fujishig

Didn't see a discussion on the front page just about 52 (fifty two),and figured I'd start one now that it's over (and Countdown is beginning). By the way, the reason I spelled it out is to make it easier to search... I don't think you can search for '52' in this forum.

Still haven't gotten the last issue (and won't until next month's shipment, unfortunately) but my response towards the first 51 issues is... meh. And that's not good, considering that's a $130 purchase at cover price, and they want me to shell out even more for Countdown.

There were a few major plotlines:

Booster Gold/Skeets(?)/Rip Hunter timeline

Elongated Man's search to resurrect his wife/Dr. Fate

Montoya/Question/Batwoman vs. Intergang

Mystery in Space: Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange try to make it back to their home planets

Infinity Inc./Luthor/John Henry Irons: the whole created metahumans plot, which wrapped up pretty early

Uber Scientists working on weapons of destruction on a remote island/rebirth of the Metal Men

Black Adam's family

My main problem with this was perhaps one of expectation. I expected a compelling read about what exactly happened in the "missing" 52 weeks, seen through the eyes of secondary characters. What I got were a bunch of side stories that seemingly had very little impact or repercussions, and something that I could have definitely waited for the trades on. I mean, I appreciate all the characterization that went into this, but let's be honest, if they split these out into separate miniseries, I would've bought maybe one or two. The most interesting and far reaching of all of these, to me, was the Black Adam family storyline, which itself branched off into another miniseries (that I refused to collect) anyway.

I do really wish they touched on some of the mysteries I really wanted answers to. Why was Hawkgirl so huge when she came back from space, and how did she shrink back? Why was supes just hanging around for so long, without coming back even for WWIII? What the heck happened to the Martian Manhunter (who also didn't come back for WWIII)? I guess these were all answered in their respective books, but I thought that's what this would be about.

I think DC can consider this a success sales-wise, but I'm not jumping into Countdown (well, I did preorder the first four issues, but when it was time to preorder the next set, I balked). I also think that with so much buildup over the course of a year, I felt a little let down at some of the resolutions to the storylines, but I guess that's to be expected.

stingermck

You really need to read that last issue

To me It was an overall good series. It slumped a little bit in the middle. You can also tell that the story evolved away from its original intention, (as the annuals are having to fill in OYL gaps) but stories do that.

It made me care about characters I wouldn't have before, like The Question, and Black Adam.

I applaud DC even attempting it, in the face of Marvel just waiting for them to blow it.

And now DC has 52 new possibilities to play with...

mraor

I think the colloboration between writers was helped make this series such a strong offering. The fans were treated to a hybrid form of storytelling that is rarely glimpsed in traditional, mainstream comic publishing.

I found the artwork, as a whole, a bit uneven throughout the series. However, the fact that DC maintained their weekly shipping scheduled for such an arduous publishing agenda, is amazing. I feel that DC reclaimed some of their shipping issue-related credibility by making sure this series got out on time.

I loved the Animal Man storyline and the Infinity Inc was probably my least favorite of the batch. I could also really care less about the build up that was leading to the creation of the Metal Men. That whole aspect of the storyline was kinda flat for me.

Luthor creating the superheroes from scratch and seeing himself benefit in a shocking turn of events seemed a bit too easy. The fact that he was one of the rare individuals who couldn't benefit from the "overhaul" seemed forced.

I wish there had been some discussion or insight into the speed force and what's going on with Wally and his new offspring. I guess they're keeping that in their back pocket.

The coolest, "oh my gosh" moment was when the young and naive member of the Marvel family gets chewed in half by his friendly pet aligator. That panel was brutal and made me comment out loud!

52 - Way better than Civil War (which didn't completley suck, but earned a C+ compared to 52's A-).

mrglass

It's my understanding that Superman was still de-powered during the events of WWIII. He got his powers back during the "one year later" storyline. Martian Manhunter was a pretty central character in the WWIII mini series.

As for 52, I liked the Black Adam and Booster Gold storylines, but everything else was meh. But, I geeked out for the return of:

Giantrobo

Yep. Although I do believe WWIII should be renamed..."How Martian got his Groove Back".

fujishig

Oh, so Martian Manhunter was in WWIII? Wouldn't have known it from reading 52...

If the last issue redeems the series (and I know what the "secret" is already) I guess I'll wait until that issue...

Giantrobo

That's just it. Wasn't WWIII meant to tie up loose ends that were left out of 52? Anyway, MM is pretty much the backbone of WWIII and info...info that should've been in 52... is given here and there that address certain topics. i.e. Why there was a Good Supergirl and a Bad Supergirl, who cured Hawkgirl's Giant state(but not how ), and why Spider-man III sucked.

MovieExchange

That's one way of putting it... my way of putting it was "oh shit, we screwed around way too much with meaningless garbage, and now we don't have enough issues left to finish the story!!!!"

Anyhow, I can definitely say that if I read Countdown, it'll be someone else's copy or at the comic shop. 52 was nice at spots, but not worth the massive outlay of money for what fujishig aptly described as a bunch of side stories.

Giantrobo

Yep. They wasted lotsa space in 52.

Patman

I liked the idea of the weekly comic, but it was hit-or-miss for me on most of the run this year.

But, I'll probably give Countdown a couple of months to see if I enjoy that weekly comic experiment 2.0 as wel.