There are 15 stories in this 12 issue series, and to me they are pretty evenly distributed in terms of quality. The good, the bad and the meh.

I first started to read each issue every week, then stopped at issue 6. Once the last issue shipped, I read them all by story, instead of by issue.

Here are the ones I liked:

- Batman: the creators of 100 Bullets can do no wrong, so this crime story delivered. Bruce was surprisingly very involved in this story, which makes the ending even better. I hated that the first panel was wasted on the title of the anthology. Did we really need that? It’s already on the cover!!

- Kamandi: I am not familiar with either Kamandi or Prince Valiant (the strip that inspired this story’s style), but I was very interested in this epic adventure. Tiger, Gorillas, Lions tribes battling for supremacy in a post apocalyptic world. Kamandi is the last man on Earth, or so it appears. There’s action, tragedy and even hope at the end. Plus Ryan Sook’s art is gorgeous.

- Strange Adventures: Adam Strange is reinvented by Paul Pope here, so that there’s a central theme of duality between Strange on Earth and on Rann. Alanna makes for a good female co-star, which is why I think this strip was not just called Adam Strange. I like Gorgo’s final fate on Earth. The art is very inventive, especially the way the villains are drawn.

- Flash: this strip does a great job with the layout of such a large page. It starts with 2 different stories splitting the page in half. Two stories that differ in style and theme. As the story goes on, the strips start to meld together, but there is always something new and surprising. The story is just an all out time travel fun, something that doesn’t need to be explained, it’s just fun.

- Hawkman: there’s not much to this story other than big action scenes with many different subjects. I like that this is on such a big scale that the whole JLA is involved. First we get a hijacked plane. Then Hawkman fights big aliens. Then they end up on Dinosaur Island. Finally Hawkman is helped by Aquaman. Just well done big action scenes.

Here are the stories that I didn’t like.

- Superman: it’s a pity that this strip was chosen to represent the series in papers. Superman comes off as a whiny bitch, and we see all the cliché scene you’d expect from a Superman story: Superman wonders about his identity, he goes to the barn that shines a white light. Of course there is a reason for his whiny behavior, but it doesn’t matter because it’s predictable and unpleasant. I also didn’t like the coloring, which ruined the usually good art by Bermejo.

- Titans: all other stories are new reader-friendly, except for this one. Without knowledge of the Titans history, I couldn’t enjoy the “clever” twist of the identity of the villain. Even before that, the story relied too much on the characters’ past. The art is a generic animation style, that just doesn’t mesh well with the other stories. The storytelling is also not very good, it all feels more like a series of pin-ups.

- Sgt Rock: Joe Kubert is a legend, but I don’t think he succeeds here. He doesn’t take advantage of the bigger page size, so even though his art looks good, I wasn’t excited. The story is the biggest problem here though. Nothing much happens, for 6 pages Rock is interrogated. For the rest there’s just a long fight. I admit I’ve never read Sgt Rock before, so that might be why I didn’t like this at all.

- Demon and Catwoman: this is another strip that totally failed to interest me. First of all the pairing of these characters is an odd choice that doesn’t work at all. My dislike of Demon and his speech doesn’t help matters. The plot is very simple and boring. The art is not bad, but compared to the rest of the stories, it pales.

- Wonder Woman: I admit Caldwell’s ambition and experimentation. He really tried to use the format in a different way. Unfortunately it just doesn’t work for me at all. Both the art and the words are barely readable, add to that a confusing story and it’s clear this was a failure.

The rest of the bunch are just ok.

- Green Lantern: the story is just bland, nothing too exciting. At first I didn’t like the art, but I must say it grew on me. Not bad, but I expected more from Busiek.

- Deadman: interesting art and layouts, it certainly tries to utilize all that space in a different way. I wasn’t wowed by the story, but I liked the twist ending.

- Metamorpho: I like the layouts, Allred tried different things in different pages. Though some of them didn’t work as a weekly page. The story was very uneven, some pages are exciting, others just don’t work. The pages with the elements table were cute in concept, but in practice it was boring. And we certainly didn’t need two of those.

- Supergirl: this is “cute” story with some clean and exciting art from Conner. That being said, it was a little too “kiddie” for me. I did like the Aquaman cameo, that was really funny. At the end we actually get a satisfying explanation about all the craziness.

- Metal Men: this started as a funny action story, which I actually didn’t find that funny. However I was surprised by the ending, which took a tragic turn. I understand that’s typical of Metal Men story, but I’m not familiar with their comics. The art though is classic superhero fun.

Mark Waid and George Perez are perfect for this kind of stories, so I really enjoyed this series. The last few issues are just stand alone stories with various artists, after which Waid also left the series.

Below are my notes for these issues.

