I went into this expecting something funny and fantastic- Peter David being the genius behind the best novels of the Star Trek series, a phenomal run on The Incredible Hulk, and the longtime scribe of Captain Marvel- and I emerged, horribly dissapointed, from the burnt-out wreckage of this train accident of a graphic novel.

Reading this tripe is like being a teenager all over again: a grinding headache, an overwhelming urge to roll your eyes and a complete and utter contempt for your fellow human being sets in after less then five pages.

The characters are flat, the jokes revolve almost entirely around bad puns and are altogether lame, moments of angst are forced and uncomfortable to read, and out of four primary villains only one is actually defeated by this 'super-team'and not some other character or lucky circumstance.

The one shining moment in the whole book is a story taken, not from the series, but from the Young Justice Secret Files one-shot and is written and drawn by D. Curtis Johnson and Ale Garza, respectively. In this issue Robin and Superboy do not sport interchangeable faces, Arrowette is not an annoying priss who turns to submissive mush whenever she gets around a super-male and the story is actually engaging. I was dissapointed when this secton was over because it meant I had to go back to slogging through David's unfathomably bad mire.

For a decent read about teen superheroes try graphic novels of Marv Wolfman and Georege Perez's run on the New Teen Titans, Claremont's stint on Uncanny X-men, or (And believe me, it pains me to say this) even the Brandon Choi, J. Scott Campbell incarnation of Gen13, at the very least you'll enjoy the art.

As for Peter David, please don't let this sour you on his work. His talent is enormous and I'd like to think of this as just a minor misstep; spend your money on one of his great paperbacks or on any other of his graphic novels instead. I'd hate to think anyone passed on other highly entertaining works just because this drivel tainted their perspective.

{MAJOR SPOILERS} a enjoyable comic, that at first has just id, ego and superego, fighting evil werever it lurks and soon the girls join in. I liked the story of "harm". a teenager who plans to be the worlds greatest super villan, and belive it or else, he is pretty stong, fast, and smart. his dad is forced to shot him, which is pretty bad because he was a cool villan.

this gets only three stars because robin is out of charicter, {he's smart but not THIS smart} and because the parent/teacher conference is just unreal. {wonder girl and arrowette's moms, nightwing for robin, dubbilex for superboy and max mercury for impulse.

heros: robin, superboy, impulse, arrowette, secret, wonder girl, superman, batman, wonder woman, martian manhunter, aquaman, flash, green lantern, max mercury, nightwing, oracle, supergirl {mentioned}, dubbilex, green arrow {illusion}, red tornado.

villans: harm, despero, mr. myxzptlk, tora, rip roar, mighty endowed.

While SUperman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest of the JLA seem to hog a lot of the DC spot light, we sometimes forget about the younger side of the DC world. Granted Robin continuaously teams wiht BAtman and we more often than not see Superboy help out Superman, but what about the other protoges that include Impulse, WOnder Girl, and Arrowette. This novel focus on these teen heroes as well as the return of Red Tornado and the joining of a rescued MEta human from a previouse Novel, Secret.

The book starts off with Robin, Superboy, and Impulse just hanging at the former JLA HQ when they meet a retired Red Tornado. From there the story leads to their battles with a young Mxplyx, Desparos ghost, rescuing meta human children, and facing off against their most dangerouse (and short lived) villian Harm.

The book features cool action that you would see in any DC story, but also features comical moments as RObin is as serioue as his mentor Batman (to the point he won't even reveal who he really is) Superboy is running on Hormones as he falls for Arrowette and inadvertadly makes Wodner Girl Jealouse, and Impulse is so childish and silly that one can't help but laugh.

Overall this is a really silly yet action packed novel that is fun to read and loaded with laughs and suspense. I would recomend this to any DC fan or any one in need of some cheesey fun.

Drudgery. Uninspiring adaptation from a great writer. For collectors.

DONT BUY THIS BOOK! I ts really not very good so dont bother!

This is a must have book for any tank girl collector!

This is a very good book. It is a little out-of-date, but it is worth it. It tells you what cheering is like and what you can expect by being a cheerleader. Although the cheers are not usable, (they are really old and not really used anymore today) the book is GREAT!

I did'nt think this book was that great.It was not a very good idea.i mean it was allright.but i wouldent recommend it to someone who realy likes good books

i have served in sea for 20 years,and now working as superintendent of martitime training institute,head office karachi Pakistan,suboffice lahore pakistan.in my study times i found this book very use full for the starters.the book is written in easy language and evry thing is explained by the help of sketches.we are setting library of nautical,shipconstruction,and other related books for the institute....

I have read all of the books in the "American Presidents" series published thus far, and this is a very disappointing entry in an otherwise great series. Tom Wicker is a journalist, not a historian, and it shows. He merely presents a narrative chronology of Eisenhower's presidency, devoting only a few paragraphs to his life before he entered the Oval Office. In what is essentially a long magazine article, you never learn a thing about Eisenhower as a person, and Eisenhower emerges as a two-dimensional figure, not the fascinating man that he was. Worst of all, Wicker is so one-sided in his coverage, he tries to find fault in even Eisenhower's unmitigated successes. This ends up simply a book-length critique. It is blinkered and one-sided, with no sense of perspective or context. There are many better biogrpahies of Eisenhower available. Skip this one.

