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 for its 15th anniversary. I plan to post once a week about each issue. To read previous posts, click the link (52!).

Synopsis

“Last of the Czarnians”

Week 17, Day 1

Luthor and his home-grown “Justice League” watch footage of the group foiling a terrorist attack by Kobra. Luthor is pleased at the coverage but Eliza, the speedster, complains about always being in super-speed mode and needing a drug, the Sharp, to slow herself down.

Week 17, Day 2

Adam Strange is piloting his ship, the Warbird, through a dense asteroid field while Animal Man is helping copilot (“Left!”) and Starfire is outside, blasting the larger rocks into smaller pieces. Strange admits to Buddy that he’s spent a week with Starfire and “there’s just … something I can’t stand about that whole stuck-up alien princess act”.

Week 17, Night 4

Strange delivers a dire message to his crew: they are running out of breathable air and the ship’s sub-light engine won’t get them home for a few decades. He tells them, “This was only ever a lifeboat …”. Later, while Strange sleeps, Starfire and Animal Man talk about family and overcoming the existential dread they’re in. It is then that Devilance, the Pursuer, arrives, ripping the blade from the being’s power staff off of the Warbird. Animal Man notices something outside with Devilance, and Starfire whispers trepidatiously, “X’Hal. Lobo”.

Starfire goes out to negotiate with Lobo, and Strange explains to Buddy that Lobo is a “superhuman bounty hunter” and the last of his race because he “killed every single living thing on his home planet, for fun”. But Starfire hires Lobo to lead them through the asteroid field with promise of payment, but Starfire also thinks Lobo needs their help.

Week 17, Day 7

Red Tornado’s torso is discovered in Australia and he keeps repeating “52”.

Thoughts

Given this issue’s cover, has Lobo always been one of those characters who broke the fourth wall, like Giffen’s Ambush Bug? Here, Lobo sits atop the Trinity’s accoutrement from issue one, telling us, “Only 35 more to go”, so this suggests yes? I think I need to go flip through my L.E.G.I.O.N. books for a comparison….

All is not well within Luthor’s altered humans, but he seems unperturbed by Eliza’s reaction, with his focus only on Natasha really. Is this all to get under (literally and figuratively) John Henry Irons’ skin? When will Natasha see the light (ironic considering her powerset) regarding her “benefactor”? I do find Eliza’s revelation about how her superspeed is affecting her. Is that something that was ever touched on in Flash comic books?

I loved the scenes between Starfire and Animal Man as they pondered their situation, but it seems like the collaborators are slyly pushing these two together in a romantic way, but so far, Buddy is completely focused on his wife and family (and I hope it stays that way). I thought there was a missed opportunity when Strange is telling them how dire their situation really is — perhaps that scene should have come before Buddy and Starfire’s conversation (with the appropriate tension ratcheted up) or allowing the gravity of the announcement to sink in without being cut short by Devilance’s arrival, but this is just Monday morning comic book plotting on my part.

Speaking of Starfire, I don’t recall how her character was portrayed elsewhere in the DCU at this time, but it seems like the series collaborators have fundamentally shifted her personality to fit Strange’s description of her, though her empathetic nature from her early New Teen Titans days is displayed in the scene with Buddy. It’s like, generally, they have taken her emotionality and turned it more towards anger or frustration over any other emotion.

The Origin of Lobo

by Waid, Giffen, Jadson, Hories, Napolitano, Richards, Wacker

It’s always nice to see Keith Giffen pencils, and that Lobo is one of his co-creations makes this origin even more delightful. Lobo has never been on the DC characters that I enjoyed. I don’t care for crass for crass’ sake, and this period when he “found religion” was probably the only time I found the character interesting. That and his adoration of those space dolphins.

Perhaps this has played up somewhere that I haven’t read, but reading this origin it occurs to me that Lobo is the anti-Superman: last of his race and super-powerful but without the morality that Clark Kent grew up with.