Judgment Day by Alan Moore

Judgment Day #Complete

by Alan Moore

Following the success of his run on Supreme, acclaimed comics writer Alan Moore was given the opportunity to write a mini-series featuring an entire super-hero universe. The results were just as unpredictable and ingenious as his writing on his landmark work, Watchmen.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Science Fiction, Fiction, Mystery

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.

Reviews

[Nicolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

He was a superstar comic book creator whose star shone brightest during the last great heyday of comics during the decade of the Nineties and a polarizing figure at that. Rob Liefeld and five of his talented peers broke from Marvel Comics to form their own publishing umbrella Image Comics. His creation, Youngblood was the first Image title published and promptly made Liefeld a millionaire. It wasn’t all a picnic for him though; he was much derided by fans for his distorted anatomy, late shipping books and flooding the market with a legion of his artistic clones. I don’t have much to say about Liefeld though. I avoided his product which was influenced by negative propaganda channeled by his detractors. I actually found Liefeld to have a pretty good grasp of anatomy. I’ve read some of his early Marvel work and his lines were dynamic and powerful and his layouts were never stale. I found that his best work was often inked by a classical comic artist who can rein in his predisposition for exaggerated anatomy.

Reading this trade paperback made me nostalgic for Nineties comic books. During this decade Liefeld helped start three companies to publish his work and along the way cultivated a lot of talent to help him meet the then burgeoning demand for his books. The credits page on this book had a lot of talented artists listed. Most of them were Liefeld’s understudies and protégés, there were some industry veterans included. Chief among them was Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and probably comics’ most talented writer.

Granted, this was not Moore’s best work and much of it can be blamed on the sheer number of artists utilized and their clashing styles. The flow was certainly different had they employed only one artist and because it didn’t, it was jarring. It was an interesting story but it was pretty bland. There wasn’t much superhero fisticuffs, only courtroom drama as the superhero community of Liefeld’s universe tries one of their own for murder. What really interested me was the metafiction Moore attempts to embed into the story. It wasn’t a surprise since he had already done this on Supreme, Liefeld’s Superman analog. In this story, Moore commented on superhero history, particularly pulp fiction and Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. Moore was attempting to apply the success he had on Supreme into the rest of Liefeld’s superhero universe.

Had the line continued, this would have completely rebooted Awesome comics. It would have drawn it away from the darker and cynical superheroes of the age, which it incidentally helped launched with Youngblood. This collection instead became an artifact of an era that never came.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judgement Day is something of an addendum to Alan Moore’s run on Supreme. One of the Youngblood team members is brutally murdered, and it looks as though one of the others is responsible. The trial is held onboard Supreme’s airborne sanctuary, and the real story that comes out involves practically the entire history of the Youngblood universe.

Moore takes the opportunity to pay homage to practically the entirety of pulp adventure history. There are nods to Doc Savage, Tarzan, Conan, Solomon Kane, the original Western version of Ghost Rider, Captain America, the Silent Knight, Professor Challenger, Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, and many more. Moore has essentially grafted a rich and deep history onto the Youngblood universe.

Art-wise, well, I enjoy the sequences set in the past more than the present. Rob Liefeld has never been one of my favorites, though I suppose one could do worse. There's just something about his style that seems to embody all of the worst excesses of comics in the 90's …

After the main story, there are a number of shorter stories, all with artwork by Gil Kane, that seem designed to set up new directions for Youngblood and other Awesome Comics series. On the whole, it's a fascinating book. Recommended!

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was terrible. Never thought I'd ever say that about an Alan Moore comic, but yeah, thirty pages in, and I wanted to put the book down, I only kept going coz it was Alan Moore.

