Pick of the Week
What did the
iFanboy
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Pulls
Size: pages
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Story by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, & Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Art by Joe Bennett
Inks by Ruy Jose
Colors by Alex Sinclair
Letters by Nick J. Napolitano
Published by DC Comics | $2.50
I’m back! You all must have done some horrible stuff in a past life to get me two weeks in a row.
In a slooow week of books, 52 wasn’t blow-your-mind great, but it was just good enough to edge out the rest of the pack.
Look, it could have very easily been Jonah Hex #7 adorning this space, but then there would have been actual tumbleweeds blowing through the comments below.
(At this point I’d like to apologize in advance. I’m tired, I just ate what was probably one piece of pie too many, and I’ve been out drinking three of the last six nights. It’s not easy being on Team iFanboy.)
In my Pick of the Week last week I mentioned that one of the reasons that Civil War #1 wasn’t chosen as the Pick was that it was a first issue and that it dealt with a lot of set-up exposition, which doesn’t always make for the most exciting comics in the world. Someone might wonder, “Why then would the very similarly structured 52 Week One be deserving of Pick of the Week?” To that someone I would say “Get lost, I’m somewhat hung over. Oh, and 52 lacked the glaring continuity errors and sense of ‘I knew this was all going to happen’ feeling that plagued the first issue of Civil War.” I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from this book, I went in with a complete blank slate of preconceived notions.
There were lots of little things to love in this book. Booster Gold becoming a prickish whore to corporate sponsors is a nice touch that is totally in-line with his character, but I do hope that at some point the writers explore the emotional ramifications of his best friend getting his blue head blown off. It’s only the first issue, but if this hasn’t come up by, say, issue 40 then I will be pretty disappointed. And since we are on the subject of emotional ramifications, all of the scenes featuring the now completely crippled-by-grief Elongated Man were excellent. As were the scenes dealing with Renee Montoya and those with The Question. The mark of a good comic is that it leaves you wanting more and I really wanted to spend more time with most of these characters. The great thing about this miniseries is that I will only have to wait seven days to get right back in the story.
This would be a good time to mention the writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid. That’s some kind of crazy comic book version of Murderer’s Row and I had a lot of fun trying to match up the writers to what I was reading. I am pretty sure that Rucka wrote the Montoya scenes (duh) and that Morrison handled The Question. If anyone can be trusted the keep the quality high over the course of a year, it’s these guys.
The art in the book by Keith Giffen, Joe Bennett, and Ruy Jose is fairly serviceable. Not great, but not bad either. It doesn’t get in the way of the story (as really bad art can), but it doesn’t really enhance it either. It works for the format, I guess.
All-in-all, 52 Week One was — like Civil War #1 — a good start to the series that has left me really excited about reading the next installment. And that’s what a first issue is supposed to do, right?
I think that DC Comics and the creators involved should be applauded for attempting a project so ambitious. Putting out a weekly comic is a deliciously ludicrous idea. I really hope they can pull it off.
Did you read 52 Week One? Add a comment and tell everyone what you think about this week’s comics!
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I’m very tempted to pick this book up. Having only started buying comics a month (or so) ago and knowing very little about the DC universe, this might be a great way for me to get to know it better. The only thing that’s holding me back is the fact that it’s weekly – following the series for the next 52 weeks seems a bit daunting.
I wasn’t planning on picking 52 up, but there was not much of anything else that came out this week. So I gave it a shot.
I am more of a fan of the animated DC universe than the comic book one, but it is because of the JLU cartoon that I was curious about 52. The JLU episode that stars Booster Gold (The Greatest Story Never Told) is probably my favorite of the series and it has made me want to check out the comic book version of the character. I was amused watching BG use knowledge of the future to make himself into the greatest hero. I am also a Steel fan from when I read the Return of Superman. It was cool to see him and seeing him in armor that looked more like his original was cool too.
What are some classic Booster Gold stories that are out there? I don’t suppose that they are collected in hardcover trade form, but I am still interested in checking out the character.
Try the Justice League: A New Beginning TPB. Then, I can’t Beleive it’s not the Justice League and Formerly Known as the Justice League TPBs. Death of Superman has asome interesting Booster moments. Anything Justice LEague books with Keith Giffen writing them has some Booster Beetle love.
