This issue reduced me to messy, embarassing, sniffly tears when I first got it, for which I have never forgiven that bastard Morrison, because no other comic book has ever made me cry (apart from Planetary issue 10, wherin Ellis provides the perfect distillation of the Green Lantern oath. Ellis is also a bastard.)
This is the ultimate perfect moment for me, and thank you for posting that Mark Waid snippet, because he says what I think in a nicely eloquent way.