I thought I'd present an alternative viewpoint to the obviously irate folks who have written so far. While Wicker's book is far from a complete biography (this series -- and I have read all but the TR volume -- was never intended to be THE definitive account, only an introduction of sorts), it does present Eisenhower's presidency in relatively comprehensive terms. I was left wanting more, but one can take this book, armed with a general outline, and pursue the subject further.

As for the negative tone, I am not offended, nor am I disappointed. There have been plenty of fawning biographies written about Ike (check out any Ambrose volume), so it is only fair that we get a different take. Ike's presidency, like so many, had its shining moments, but also its shame. Wicker correctly identifies Ike's weaknesses, including a tendency to overdelegate and of course, a reluctant, weak-willed enforcement of civil rights laws. It is also important to note that Ike failed to take on that era's most poisonous demagogue, Joseph McCarthy.

Writing a hagiography would be easy given our country's worship of military figures, but this is a political biography. The years from 1953 to 1961 were not perfect, and Wicker understands that the leadership must be held accountable for some of that decade's less admirable turns.

Tom Wicker spent thirty years writing on politics for the New York Times. Having worked as a young reporter in the 1950s, he combines memories of actual events with secondary sources to produce a short, lively monograph on Eisenhower's presidency.

Older readers can remember the media Ike: the winning smile, the bumbling answers at press conferences, the incessant golf. The electorate loved him, but contemporary observers were not impressed. They looked on him as a career soldier who despised politics, leaving handling of foreign policy to the slightly frightening John Foster Dulles and domestic policy to no one at all.

Wicker admits that this was once his view but no longer. However, he adds that Eisenhower's growing reputation owes nothing to domestic affairs. Perhaps his major success in this area was the Interstate Highway Bill of 1955, which is still financing our interstate roads. Trivia buffs note: this was the last major Republican program that required new taxes.

Wicker joins two generations of historians in condemning Eisenhower's refusal to speak out against McCarthy or in favor of civil rights. All agree this was politically astute but morally deplorable.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision on segregation came as an unpleasant shock to Eisenhower, but he was in good company. Most northern officials were lukewarm (an admirable exception was attorney general, Herbert Brownell). Holding racial views similar to Lincoln's, Eisenhower disapproved of mistreating Negroes but believed their capacities did not measure up to those of the white race. Wicker's discussion spends more time on Chief Justice Warren than the president, but it's an eye-opener. Legend gives Warren credit for the decision, but this is wrong. He didn't join the court until the case was nearing its end. On his arrival, it was already 5-4 in favor of desegregation. His accomplishment was convincing opponents to switch their votes. Such a controversial decision required unanimity, Warren pointed out. A split Court would encourage southern resistance, bringing disorder to the country and casting doubt on the Court's legitimacy. Good patriots all, they switched, including the hidebound southern racist, Stanley Reed. Does anyone believe this could happen today?

Among America's long line of political scoundrels, Joseph McCarthy stands out for sheer vulgarity. Many supporters in the Senate including Richard Nixon thought he was slightly creepy. That his wild accusations of rampant communist subversion ruined many careers without turning up any new spies was public knowledge. The New York Times and Washington Post pointed this out. Conservative Time Magazine heaped ridicule on him.

But no elected official dared cross McCarthy. Contemptuous in private, Eisenhower took care never to make his feelings public although newspapers regularly found hints between the lines. The Senate censure in 1954 happened only because of McCarthy's increasingly insulting behavior and a modest decline of anticommunist hysteria. It was a slap on the wrist, and McCarthy remained in charge of his committee, so no one can explain why he suddenly fell silent. Wicker has no explanation, and he concludes with the usual regret that Eisenhower failed to take a courageous moral position.

Historians always attack politicians for refusing to take courageous moral positions, forgetting that doing so is invariably disastrous. Perhaps the greatest example is Lincoln's emancipation proclamation in September 1862. Although a feeble antislavery gesture, it was unpopular in the north. Democrats happily pointed out that Lincoln had converted a war for the union into a war for the Negro, and they crushed Republicans in the election two months later.

Foreign policy is almost entirely responsible for Eisenhower's improving reputation. Even those of us who remember the 1950s forget how close World War III seemed. Many national leaders and several of the Joint Chiefs wanted to get on with it as soon as possible. America's foreign policy seemed in the hands of elderly secretary of state John Foster Dulles, a pugnacious, evangelical who had been lecturing foreigners on American virtues since the Wilson administration. He made almost everyone nervous with enthusiastic talk of liberating eastern Europe, regaining China, and using atomic weapons if provoked excessively. It turns out Dulles was firmly under Eisenhower's thumb, and this rhetoric mellowed as years passed. The president himself was far more peaceable than anyone thought at the time. He gets enough credit for ending the Korean war but too little for refusing to strike back at China's threats to Formosa (his military advisors were raring to go). When he aborted the English-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956, he was not reading opinion polls. Americans generally approved the invasion.

