As of this post, I’ll be a quarter of the way (!) through the Blogathon — 6 hours from my 7 a.m. start. And, coincidentally, just over a quarter of the way through that stack of TPBs. Hmmmm …
52, Vol. 1 (DC) [collects #1-13]
52, Vol. 2 (DC) [collects #14-26]
52, Vol. 3 (DC) [collects #27-39]
52, Vol. 4 (DC) [collects #40-52]
w. Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Keith Giffen; a. Keith Giffen, et al.
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Speaking of events, was 52 a brilliant experiment in the form, or a huge gimmick? How about, “Yes.”
Taking up the year during which Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were all out of the picture (following the previous Big Event, Infinite Crisis), DC published 52 — a weekly comic book following a number of parallel stories, written by a team of some of the top writers in the business, in an attempt to build some new heroes to take up the slack.
It almost has to be read as a collection, it was so complex — but reading it all at once shows that the complexity was from flying by the seat of the pants. Only these writers could probably have done this — and it will likely never be matched again. And even at that, the segments and story line themselves suffered from uneven quality and follow-through. By the end, it was something of a mess
In the end, there were some changes to the DCU, but events continue so much in flux in DC continuity (Marvel as well), that it’s hard to say what if any of it will be truly lasting. A new Spectre, Bat-Woman, the rise and fall of Black Atom, the fate of Plastic Man, a new Question, a time-traveling Booster Gold …
Remind me to reread this in five years and see if any of it makes sense any more.
Flash: Mercury Falling (DC) [collects Impluse #62-67]
w. Todd DeZago; a. Ethan Van Sciver, Eric Battle
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New reader? | |
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Non-comics reader? | |
With Impulse graduating up to (briefly) being the Flash, DC decided to reprint some Impulse tales from 2000 under the Flash name. This particular arc has the flighty Bart in his early days, dealing with Max Mercury, his mentor, slowly losing his power and his life. Will Bart step up to the task of saving Max?
A decent story, if a bit muddled at time. Van Sciver’s cartoonish drawing (Humberto Ramos only exaggerated) does the tale no favors here. There are some interesting growth moments here, but overall not one of the character’s better arcs, and not really worth the original purchase.
Listening to: John Barry Orchestra, “007” (Best of James Bond – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition))
I was starting to wonder if you had anything from the DCU!
52 was certainly more interesting to me than Trinity, which I am still less than halfway through (although the backup stories are usually pretty good).
I don’t remember Van Sciver, but Ramos… Ugh. I cringe whenever I find that he’s penciled a book I’m reading. I’ve read letters raving about his style, but everybody looks so distorted to me that it really has a negative impact on the story.
I enjoyed Ramos’ style, sometimes. On Impulse, and some others, it worked okay. Other place, not so much.
Van Sciver is evidently a hot new penciler at DC — he’s doing Blackest Night, etc. He’s changed his style quite a bit, though it still gets a bit overmuddled.