Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore [Paperback]

Alan Moore (Author), Dave Gibbons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Hailed as one of the best and most influential writers in comics today, Alan Moore has penned such important and critically-acclaimed titles as Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Killing Joke, Swamp Thing and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Now, collected for the first time ever, Moore's rarely-seen and hard-to-find one-off stories can be enjoyed anew. Featuring such superheroes as Superman, Batman and Green Lantern, and illustrated by a host of comic luminaries including Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Kevin O'Neill (Marshal Law), Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing) and Klaus Janson (Daredevil), these tales showcase Moore's versatile and innovative style. The perfect introduction to a master storyteller!

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the 1980s, while busy revolutionizing the superhero genre in Watchmen and Swamp Thing, comic-book writer Moore occasionally wrote scripts featuring other DC Comics characters, from its biggest stars to such obscure also-runs as the Vigilante and the Phantom Stranger. Most of the 13 such stories collected here are qualitatively several notches above run-of-the-mill, even if none approaches the lofty heights of Moore's more renowned work. Unable to give these stories' characters the wholesale overhauling for which he is famous, he relies more on imaginative plotting and incisive characterization. Outstanding are a pair of Superman tales, one also featuring Batman and Wonder Woman, and the other portraying an encounter with Moore's breakthrough character, Swamp Thing. It helps that those selections were drawn by the best artists on view here, Dave Gibbons, Moore's Watchmen collaborator, and Rick Veitch, who drew many of Moore's Swamp Thing scripts. If these stories amount to little more than an entertaining footnote to Moore's big hits, it is nice to have them gathered in one convenient volume. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Alan Moore is one of the most respected and admired writers in comics today, with a host industry awards and accolades. His credits include The Ballad of Halo Jones, Watchmen, V For Vendetta, From Hell and Swamp Thing. He is currently working on his own line of comics, including Tom Strong, Promethea and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401200877
• ISBN-13: 978-1401200879
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,797,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A wide variety of quality, but good overall, September 26, 2003

By 

Babytoxie (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore (Paperback)

This trade paperback should go over well with fans of Alan Moore's more prominent and masterful works (Watchmen, Killing Joke, Swamp Thing, LOEG, etc). I will admit that it is nice to have his more obscure DC work from the '80s under one cover, as there are several stories here that I was not familiar with. Even still, the presence of Alan Moore's name on the cover does not mean that this collection is perfect. In fact, if someone who had not read any Alan Moore began with this this collection, I feel that they wouldn't understand what the fuss was about. Some stories are quite good, and some are quite average. As he was just getting the feel of some of these characters at the time, I can allow for some slack. Plus, Alan Moore's "average" is another writer's "exceptional", so just keep that in mind!

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alan Moore does the DC Universe very well!, August 23, 2003

By 

N. Chodoba "arrbogast" (Torrington, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore (Paperback)

This is a collection of stories Alan Moore wrote for DC in the 1980's before becoming one of the most famous writers in comics history.
There is a Superman birthday story called "For the Man Who Has Everything" that was very well done.
--A Superman/Swamp Thing crossover in which Superman is struck ill by an alien plant from a meteor and he ends up in the Louisiana bayou Swamp Thing inhabits.
--A Green Arrow story that deals with some heavy life/death issues.
-- Some interesting Omega Men tales.
-- A Green Lantern story starring Abin Sur (the alien that gave Hal Jordan the power of Green Lantern!) and other tales of the Green Lantern Corps.
-- A VERY disturbing Vigilante story.
There is only one reason that this set does not get five stars, and that is because it is not the strongest of Alan Moore's work. If Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, Miracleman and From Hell get 5 stars (and they most definitely do!), then this must be below them. That being said, each story in this set is still better than most other stories however, and any Alan Moore fans who are also DC fans will enjoy this set as much as I did if not more so...

4.0 out of 5 stars Some of these stories have haunted me for decades, November 19, 2007

By 

Jason Mierek "uniqueness is ubiquitous" (Urbana, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore (Paperback)

*V for Vendetta* and *From Hell* are two of my favorite graphic novels, due in no small part to the brilliant ideas and prose of Alan Moore. Because I first read both books in the `00s, I'd just assumed that Moore was only a contemporary comic book writer. Imagine my surprise, then, that upon picking up this volume at the local library, I discovered not one but three stories that affected me so profoundly when I read them as a kid that they still stick with me twenty-plus years later.

Two of these stories, both of which involve the Green Lantern Corps, still come up in my comparative religions class when I am reflecting on perception and frames of reference. In "Mogo Doesn't Socialize," Bolphunga the Unrelenting has come to a remote planet in search of the great Green Lantern Mogo. Suffice it to say that Bolphunga and the reader both discover precisely why Mogo can't be found anywhere *on* that remote world in a perceptual shift worthy of the *Twilight Zone." "In Blackest Night" challenges a Green Lantern to communicate with a blind being from a dark planet who knows (and, more importantly, can know) nothing of "green" or "lanterns." This story drove home the point that you need a common frame of reference in order for ideas to translate.

The third story, "Brief Lives," filled a single page spread and came from something called *Vega.* As with the latter of the GL stories, this one was all about perspective. Two giants, whose lives encompass epochs of geological time, encounter---in the form of an almost imperceptible little cloud of dust---the futile attacks of a race of militant insectoids. The punchline, delivered by one of these eons-old creatures to his colleague, is that he shouldn't worry too much about the dust cloud because "life is too short." Wonderful!

All the other stories collected in this volume are strong, and most of them explore the nuances of interpersonal relationships, hardly the standard fare of superhero comic books. In "For the Man Who Has Everything," Superman is attacked by an alien plant-thing that renders him comatose while allowing him to live out an idealized virtual life on a Krypton-that-never-exploded with his wife and children. "The Jungle Line" finds the Swamp Thing gently, almost tenderly, rescuing Superman from the feverish grip of a lethal Kryptonian fungus. "Night Olympics" follows an evening out with socially conscious crime fighter couple Green Arrow and Black Widow as they encounter drug freaks, stereo thieves, and a would-be assassin. "Father's Day" is a troubling, if overlong, Vigilante story about a child-abusing, wife-murdering ex-con, and the complex, unfathomable relationship he has with his daughter. The closing story, "Mortal Clay," finds Batman dueling with the third incarnation of Clayface over the affections of an, um, woman.

Alan Moore has demonstrated time and again that he is a writer to be reckoned with. The implications of some stories in this collection took me by surprise decades ago, and their effects have still not worn off. I recommend the stories in this collection very highly.