Of course, opinions on the quality of the stories will differ between reviewers, but here are my thoughts:

The Good - A Superman/Mongul story that creeps along in the beginning but finishes with a nice dark touch. Three very tight and creative "Tales of the Green Lantern Corps", especially one involving a GL who comes from a world with no concept of light or color. A Superman/Swamp Thing team-up that would have been right at home in Moore's regular Swamp Thing gig. The secret origin of the Phantom Stranger, unnecessarily paralleled with a modern-day reenactment, but still interesting. A Batman story focusing on Clayface III and his obsession with a department store mannequin.

The So-So: A Green Arrow/Black Canary story that succeeds at being "officially grim and gritty" but didn't make an impression one way or the other. Two Omega Men back-ups that could have ended with rim-shots. A Vigilante 2-parter that is far too long - this one was my least favorite, and leaving it out would have been fine by me. I guess it was meant to be unsettling, and the basic story is okay, but the bright cheery art ruins the effect, and the involvement of two prostitutes gets old very quickly and contributes nothing but eye-rolling melodrama.

In closing, I will definitely hang on to this book, as the good stories more than make up for any faults of the others.


"For the Man Who Has Everything"   September 13, 2004
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

It's hard to overstate exactly how much fun Alan Moore's comics usually are. They're inventive, witty, even erudite on occasion. This is not one of those occasions, unfortunately. The two Superman stories in the volume are very good, and a couple of the Green Lantern Corps shorts are very clever, but the rest of the book is marred by the catch-all approach to literature, in which DC apparently looks for a by-line and reprints on reflex, never giving a thought to the quality of the stories. The Vigilante tale takes up more space than any other story in the book and is frankly no good. The same goes for the smaller Batman story (a character for whom Moore seems to have some little antipathy - according to him, his acclaimed "The Killing Joke" remains one of his least favorite works), and the book is simply not large enough to excuse the reprinting of such deliberately shoddy material. Further, DC's new printing of "The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" does not, in fact, include the Moore stories from previous printings. Apparently, this book is the only place you'll be able to find those stories anymore, and you'll have to drop twenty dollars on mostly inferior material to find them! Is the book worth the cover price? Grudgingly, I have to say yes, but only for "For the Man Who Has Everything," "The Jungle Line," and a couple of the eight-page GL Corps stories. The rest is that least Moore-like of vices: boring.


Some excellent short pieces by the modern master of comics   March 19, 2004
This collection has some excellent short subject work Alan Moore did for DC throughout the early '80s, before his falling out with the company over WATCHMEN. Moore tells several stories featuring prominent DC characters of the period. This includes a fantastic couple of Green Lantern Corps stories, a decent Green Lantern tale, an average Vigilante story, an Omega Men backup story with a nice twist ending, and a rather disturbing Batman/Clayface story. Of all the stories, the GLC stories got my imagination going the most, and whetted my appetite for more stories about them by Moore, which never came and most likely never will. These stories showed he had a real grasp of the Green Lantern dynamic and were wildly imaginative. I highly recommend this collection.


When genius is bottled like Kandor   June 8, 2005
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Thank the gods that Moore did not write many DC superhero stories. The DC universe is too limiting. These are all excellent stories (particularly the concepts), but the mind of Alan Moore is in a straightjacket. It's a little like watching a great pianist doing five-finger exercises: interesting and enjoyable, but not really what you want. By all means buy this book to complete your Moore collection, but buy his ABC work (especially the brilliant "Promethea") first.