52 Omnibus

52 Omnibus by Geoff Johns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

52 Omnibus collects all 52 issues of 52, a weekly miniseries DC did in 2006-2007.

Event comics: you hate them, right? 52 spun out of Infinite Crisis, where Superboy died and the multiverse was reborn. The idea behind 52 was a year without Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, but not a year without heroes.

Would DC really go a year without publishing 100 Batman comics? Shit, no! All the mainline books jumped a year so DC got to have its cake and eat it too. Anyway, I was dating a girl who was into comics at the time and she got me to get back into reading them. I sampled a few but 52 was the one I latched on to.

DC picked an interesting cast to elevate into headliners. Elongated Man is mourning his wife after the events of Identity Crisis. Adam Strange, Starfire, and Animal Man are stranded in deep space. The Question has recruited Renee Montoya for a quest unknown. Black Adam finds love and a family. Booster Gold struggles to fill Superman's shoes and still make a quick buck. Someone is kidnapping mad scientists and Will Magnus wonders who it is. Alan Scott has joined Checkmate. Nightwing is protecting Gotham while Batman finds himself and meets the new Batwoman. Lex Luthor is giving people super powers and John Henry Irons doesn't like it one bit. I think that's everybody.

While my enjoyment is slightly tainted on this reread since I know most of the main characters haven't done much since Flashpoint apart from Black Adam. Still, 52 is a wild ride and it's crazy that it all came together like it did. Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, and Keith Giffen crafted the stories and Giffen's layouts kept the ship running on time. There were easily 40 artists working on this but Keith Giffen's layouts more or less gave the series a unified feel, as did J.G. Jones' covers.

The various plot threads intersect and entangle at various points, usually involving Intergang or Nanda Parbat, although the Adam Strange/Starfire/Animal Man plot doesn't hit any of the other threads unless I've already forgotten. So much is packed into this book: Elongated Man having adventures with Dr. Fate's helmet as a guide; Black Adam finding a family and losing it; Booster Gold finally making good but not being able to tell anyone; Renee Montoya finding a new life; Animal Man and company having cosmic adventures with Lobo; Will Magnus doing something interesting for a change.

I don't remember which thread was my favorite last time I read this. This time, it has to be The Question and Renee Montoya, although I love Will Magnus getting caught up in the doings on Oolong Island. An island of mad scientists would make an awesome humor comic if comics were still allowed to be fun. The Booster/Rip Hunter/Supernova storyline was also well done. Thanks to the magic of aging, I forgot at least 75% of this so it was like reading it for the first time during great whacks of the book.

52 stars. Available with a substantial discount instocktrades.com

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