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A review by the_graylien
52, Vol. 1 by Geoff Johns
4.0
A year without Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman... "But it was not a world without heroes,” the preface says.
52 was a year long weekly series that explored this premise. Superstar writers Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid teamed with a ridiculous number of severely talented artists to pull this off. This volume contains the first 13 weeks of the event.
With DC's "Trinity" out of the picture we see different heroes take the limelight. They may not be the ones you were expecting, though. Booster Gold tries to use his knowledge of the future to cement his place as the world's new hero with the big three gone. Ralph Dibny (sometimes known as Elongated Man) tries to bring his wife back from the dead, investigating a Kryptonian resurrection cult while wondering if they can truly help. Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange are marooned on an alien planet. We also see Steel, Black Adam, Renee Montoya, and many others.
Now, reading through that cast of characters, you might say, ”Why do I care about this? Why do I wanna read about these characters?"
While not done with mainstay characters (though I must admit, I think some of them are pretty damn cool), these stories are pretty good. It makes me think that the parties involved took these characters and said, "Hey... These aren't the most popular heroes that we could have gone with on this premise, but let's take them and do awesome stories with them..." and that they did.
The art is really impressive, too. Pencilers like Eddy Barrows, Shawn Moll, and Chris Batista (and many others) turn out amazing work, all unified by breakdowns by Keith Giffen. The finished product is a badge of honor for all involved.
This book was a lot of fun for me. It's not only one of those books where I'm thinking, "Awww, this was so Goddamn fun, I've just GOT to like it." either. It's like that amped yp ten times with pretty damn amazing artwork and some really intricate stories that I can't wait to see continue in volume two.
A great read.
52 was a year long weekly series that explored this premise. Superstar writers Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid teamed with a ridiculous number of severely talented artists to pull this off. This volume contains the first 13 weeks of the event.
With DC's "Trinity" out of the picture we see different heroes take the limelight. They may not be the ones you were expecting, though. Booster Gold tries to use his knowledge of the future to cement his place as the world's new hero with the big three gone. Ralph Dibny (sometimes known as Elongated Man) tries to bring his wife back from the dead, investigating a Kryptonian resurrection cult while wondering if they can truly help. Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange are marooned on an alien planet. We also see Steel, Black Adam, Renee Montoya, and many others.
Now, reading through that cast of characters, you might say, ”Why do I care about this? Why do I wanna read about these characters?"
While not done with mainstay characters (though I must admit, I think some of them are pretty damn cool), these stories are pretty good. It makes me think that the parties involved took these characters and said, "Hey... These aren't the most popular heroes that we could have gone with on this premise, but let's take them and do awesome stories with them..." and that they did.
The art is really impressive, too. Pencilers like Eddy Barrows, Shawn Moll, and Chris Batista (and many others) turn out amazing work, all unified by breakdowns by Keith Giffen. The finished product is a badge of honor for all involved.
This book was a lot of fun for me. It's not only one of those books where I'm thinking, "Awww, this was so Goddamn fun, I've just GOT to like it." either. It's like that amped yp ten times with pretty damn amazing artwork and some really intricate stories that I can't wait to see continue in volume two.
A great read.