It is the themes within themes that give this anthology its edge. Among the ideas explored are a hero who just wants the quiet life, a villain who develop gay feelings for his nemesis, what happens to old superheroes, and a villain who is given the option to literally become his greatest enemy. The characters themselves include the Sentinel, an alternate take on Superman; Caliburn a modern day Black Knight crossed with Batman; Stormcloud, the semi-retired master of electricity; Corbae, an alternate, East European Iron Man; Tommy Gun, a World War one British version of Captain America; Arcanum, a dying hero who draws his powers from Tarot cards; the Guard, a more interesting version of the Justice League, and last but not least, a girl called Ami, who slides into Dark.

It was the last story, "Mirror, Rust and Dark" by Alexander Marsh Freed, that sparked my imagination the most. Ami has what are classed as low level meta-human abilities. By touching metal she is able to converse with it, after a fashion. Metal gives up its memories, and by sending her consciousness through wires, Ami can glean much information. Ami's story, however, concerns the murky work of the Ultra-Elites, a clandestine government sponsored organisation, descended from the notorious MK Ultra. The Ultra-Elites primary interest is dealing with incursions from what they call Dark. This is an extra-dimensional Earth, which duplicates everyone and everything on our world. The big difference is that in Dark, life is a perpetual nightmare for the majority.

While some of the stories presented in Path of the Just suffer due to the lack of artwork, most of them work well enough creating illustrations in imagination. The authors take their chances with varying degrees of success, and some serve up works that would not normally be encouraged in the main stream arena. The end result is a collection which may be too subtle for some younger fans, and not quite developed enough for more jaded readers. Having said that, I found about half of the stories to be enticing or inventive enough to leave me wanting more, which is no bad thing. For those who enjoy the superhero genre, and want to glimpse more of what's behind the mask, Path of the Just is just the job.