I know these stories were well meaning, but man are they not good.

The characters were fun, but they deserved something bigger for their debut post-Death Metal.

Full disclosure I am straight, but I realize the importance of pride given how many gay friends I have had in my life. Also, I can't believe it's 2021 and we still have people with boogeyman ideas of people based on their skin colour and sexual preferences. We only recently had a huge technological boom, maybe we've been thinking wrong this whole time about how advanced our civilization is. Our tech may seem futuristic, but our discrimination comparatively seems prehistoric in nature. Sorry, to the dinosaurs for generalizing. May they RIP. The book was okay, but to someone it may be more.

The best of the bunch was Tynion IV and Trad Moore's story. Taking a look at Batman as a living myth from a henchman's perspective isn't entirely new, but it was executed well here and the layouts were great. Williams was basically a PSA. Not much to say about it. Dini's was just okay, and I say that as a Dini fan. Emma Rios' story was beautiful visually, but left a bit to be desired otherwise. Probably the weakest of the bunch. G. Willow Wilson's was fine.

Surprisingly Seeley had the best story this time around. This issue was definitely a lot more experimental and that is okay, I really loved Nick Dragotta's crazy manga inspired art.

This is always a good concept for a Superman story, but it's been done better before.

Daniel Warren Johnson's art blew me away.

Kieron Gillen's story was very fun.

I still don't know who this writer is, but I can tell they know how to write a nuanced villain.

The only thing stopping me from liking this more than I do is the timing. Spurrier already wrote the perfect return of Hellblazer and he deserves more, however this is still a solid Hellblazer story in its own right.

There was like a 22 year gap between this and the second Ambush Bug series and somehow Giffen still had it. It's probably the weakest of the 3, but enjoyable in a similar way. Ignore the 2009 critics. They were too busy trying to be serious like everything else in 2009.

This was a nice surprise to me. Who thought they would ever explain how Man-Bat came to be in JL Dark? The attention to detail by having Batman in his Rebirth costume is also really cool. I think Dave Wielgosz is an underrated writer who needs to be put on more ongoings, a lot of his digital first stuff has been pretty solid.

This was a lot of fun. Something you would hope to experience more of in the main titles, but also perfect for these quick digestable stories. Great character work. I dig the art too.

This issue was a lot better than the first one. Tom King's story was very somber in tone like his other work on Batman, which I enjoy. Mitch Gerads' Batman really looks incredible in B&W. Sophie Campbell's story made really neat use of the palette. Gabriel Hardman & Corinna Bechko's was just okay. The weakest of the bunch. Dual by Dustin Weaver was very strange in an intriguing way. I liked it. David Aja's story was the exact tone I love in Batman stories. Suitably dark and greatly illustrated.

Finally got around to reading this before pop culture spoils everything about it. It is every bit as good as I have heard, and better than I expected. This first deluxe edition has excellent pacing, mystery, and characters.

All of these stories are quite good, but the Larry O'Neil story about his dad's life all told, and executed so well without a single word and just creative word balloons makes this really stand out as a 10/10. Probably the best of all the anniversary books.