Books : Superman: Peace on Earth

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Rating:

- Superman Peace on Earth
A fantastic book, primarily because of the stunning visuals. Superman has never looked more life-like or vibrabt. this is primarily due to Alex Ross' stunning pencils and lush painting style. Ross took the comic world by storn in the early 90's with the limited series Marvels and continues to impress. this is the first of four oversized comic books. the story is not paticularly interesting, but it is clearly not the focus of this work. the point here is the art and it shows.

Rating:

- A True Visual Treat
I wish someone out there in the DC office would take Alex Ross,give him a big paycheck and make him do Superman & JLA for the rest of his life.Alex is a true artist and I dare anyone comic book fan or art critic to dispute that..Now that I have that off my chest about this book...It certainly isnt a comic book..At least in the format most people are familiar with..Its more a story that was visualised by Alex Ross's work and unfortunetly that dosent make it a good read for everone..the story itself is about charity work which carries some good values in itself..Its more a story of reflections and it does make you think.More suited for for a mature reader as anyone expecting action packed story will be sorely dissapointed.

Rating:

- Fluff
Alex Ross and Paul Dini are both creators that I have a lot of time for, but I could not recommend this book to anyone.

Paul Dini has obviously opted to allow the art to tell most of the story and keep the words down to a minimum, which in itself is fine, but you really need a good story there to carry it off. Unfortunately this book doesn't come close. Paul Dini has taken a huge stubject and over-simplified it into a five minute read that doesn't really grab your attention for those five minutes.

The art, being Alex Ross is extremely professional, but it lacks acertain spark that you see in most of his work, and it just serves as a reminder of why the quality of a good painter is not just down to realism - Realism alone can be quite dull.

Rating:

- Eh
It wasn't horrible, but I couldn't recommend this book to anyone but collectors (thats obviously who it was made for anyways). These books (this one as well as the Shazam and Batman takes by the Dini/Ross collaboration) aren't well written, and I don't think anyone cared when they were making these books. They're just an excuse for Ross to paint. I'd heard these books described as illustrated novellas, but that is hardly the case. I think if I typed up the text of one of these books it'd take up MAYBE 1 1/2 - 2 pages. I found that these books read like those large over sized picture books we're bought as kids to teach us about the animals at the zoo and things in that vein. These books were made to make money, the only reason to buy them is if you're a collector. Otherwise I'd go for the more story oriented Ross works (Kingdom Come, Earth X, The Marvels), and if it's just the art you want go to his web site, but there's no reason to waste your money here.

Rating:

- A coffee table Superman book...
...and I mean that in the best way possible. ;-)

Nice timeless story by Paul Dini wherein Superman confronts the fact that he can't save the world by himself, but let's face it: the reason to buy this book are the amazing full-page painted illustrations from Alex Ross. Beyond his trademark realism, Ross really conveys the essense of Superman's power and dignity here.

This oversized format is a terrific forum for his talents and fans of his work will be thrilled to own it.

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