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A review by crookedtreehouse
52, Vol. 4 by Pat Olliffe, Eddy Barrows, Mike McKone, Justiniano, Keith Giffen, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Jamal Igle, Joe Bennett, Dan Jurgens, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Geoff Johns, Darick Robertson, Greg Rucka, Chris Batista
3.0
The task of putting together such a massive, complex series as a weekly comic must have been a daunting nightmare. That five of the top tier DC writers/artists: [a:Geoff Johns|10305|Geoff Johns|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1403679910p2/10305.jpg], [a:Mark Waid|5363|Mark Waid|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1281876586p2/5363.jpg], [a:Grant Morrison|12732|Grant Morrison|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1650391302p2/12732.jpg], [a:Greg Rucka|18327|Greg Rucka|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192549912p2/18327.jpg], and [a:Keith Giffen|32598|Keith Giffen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1249308668p2/32598.jpg] came so close is impressive. But it started to fall apart in volume three, and it never quite recovered.
The pacing of this volume didn't work for me. Interesting storylines were ended too quickly while what seemed like filler stories: mainly the Animal Man in space, and the JSA's involvement, were stretched out as though they had been the focus of the series. It was pretty boring.
I spent the last six issues of the series just waiting for it to be over, and I wasn't shocked to discover the end was simultaneously melodramatic and underwhelming.
I do enjoy that 52 is a series that comes directly after the seismically rebooting Infinite Crisis, and right around the 3/4 mark of the Very First Year after that reboot, they're already plugging Final Crisis, the next seismically rebooting event. It must have been so tough to be a talented writer working with 21st century DC editorial, as they all appear to be hacky, short-sighted garbage.
While it had a paromising start, and it's nowhere near as bad as [b:Countdown to Final Crisis, Vol. 1|2217622|Countdown to Final Crisis, Vol. 1|Paul Dini|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348759615l/2217622._SY75_.jpg|2223412], no one who isn't a DC continuity buff should go anywhere near this series. Again, it's not awful, but there are just so many great stories out there, why bother reading such a long story that, isn't aprticularly interesting, and ultimately doesn't even matter to continuity.
The pacing of this volume didn't work for me. Interesting storylines were ended too quickly while what seemed like filler stories: mainly the Animal Man in space, and the JSA's involvement, were stretched out as though they had been the focus of the series. It was pretty boring.
I spent the last six issues of the series just waiting for it to be over, and I wasn't shocked to discover the end was simultaneously melodramatic and underwhelming.
I do enjoy that 52 is a series that comes directly after the seismically rebooting Infinite Crisis, and right around the 3/4 mark of the Very First Year after that reboot, they're already plugging Final Crisis, the next seismically rebooting event. It must have been so tough to be a talented writer working with 21st century DC editorial, as they all appear to be hacky, short-sighted garbage.
While it had a paromising start, and it's nowhere near as bad as [b:Countdown to Final Crisis, Vol. 1|2217622|Countdown to Final Crisis, Vol. 1|Paul Dini|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348759615l/2217622._SY75_.jpg|2223412], no one who isn't a DC continuity buff should go anywhere near this series. Again, it's not awful, but there are just so many great stories out there, why bother reading such a long story that, isn't aprticularly interesting, and ultimately doesn't even matter to continuity.