1) Batman $ GL: Drake dead copies all around superheroes. Roulette was his girlfriend in LV, she tells about Aliens from Ventura who want the book of destiny. Now the Venturan goes to Ventura with the book, GL after him. Batman after the other who has the Haruspex weapon (can calculate the best way to defeat a target).

2) GL & Supergirl: Supergirl is attractive and outspoken, GL thinking 17.17.17… Ventura is a casino planet, strict about cheating (time travelers etc…) but they don’t know about the book yet. They find him at the biggest fighting event, where Supergirl fights and they find the only one betting for her. Alien escapes (he notices pages changing before his eyes) but the book is taken by a Rannian, who beams back to Rann with GL, leaving Supergirl stranded. Meanwhile Batman and Blue Beetle track down the other alien in Texas.

3) Batman & Blue Beetle: they track down the alien who wants to trade his weapon for transportation, at La Dama. But the Lord of Time shows up with the Fatal Five to get the weapon. They all fight, Lord of Time is gone, Cyborg and Batman fight while weapon fires. Result is a mix of cyborg and Batman.

4) Supergirl & Lobo: Batman/Cyborg and the other Fatal Five are gone. Supergirl and Lobo stopped at a bar and arm-wrestle. Then Destiny (from Sandman) talks to Supergirl about the book: he noticed the men who were not there (4 of them) and their absence is corrupting destiny. So he decided to send the book to those men. But once he freed the book, alien mystics Lords of Luck (3 of them) hired Venturans and gave them the weapon to steal the book. He does not know who the invisible men are, but Batman & GL will know. Lobo takes Supergirl to Rann, there she finds GL and Adam fighting Thanagarians. Meanwhile Batman and Fatal Five wake up in their prison in the future, with the Legion.

5) Batman vs Legion: Batman is saved by Legion, but there temporal anomalies. He tries to use the weapon to bring him back in time, but it doesn’t fire (because Batman isn’t a threat). So Batman takes it and leaves. Phantom Girl finds weapon and fires it, then Lord of Luck shows up with both weapon and book. Meanwhile GL updates Supergirl about civil war in Rann. They find the thief, but too late, Lords of Luck are already there.

6) GL & Batman: in the future reality has been re-written. Lords of Luck have overtaken the universe thanks to a prolonged civil war in Rann. In present, GL Adam and Supergirl try to take back the book, but fail. Supergirl then reads the book looking for Batman, finds him in the future, zeta-beam powered with GL’s ring bring Batman back to present, where he beams the men who are not there: the Challengers of the Unknown. They are unknown to the book, so they get it back. Then GL traps the Lords of Luck. Book stays with Challengers.

7) WW & Power Girl. Megistus gets knowledge of the Royal Library of Alexandria through the Philosopher’s Stone. His heir is Dr. Alchemy, who can possess people through the stone. WW and PG try to stop him, but he possesses PG and goes to kill Superman. He uses Red K, but WW arrives and defeats him/her. Then gets rid of the stone by sending it to the Sun. Challengers are reading the book trying to find out what they’re supposed to do with it. Megistus is a clue.

Flash & Doom Patrol: Flash brings his kids to see Doom Patrol. Kids are scared of them, even though they don’t mean any harm. During scientific procedure, Metamorpho suddenly disappears and kids are in danger. Prof tells Wally to choose which one to save, but he comes up with plan to save both. The name Megistus comes up again. Flash leaves at once. At home he chose which kid. Challengers are still reading the book, but it takes their sanity while reading for too long. At the end a hand appears from the book.

9) Metal Men & Dial H for HERO: flying creature attacks them, Dial transforms Tin into confident hero. Blackhawk & Boy Commandos: Egypt, mummies steal Orb of Ra for Megistus, defeated by heroes. Hawkman & Atom: Warlock of Ys steal ancient star charts for Megistus. Atom and Hawkman’s powers combined annulled each other, but then they defeat Warlock who goes into the book of destiny and comes out covered with pages in the Challs headquarter.

10) Challs fight the “book” and discover Warlock inside. They think the book is trying to tell them something about Megistus, and they get a page which shows Megistus’s next target. Meanwhile Superman is taken by Merlin to find and destroy the Golden Eye of Effron with help of Silent Knight. They defeat a dragon and destroy the artifact. At wedding of Aquaman and Mera, Aqualad and Teen Titans defeat Oceanus who was possessed by Megistus and wanted Aqualad’s dormant cognitive power. They also learn to stick together and it’s hinted as the beginning of the Teen Titans. Challs went to Jordan’s locker to find the Power Battery, Megistus seems to be inside it.