Most impressive of all, he kept the military firmly under his thumb. Despite the usual 1952 campaign rhetoric about defeating communism, Eisenhower held the defense budget level when he wasn't reducing it. His finest hour (although no one thought so at the time) came after Russia launched Sputnik in 1957. His announcement that orbiting a satellite was not a big deal produced universal dismay. Editorials denounced his short-sightedness; cartoons pictured him with his head in the sand. His poll ratings dropped to their lowest. Despite additional Russian space spectaculars, he did not change his mind, quashing all efforts to launch crash military programs. John F. Kennedy spent much of the 1960 campaign denouncing the administration for underestimating the communist threat, cruelly starving the armed forces, allowing the Russians to achieve military superiority. JFK was a far more aggressive cold warrior than his predecessor.

Like all volumes in the excellent American Presidents series, Wicker's is a quick read: 140 pages. Unlike the others, it's not really a biography. Eisenhower's greatest accomplishment was his meteoric rise to command in WWII after twenty years of obscurity. Winning the presidency was easy by comparison; after all he was the most popular man in the country. Wicker admits this, but he skips over the early life. As an account of his presidency, it breaks no ground but the author's anecdotes and outspoken opinions make it a lively addition to the definitive biographies.

This is a big DC crossover involving too many different titles. The two volumes attempt to collect stories involving Superman, Wonder Woman, Young Justice, and Impulse. A lot of back story seems missing and the artwork often looks like bad manga. I am really hating these kinds of crossovers, and reading these stories in this GN format is extremely confusing.

One of the staples to Supes personal history is the fact that he's held to standards that other superheroes might not be able to match ... until now. Reading Superman say the words, "I'm going to kill him," is perhaps the most startling revelation in the two-parter trade paperback OUR WORLDS AT WAR. Despite some negative reaction from a large part of the Super-fan base, OWAW is a good read but far from great. It presents a Superman that readers largely haven't seen before, one driven by a passionate instinct for revenge. While the books do possess some continuity issues, there are parts of the story important to our time: acts of terrorism, good surrendering to evil, the loss of life in times of war, etc. However, these two books do suffer from one crucial shortcoming that appears to be a growing trend in crossover / trade paperbacks, and that's the fact that the reader might be told of pivotal events several times from differing perspectives ... once from the Superman installment, once from the Young Justice installment, and once from a Wonder Woman installment. Whereas the end result should be interesting, it's far more confusing here, as some events toward the climax are reviewed slightly out-of-sequence. That said, a Darkseid story is always welcome at my house, and I enjoyed the pure escapism of a reasonably entertaining Superman story for what it was worth.

Would I recommend purchase? Erg. These two books are rather pricey for a story that isn't as tightly woven as it could've been. I would have rather seen the publishers create one volume, with a reasonable price, than two with a slightly higher than necessary pricetag. Damn capitalism. Damn commercialism. If you can get your hands on copies to borrow, I'd take that route first.

I'm giving this 3 stars, but this is a VERY GENEROUS 3 stars. The only reason I'm doing that is because the action is pretty good and there's a lot of it.

What is going on here? I know Superman doesn't quite have the resolve of Batman, but Superman is supposed to be the standard of the DC Universe. The one they turn to when all else fails. So why is he whining so much? Why is he neglecting Lois? Why is he so annoying? Who knows. They don't explain it to us.

It should be noted that there is a lot missing. Most of the DC Universe books touched upon this crossover & they can't all be included. However, that doesn't explain why the plot is so confusing. There are parts that are just cryptic.

There are some genuinely suspenseful parts, the subplot between Lex and his Brainiac'd daughter being the highlight.

Again, there's a lot of pretty good action (including a good slap 'em up between Supes & Darkseid). But what separates the guys who wrote this from the truly great writers is plot. And that is lacking here.

Ok - I'm not a youth minister. I'm not even a Christian. But I am writing a book, and that book has a youth minister in it, and I bought this hoping to glean insights into how youth ministers interact on a practical day-to-day basis with 'their' kids. For this purpose it was sufficient, but just barely - I learned mainly that youth ministers are as much given to cheesy gimmickery and mistaken assumptions as Jr. High counselors and similar species.

I give one star for the knowledge I actually gained, and one star for the possibility (though it appears to me unlikely) that the book might be better if used as directed.

This book is about a little harp seal who just ventured out into the sea. One day he wakes up hungry, and his mother feeds him. He has white fur and blubber to protect him from the cold. I think this is a great book to educate children about the life of a seal. I found it interesting that a mother seal leaves their young shortly after they are born. The pup must then learn to live on its own. A polar bear tries to attack Little Harp Seal, and thankfully, his mother comes to the rescue. The cycle continues with each generation of seals. I would give this book five thumbs up for the illustrations. There were graphic and very detailed pictures.