Reading Comics 211 "Understanding 52 - Part 3"

52, the 2006-2007 series written by Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Geoff Johns, and Mark Waid, with art breakdowns by Keith Giffen and covers by J.G. Jones, has been a personal favorite comic since it was being published every week.  Here I continue my look back, covering material from the second original collection, #14-26...

• #14 - Renee Montoya and Charlie, the Question, fly to Kahndaq.  They arrive amidst great jubilation.  Steel has been working on a new suit of armor for his wayward niece, Natasha Irons, but fears he may have driven her away permanently.  Will Magnus tries to reanimate Mercury of the Metal Men at the behest of government agents.  His use of medication to suppress the effects of bipolar disorder  doesn't impress them anymore than his refusal to work with them.  He goes to visit T.O. Morrow, only to discover that he's become the latest missing mad scientist.  Montoya and Charlie are mistaken for Intergang thugs.  We discover Mercury still works.  The art is by Dale Eaglesham (who would later collaborate with Johns in the pages of Justice Society of America).  Rucka provides the commentary.  He appears convinced that there's a major continuity mix-up this issue, as the Kahndaq sequence seems to exist within the timeframe of two issues later (in 52, two whole weeks later, as the series plays out in real time), although the happy citizens could just as easily be celebrating the happiness of Black Adam and Isis.
• #15 - Booster Gold continues reacting poorly to the existence of Supernova, demanding Skeets find him something spectacular to help rebuild his image.  In Kahnaq, Renee Montoya is finding prison life particularly troublesome, but shows greatest concern for her friend Charlie, the Question, who for the first time in the series is worn down, thanks to the beatings they've been getting.  The guards aren't crazy for his blank face.  Clark Kent (easily the Big Three with the biggest presence in 52) realizes Supernova will soon be making another heroic rescue and races to the scene ("Ah, store room, my old friend...I miss you already...").  Booster is already there and struggling to contend with the problem.  Supernova arrives and further angers Booster.  He ends up making an apparent mortal sacrifice to prove he was just as good as Supernova...The art is from Shawn Moll.  Waid provides commentary.  He talks about Johns writing exchanges between Booster and Supernova that in hindsight are just one of the many disturbing indications of the psyches creating all this, and that Clark's appearance confirming the impact of Booster's death adds the right amount of weight to the moment, meaning that this right here is why he's in so many early issues of 52.  There's also more Giffen breakdown art included than at any other point in the four-volume collection, proving how tough it was to visualize Booster's death.
• #16 - Black Adam and Isis are wildly in love.  He proposes to her to seal the deal.  Renee Montoya and Charlie, the Question, realize Intergang is probably going to hit the wedding.  Mary Marvel (who becomes a prominent element of DC's second weekly series, Countdown) and Isis talk about the pending nuptials.  Black Adam similarly converses with Captain Marvel.  Black Adam frets about the blood staining his cape.  Montoya realizes the bomber is going to aim for the crowd.  Captain Marvel Junior (who will soon star in The Trials of Shazam! as he graduates to Captain Marvel) addresses Talky Tawny, his talking tiger companion, a nod to the later addition of Sobek the talking crocodile as Osiris's companion.  The wedding happens.  Montoya finds the suicide bomber, who's just a kid.  She's forced to kill the kid and immediately regrets it.  Animal Man, Adam Strange, and Starfire finally leave the cursed "paradise planet" they'd been stranded on.  The art is by Joe Bennett, who more than anyone can at this point claim to be the artist of the series.  Commentary is from Rucka, who explains his theory of why there's a big continuity problem two issues ago. 
• #17 - Infinity Inc. makes its public debut.  Lex Luthor watches the TV footage along with Natasha Irons and the rest of the team.  He keeps giving her special attention.  One of the team members is experiencing "buyer's remorse."  Starfire, Adam Strange, and Animal Man come across Devilance the Pursuer again.  Lobo comes to their rescue.  He reveals he's found religion.  The torso of Red Tornado is discovered by Australian aboriginals.  He's uttering "52."  The art is by Chris Batista.  The commentary is by Giffen.  He talks about how reluctant he was to use Lobo, and how he tricked Morrison into figuring out how to make him work in a way he'd never been used before.  This is one of the issues featuring virtually none of the characters 52 was ultimately known for, but ones I consider essential to the experience.  (Ah, heck.  I consider every element essential to it.)