This was one of the slowest weeks I can remember since I started reading comics again. I think I bought three books (Fables, Ex Machina, She-Hulk) and I can’t remember what’s happening in two of them.
I took a long hard look at 52… I like the concept and the ambition a lot, and it would probably be a very interesting starting point for a DCU-phobe like me, but when I picked it up all I could see were one hundred and twenty American dollars flying away on feathery little wings. Fifty-two issues in a year is quite a commitment for a neophyte.
Is Montoya really going to end up as Batwoman? Gotham Central was one of my favorite new-era books, and the thing I loved about it was that it was so… not a book where someone ends up becoming Batwoman. That hurts my heart; it’s like Jessica Jones backwards.
the thing I loved about it was that it was so… not a book where someone ends up becoming Batwoman.
Isn’t that the truth….
Either way, I think I’m going to have to give this another read. I read it late at night, and there was a lot going on in the books with people I wasn’t entirely familiar with. But I really like the concept and the feat being tried. The cost is negligible, being spread out over a year. Most people spend more on coffee.
I found the quality of work very high, and I’m really curious to see if the experiment will even work. But this comes across to me more as a noble challenge rather than a marketing stunt. I mean, it is a marketing stunt, but it’s better than that.
And Conor got it right when he said they make you want more, and I do want more, if only to figure out what’s going on.
Considering DC couldn’t finish INFINITE CRISIS until some books were 2 or 3 issues into OYL, what hope do you have that they can pull this off?
Also, I don’t see what the appeal of this project is unless you’re totally engrossed in the DC superhero universe. Fans have to pay up to get incremental updates to their favorite characters. Who wants to add four monthly titles to their comics budget? I only read Batman and ‘Tec in the DCU and would expect that the Batman relevant portions of 52 will be explained in the Bat books at some future point. This just comes across as another gimmick from the company that made you buy 4 miniseries before the big one and then put out 2-3 Secret Files and special one-shots for each of the minis after their conclusion. Is the story really so big that it requires 100+ issues for it to be told?
Meanwhile, Marvel gets beat-up for Civil War #1 not revealing anything that hadn’t been said at con programs and press releases. Of course, coming off of HOUSE OF M (which storytelling wise hasn’t been completely resolved), Marvel is going to load up with books on the back end of the Civil War launch to try and vie for your dollars. I think the total count for Civil War will number in the 70’s. The bottom line is both companies are putting out too many books with a 22pg count and aren’t telling nowhere near as much story per issue as they used too. By todays standards, DARK PHOENIX might break 60 issues instead of the 8 that are collected in the tpb.
Too many miniseries are pulling good creators off of monthly books for ‘special events’ (or piling on more work). Love or hate HUSH and NEW X-MEN, they at least featured high profile creators telling longer and more involved storylines within the confines of a monthly title without the need for ancillary books to get the whole story.
Considering DC couldn’t finish INFINITE CRISIS until some books were 2 or 3 issues into OYL, what hope do you have that they can pull this off?
Hope springs eternal.
This just comes across as another gimmick from the company that made you buy 4 miniseries before the big one and then put out 2-3 Secret Files and special one-shots for each of the minis after their conclusion. Is the story really so big that it requires 100+ issues for it to be told?
No one makes anyone buy them. I only bought the OMAC mini-series and I had no trouble following the main story.
Look, this is the standard business model now for the Big Two and their big events. How else can you increase revenue with a shrinking readership and you make no real effort to get new readers?
52.Superman OYL,and the final issue of X-men:Deadly Genesis made this a good week for me.
How else can you increase revenue with a shrinking readership and you make no real effort to get new readers?
I generally agree, though where the elusive New Reader is concerned I thought that bit at the end of Civil War– where Joe Quesada literally stops the comic to introduce himself to first-timers and NPR listeners– was a great and all-too-rare opportunity taken advantage of. Six years after the first X-Men movie, somebody actually said, “Hey… what if all this mainstream press makes people curious about comics?”
I’ve read a couple OYL titles as well as being on the Road to Civil War in a couple of my regular Marvel reads, and I don’t feel like I have to buy 20 new titles to get the whole story. Far from feeling ripped off, I have to give major props to both companies and their approaches. If this were 1990, all of Civil War would hinge on something that happened in, like, the Cable & Deadpool Annual. I mean… Power Pack was a Mutant Massacre tie-in. We’ve come a long way, baby.
