52 Vol. 2: New Edition

I've always been a collector of trade paperbacks primarily and have almost never purchased an actual comic book. 52 is one of the only series that I wish I had experienced as it was released. The technical achievement it represents alone makes it worthy of recommendation. The fact that the team behind it managed to release a weekly book that is even cohesive is an achievement close to miraculous and is why I give Batman Eternal more credit than I would otherwise.But so much more was achieved with 52. The art is better than it has any right to be and it feels like the dream team of writers managed to produce something that plays to all of their strengths.That is not to say that the series is perfect. There are instances where the art or writing are not what they could be, but there are so many fewer of those instances than you would expect, fewer than in so many series that were released in the normal monthly format.Easily recommend to anyone looking to dive into DC. The story involves some of the relativedly more obscure characters, intentionally, and does an amazing job of making them as compelling as any of the Justice League. That said, it might be a little overwhelming for newcomers to comics.

This is one of the greatest comics of all time.Yes, I mean it. I do NOT make that comment lightly.52 is a story which, simply put, cannot be added to or have anything subtracted from its run. Every character contributes, every scene and line is necessary, all its plots are resolved more than satisfactorily. It's a huge, important story for Post-Crisis DC, so can easily be recommended by basically anyone who's read it. It's the story of an entire year in the DC universe where Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have disappeared, and nobody knows what's happened to them. As such, it's up to second, or third, level heroes to take centre stage--Booster Gold, The Question, Elongated Man, Rip Hunter, Steel, Animal Man, Adam Strange and so many others. Universes are cracked and come apart, the biggest mad scientist supervillains on the planet unite, Black Adam--one of the most powerful DC villains (or anti-heroes, depending on your perspective) of all wages war on humanity. All in these 52 issues.It's almost impossible to exaggerate how much I recommend this series. However, there is one thing which may turn some readers off; it is VERY steeped in continuity. This series is the continuation of plot lines from The Rann/Thanagar War, Superman: Sacrifice, Infinite Crisis, Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman run, Identity Crisis and many other stories. It's not impossible to read without those stories for context, but it really makes more emotional impact, and more sense, if you've read those stories. My recommendation is you get familiar with the background material surrounding the series before jumping in at the deep end with 52, otherwise I'll admit, it is difficult to follow in some areas.Regardless of that though, it's a damned fine read which has definitely stood the test of time. Great characterisation, a plot which ranges from small-scale, emotional storytelling, to massive multiverse epic plots. It's one of the best things DC has ever made in its history, and I think it's 100% a must-read for ANY DC fan.

The best advice I could give about 52 is “don’t start!”. So, if you’re reading this and it’s already too late, I’m so sorry. If you didn’t think the first half was a depressing uphill grind, take it from me, it doesn’t end well. The second half goes on forever, and you’ll just be skipping through it and frustrated by the epic waste of time.As ever, kudos to DC, Amazon and kindle unlimited who let me be incredibly disappointed for free.The great thing about NOT reading this is, you’re NOT MISSING ANYTHING. You likely know already, but just in case, DC has had TWO major continuity reboots since this series. As far as what’s going on at DC right now, it’s pretty much irrelevant, so by skipping it you’re just saving yourself from watching a slow-motion car crash.And it seriously has no value of its own that would justify investing the time.If you want specific details, the original idea was to fill the year-long Trinity-free continuity gap left by yet another Crisis and begin to exploit the soon-to-be briefly fundamental to the DCU number 52. Since the Big Three and most of DC’s B-list were enjoying continuous publication regardless, the creatives were left with a series devoted to Not Quite Ready For Prime Time Players. This is where Grant Morrison lives but the other members of the writing team … not so much.There is a working model for weekly comics with a cast of diverse characters leading more or less separate lives, which is UK anthology comics in general and 2000AD – former home of the much-mentioned, blame-carrying Mr Morrison – in particular.For whatever reason 52 tries to follow the Wild Cards mosaic style, with overlapping and interleaved stories trying their best to appear to be happening more or less at the same time. It doesn’t work. Not here, anyway.One of the biggest problems is that there are too many characters with storylines, and past the rush of enthusiasm in the early episodes, the writers abandon any attempt to balance the stories. Certain sets of characters disappear, ridiculously implausibly given their situations, for weeks at a time.From the additional material crowbarred in between the episodes it’s pretty obvious that something happened around the halfway mark that pushed what arc story there is onto a different path than originally conceived. Maybe that original direction would have saved it, but I doubt it.What’s obvious by the end of this volume is that the writing team either couldn’t or decided not to live up to the original concept. There are a series of weekly episodes devoted to single characters devoted entirely to resolving hanging storylines. Watch out for anything illustrated by Darrick Roberrston. Then the 52 series’ own characters are essentially side-lined while whole thing becomes a hideously below par DC Crisis-surviving B-list crossover.It’s not helped that the 52 series’ own characters are just not that interesting. The biggest time-slices are given to inherited Fawcett “Captain Marvel” nemesis Black Adam, and Lex Luthor who obviously has nowhere to call home while Superman’s out of the picture. The Luthor story also involves Steel, lingering awkward fallout from the last time Superman went walkabout. There’s a Gotham based lesbian ex-cop who seems to be original to the series in a team-up with serially disappointing ex Carlton Comics DC draftee The Question. The end of their story can be found in a massive spoiler in the album’s front cover, and in the middle there’s a whole thing about Gotham’s Intergang that brings similarly non-binary-gendered meta Batwoman into play. There’s Ralph Dibny, the allegedly much-loved Elongated Man, a character too dumb to appear regularly even as a “Justice-whatever” team member. His story spins out of the Identity Crisis event and takes a long turn for the pointlessly bizarre by roping in Dr Fate. Or does it? Booster Gold has a couple of spoiler-censored storylines. Rip Hunter Time Master makes an appearance. Will Magnus, bipolar creator of the allegedly fan-favourite Metal Men and sometime villain, is glacially slowly roped into a story involving (the other) Captain Marvel nemesis Dr Sivana and a bunch of other evil geniuses on the Intergang-funded Island of Evil geniuses. No, I’m sorry, that really is a thing.It’s a car crash. It’s irrelevant. Avoid at all costs.