11) Inside the power battery was Metamorpho possessed by Megistus. He defeats the Challs and gets GL powers. Ultraman is tasked by his imp to team-up with Superman and find Megistus. He’s using the artifacts to attract the red storm to earth. Both anti-matter and matter earth are in danger. Megistus’ fortress is inside the sun, where WW threw the philosopher’s stone. But before Superman and Ultraman can get there, the power battery is thrown into it making the sun green.

12) GL, Challs, Super/Ultra-man use WW’s airplane to go in the SUN. GL takes back his powers. Megistus (alchemist) is attracting the red storm with artifacts as well as Firestorm inside Metamorpho. Challs try to destroy the storm, June does it herself with the Philosopher’s Stone, but then dies. Heroes defeat Megistus, who only wanted to save them from the upcoming crisis (Final Crisis?). On Earth heroes saving civilians. Destiny comes to get his book back, but Challs first read it to see that June is actually not in there, she cheated death, so she’s now a true Challenger.

13) Batman & Flash. Robots, AI, Morrow, Penguin. Talking about legacy.

14) Green Arrow & Deadman: Brand warns Ollie about ghosts from Nanda Parbat, taking over underground in Star City. They flee the ghosts, Deadman possessing Ollie and fly to Nanda Parbat. There they are trapped, and Ollie shoots Deadman (now corporeal).

15) Nightwing & Hawkman. Deadman becomes ghost again and goes to warn Nightwing. He lures all powerful heroes away, leaving Hawkman. They go to Nanda and free Goddess Rama from Aniuttara.

16) Superman & Catwoman: Superman covers for Batman, Gordon stunned. Catwoman also infatuated. They get into an auction thinking it has map to Batcave, but it’s Clayface’s cave. Catwoman gets there first and blows it up. But kept a sample which Superman destroys. He’s not dumb.

Even though there are so many characters in this story, both newly created and older versions of existing ones, this story is really about the DC trinity: Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. The theme of this story takes precedence over everything else, and that is that of old vs new.

I really liked how the bleak future without Superman was presented. And then at the end of the first chapter Superman returns. That was a great moment. I like how the other characters evolved as well. Green Lantern and Flash being my favorites.

There is plenty of history that we are only hinted at, but it is clear that Superman gave up on humanity after Lois died and the public clearly indicated that they preferred the new method of the newer generation of heroes. I have a hard time believing that Superman would ever give up, but it didn’t happen on panel, only in a short flashback so I think I can accept that.

The theme is so important that some of the expected action does not happen, for example when Magog just surrenders instead of fighting. Some other actions are not exactly explai ned fully, for example why didn’t Batman help Superman at first? If he always intended to infiltrate Luthor’s group, why not tell Superman about his plan? Batman refused to help Superman with the prison, but in the end he did go and help them. So I don’t really understand why he just didn’t trust Superman.

That conflict between Batman and Superman/Wonder Woman didn’t feel reasonable to me. I also don’t understand why they didn’t even have one scene where Bruce acknowledges his son. If I hadn’t read the notes at the end of the book I wouldn’t even have known that. I can understand all the other characters are not addressed, there simply isn’t enough space for them. But Batman’s son?!

The ending was little bit disappointing to me, I am not sure exactly why. Maybe I was never a Captain Marvel fan, so I didn’t care for his story. Also I didn’t think the change of Superman’s mind at the end felt natural at all. It just felt awkward for me.

The art is really what convinced me to buy the Absolute. It is just gorgeous. There is so much happening in each panel, even entire sub plots. Not to mention all the various homages. I am still amazed at how Alex Ross manages to make realistic people in tights look cool. That just blows my mind.

I am not totally sold on some parts of the story, but this is definitely a very good story with fantastic art.

This is a pretty straight forward superhero story, complete with the evil plan of world domination by the story’s villain Ra’s Al Ghul and the struggle our heroes go through to stop this plan.

Wonder Woman is even witness of the typical exposition of said evil plan by Ghul, even though there was no reason for him to tell her.

What I liked about this story is that it tells the first time Batman and Superman meet Wonder Woman. Ever since the first eye contact we are introduced to the dynamics of their relationships.

Batman and Superman are friends and they understand each other very well, even though they have vastly different styles. They respect each other, and don’t step on each other’s toes.

In contrast, Wonder Woman finds herself strongly disagreeing with Batman’s methods, and wonders why Superman allows him such cruel ways. However this tension becomes sexual, as if deep inside Batman and Wonder Woman have a connection that they don’t even understand.

The relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman is more open, they definitely respect each other and see things eye to eye. They are also physically attracted to each other, but they probably won’t do anything about it.

This is what really intrigued me, the characterization and the interaction between these three icons. They have been missing in the pages of 52, so it was nice to see them in action for the first time together.

Wagner’s art is easy to the eyes, a clean style that perfectly captures the iconic images of the three protagonists.

A typical superhero story with great characterization.