It was indeed a slow week, as 52 was the only book I picked up, and it was solid and intriguing. Montoya and the Question are what got me interested to begin with, so as long as their stories are good, I’m onboard.
While I understand the complaints about crossovers/tie-ins, it does become tiresome hearing about it all the time–and I don’t mean to single out the poster above, similar comments are made on many review sites etc.–because as mentioned above, if you don’t like it don’t buy them all. I usually just cherry pick the tie-ins that look interesting and ignore the rest, which is really the same way I choose what to read and pay for anyway. I literally didn’t read one extra House of M tie-in outside the main title, since they seemed to be all variations on “What if” storoes with no continuity impact, but it didn’t alter my enjoyment of the main series or understanding what it meant to the Marvel U.
As for books not telling enough story, I certainly had the opposite reaction to 52, in fact the thing I liked best was that it was sufficiently dense, I felt like I got a real read out of it. And with the DC Universe back-up stories starting next issue (I believe), I’m feeling confident I’ll get my two-fitty’s worth every week. Similarly, Civil War: Frontline is going to be 32pp w/no ads, which should be good bang for the buck, so as tie-ins go that’s one I’ll be choosing to check out.
What an awful comic book week. In order to pay with a card at my comic shop you have to spend more than ten dollars, but I couldn’t find anything besides a copy of Civil War #1 that I wanted for a non-comic book reading friend of mine and the new issue of Ex-Mahkeena.
The clerk offered to let me have them and put them on my tab for next week.
ANIME HURRICANE IN MIAMI FLORIDA, EVERYBODY
ALL COMICS COME BAGGED AND BOARDED.
PS- I can’t believe that with 70+ Civil War books coming out there isn’t at least one every week. That was disappointing.
PSS- I almost bought 52 based on your recommendation, Connor. The thing is, I’ve never read Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, or even Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Would I be utterly LOST?
PSSS- Speaking of LOST, JJ Abrams is making the next Star Trek movie. HELLLLLLL YEAH.
PSSSS- Also speaking of LOST, I heard that the Damon Lindelof Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine is being held up for like 3 months. Dammit.
The 10 dollar dilemma. I sometimes wonder what they think of me when I wander the racks looking for something in the $5-$10 range to round out the purchase.
Damn.
Jonah Hex has been fun since he has been back. One and dones. Nuns. Guns. Bad deals. I would have been incredibly surprised to see it top out the pick of the week.
As far as 52 goes. I have so been digging the whole Gotham OYL. And now to see Montoya drinking like a dude. Great. Pain and greif, being seperated, job being all shaky (she is off the squad right??, I totally didn’t get into any of Gotham cop books.
Elongated man, gun in mouth. Man the pain in the two previously mentioned characters is plenty enough for me to continue reading. Plus, one a week.. like said before. I am just happy to be around picking em up to see if it can be done. And more, be done well.
Oh, and thanks alot. I had to read DareDevil. Punisher last page.. Picked up the two previous back issues as well. And I was pleasantly surprised. And the art.. love it. What a great look, especially since it is set in a prison. It is blurry, dirty, oppressive, cold, hard. Great visual images to really bring out the sensory stimuli you would have in prison, I imagine.
There was a great silly killing moment in Jonah Hex this week. Throwing star…
If you missed Gotham Central, you’ve cheated yourself out of great comics, especially if you like Daredevil now. Same artist and half the writing team.
This was totally a slow week, I bought one book, ONE! I haven’t done that in about five years. That one book…X-men Deadly Gen: #6. It was good, I’d pick up 52, but I don’t know much about DC beyound Batman and Superman, and what the Timm/Dini cartoons have shown me. And I’m not sure if this is a great jump on point, maybe it is, but I have my doubts.
The only thing that saved this week for me were the X-books (198 #5, Deadly Genesis #6, and New X-men #26). New X-men 26 was especially good. The cover was an homage to the “Days of Future Past” cover of Uncanny #141. Crazy-assed William Stryker is back the mutants (again) and he got ahold of Nimrod, a sweet super-sentinel from the future, and guess what he wants to do. This issue reminds us of why B and C list characters are awesome … because you can kill them off by the hundreds. Seriously, in the last 4 issues they’ve killed like 40 something x-kids.
As for 52, A year without Bats and WW is a year without my interest.