[Tym · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history lesson, a murder trial for a superhero killed by a superhero and the story of ancient text all come together to make for a surprisingly entertaining read with a twist ending

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mainly setup for Moore's Youngblood series, which remains (and presumably will forever remain) unfinished. If it had gone anywhere, this might get higher marks. I was surprised at the extent to which Moore was able to do interesting things with Rob Liefeld's very, very generic creations. But his understanding of American trial procedure is sorely lacking, and that's a problem in a story that is based in a courtroom (however unusual). Liefeld's art is definitely a weakness here; the fact that the script pokes fun at his design sense is only partial vindication. There are a number of typos and grammatical errors-- frequent examples of it's for its, for instance; and one character who speaks entirely in alien glyphs at one point has a speech balloon containing the word "alien" instead of the proper symbols. I'm not sure if Awesome or Checker is more to blame for these errors-- if nobody proofread the original, somebody certainly should have proofread the reprint.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there was a lot about this book that Alan Moore did right. He managed to reboot a comic universe without invalidating everything that came before.

He uses it to comment on comic reboots and retcons, and also weaves in a thread about adventure storytelling itself using pastiches of characters like Tarzan and Solomon Kane.

The problem is that it's hard to get that pumped about characters created by Rob Liefeld. Especially when drawn by Rob Liefed. Also while Moore is able to execute his idea in three issues, I would have loved to have seen him have a bit more room to work with such an ambitious project.

[JL Shioshita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best deconstruction of comicbooks, their place within the tapestry of myth and story, and critique of the turbulent dark ages that were the 90s era that I have ever read. On top of that Alan Moore reinvents an entire universe, gives it history where it had none, and develops direction toward a brighter more fully realized future. If you read comicbooks in the 90s, especially the Image stuff, then you gotta give this a read.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic reveals the secret to why most comics were so terrible in the nineties.

[Poly Ranca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anexo al Supreme de Alan Moore que se lee entre la miniserie "La historia del año" y la subsiguiente "El retorno" en la edición española.

[Printable Tire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Moore is nothing if not extremely clever and imaginative. I loved his Supreme stories, but Judgement Day shows Moore going through the motions. They're still a lot of creativity at work, but he doesn't seem to be into it as much: there simply isn't as much love shown here as he showed in his Supreme stories. There's even a mean-spirited edge on display, such as when Moore plainly describes how much of a cheerless, crappy world the Image universe is (I agree with him, but how did Moore basically insulting his work get by Rob Liefeld's radar?). The dialogue isn't as interesting, and the plot, as confusing and fun as it is, is only a mind-fuck without any substance but a jab/critique of 90's comics.

(The second part of this collection is a string of loosely-connected short vignettes including a dizzying array of unrealized superhero concepts, thrown together in a way that promises something down the road that unfortunately never materializes)

The art doesn't really help anything either. I like Gil Kane alright, and his work is pretty okay when it comes up, but he lacks the apish variety of Rick Veitch which helped Supreme's parody/flashbacks come to life. Liefeld's drawings are all Liefeld, which resorts to characters with names like Shaft shoving their codpieces in our faces, or gratuitous shots of Glory's ass and breasts (at one time Moore makes fun of this by having another character point out to Suprema that everyone can see her panties when she flies). It's sort of a bastard combination of the profound and the profane, Liefeld's totally 90's looking drawings clashing with Moore's confounding, elaborate plots. It sort of works, though just not as well as in Supreme.

This checker edition, as with the Supreme collections, has a real cheap/bootleg feel to it. Apparently Veitch (and others?) get no royalties for them, which is a shame, but I don't see any better quality editions coming out anytime soon thanks to legal shenanigans.

I'm really interested in the deal-with-the-devil Moore made at this period of his career: disbanding from DC and Marvel, signing up with Super Slacker Liefeld, losing his friendship with Veitch, and shortly after creating his own comic book company. Were the worlds created oh-so-briefly in this and the Supreme collection supposed to continue on to bigger and better things? Were they throwaway ideas? Were they unused ideas Moore had had for their DC/Marvel counterparts? (Every character in Image is a ripoff of some Marvel/DC character: look at the picture of Image's Troll is you don't believe me.) How frustrated was Moore when his Image projects got delayed and/or he couldn't use them again (because he was too greedy?) and had to start a new universe from scratch? Comic book nerd questions for the ages....

