I got questions and comments (quemments!) from various people on the interwebs, including several voicemail from Sgt Merica! What revelations shall sprout forth from such missives? Listen and find out!
By Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid, Giffen, McKone, Justiniano, Barrows, Batista, Olliffe, Robertson, Lanning, Wong, Ramos, Geraci, Sinclair, Baron, Hi-Fi, Lopez, Richards, Schaefer, and Siglain. Cover by Jones and Sinclair.
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
“A Year in the Life”
Week 0, Day 0
Rip Hunter, Booster Gold, and Red Tornado travel back in time one year to the dawn of the new multiverse. Rip tells Booster that 52 identical universes were created after the Infinite Crisis. Mr. Mind confronts them, regurgitating the Phantom Zone in order to trap them within it, but Supernova appears, deflecting the Phantom Zone energy and restoring it, as Rip explains to Booster, “to its proper dimensional plane”.
Mr. Mind retreats and Rip follows it to Earth-17, where Mind is “eating years and events from this universe’s history,” eventually transforming it into the Earth of the Atomic Knights.
Rip chases Mind from one Earth to another as the creature “eats” and alters more Earths:
Earth-3 now has the Crime Society
Earth-10 is now a world where the Freedom Fighters are still fighting against the Axis powers
Earth-50 is now the Wildstorm universe
Earth-5 now has the Marvel Family
Earth-22 is now the Kingdom Come universe
Earth-2 now has the Justice Society of America
Earth-4 is now the Charlton universe
Rip tells Booster that they need to trap Mind before he spawns hyperflies and devours every living creature in the multiverse. Booster tells him, “There has to be someone better qualified to fight” Mind. Skeets, barely “alive”, tells Booster that it has faith in him. Booster then time travels to obtain an energy source that will help trap Mr. Mind. Booster appears the day after the first Crisis and encounters Blue Beetle. After a brief discussion, Booster leaves, with the scarab that Beetle was looking for.
Sivana calls for his children to follow him into his suspendium globe where they’ll be safe, but Rip Hunter appears, shoots Sivana in the knee, and takes the suspendium.
Back in the time sphere, Booster places the scarab into Supernova’s suit, and Rip takes them to his time lab. Mind has followed them and attacks. However, Rip has reinforced Skeets’ shell with the suspendium, and Booster traps Mind within Skeets. Rip then explains that they need to make Skeets into a “‘time bomb’ that will end the threat of Mr. Mind”. Booster hurls Skeets into a time vortex, followed by Supernova, and they travel back one year, where, on Week 1, Day 6, Supernova catches Skeets/Mind, and on Week 1, Day 1, he spikes Skeets into the ground.
Sivana finds a devolved Mr. Mind and puts it into a tube, telling it, “Don’t bother to struggle. You’re trapped. Forever.”
Supernova returns to the time sphere. Booster declares that the world should know it was Skeets who saved everyone. Rip informs Booster that he had copied Skeets’ “mem-self into a leftover responsometer”. They travel through the multiverse to New Earth, their home.
Week 52, Day 6
Checkmate prepares to form a task force to locate the depowered Black Adam. Natasha wonders what happened to the members of Infinity, Inc. In Kahndaq, someone reaches for the amulet of Isis. In Alabama, the ghosts of Ralph and Sue Dibny begin their investigation of a pit that opened in a school classroom.
Booster asks Dr. Magnus for help in restoring Skeets. Magnus tells Booster that he had made a backup of Skeets when Booster brought it to Magnus nearly a year before. Magnus is able to restore Skeets, but without the knowledge of the last year. Skeets asks Booster if it has missed anything, and Booster tells him, “It all started 52 weeks ago…”.
Week 52, Day 7
The Question restores the bat overlay to the bat-signal and shines the light at Kate Kane’s apartment, where she is recovering from her stab wound. Question then asks, “Are you ready?”
Thoughts
I remember when I first read this issue 15 years ago and I was SO excited for the return of the multiverse. I even went on an online forum (maybe DC Comics’ website or perhaps the CGS forum?) to express my excitement, while others — inexplicably — were denouncing it. Alas, as I recall, the promise of the new 52 remained only that — there didn’t seem to be much, if any, playing around with the concept with an exception being the “Thy Kingdom Come” story in Justice Society of America.
While re-reading this issue brought back that feeling of renewal for the DC universe, I found myself feeling a bit … cheated. Perhaps 52 was always building towards this big reveal (we saw Mr. Mind in Sivana’s lab in issue 1) or maybe it evolved into it (which, metatextually, is appropriate), but I feel cheated because this ending doesn’t feel as earned as may of the other stories. Plus, this issue ties up some loose ends but are really just teases, such as the Dibny’s as ghost detectives (I know, retaining the status quo is the most important aspect of corporate-driven comic books…).
