevant pieces are explained in one way or another. But behind every bit of story, there is a much bigger one -- and these additional stories are adding a lot to the pleasure of reading this collection. And it is not just a superheroes story - because most of those heroes are human and have their human relationships, adding a layer over the already complicated story. Add to this the letter which a human girl writes to her parents and the tapestry is almost full. What completes is one of the main ideas in the book - the heroes are not invulnerable and they all can die... but they will try to save the world while doing it.

I am not sure how friendly will be this book to people that do not know anything about the DC universe - it definitely can be read and understood but I suspect that it will sound flat. And despite all continuity changes, it is very simple to see which parts of the cannon the authors keep for this book. Add to this Alex Ross's art (and I can spend a lot of time on some of his splashes just recognizing characters) and this book is a must read for anyone that likes the JLA.

It is not the best story that could have been written - there is always a way to make a story better. But it is solid. And it is a story which I like rereading - sometimes for the art, sometimes for the these additional sub threads that go through the whole story and sometimes just for the action -- there are enough battle scenes to choose from and you always have Captain Marvel and Superman throwing each other into the Sun (and just one of them asking for it), the Green lantern Corps appearance or Sinestro's battles. ( )

Something of an epic story, this begins with a series of dreams by the world's "super-villains" that the world will come to a violent end soon, and the heroes will be unable to prevent it. Soon, as the heroes are taken out of the picture one by one, the villains embark upon a drive to rescue humanity from the ills, hunger and poverty that have always blighted it, being sure to see that credit is properly assigned. The heroes learn that although Lex Luthor may appear to be the leader and instigator here, he is in a secret partnership with Braniac - although each has his own agenda. This could have been a much better story. The premise itself had vast potential, and Alex Ross' exquisite painted art as a vehicle. But the story is marred by being overly complex, confusing and ambitious, with players from the vaults of DC's past that strain even my memory. And even Alex Ross' artwork does not serve well here. His paintings are too static to portray action scenes fluidly, and frequently the eye gets confused about where to follow the art on the page. He does better as a cover artist, or an illustrator of simpler stories in which the artwork can illuminate rather than obfuscate. But there is a lot of good stuff here, and a re-reading someday may improve my opinion. ( )