chezkevin: 52 vol. 1: a year without Superman

52 volume 1

by millions of people

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: In the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, the Trinity -- Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman -- is no more, but other heroes step in to protect the world. Booster Gold seizes the opportunity to market himself; John Henry Irons (AKA Steel) has to control his rebellious niece Natasha, and the Question enlists Renee Montoya to investigate a mystery, as Ralph Dibny looks into the "Cult of Connor."

Meanwhile, outside America, Black Adam is building up the national power of Kahndaq, and Animal Man/Adam Strange/ Starfire are stuck on a strange planet.

WHY I LIKED IT: You can probably tell, there's a heck of a lot of juggling plots here. The writing team of Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen deal well with it, though, and nothing is confusing at all!

The different plots can all go at their own pace, step-by-step, and nothing is compromised in the process. I tried putting this down when I was halfway, but I really couldn't. It was that enjoyable!

ALSO: Black Adam is really awesome in this trade. He doesn't take crap from anybody.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT IT: Ehhh, Booster Gold becomes a douchebag around the end of the trade. At least in the beginning, he was an amusing douchebag. Steel takes an overly hostile reaction to Lex about his metamorphosis as well.

The top two story threads in my opinion would be Black Adam's and Renee Montoya's. I can't really identify any "bottom" two, because none of them make me particularly angry.

EXTRAS?: At the end of each issue (this trade is the first 13 issues), there's a commentary by one of the writers, and sometimes even sketches. If there's a script, they even tell us which page to go to for comparison! In all the trades I've read, no other trade has ever responded this intuitively to the reader.

FINAL THOUGHTS: In the end, this trade is 13 issues for 20 bucks. That's a really good value, but I dunno if I can say, really, because I got this from the library.

Anyways, a really good book, and I'm beginning to understand why people like it so much.