Excellent buy!
If you didn't read Moore or if you ARE a fan, get this. You will get Killing Joke, Superman: Whatever Happened to Man of Tommorow and MORE MOORE!
I am Swamp Thing fan and that is best one Moore wrote in my opinion. I am not such a superhero fan nowadays, but this is good book, with many short stories that are real good!
A+ service and merch
product arrived quickly and in good condition. would definitely do business with this seller again.
Excellent short-form
These stories are among the most accessible, best-written graphic works I've read. Very little background is required, a rarity in the DC Universe, and each story is evocative and firmly rooted in the human experience. At the same time, Moore doesn't lose sight of his audience, and delivers on the promise of superheroes. The tone of the stories included ranges from humor to cosmic horror. The stories tend towards psychological horror, in that they all involve an inspection of the heroes' psyche as they are put under great duress.
While the selling point is clearly the writer, the art here is, occasionally breath-taking. Much of it feels very standard, in the vein of Dave Gibbons, but a few stories do stick out. "The Killing Joke", "Night Olympics", and "Mortal Clay" would be stunning even without Moore's writing, whereas the other stories at least do justice to the author.
The version I received from Amazon is the 2006 edition, which includes "The Killing Joke" and "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?". These stories have been removed from subsequent editions, as DC decided they would sell on their own. Finding the 2006 edition in bricks and mortar stores is a crap shoot, and the price does not reflect the removal of these stories. I highly recommend the book, and purchasing from Amazon.
Better than Great
I haven't read everything by Alan Moore, but I'll say this: these stories are deep, complex, and worth visiting three or four times. In fact, as a university professor, I use this book in my Composition class, and not only are the students engaged and interested in the work, there is more than enough fodder for thought and discussion. I read one review here that claims "The Jungle Line" in this collection to be an inaccurate depiction of who Superman really was--as if Superman is and must alwasy be impervious to anything. But that's the thing about Moore. He redefines these characters, all in the interest of meaningfully exploring the psychology of their characters. Amongst the other deeply profound, rich, and exciting stories are "For the Man Who Has Everything", "Father's Day" (a great critique of morality and society's desire to pass judgment/categorize people and their actions as "good" or "evil"), the aforementioned "The Jungle Line", "Mortal Clay", and of course "The Killing Joke". Basically, these stories immediately challenge the preconception that a comic book can't be as meaningful and profound as our most lauded novels, films, as Shakespeare. Yes, I said Shakespeare...why not?
More of Moore
Most of Alan Moore's big stuff (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc...) is easily picked up from collected editions, but the big guy did a lot of work before he became the Big Guy. When making the move from British to American comics, he did lots of fill-ins and back-up short stories, lots of random stuff for random characters.
So while it is quite easy to get collected editions of his major work, tracking down all of these smaller pieces has been a chore. Not all of them are excellent, and most are of the era that they were written, but they all show a spark of Moore's genius and are worth reading. Moore is, after all, not a one-note writer, and his comedic pieces are just as great as his "serious" work.
"DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore" combines an older collection, Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore with another Moore-authored masterpiece Batman: The Killing Joke. "Batman: The Killing Joke" has been widely available for years, but it is a nice extra in this collected edition. Also included are Moore's Superman stories "For the Man who has Everything" with Watchmen collaborator Dave Gibbons and "Whatever Happened to the Man from Tomorrow?," Moore's legendary ending to the Superman comic series before the Crisis on Infinite Earths re-boot.
There is a lot of comic book history packed in here, and some of it may be unknown to modern readers. Characters like The Vigilante and The Omega Men have not survived to the modern era, although they are fondly remembered. Others, like Green Arrow and Black Canary, The Green Lantern Corps, and The Phantom Stranger are well-known. Probably my favorite piece in the books was the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps story "Mogo Doesn't Socialize." I knew about Mogo, the living planet member of the Green Lantern Corps, but I didn't realize that he (it?) was an Alan Moore creation.
