The Official '52' Thread

[Anubis]

I wouldn't know, I don't get my comics until tomorrow.

 

[hippy fascist]

what stil confuses me however is the fact that some characters seemed to be on new earth and the copy of their own original earth at the same time. Does this mean that there will be two Jay Garricks for example?

 

[Anubis]

Probably.

 

[hippy fascist]

I wouldn't know, I don't get my comics until tomorrow.

oops, sorry man. Figured since it was thursday we didn't need the tags

 

[sinewave]

what stil confuses me however is the fact that some characters seemed to be on new earth and the copy of their own original earth at the same time. Does this mean that there will be two Jay Garricks for example?

that's what i was wondering.

 

[Anubis]

oops, sorry man. Figured since it was thursday we didn't need the tags

You didn't. This is the official thread. If you come in here not expecting stuff to get spoiled then you're a dumb ass. I don't mind Spoilers. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here having conversations about stuff I haven't even read yet.

 

[WompuM]

What gets me is that on the panel with Earth 2 it shows Alan Scott, but the newspaper says that Powergirl and Superman-2 are missing. So presumably they are missing because they are on New Earth. But shouldn't Alan Scott, Jay Garrick and Jade be missing as well?

More questions than answers.

 

[mybotisgone]

with 52 over it seems that it will lose more money and everything following it will fail. I mean Civil War had no story and the character development was bad and the ending was crap. But 52 has all that and better but seeing sales All I can say is that Civil War bad story, no character development, and bad ending is what fans want. But 52 with dropping sales and had good stories, good character development, and not to bad of an ending is what fans seem to hate anyways.

But I did like the ending to 52.

 

[Anubis]

What gets me is that on the panel with Earth 2 it shows Alan Scott, but the newspaper says that Powergirl and Superman-2 are missing. So presumably they are missing because they are on New Earth. But shouldn't Alan Scott, Jay Garrick and Jade be missing as well?

More questions than answers.

Not really. That just proves that there are copies of the JSA on that world. All except for PG and Supes, (Who will likely be showing up again at some point due to events in JSofA.) and I guess PG is simply the only one that's actually supposed to be on the world she came from. Once again, the outsider.

 

[BrianWilly]

52 Week frikkin' bloody 52, btches
Heroes fight a huge villain and save the day.

Booster and Skeets end up okay. Steel and Natasha end up okay. Renee and Kate end up okay. Dog Magnus ends up okay. All the space heroes end up okay. Black Adam is...not okay, but hanging in there and, hey lookit, Isis may be coming back in some way. And hey lookit, Ralph and Sue are okay...incredibly dead, but okay!

Here, heroes can win. Here, likeable characters can go on grand adventures and face overwhelming odds and come out on top. Past and new friendships are valued and important. A phrase like "saving the universe" can be said with all genuine genuity instead of as a tongue-in-cheek, half-scornful "Heheh yeah, remember how silly we were back then?" throwaway line from government-sponsored *****ebags.

And all of this isn't passed off as juvenile or outdated; it's treated respectfully, meticulously crafted, skillfully constructed storytelling.

And, oh, football saves the universe.

52 was a massive and ambitious undertaking for these writers and while it diverged rather rapidly from its original intent, I think everyone here would agree that it has been an unparalleled success. And when I say "everyone here would agree," mostly I mean smart people. The bar has been raised to an abject degree.

What do I think about the reemergence of the multiverse...or, rather, the megaverse? Well...hnn. It's tough to say. We all know that there is very rarely such a thing as an irredeemable concept, just writers who are unable to make it good. And we all know that there are lots of very cool, very interesting concepts out there that inept writers have turned into trash. Where is this going to fall? Impossible to say.

The fact is that, in practice, there has always been a multiverse in both DC and Marvel. "Bringing back the multiverse" and creating tons of alternate realities to visit is really no different from "No more mutants" reducing the number of mutants from millions to hundreds; it sounds big, but means nothing for the story in practice. A million mutants did not appear in every issue of Marvel comics before House of M. And even after you've made a huge fuss of decimating them, any writer could still create any mutant or superpowered character at their whim without any origins for any reason whatsoever anyway. In the case of the multiverse: In comic books, alternate universes and alternate timelines and alternate futures and alternate pasts and whateverthehell were always there and will always be there. Any writer could have written any alternate reality story they wanted at any point of any plotline, and they often did! Having the multiverse back in DC doesn't change the mechanics of the storyverse in any way; all it does is draw attention to a tool that was already there.