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creo que el título es metafórico. Aunque el cómic se trata literalmente del juicio al que se ve sometido un superhéroe acusado de matar a una compañera, parece también una referencia al juicio de valor que hace Moore sobre el mundo del cómic "Awesome" de los 90s. En este cómic-ensayo, el guionista se aprovecha de una galería de personajes pedorros para contar una gran historia que los critica y despelleja el Image-way de contar historias hiperviolentas y huecas con un ojo y una lucidez impresionantes. Seguro que Liefeld no se daba cuenta mientras hacia los dibujos, que el malo fue todo el tiempo él mismo. Que sus "aportes" al mundo de la historieta fueron todos para atrás. Que la única manera de volver interesantes a sus personajes era dándoles tal vuelta de tuerca que se conviertan en otros completamente distintos. Si el cómic no alcanza las cinco estrellas es justamente porque sus dibujos restan bastante en cuanto a potencia visual y narrativa (aunque paradójicamente el cómic no podría haber sido tan genial si lo hubiera dibujado otro) y porque la verdad que estuve bastante perdido en casi todo el primer capítulo, aunque es algo que se soluciona con una relectura. De los muchos dibujantes invitados, hay de todo. De capos desganados hasta mediocrones inspirados. El capítulo/homenaje final, otra pequeña joyita en sí misma.
En cuanto al aspecto detectivesco, tengo que reconocer queno llegué a descubrir al asesino, aunque me hicieron trampa y me dieron la respuesta antes de tiempo. De más está decir que su elección cobra muchísimo sentido una vez que se da todo el trasfondo y que en la segunda lectura voy a ir buscando las pistas que seguramente hay por todo el libro.
Para los que dicen que Moore aflojó mucho en los 90s, que se lean este tomo entero y Supreme a ver si lo pueden seguir afirmando con tanta seguridad.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favorite Alan Moore work.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too bad to even finish it. Moore at his worst.

[Guido · Rating 4 out of 5]

La horrible muerte de Riptide y el hermoso y desperdiciado universo inexplorado que salió del Juicio posterior.

[Jason Pym · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I actually like only a handful of Alan Moore comics, I love reading his stuff. It’s always new and interesting and deeply thought out. The absolute antithesis of Rob Liefeld’s 1990s Youngblood nonsense of big haired, shiny stupidity. So an Alan Moore Youngblood comic should at least be interesting. And for a comic, it’s fine, not actually irritating, for an Alan Moore comic it’s terrible. And there’s the odd comment…

“Gone was the naïve wonder of the ‘forties, the exuberance of the ‘fifties and the nobility of the sixties. Working a dreadful reverse alchemy, Marcus Langston let our world slide from a golden age to a silver age, and finally to a dark age. Now, heroes motivated only by money or psychopathology stalked a paranoid, apocalyptic landscape of post-nuclear mutants and bazooka wielding cyborgs. Our universe had been sucked into a bad action movie of constant, meaningless mayhem…”

or…

“Well, for gosh sakes, Linda, that’s because it’s unreliable like everything about these new characters! … Everybody wants to be modern so they hire ‘Doesn’t-wear-a-brassiere girl’ and ‘Thinks-it’s-clever-to-swear Lad’!”

If you’re reading through Alan Moore’s back catalogue, leave this one till last. It’s painful.

[Variaciones Enrojo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reseña de Eugenio para su blog:
http://quienmemandaria.wordpress.com/...