• #18 -Detective Chimp travels to the House of Mystery, where he encounters the abandoned Helmet of Fate.  Black Adam and Isis are eager to show their gratitude to Renee Montoya and Charlie, the Question, who two issues ago saved their wedding.  Black Adam is less than pleased at Montoya's deteriorated mental state, and where it's left her.  Isis argues for them to put their differences aside.  The matter of Intergang is discussed.  Detective Chimp consults with Ralph Dibney (first time we see him this collection) concerning the Helmet of Fate.  Clark Kent attends the funeral of Booster Gold (an irony, considering the circumstances of the first issue, where Booster is grandstanding at Superboy's memorial service, and Clark puts him in his place).  Skeets recruits Booster's ancestor, Daniel Carter.  Detective Chimp and the rest of the Shadowpact observe Dibney as he holds a conversation with the Helmet of Fate they can't hear, in which he sets out on a new journey...Eddy Barrows provides the art.  Waid provides the commentary.  He mentions that Shadowpact should not have been able to appear in the issue, given that Bill Willingham had made the team in its namesake series lose a year of its life during the 52 timeframe (every series had a "One Year Later" gimmick in which they skipped over the 52 timeframe).  I read Shadowpact religiously at the time, so realistically this should've bothered me, too.  But...there are different ways to interpret "losing a year," maybe.  They might simply have been forced to forget everything they experienced that year.  Also, apparently there's a lost Waid story featuring Abraham Lincoln.  Kinda need to read that...
• #19 - Skeets finds Daniel Carter to be not so different from his future descendent, Booster Gold.  Animal Man, Adam Strange, and Starfire are mystified to witness Lobo (and his dolphin companion; somewhere Seaguy is looking on, jealous) hailed as an actual hero by his fellow believers.  We glimpse the Sheeda Lady Styx and the Emerald Eye of Ekron for the first time.  Supernova defeats Weather Wizard, finds himself confronted by Wonder Girl (like Ralph Dibney, first time we see her this volume), who's convinced he's really Superboy.  Skeets and Daniel visit Rip Hunter's bunker.  We realize for the first time that Skeets has been corrupted.  The artist is Pat Oliffe.  The commentary is from Waid, who credits Morrison with the Skeets breakthrough.  "Grant's big contribution to 52 wasn't that he was the 'idea' guy.  It was that he's fearless."
• #20 - Supernova visits the Batcave.  Steel prevents a building from collapsing during a fire.  He then learns that the Everyman project is giving powers that can just as easily be taken away.  Lobo reveals to Animal Man, Adam Strange, and Starfire that the Emerald Eye of Ekron comes from Ekron himself, who...wants it back.  The art is from Chris Batista.  Johns provides one of his rare commentaries. 
• #21 - Natasha Irons meets with Lex Luthor in order to argue for the return of an exiled member of Infinity Inc.  Ralph Dibney and the Helmet of Fate strike a bargain to enter Hell.  Luthor sets up a fight for Infinity Inc. against Blockbuster.  The Teen Titans, as they've cobbled themselves together at the moment (a similarly improvised Justice League shows up later in the series), confront the team to question its legitimacy (which is also not the last time this happens).  The wayward Trajectory, who was the member having problems, has her powers shut off and dies as a result.  Steel attempts to confront his niece Natasha again at her funeral.  The head of Red Tornado continues to make the rounds (heh) in Australia.  The art is from Joe Bennett.  Johns again provides commentary.  He talks about the Teen Titans, whose book was one of his early signature long runs.  He also mentions how Bennett nearly drew a male character with fishnets (totally understandable, really!).  Lastly, he notes how Rucka wrote the speedster Trajectory's scene where she's gushing over her hero the Flash.  Johns, and Waid, also had a lengthy run with that character.
• #22 - Lex Luthor is convinced that Supernova is in fact Superman.  (Ironically or not, a later weekly series, Futures End, has a mystery masked Superman, who turns out to be Captain Marvel.)  Super-Chief briefly joins the list of signature 52 creations.  Luthor, ironically, is told he can't gain powers from the Everyman project.  Super-Chief's origin is explained.  Steel is in the shadows as Luthor tries to sidestep the emerging controversy of temporary powers from the Everyman project.  Will Magnus becomes the latest mad scientist to be kidnapped.  The art is by Eddy Barrows.  Dan DiDio provides commentary, referencing the 2007-2008 Metal Men mini-series as something he was looking forward to, as he's a huge fan of the team.  He credits Morrison with the concept for the mini-series, although artist Duncan Rouleau writes it as well.  Even though Super-Chief exits so quickly from 52, I'm still glad he appears and has a whole issue as a spotlight.
• #23 - Will Magnus arrives at Oolong Island, where all the mad scientists have been taken.  T.O. Morrow greets him.  Renee Montoya and Charlie, the Question, spy on a Religion of Crime ceremony where they find Amon, the future Osiris.  Black Adam and Isis (Amon's sister) arrive.  Black Adam transforms Amon into Osiris, and the Black Marvel family is now complete.  Drew Johnson provides the art.  Waid briefly chimes in on commentary, but Rucka quickly takes over.  He discusses the hindsight poignancy of Charlie telling Montoya, "There are some things you just have to accept, Renee."  He also admits Morrison wrote the Oolong Island sequence.  In anyone else's hands (Salvation Run), Oolong Island would've been a trainwreck.  But instead, Morrison.  It also strikes me, in hindsight, that Osiris debuts more or less at the midpoint of 52, but his arc quickly becomes a defining one (whether or not Giffen likes the kid), and sort of the whole point of Isis, who seems like so much a bigger deal. 
