But the two series offer roughly similar stories. The end of the world is at hand and a wide host of characters jump forward to move the story in their own direction, at least half of them I didn’t know. This set of twelve issues touches good, moving themes that are often left in draft in other series or touched so briefly as to be unnoticeable.

Justice appears to be a story of DC Comics’ Justice League of America moving from a loosely coordinated group of confederates to a band of actual friends. It begins with the world in nuclear holocaust, each hero failing to save a city or region as another destructive wave crashes over them. A few of them say, “I was too late. But I’m never too late.”

This is just a dream, however, that the world’s supervillains all experience together. They come to believe the world will end soon and their nemeses in the Justice League will be powerless to stop it. So they band together to save humanity, while taking measures to profit personally. Captain Cold and Poison Ivy turn a desert into an oasis. Scarecrow offers miracle cures to young people with crippling diseases. When the time is right, Luthor, Black Manta, and others announce to the world their generosity and intent to raise up new, floating cities to welcome the downtrodden and raise up a newly emboldened human race to seek new horizons, to soar to new heights, etc. etc.

The world is amazed at this turn of events, but willing to go along with what appears to be a good thing. The Justice League of America is nowhere to seen, so they don’t appear to have a problem with it or maybe, the cynics say, they can’t profit by it.

In reality, they are handling other matters, because The Riddler gained access to Batman’s computer files and shared everything he could about the superheroes’ identities with his new colleagues. That gave them an edge to coordinate their attack. Aquaman is overcome. Wonder Woman, Batman, and Flash are poisoned in different ways. Superman is ganged up on, and Green Lantern is shot into the back forty of uncharted space.

The second string leaguers are the ones who save that particular day, and their strengths are combined with the headline heroes to access the danger and find a solution.

Most of the joy of reading comics comes from good writing. Krueger has done a terrific job with this series, grounding motives of both heroes and villains in real world rationale. Captain Marvel (a.k.a. Shazam) comes through sympathetically, making me want to look up some of his stories.

One point in this vein is Luthor’s desire to raise humanity above its reliance on aliens, like Superman, and magical beings, like Wonder Woman. He wants them to achieve great heights through their own grit and determination. He believes that by offloading the lazy, degenerate people of the world, mankind can work together with greater focus on curing diseases, colonizing planets, and a host of other progressive goals. Of course, he doesn’t see the root of all evil that cuts through every man’s heart.