Una remodelación del Universo Liefeld de arriba a abajo a cargo de alguien que puede transformar unos personajes que homenajean a otros anteriores y transformarlos en algo interesante… Lástima que después no se encargase de guionizar sus series…
Alan Moore al guión y varios dibujantes.
Argumento: Un asesinato en la comunidad superhumana desata un juicio sin precedentes. Nunca se ha juzgado a un superhéroe por asesinato, y menos a un miembro de Youngblood.
Descubre cómo Alan Moore reinventa el universo de la editorial de Rob Liefeld, desde el mismísimo principio de los tiempos hasta el presente, con apariciones estelares de Supreme o Savage Dragon.
Dibujando los guiones de Alan Moore encontramos a artistas de la talla del mismo Rob Liefeld, Gil Kane, Chris Sprouse, Steve Skroce, Jim Starlin, Terry Dobson y muchos más. Co-edición de Aeta Ediciones y Recerca Editorial
Y vaya repasito le da a la editorial… A través de un juicio sobre asesinato, Moore crea un pasado para el Universo Liefeld homenajeando a muchos personajes clásicos tanto de DC como de Marvel, curiosamente, consigue hacer que un juicio resulte interesante. A través de las declaraciones de los testigos, Moore crea profundidad en un universo que no la tenía…
El problema es que la trama es evidente, a ver, no sabía nada más empezar que había un libro mágico de por medio, pero era evidente que el asesino era… Ehmm, vale, igual no lo ha leído todo el mundo, así que no lo diré, pero nada más empezar me pareció evidente.
En fin, sobre la historia… poco más voy a decir, está completa, es interesante, se deja leer pero no deja de ser una historia alimenticia de Alan Moore.
El verdadero descubrimiento de esta historia es la admiración que Alan Moore parece tener a Gil Kane, no sé, me sorprende descubrir estas cosas de Alan Moore, si parece humano y todo…
Me gusta sobre todo el final de la conversación entre Fighting American (uno de los chicos de Jack como lo llama Kane) y el tal Andy Aletarecerca (supongo que un autohomenaje nunca está mal…):

- “Así que ése era Kane. Nunca le había visto tan de cerca. Ya sabes, ¡fue un gran placer ser imaginado por él!
- ¡Oh, desde luego! Aunque claro, sus obras antiguas eran mejores.”

Totalmente de acuerdo.
La verdad es que es un tomo bastante completo con una última página dedicada a alabar a Gil Kane (que nunca está de más, por cierto), por ponerle alguna pega… aparte de algún error en la rotulación… el no indicar la parte que dibuja cada autor, lo de Gil Kane se distingue, pero el resto… bueno, la mayor parte sí, pero no todo.
Si queréis ver un buen trabajo de Alan Moore… compradlo, pero aviso, es total y absolutamente alimenticio.

Nada más.

Aaaaaaaaadios

[Julian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book for $2 used at my local bookstore because of the price and, well, Alan Moore was listed as the author so I wanted to see what the author of Watchmen had in store. It wasn't much. I almost set down this book forever after the first chapter, this is because every few pages a flashback to a different time period is introduced (each with new characters) and the flashbacks are all during different time periods. This creates a highly schizophrenic narrative that ruins all the pacing and any sort of suspense contained in the core story. I honestly believe there is a chance that this format was used because different artists draw each era and they needed to include a certain number of stories for a certain number of artists to draw (this approach could be cool, but the differences between artists and eras appear meaningless in the overall narrative). Thankfully this format was abandoned in the second chapter. "Abandoned" in the sense that the flashbacks in the second chapter directly connect to the core narrative and help drive it forward without acting like bad aesthetic hiccups. Moore's analysis of heroes from different eras was interesting at first, I really wanted to see how he would develop this concept. But the story degrades into an obvious observation that media, in this case comics, get more and more violent because the old narratives become boring (ie. we need more and more stimulation). Judgment Day only touches on this subject – making this “reveal” at the climax of the story and then “resolving” a common media observation with a common comic book ending. I just felt like I wanted to sigh afterward.

The following section (Youngblood Prologue) was good for a few chuckles for someone who was pretty unfamiliar with the characters before this book. The last section seemed like a tribute to Gil Kane and didn't mean much to me because I wasn't familiar with his work. The individual stories (presented in a fashion not unlike the “schizophrenic narrative” of the first chapter) seemed like they were either very bad or referencing really specific elements of comic book culture that I had no reference to, I'm not sure which. The fact that these last two sections were included with the initial Judgment Day storyline didn't make much sense either (besides the fact that Alan Moore wrote all of them, I think, my book doesn't list any other authors). Some of the characters were included in each of the stories - but the narratives weren't connected beyond that, nor were they terribly interesting by themselves. Anyone who is not a die-hard fan, stay away.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers do not have to have read the Youngblood series to enjoy this murder-mystery, courtroom drama, super-hero extravaganza which has all of Moore's trademarks: seeming parody of super-hero comics while reveling in their campiness, trashiness, and power to tell tales, commentary on storytelling itself, stories-within-stories, crazy inventiveness, and questions of morality. Nothing too weighty, here, but quite fun.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the art left something to be desired, the story-telling here is awesome. Scenes of a modern-day murder trial are woven with scenes from the past that gradually reel out a back-story and the truth about how the murder came about. I didn't expect where it was going, and I really enjoyed the ride.

