52 Weeks 1-3

As I write this, a really good-looking guy of about 20 is yelling up to my really good-looking upstairs neighbor, "I love you, Tessa!" And here I am writing about DC's bad geek meth, 52. I avoid most of these events, or at least I drop out of them quickly, but almost as an experiment, I'm going to see how long I can go with this one. The following review of the first issue is from my 56th Breakdowns column (of the Volume Two numbering--I've written well over 300 total, I think).
52 #1

Written by Morrison, Waid, Rucka and Johns

Breakdowns Giffen, Pencils Ed Benes
Published by DC Comics $2.50
I'll admit, despite countless disappointments from Marvel and DC--especially in their "event" books--I can still get suckered into them now and then. As of this moment, I'm preordered for twelve issues of this, and who knows? I may just keep going.

Which isn't to say that this comic is much damn good at all

The first page is evidence enough that the writers and editors, talented though some of them certainly are, have gone down the wrong road: A)What do new readers know about Ralph Dibny? Nothing; B)Why not let him grieve in peace and get this world moving forward? C)Why would a guy with a rubbery body choose bullets as his method of suicide? Wouldn't they just stretch the back of his neck out?

Morrison's name gave this some credibility, but it's hard to detect what he did. It's either him or Waid writing the Booster Gold stuff, which is amusing enough, but we've been there a million times with Booster being an egotistical cad who nonetheless finds it in himself to do good. It's fine but nothing new, though what is actually new is pretty awful. Steel punishing his niece by removing her armor and stranding her on top of a skyscraper is one of the early signs that yeah, doing an issue a week means some shaky stuff is going to get pushed through. We couldn't correct the page to show that the door to the stairs was open or something, rather than leaving the image in attentive readers' minds that Steel is endangering her life?

Not sure what's happened to Greg Rucka, but I have to assume he's responsible for Renee Montoya being one of the main characters here, as she's one of his, and really, for her own good she needs to put a restraining order on him. It doesn't even seem like the same person, and after years of Queen & Country, hasn't he had enough of the drunk & driven character type who will crawl out of the bottle to get the job done? Enough already. Her scene in the bar was lousy--if the bartender makes snide remarks about your consumption, why not just go to a different bar? Or drink at home? Feh.

Benes is okay; he's a B-list superhero artist but no real complaints, and I realize for a project like this it's probably better to get a consistent look week after week, even if it's mediocre, than a great, distinctive artist who can only do it ever fourth or fifth issue, alternating with artists of wildly differing styles.

About half the book is rather tedious, unless you get really excited seeing originally lighthearted villains like Dr. Sivana menaced, or like seeing large groups of always-minor superheroes like Blue Devil and Geo-Force standing around and mingling. I would have though J.G. Jones was a great call on covers, but it's immediately apparent that with the schedule he has he's compromised his work to a great degree. The design of the first cover is really silly, and the figures in the background are painted poorly. This isn't the worst superhero book by a long shot, but it could and should be a lot better.

Okay, but what about the next ones?

52 #2 from the same team immediately looks a little better--the inking is sharper or something, not that there's a lot worth looking at. Ralph Dibny has a mystery on his hands--who has defaced his wife's grave with an upside-down Superman symbol, which we learn means "hope" when it's right-side-up and "resurrection" this way. It's not a bad idea, but what a shitty way to get a message across if the sender is a superhero, you know? The writers have Ralph's nose twitch as in the more carefree days of old, which really seems out of place in a grim book like this, and since his nose isn't elongated here, it's just kind of confusing.

Meanwhile, Booster Gold continues to be a gloryhound ass, and Doc Magnus tries to fix up his robot, who continues to malfunction and misremember some historical details...or does he? And a pattern is beginning to emerge with not just Sivana but other "mad scientists" being kidnapped, no doubt for some grand scheme. Black Adam rules Khandaq and tells Power Girl to pass on the message that if she or any other superpowered being trespasses, he'll kill them. And the Question wakes Renee Montoya, who in her drunken tailspin has somehow managed to bed an equally beautiful lesbian, and "hires" her to do some detecting for him, though clearly he has the answers and is giving her a purpose to crawl out of the bottle. I found the scene with Renee and the other girl gratuitous, plus I think it underscores how confused editorial is about how "real" to get and when. In this case, you would think you could emphasize the dangers of alcohol by having Renee pack on some weight and some laugh lines, but no, she looks like she just stepped out of a Victoria's Secret catalog, as does her companion. Contrarily, perhaps, I didn't miss the sudden disappearance of suicidal sorrow from Ralph, because I was so tired of it already. Booster sucks, and all the advertising logos on his uniform are annoying. Also, a second ugly cover from J.G. Jones. There is a new feature here, a "History of the DC Universe" by Dan Jurgens, of all people, with finishes by Art Thibert. This means there are four fewer pages devoted to the 52 story, that space given to so far an indistinct effort with Donna Troy calling up some supercomputer to fill her in on past history, so it's a lot of exposition and pictures of old heroes, which is dull to awesome, depending on how much you always wanted to see Dan Jurgens draw Jonah Hex or Enemy Ace.

52 #3 has the first good cover by Jones, with an enigmatic image of Lex Luthor, whose "death" takes up much of this issue. It's really an alternate Earth version of Lex who is killed, which lets our Lex come forward and grandstand and blame everything on the bad version, pulling the respected Steel into his alibi. Steel continues to publish his niece, cutting her out of some scientific conference because she needs to take summer school to make up a D in English. I didn't mind this scene, actually, though it seems a little silly that the girl thought she could blow summer school off. You need this stuff to graduate, and who wants to be a high school dropout superheroine? The only other part of the issue I remember (I read 2 and 3 back-to-back so it's confusing) is that Ralph confronts Supergirl about the symbol, which she denies, or maybe she's covering up. It's not a very rewarding plotline so far. Oh, and Intergang tries to cut an arms deal with Black Adam, but he declines, and also kills a criminal he was allowing to hang around with him, to send the message that there needs to be a team of heroes who do more than patrol the world but actually change it. It's a strange way to go, considering how dark and bloody the DCU is right now; maybe some hope that it is all leading to a return to more wholesome fare, but I doubt it. This series continues to be readable and not the nightmare I expected, but neither is there anything particularly good in it.