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This collection is a hair better...just a hair, mind you...than volume one. Unfortunately, Millar does nothing to really make each of the heroes unique in their superhero guise. Aside from some flying, some strength, and some manipulation of objects, I have no idea what their separate powers are.

And if Millar doesn't care enough to show us, I can summon very little energy to care, either.

This go-round, the theme seems to be, can we ever transcend our human-ness, and, if we do, is it any better?

It's an excellent premise, and he touches on some great aspects of it, such as the Utopian being too perfect for his wife, or the villain stealing their superpowers, then ultimately befriending the villain and using him as a confidant.

The problem is, all this takes place in about 130 pages, which means, as usual, Millar can only sketch in the details, scrub at the surface furiously, then, seemingly shrugging and moving on.

Seriously, had he taken this theme, took time to build both superheroes and their alter egos enough that we cared about them, then slowly worked up the stories to illustrate this (instead of showing Utopian's wife blissfully happy, then, a few pages later, chafing at his perfectness), then, by God, the man would have had another [b:Watchmen|472331|Watchmen|Alan Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442239711s/472331.jpg|4358649] on his hands.

But he didn't. So he doesn't. ( )

A mishmash of quality artists improve the look of this second volume slightly, but the story remains a pale reflection of the superhero soap opera Jay Faerber pulled off much better in his Noble Causes series.

Oh, and why would anyone want to do a tribute to Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor? I'm still trying to forget that performance myself. ( )