• #24 - Elliot S! Maggin, a classic DC writer, is referenced as Green Arrow decides to seek political office ("What can one man do?").  Super-Chief is revealed to have been headed to the formation of a new Justice League, along with Bulleteer (Seven Soldiers of Victory, the other Morrison megaproject from this time), Ambush Bug, Firehawk, and Firestorm (the latter two have much greater chemistry in the pages of Firestorm around the same time).  Ambush Bug, famous for breaking the fourth wall, randomly references "52" while...breaking the fourth wall ("Hello, room service?  Send up a plot and three pages of dialogue right away!  The weekly grind is tearin' me apart!  Fifty-two!!").  Martian Manhunter, at the time famous for having been in just about every incarnation of the League, is not a member.  Instead, he's attempting to honor the memory of Booster Gold by eradicating Checkmate, the organization once headed by Maxwell Lord and therefore responsible for the death of their Justice League friend and ally, Blue Beetle.  (Victory proves short-lived.  But I still can't understand why no one has been able to pull off a Martian Manhunter series centered on his deliberate use of various aliases.  Mr. Biscuits surely comes close.)  Black Adam, Isis, and Osiris confront the Great Ten, who feel Black Adam is reneging on their previous compact.  The League's first mission is a bust thanks to the meddling of the many Everyman heroes who show up with no clue what to do.  Also, Skeets shows up and betrays them.  Super-Chief does not survive.  Turns out he was really just a cautionary tale the Helmet of Fate helps Ralph Dibney experience ("Magic never comes without a price.").  Martian Manhunter's hard work is immediately undone thanks to these events.  Amanda Waller puts together a Suicide Squad team, starting with Atom Smasher, about to confront his old Justice Society ally, Black Adam.  The great Phil Jimenez provides art for the issue.  Waid provides commentary.  He says Morrison actually complained about Bulleteer's appearance in the issue.  She's not the first Seven Soldiers of Victory character to appear in 52 (Frankenstein was at the Superboy memorial way back in the first issue).
• #25 - Bruno Mannheim makes his first appearance of the series (I thought he was a 52 original, but turns out he comes from the '70s and is a Jack Kirby creation).  Captain Marvel Junior and Mary Marvel meet the Black Marvel family, Black Adam, Isis, and newest member Osiris.  Ralph Dibney and the Helmet of Fate tour victims of magic.  It's the first time we see Felix Faust.  We glimpse Klarion the Witch Boy from Seven Soldiers of Victory.  Natasha Irons and Infinity Inc. are in action.  Green Lantern Alan Scott and Mister Terrific don't join in on the jubilation of kids impressed by them. Instead, they discuss the future of the Justice Society.  They decide to join Checkmate instead to, well, keep it in check.  Will Magnus and T.O. Morrow have another discussion, this time on Oolong Island.  Morrow begins plotting to have Will's medication taken from him, so he can be a proper mad scientist.  Mannheim arrives and greets Egg-Fu, who here insists on being called Chang Tzu.  The art is from a combined effort between Bennett, Eaglesham, Jimenez, and Oliffe.  Giffen provides commentary, amazed at Jones' cover and that Egg-Fu is being taken seriously.
• #26 - Black Adam, Isis, and Osiris provide Renee Montoya and Charlie, the Question, a ride to Nanda Parbat.  Probably one of the most crucial developments of the whole series right here.  Charlie introduces Montoya to his ally Tot and mentor Richard Dragon, whom he hopes will help her become his successor.  Jack Ryder, the erstwhile Creeper, delivers an in-joke introduction to his TV show, parodying the old Marvel Bullpen columns.  It's actually to help remind everyone that Steel still has great reservations about the Everyman project.  Ryder hosts another awkward confrontation between Steel and his wayward niece, Natasha Irons.  We see a different Ryder, Waverider, very briefly as we catch a look at the alarmingly '50s style family of Doctor Sivana.  Black Adam, Isis, and Osiris pays the family a visit.  On Oolong Island, Sivana, Will Magnus, T.O. Morrow, and the other mad scientists celebrate Thanksgiving with a mutated turkey.  Osiris meets Sobek at the Sivana compound.  Pat Oliffe provides the art.  Johns provides the commentary for this final issue in the volume.  He mentions how he and Rucka were writing each other's characters this issue.  Waid briefly chimes in on a note that actually belongs to the previous issue...

Two volumes to go!