However, if there was a theme for this series, it is transformation. The DC world is transformed by the absence of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman (the ticker on the cover even announces “The year without [them] is over…”). Many characters have changed as well:
The Irons’ relationship that was split and then mended
Animal Man and Adam Strange have returned to their families and have been physically transformed as well (powers and sight)
Renee became the new Question
Ralph died and is reunited with his wife
Booster Gold matures, becomes more than the glory hound he had been
But probably the most transformative storyline was Black Adam’s. He started out as the ruthless ruler of Kahndaq; met Adrianna Tomaz and fell in love with her, causing him to ask that the powers of Isis be given to her and they later wed; gave some of his power to Adrianna’s brother, making his own Marvel family; became a political force for change in the world; but then, after the deaths in his new family, remade himself into the evil Black Adam once more (see my earlier note about the status quo…). His story was the most successful for me.
The series itself evolved over time. My recollection of the series when it was announced was that we were going to get stories about the Trinity during that one year later gap, but instead we got the stories about the characters that we did. However, according to the DC Nation article by Dan DiDio in issue 1, “Our original plan was to create a series of specials designed to answer all the questions posed by the ‘One Year Later’ changes”. Paul Levitz challenged them instead to “tell the story of the missing year in a real-time weekly comic”. Then, according to an interview with Mark Waid at Ain’t It Cool News in 2009 (quoted here because that original article has disappeared),
Dan Didio, who first championed the concept, hated what we were doing. H-A-T-E-D 52. Would storm up and down the halls telling everyone how much he hated it. … and there’s one issue of 52 near the end that was written almost totally by Dan and Keith Giffen because none of the writers could plot it to Dan’s satisfaction.
DiDio also reportedly called the follow-on weekly series, Countdown, as “‘52 done right'”, but I think the fans and critics generally disagreed. After 15 years, I think 52 is looked upon as a successful property and a blueprint for weekly comic book series at DC Comics for some time after that. It was an ambitious project, and the co-creators should be applauded for their efforts.
This final issue, while overly concerned with the reemergence of the multiverse, also gives us pointers to follow in other comic books and resolves the final fate of Ralph Dibny, but these feel tacked on and overshadowed by the big reveal. Finally, I find it curious that everything ends with the Question/Batwoman scene. It seems that the coda of “Are you ready?” is for the fans, but it suggests to me something more for those characters specifically, but I don’t know if that panned out.
If you’ve been reading these (mostly) weekly posts, you know I didn’t care for some of the these storylines or how they were executed and some of the art was not to my liking, so I would rate the series as a whole with a B+. However, it was fun to examine a comic book series in this way, though, I don’t think I’ll do something like this again. That is, unless you think I should… (and what should I do?). What was your overall impression of 52, either when it was first published or re-reading now with me? Leave comments below!
By Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid, Giffen, Robertson, Baron, Fletcher, Richards, Schaeffer, and Siglain. Cover by Jones and Sinclair.
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
“Asked and Answered”
Week 48, Day 1-3
Renee Montoya and Nightwing search for Bruno Mannheim in order to find Batwoman and prevent her murder.
Week 48, Day 4
In a fight with one of Mannheim’s fusion men, Nightwing and Renee discover a device that Nightwing first thinks is a bomb.
Whisper A’Dair and Mannheim discuss the upcoming sacrifice, but Brother Abbot once again questions the prophecy, to which Mannheim declares Abbot will be “carved apart for his heresies!”
Renee interrogates one of the fusion men, but she and Nightwing are ambushed by more of Mannheim’s acolytes. Abbot helps defeat most of them, but one is able to activate the device, which is not a bomb, but an energy beam that “tears into … the city, igniting everything it touches. By dawn, a pit of fire will roar at your city’s heart”.
They see that there are multiple beams drilling into Gotham. Abbot tells them that Batwoman’s heart is supposed to open the pit, fulfilling the prophecy. Nightwing devises a plan, but Renee tells him that he and Abbot should go after the devices instead and that she will rescue Batwoman on her own. She applies pseudoderm to her face and the Question leaves, after Abbot tells her where to go.
The Question is about to shoot Mannheim before he can carve Batwoman’s heart out of her chest, but more fusion men attack her. By the time she dispatches them, Mannheim has plunged a knife into Batwoman’s chest. The Question fires, missing Mannheim. She talks to the still conscious Batwoman, but Mannheim attacks her from behind and manages to wrestle the gun from her. Before he can fire, Batwoman removes the knife from her own chest and throws it into Mannheim back and he falls. Question tells Batwoman to “stay with me…”.
