52 vol. 3
by trillions of people
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: This penultimate collection is the part that obey's Murphy's Law: everything that can go wrong -- goes wrong. This is where we see evil at its evil-est, and tragedy at its. . . tragedy-est. To name a few: the Question is diagnosed with lung cancer, society at large refuses to believe in Black Adam's change of heart, and Luthor's Everyman Program, designed to grant superpowers to anyone willing to enlist, suddenly crashes all its participants' systems on New Year's eve.
It's really sad, and really diabolical.
It's really sad, and really diabolical.
WHAT I LIKED: There is a delicious plot twist in Booster Gold's story, which is just as mind-blowing as the plot twist in last volume. It is always a fun ride to follow all the different stories in 52.
Also, if you'll remember, 52 was a weekly comic that published every week for a year (a total of 52 weeks). This means they eventually reached the holiday season, and it's represented in this trade by Dr. Sivana and friends!
Happy Thanksgiving! Bwahahaaa!
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: There are some occasional, brief appearances by some characters that I think could've been done better. For example, the JSA appear in one issue, and they never come again. Same thing with Bruce Wayne and the Ten-Eyed Man, and this Adam Blake guy, who's only set up to show us how Xtreme the villain is.
There's also all the tragedy at its tragedy-est, which is a bummer, but makes sense, because you want to bring your heroes to their lowest before they can rise up.
Lastly, I have a complaint about the art. It is so annoying to see one artist come in for one issue and then never return. Shawn moll's art, ruins my day every time I look at the first issue of this trade.
EXTRAS?: As always, there are extras after each of the 13 chapters, and there's usually a wonderful insight into the creative process for the stories.
Basically, 52 rawks at extras, and it's the best and most reader-friendly of any trade I've ever read.
FINAL THOUGHTS?: This trade isn't as good as its predecessors, but still engrossing to read! The point of 52 was to show that DC had more than just Superman and Batman, and I really see it. In fact, they've rekindled my desire to get Grant Morrison's Animal Man. Well done DC, well done.
Read all my reviews of DC's 52:
Volume 1: issues 1-13
Volume 2: issues 14-26
Volume 3: issues 27-39
Volume 4: issues 40-52