DC is offering a subscription for this title. And the price is like half of what it would be any place els.
“Power Pack was a Mutant Massacre tie-in.”
This reminds me of a Secret Wars (i cant remember if I or II )crossover from Fantastic Four. Reed Richards is talking w/ Sue, and says something like “I’ve been thinking about the Beyonder”, or some innocuous comment like that…
Man, do I miss the 90s…
🙂
The Beyonder was a snappy dresser.
Jim: How can you not be interested in seeing how the DCU functions without it’s three backbones? That’s gotta ignite some flame of interest within you…I mean, sure, we won’t see them for a year, but we get to look into the lives of people like Beast Boy and Green Arrow and Bart Allen (Formerly Kid Flash).
Hey! Don’t diss Cable and Deadpool…that’s a good book every time it comes out! 😀
As for the Secret Wars/FF crossover, that sounds like exactly what DC does all the time. Back in the original Crisis, there would be a red sky in the background, and nothing else relating to the story, and thus they would label it a tie-in or crossover or some other related title. A simple comment or fly by in a book mandates a ‘tie-in!’ or ‘Crossover!’ label across the front cover.
SpiderMav: I’m not going to read 52 for the same reason I stopped reading Infinite Crisis. I read exactly 3 DC books: Batman, GL, and WW. DC claimed that Crisis would be accessable to anyone, but I had no clue who half the people in the book were. I regularly read about 30 marvel monthly titles (not including minis) and have no time for the DCU.
Shockingly, I was let down by Fables of all comics. I had to recheck the issue to see if it was new, because the first few pages seemed right out of the last issue. And it was…..dull. Except for the very end where certain other types get a sense of a Lupine change in the air.
52 was pretty, but I thought a little overwrought at times. And I wanted to bitchslap Booster Gold more than a few times.
I read American Virgin for the first time and I must be missing something. Because it was so nothing special. Is it because we don’t usually see these stories in comics? It’s the exact same story that was on ER this week.
Yeah, I am going to pick up Gotham Central in trades. I have heard so many great things about it. And it really intrigues me. My father, who passed away earlier this year, was a cop drama junkie, and I don’t think I have ever watched one of those shows until a week after he died. Sort of in memory, a poor showing of course.. but it was sort of like that. And thought, damn. This is what Gotham Central sounds like. Besides if Montoya was running around in it, and I liked her appearance in 52, I am all for it.
I have picked up the first half of the Mowgli storyline in fables, waiting for part two to read together and then make my decision. I am leary, I flipped through it and wondered what the big deal was.
In 52, I haven’t seen Booster Gold since I bought his number one in 1980. And back then I thought he was cheese.
American Virgin. I like. Sorry, it has its incredible cheese factor. And honestly any thing about a christian god just throws me to fits, but hey. I was in love once, and that just didn’t work out. And I still love, and she too.. tragic sorta Shakepearean bunk. But, I dig the fight for his gal sort of thing. And I don’t watch TV, so I don’t know how it translates. Besides I really enjoy Becky Cloonan’s art. Rather indie looking, but in color!!
Thats enough for now. It is Saturday night, so why the hell am I posting anyway.
Damn the proofreader. Booster Gold was in the 80s. That is what I meant to say.
Have you seen the cover for 52 week 2? For a second there i thought it was a NASCAR add.
Seriously tho Booster Gold looks like he just won the Daytona 500 in that picture
Well i have alread subscribed to this book about 2 months ago back when you could subcribe to the whole 52 issues at once. I checked the DC website and the changed it so you can only order 12 issues at a time now
Did someone on your podcast not read Ifinite Crisis? WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
In Xmen Deadly Genesis Xavier was given the ability to walk again by Scarlet Witch and it was revealed in the book.
Didn’t read Infinite Crisis. Didn’t care for some reason. Since then, I haven’t really been convinced otherwise.
I forgive you Josh.
Nice job with the library promotion on the podcast. I get a lot of my comics there and it has pushed me to buy some new titles and catch up on back story.
Strange, but my library has basically every trade that CrossGen put out. That is a bit frustrating, but I read em anyways.
I bet CrossGen hired someone at great expense to put books in libraries specifically.
By the way, it’s ok to laugh on the podcasts. Really. I LOVE YOU
…ok….
(creepy)
😉