Week 48, Day 5
Chang Tzu issues a public broadcast to announce that he and his Science Squad have Black Adam” “Now…. How much am I bid?”
Thoughts
I get two issues in a row where the art is a bit lackluster for me, but I did like the Question pinup page. This issue is considered Renee’s first as the Question, even though she’s worn the mask and hat before this but she does accept the role now and we get a big stylized question in the background making it official, I suppose. I liked how Renee, in her inner monologue, references the girl she killed in Kahndaq, which sent her on a bender that Charlie helped her back from, and that, with her acceptance of the role as the Question, brings her story full circle — the rest is just denouement.
I found the Mannheim stuff at the beginning confusing. He grumbles about not having yet killed Batwoman, with Adair reminding him about the prophecy’s timeline, yet when Abbot questions the prophecy, he screams “off with his head!” — he’s inconsistent. He also references needing a key that A’Dair assures him will be found by Abbot, but nothing is made of that again. Speaking of Abbot, after Mannheim declares that Abbot will be “carved apart”, his lackeys just happen to take him to the same warehouse that Nightwing and Renee are at? How convenient.
As far as the Science Squad, why start a bidding war for Black Adam? Maybe they’re strapped for cash after Adam’s assault?
I’m getting a bit worried for these final issues, if these last two are any indication. Was the creative team getting tired? Were they focused on the next big project? Or are these last two issues just a blip and the final four issues will give us a banger of an ending?
The Origin of the Birds of Prey
By Waid, Scott, Hazlewood, Sinclair, Fletcher, Richards, Schaefer, and Siglain
I did not know that Oracle “learned the ropes of espionage as an ally of the Suicide Squad before starting her own … operation”. I did know from reading some issues of Birds of Prey that there was a botched mission involving Power Girl, but I’ve yet to read the details of that particular incident. Also missing is my having read the issues involving Big Barda and Manhunter — those sound like fun!
I really like the Scott/Hazlewood art in this. I’m not always a fan of when Scott inks herself, but these two together do a good job (as they did in Teen Titans and Secret Six).
By Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid, Giffen, Camuncoli, Ruggiero, Pantazis, Leigh, Richards, Schaeffer, and Siglain. Cover by Jones and Sinclair.
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
“Revelations”
Week 47, Day 1
Tim Drake waits outside a cave in Nanda Parbat for Bruce Wayne and is challenged by a monk to solve this riddle:
There’s a goose inside a bottle. … How do you get the goose out without injuring it or breaking the bottle?
Week 47, Day 2
Diana and Tim discuss Bruce’s undertaking of his “spiritual purification”. She tells Tim, “Something vast and grand is happening and it brought us all here. I hope he finds what he’s looking for. And you, Tim”.
In Gotham City, Whisper A’Dair sacrifices a man trying to divine who Batwoman is. Later, she and Bruno Mannheim discuss the failure, and Brother Abbott criticizes Mannheim’s interpretation of the Crime Bible. They fight, and Whisper comes to a realization: the twice-named daughter of Cain can be found because her name is “Cain”.
Week 47, Day 3
Dr. Magnus works on his new Metal Man as he listens to the tortured screams of Black Adam. When he activates the golem’s responsometer, it calls out, “Crush. Raze. Trample.” His mini Metal Men implore him to switch it off.
Week 47, Day 4
Animal Man travels to Space B and converses with the aliens who created and have since upgraded him. They tell him that he can access any “point in space or in time”. To illustrate, they show Buddy a point one month ahead in his personal timeline where Ellen is being comforted by another man.
Week 47, Day 5
Beast Boy can’t believe Natasha has turned down his offer to join the Teen Titans. He discovers that she is joining her uncle’s new Steelworks facility. Dr. Avasti tells John she quit her job at STAR Labs and wants to know if he’s hiring. She then kisses him.
Week 47, Day 6
The Question visits Kate Kane’s apartment to find it in shambles. Nightwing arrives to tell Renee that “they took her. We’re going to get her back.”
Week 47, Day 7
Diana converses with Rama Kushna, asking the deity, “What have I become?” Rama Kushna answers with,
When did you, in all your perfection, ever share the pains mortals feel each day of their lives? Until now. Welcome to the world, Wonder Woman. Here is wisdom.