Right now I'm caught up in the romanticism and nostalgia of it all. The acknowledgement of the multiverse really was a big, vibrant part of DCU history and to hear Rip Hunter fondly state, "Welcome home" was...well, at the least, the writers seem to know what they're doing. If they're going to go for it at all, I want them to go all the way; no half-assedness, no apologetics, investing as much time and effort into this concept as it deserves and -- more importantly -- needs. Frankly, the multiverse isn't really that difficult a concept, and it's been even further simplified now; if you can understand frikkin' Wolverine origins, you can bloody well understand the idea of a multiverse.

But let's be real; the multiverse -- even in its most simplistic, straightforward incarnations -- is a hard sell. And so many things can (and probably will) go wrong. And frankly, the DCU has been doing okay "without it" for twentysomething years now ("without it" in quotes because, like I said, it'll always exist in some capacity in comics) so I guess the real question isn't nessarily "will it work?" but "why even bother?" On the other hand...I remember when Infinite Crisis was in full swing and it felt really, really exciting to be a DC fan; big plots were in motion, interesting ideas were popping up all over the place, characters were pushed to the point where they had no choice but to shine, and everything was swept along in the rolling, ongoing saga of the universe. It's a feeling that OYL hasn't really captured -- but that's possibly a good thing 'cause it is something we (and the titles themselves) need a break from every now and then) -- and...well, not to jinx this, but I feel a bit of that feeling in where we're going with this.

To be honest, though, it's entirely possible that my tolerance level for stupid, offensive, inept stories have skyrocketed as of late since, hey, I managed to survive Amazons Attack #1 if only just barely. Remembers kids!...no matter how bad it gets, be thankful that it's not worse.

Good thing I had titles like 52 to keep me going. So here's to that, and a great finale.

(10 out of 10)
(9.3 out of 10 for the entire series)

 

[Fledermaus]

Did anybody else like Teth-Adams' crocodile-skin boots?

 

[Jono87]

Quick question, and I apologize if its been addressed, but has there been any confirmation as to whose grave it actually is on the cover of #52? There is Vic's hat, Ralph's costume and flask, Isis's...whatever that thing is...but there are visible letters on the actual grave marker. Has anyone said whose name those letter's are part of?

 

[BrianWilly]

Huh. Good question. I didn't even notice that.

 

[Kebab gud]

Quick question, and I apologize if its been addressed, but has there been any confirmation as to whose grave it actually is on the cover of #52? There is Vic's hat, Ralph's costume and flask, Isis's...whatever that thing is...but there are visible letters on the actual grave marker. Has anyone said whose name those letter's are part of?

all it says is "in memorium" non of the dead characters has a name or callname that ends with an M

 

[Fledermaus]

It's a memorial for Martian Manhunters likability.

 

[Jono87]

all it says is "in memorium" non of the dead characters has a name or callname that ends with an M

Really? If you dont mind my asking, and not to start a fight or anything, but where did you hear/see/read that?

 

[yenaled]

I guessed it said In Memorium too. Just seemed to be an obvious choice. It fits anyway.

 

[CConn]

with 52 over it seems that it will lose more money and everything following it will fail. I mean Civil War had no story and the character development was bad and the ending was crap. But 52 has all that and better but seeing sales All I can say is that Civil War bad story, no character development, and bad ending is what fans want. But 52 with dropping sales and had good stories, good character development, and not to bad of an ending is what fans seem to hate anyways.

But I did like the ending to 52.

You are like the 8th most ******ed human being alive.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Geez I cannot believe that guy actually posted that in this thread. I swear he thinks because of sales numbers DC is doomed. I've seen him say that crap in every thread he posts in just about. I wouldn't say he is the 8th most ******ed person, CConn, unless you are trying to be nice about it.

 

[Dark Spidey]

I didn't get the ending. If Mister Mind was thrown back to Week One, where Sivana originally found him in the first place. What's to stop him trying his plan again? Only this time doing things differently?

 

[Fledermaus]

Nothing is to stop him. He's in a time loop. He will repeat the past 52 weeks over and over again.

 

[SpideyInATree]

Pretty decent ending to a year long series. It was actually hard to believe that we had finally gotten to the last issue of this maxi-series. It was cool to see Booster Gold save the day. Though Montoya as the new Question just isn't going to cut it. Hopefully they retcon it and bring Vic back to life.

 

[Kurosawa]

I didn't care for that either, but I don't care as much since the real Question is alive and well on Earth-4.

 

[Dark Spidey]

Nothing is to stop him. He's in a time loop. He will repeat the past 52 weeks over and over again.

Yeah but he doesn't have to repeat the past 52 weeks over and over again.

Why can't he change things this time round so that he wins?

Unless his memory of the past year was wiped when he was regressed back to worm-form...

Which actually explains alot.

 

[Kitsune]

Here's a Question, is Earth-1 going to remain the Merged earth with most of the history we remember from 85 on, and then the other universes going to be the Original.... where the characters didn't interact with DC's characters?