Starting in 1998 at a rate of one per year, the tabloid-sized or treasury- sized books came out to celebrate each of the heroes’ 60th birthday, each book featured superheroes battling real-world problems. These books are amazing ‘cause they deal with very human problems, such as poverty, greed, and the roots of crime. Also the oversized look of the stories makes them larger than life and features Alex Ross’ art more prominently. They were all written by Paul Dini (creator of Batman: The Animated Series) and the curious thing is that, except for the last one, none of them has word balloons, they are written in prose, so said globes don’t obscure the art. Top of the Picture: The Original 4, anniversary books:Superman: Peace on Earth – Superman tries to solve world hunger for one day but is met with greed, suspicion, and fear.
Batman: War on Crime – Batman faces a situation similar to the one which created him, which makes him wonder which is the true nature of crime.
Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth – Wonder Woman, sent from Paradise Island to teach peace to humans, encounters that human nature is made for war and violence.
Shazam: Power of Hope – Captain Marvel, whose alter ego is a child, realizes that children have the capacity for awe and surprise that adults sometimes lack, and ponders on why children really are the hope for humanity’s future.
Finally all these books were collected in an oversized slipcase edition called World’s Greatest Super-Heroes, shown are the outer and inner cover respectively. Also from the art of these books, many things were made such as T-shirts, posters, postcards, etc, but if you have the books, you’re set with your collection.
IN MY COLLECTION: All of them except for the slipcase edition.
3 comments:
These IMO were some of Alex's best works. I hope he gets more opportunities to cut loose on his own.
DC printed an oversized poster of the memorable cover to Superman: Peace On Earth as part of the promotional campaign for that book. I saved one from the trash! The attention to detail is obvious, right down to Superman's individual eyelashes. Alex really puts heart into his work.
There are convention previews for JLA: Liberty and Justice which features different characters for each state.
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