The monk returns to offer Tim more soup, and Tim wonders if Bruce should have returned by now. He also tells the monk he realized that “there’s only a goose in the bottle because you said so,” to which the monk responds, “You are correct. The goose and the bottle are only words”. Then, Bruce emerges from the cave, smiling.
Thoughts
This is probably my least favorite issue of the series thus far, both in terms of the art and the vignettes. Specifically, the Batman and Wonder Woman segments feel disjointed from the rest of the series, and my major issue with the art is that everybody looks similar, like the artist had one male and female template.
Regardless, there are some interesting things in this issue:
The dissent in Bruno Mannheim’s organization is interesting (and expected), so I hope we see that play out more.
I’m more interested in Space B in regards to Animal Man than I am in the issue with “future” Ellen. Does Space B play into what’s coming at the end of this series? Is it played with anywhere after this?
It was nice to see Natasha’s and John’s story come to a close (I assume), especially given it’s been my least favorite of the series. I was also glad to see John and Dr. Avasti moving on with their relationship.
What is the “wisdom” that Rama Kushna shows Diana?
The Origin of the Teen Titans
By Waid, Kerschl, Peru, Lopez, Richards, Schaefer, and Siglain
I like how they focused on Cyborg as the central figure of this incarnation of the Teen Titans. What I intensely disliked about the Teen Titans title is the one year jump that occurred during 52. Up to that point, this was one of my favorite titles at the time.
By Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid, Giffen, Batista, Igle, Ramos, Sinclair, Lopez, Richards, Schaeffer, and Siglain. Cover by Jones and Sinclair.
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
“Every Hour Wounds, the Last Kills”
Week 45, Day 3
Shiruta, Kahndaq. The Marvel family help Black Adam with the burial of Isis and Osiris and later try to comfort him, but Black Adam rebuffs their compassion and they leave.
Renee Montoya speaks with Adam, letting him know that Charlie has died and to offer he aid. Black Adam does not take kindly to her “pity” and bids her to go home as he leaves for Bialya.
Week 45, Day 4
Bialya. The Horseman who is Death has taken refuge in Bialya, and the country’s president pleads with Bruno Mannheim for help against Black Adam. Mannheim informs the President that he needs to deal with the situation on Oolong Island and it was “Nice knowin’ ya”.
It is then that Black Adam arrives and kills the President. He begins his assault on the country. Across the world, Black Adam’s actions and potential responses are discussed. Amanda Waller ponders needing 100 members of the Suicide Squad to go up against Black Adam, but Atom Smasher refuses to participate further.
Week 45, Day 5
Bialya. Black Adam continues his swath of destruction. He sees a flower in a pool of blood and cries. Then he is attacked by Bialyans and demands to know where Death is.
Week 45, Day 6
The Great Wall of China. The Great Ten discuss needing to deal with Black Adam should the security of China be threatened.
Death finally confronts Black Adam, telling him that his murdering of Bialya’s people have made it stronger. But Black Adam uses the magic lightning to weaken Death. He tells it, “You are going to answer every question I ask. Then … I am going to spend the rest of the night slowly ending your life”.
Week 45, Day 7
Oolong Island. Veronica Cale asks Sivana, “What happens when he finds out who sent the Four Horsemen into Kahndaq…?” Sivana tells her, as the alarm klaxon sounds, “I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time. The Black Marvel himself, at my mercy! Bring him on!!”
Thoughts
The inevitable happens: Black Adam on a rampage, and apparently it was all part of Sivana’s plan? At least I got a bit of Dr. Cale’s reaction to this — a pity she wasn’t smart enough to foresee this outcome?
Renee has come a long way over the course of this series. She knows the pain Adam is in and offers her help, which, of course, he does not take kindly to. But even threatened with death, Renee is sympathetic, telling him, “Isis was my friend”. This was the best scene in the issue.
There’s a lot of talk about what to do about Black Adam, but not a whole lot of doing by governments or superheroes. If this was America being attacked, I doubt there would be this delay. And Adam’s slaughter of Bialya’s people is just so inhumane. At one point, he sees a vision of Isis telling him to avenge her and Osiris and he continues his destruction (one of the Oolong scientists states, “He sterilized the Earth!”), but given all of the manipulation thus far, I have to wonder if that was really just grief or an outside force spurring him on? I clearly want to be on his side, that his vengeance is righteous, but given the scale of murder and destruction, the architects of this story clearly do not want us feeling sympathy for him. It does make me want to know the outcome to this — obviously, Black Adam continues long after this series, so is he captured, does he retreat, or …? And what is the impact in regards to superhumans and their involvement in humanity’s affairs after this? I guess I’ll have to reread World War III….
Longbox Review 