[Acton Northrop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't decide how much of a purposeful riff/parody of Kingdom Come this was meant to be, but a terrific commentary on the style of superhero comics in the mid-90s and a tantalizing look at where Alan Moore wanted to take Liefeld's characters after this point, which we got a small look at here but not enough. I love the ABC books but I wish we could have had 100 issues of Moore's Youngblood.

[matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

proving that even at his worst (which this has got to be one of), Moore is still pretty good. Flickers with great ideas but ultimately burns out.

[Ron Sadowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

6-14-10

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definately one of Moore's weaker efforts, and the story isn't helped by the poor illustration.

[Javier Campos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veo que lo han criticado mucho pero como vas a criticar el haber convertido unos personajes mediocres en una crítica velada de la industria del cómic?? Solo Moore puede hacerlo, kudos yo him

[Axon Figure · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puente entre LA HISTORIA DEL AÑO y EL RETORNO. ¿Tomo 0 del Youngblood que nunca fue?

[Deth T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un juicio por asesinato que deriva en la exploración de un libro de historias infinitas.

[Marlan Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great artifact from decades ago. Alan Moore is probably the greatest writer of comics of all time, though he purposely burned his own bridges at the biggest games in town. Going to Liefeld's studio might have seemed like he was getting in wherever he could or slumming it, but he probably got full reign to do as he liked (or at least she should have), and even if you had a problem with Liefeld's work, he created some characters that were good enough as superheroes, so Moore had plenty to play with. They even pulled some other notable artists not usually associated with Liefeld or even Image, so this is a strange project, and even more bewildering for embracing the campiness of it all, and the derision from fandom for anything connected to Liefeld that would come to it (though Moore has never cared what anyone thinks, so it could have been fitting). It's not Moore's highest-brow art, and you won't be challenged by it (besides reckoning how it even happened) and it's not Liefeld and his crew showing new heights of their abilities, but it's an interesting footnote from a bygone era, when superhero stories this bold-faced weren't obscured, and, more, when Moore was doing comics, no matter for what publisher.

[Rizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I definitely read this a few years ago, back when I read Moore's excellent run on Supreme...but it seems I forgot to review it at the time, and now I'm stuck cleaning up the mess of my past self.

Let's just say this, Alan Moore if my favorite author (by far). I am consistently impressed by his literary accomplishments. Almost every single one of Alan Moore's works are among my favorites of all time...

And I do not remember a single thing about this story. Well okay, I remember the vile art by Liefeld, but that's about it. It's difficult for me to admit, but this book must be truly bland for it to have been completely erased from my memory like this. Other reviews seem to concur (or worse). I am certain this was a paycheck job for Moore, and while I don't blame him for taking it, I wouldn't blame you for skipping it.

The ONE thing you need to know about this is that it is NOT required to understand Moore's "Supreme: Story of the Year". Not even a little bit. In fact, it doesn't even really fit well into it. Just forget about it.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, this is probably a very niche product and my review is very tailored to how much it hits my silly world building sweet spot, but I found this delightful. Essentially watching Alan Moore's attempt to re-infuse fun into dark age comics by making a unifying sense of the Awesome Comics (and to an extent Image comics) Universe is, to me at least, just great fun. Your mileage may vary. One star is being knocked off due to the less than stellar artwork.

[Travis Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm only giving this two stars because it was by Alan Moore. And it provided a meta explanation for why comics were so bleak in the 90s. It felt like something he dashed off in an afternoon. And the less said about the art the better. it was Liefeld at his worst. To call it disappointing would be a compliment.