The World's Greatest Super Heroes

The World's Greatest Super-Heroes is the name to the oversized slipcased hardcover anthology collection, that reprinted six oversized graphic novels all created by artist Alex Ross and writer Paul Dini. Four graphic novels were originally published to celebrate the 60th anniversary of DC main characters: Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, thus Superman: Peace on Earth were published in 1998, Batman: War on Crime in 1999, Shazam!: Power of Hope in 2000 and finally Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth in 2001. Alex Ross original idea was make a statement about the four superhero comics archetypes: Science Fiction (Superman), Crime/Mystery (Batman), Magic (Captain Marvel) and Myth (Wonder Woman).

In the following year, DC Comics also published one extra book: JLA: Secret Origins. Not featuring any storyline whatsoever, it only presented the origins of the four main characters already published in the previous books and the origins of other Justice League characters: Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Plastic Man. Every origin was present in two-pages layout based on Joe Shuster's origin of Superman from Action Comics #1.

The final book, published in 2003, JLA: Liberty and Justice presented a full story featuring the entire group, the first time that Alex Ross was able to use all characters in the current timeline. The artwork is of Ross' very own photorealism, and the books themselves were created after the success of Ross' and writer Mark Waid's famous Kingdom Come.

The World's Greatest Super-Heroes was released in August 1, 2005 on dust-jacket slipcase hardcover edition (9.6" x 13") and got paperback reprint (8.2" x 11") in September 28, 2010. Both collected versions are smaller than the original Treasury Editions (10" x 13.5").