"There is a house above the world, where the over-people gather."

[cmdr_zoom]

"There is a man with wings like a bird... there is a man who can see across the planet and wring diamonds from its anthracite. There is a man who moves so fast that his life is an endless gallery of statues..."

Even now, decades after I first read those words, I remember the impact they had on me. I'd spent my childhood reading (and, in their cartoon incarnation as the "Super Friends", watching) the adventures of Superman and the rest of DC's flagship characters, the Justice League; but as a teenager, Alan Moore's introduction to SWAMP THING #24 (May 1984) made me realize that what was printed on those pages was nothing less than modern myth, featuring - in some cases - literal demi-gods.

I've since come to favor other versions of those characters, including the "DC Animated Universe" that grew out of the shows of the 90s - in which, for all their "powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men", Clark and Wally and Shayera (not Katar) and the others still have a very human-level perspective - but those words still resonate: as an invitation, or even a demand, to consider them not just as corporate-owned, brightly-colored action figures, but as heroes of legend.