52 was a weekly series published by DC Comics starting in May, 2006. Because I had my 52nd birthday in late 2020, I thought it might be interesting (fun?) to examine this series 15 years later. I plan to post once a week about each issue. To read previous posts, click the link (52!).

Synopsis

“Batwoman Begins”

Week 11, Night 5: In Washington, DC, Ralph confronts some members of the Cult of Conner, who turn out to be teenagers. He then gets a call that someone has broken into his storage unit in Opal City.

Week 11, Day 6: Charlie and Renee meet with Kate Kane, who provides a lead regarding the warehouse on Kane Street: it’s being leased by Ridge-Ferrick Holding. Later, Charlie helps Renee confront an ugly truth about herself involving her murdered partner. The two break and enter the Ridge-Ferrick Holding building and are captured by Whisper A’Daire and her were-minions. Batwoman appears, taking out the lycanthropes.

Week 11, Night 7: Ralph finds the Cult of Conner symbol painted on his damaged storage unit, and he searches the boxes for what is stolen, which is revealed to be some of Sue’s clothing that the cult members have placed on a dummy.

Thoughts

This was the first issue to not include the title within the issue, so I, and everyone else apparently, used the cover phrase. Batwoman makes her bombastic debut in a four-page fighting sequence. As I mentioned last time, this issue is considered her first appearance, despite her brief appearance in the previous last issue.

Ralph is definitely sliding into the crazy because we see him attacking the Cult members, who turn out to be teenagers. His desperation is obviously mounting, but at least his realization about the cultists’ age snap him out of his fervor.

So how many times must we hear how much Kate and Renee once meant to each other? Hell, Charlie voices it here after we’ve been told over two issues by Renee. Perhaps we’re only getting the repeat in case issue 11 is someone’s first issue of 52? The more interesting thing about Charlie and Renee’s conversation was how Renee hates herself for doing the right thing by not killing her partner’s murderer. How will this get resolved for her?

Whisper A’Daire was a new character to me, but how many red-heads can Renee have a “thing” for (or for her)?

The final scene was funny and disturbing. When Ralph searches the storage unit, you see how many boxes are labeled for Sue’s hats, and there’s a box with a note from Sue telling Ralph to throw it away. Also, does Monaco have some significance to the overall story or just a generic Dibny detail? I like how the artist interspersed the panels of the cultists dressing the dummy while Ralph searched the boxes. The final two panels on the penultimate page were sublime: Ralph views a photo of better times with his wife and the overlapping panel is of a cultist sliding Ralph’s wedding ring onto the Sue dummy’s finger. It almost gave me shiver. So, are the cultists trying to help Ralph or do they have some other (sinister) purpose regarding Sue?

History of the DCU, part 10

by Jurgens, Lanning, Napolitano, Cox, Major, Berganza, Cohen, and Schaefer

The events of Infinite Crisis are summarized and ends with a revelation: instead of Jade dying in space, it was supposed to have been Donna Troy. With this revelation comes a Monitor and a To Be Continued “in the DC universe everywhere”. But were they?