Book Review: Absolute Justice — The World’s Greatest Superheroes

This was excellent from start to finish. The large hardcover edition of this comic is worth every penny. Alex Ross’ artwork is absolutely stunning. Pure classical romantic perfection on every page. This collection includes the standalone comics for Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Captain Marvel, as well as origin story profile pages for several other heroes and a full Justice League adventure in the second half. The character stories all serve as brilliant classical introductions to the heroes giving us their essential values and personalities. The Justice League adventure centers around a mysterious alien disease that suddenly appears in Africa and threatens to spread to the rest of the world. Quite a timely subject matter.

Two elements make it an especially powerful story. Firstly, that the heroes aren’t fighting some typical beefy strong man or army of giant robots. Instead they have to fight something microscopic — a problem they can’t just punch their way out of like usual. Secondly, the fact that the story makes a huge point of showing that the threat is not simply the virus itself but also humanity’s hysterical reaction to it. The League is forced to take aggressive decisive action against the very humans they swore to protect. Superman’s speech at the end about the Justice League earning humanity’s trust again is a model for all would-be leaders. Genuinely inspiring stuff. In an era super saturated with cape movies would that more would take their queue from Ross’ inspired adventure.

Grade: A+