52: A Quarter in Review- Quarter One (Weeks One through Thirteen)

[Jack Zodiac]

It's been a quarter of a year since 52 started, and thirteen issues in, we've seen several budding plots. Steel and his niece, Lex Luthor's metagene program, The Question and Renee Montoya, Intergang building themselves up again, Black Adam and the Freedom of Power Treaty, Isis, The Great Ten, Adam Strange and Animal Man and Starfire spacebound and hunted, Booster Gold and his bungling of the timestream as noted by Rip Hunter, Supernova, and a bunch of other plots, however small or large. In this thread, I'm going to break down each issue of the first thriteen weeks of 52, and try to connect as many dots from previous issues to later ones. Now, if you don't want to be spoiled, read no further, because I'll spoil the hell out of ya'. Starting with...

52: Week One- It starts here! Where are Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman?

Immediately after Infinite Crisis, all of the shattered remains of the previous worlds come together to form New Earth, our current DC Universe.

On Day One (not necessarily Monday, mind you), Ralph's house is torn apart as the new Monster Society of Evil wrecks Opal City, and he's seen holding a gun from one of his old cases. Renee Montoya finds Gotham City's barflies shaken by last night's "end of the world." And Steel helps French police officers search for survivors after an accident not given a cause. We could assume that it's fallout from the Crisis, considering the next day's very similar.

On Day Two, Ralph's on the phone with somebody who's telling him about the JSA and the Titans helping to recover the East Coast, that no one's seen The Flash since the Crisis, and in merely one day, Batgirl was reported to have been in Houston and Toronto. This could be a key hint to the idea that multiple versions of characters survived the Crisis. The only sure thing the person on the phone knows is that Superboy died, something Renee and her friendly bartender discuss that very night, while Steel helps the Red Cross find survivors from an OMAC assault in St. Louis.

On Day Three, Ralph (gun in hand) is on the phone with Bea (who may have been the previous day's caller) talking about Green Arrow being verified as a survivor, but how Adam Strange is still unaccounted for. He mentions a memorial later than week for everyone who died. Renee declines somebody's offer to attend because she's "had her share of funerals." Interesting to note, the bar she's in that night is called the 52 Pickup- the first of many 52 jokes in the series.

On Day Four, John Henry Irons is taking a break on the back of a fire truck with a St. Louis fire fighter, talking about how the Society was formed and how they mounted their assault during the Crisis.

On Day Five, Booster Gold makes his triumphant debut to the citizens of Metropolis (on the corner of Siegel and Shuster :p) as he busts Mammoth moments after he decides to rob a jeweler. Making fair use of Skeets, he stopping crimes from happening before they happen. After Mammoth's down, he poses for some photos, reminding us that he's still a schmuck as he promotes Soder Cola after his heroics. Then he fakes a tear when someone asks him about Superboy's death. Total ass. As he flies off, he and Skeets talk about how tomorrow is the day the Justice League is supposed to be reformed (in his history) and how he's going to be invited. He really pumps it up, too. Superman gives a speech that's taught in classes for the next five centuries. Olsen wins a Pulitzer for his photos of the event. It's supposed to be the greatest League in history, apparently, and Booster's destined to be a part of it.

That night, Ralph is in a hotel listening to his cell phone messages. Bea tells him that tomorrow's the day of the memorial, and they everyone hopes to see him there, especially after everything that's happened with his wife and now his home. The second message is from Elysium Mortuary, who buried his wife. As he's about to kill himself with that gun he's been playing with all week, the message tells him that his wife's tombstone's been defaced.

John is chasing down Natasha, who's making her way to a Teen Titans meeting. He tells her that she's not allowed to go until she puts in some work around Metropolis, which is still pretty devastated after the final battle from the Crisis. At this point, Steel and Booster seem to be the only active heroes in the city. Natasha throws a fit about it and leaves anyway, when John shuts down her armor and remotely dismantles it. He gave it to her years ago, and now he's taking it away until she can prove that she's worthy of wearing it, or until she earns the right by building her own.

In Kahndaq, Black Adam is addressing his people, speaking about how he was so focused on protecting his country that he's ignored the rest of the world. He promises them that he'll now be their ambassador of justice (something furthered by an Embassy of Kahndaq replacing the Embassy of Themyscira in New York) and that he will try to influence the rest of the world's justice by his own. During his speech, a suicide bomber attempts to make a stand against him by killing many of his followers, which Adam handles by disarming the bomb and then disarming the man- by ripping his arm out of his socket. Remember, he's trying to set an example of justice for the rest of the world. ;)

On Day Six, Dr. Sivana is watching the news while lamenting the disappearance of his favorite enemy, Captain Marvel. He goes on about how serious Black Adam is and how magic can't change the world, but science can. As he's admiring Mr. Mind in his glass tube, two giant men bust into his lab. One has snake-like skin, and the other wolf-life fur, which I hadn't noticed until re-reading the book. It seems that Intergang is reponsible for Sivana's disappearance, and probably the disappearances of other scientists, which we learn about later.

Meanwhile, in Metropolis, the memorial service is starting. We get a headcount on a few people who survived the Crisis. Bart Allen shows up with Jay and tells Conner Hawke and Wildcat that Wally's fine, he and Linda are taking some time away from it all, and that the twins are already getting huge. Key point here! He says that Wally and Linda and the twins are fine, and that they're just taking some time off. He doesn't say when or where. The twins are already huge and annoying, which could indicate that, like Bart himself, they might be growing up faster than normal children. The big moment is minutes second away from happening and Booster's there, ready for the Trinity to appear and announce the new League. Yet, they don't. No one shows up and Skeets starts freaking out before fizzling and falling to the ground. Booster snaps and causes a commotion about how Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are supposed to be there when a voice tells him they won't be coming. His elbow hits the voice in the nose and he turns around to see a bleeding Clark Kent. So, here's the first and biggest time-bungle we see out of Booster.

On Day Seven, or rather on Night Seven, in Gotham City, Vic Sage tears down the bat on the signal on the roof of the Gotham Central Police Department a spray paints a huge question mark on it instead. As Renee Montoya returns home from a long night of drinking and hating her life, her apartment is flooded with light from the signal and The Question asks, "Are you ready?" Thus ends the first week of a bygone year without Superman, Batman, and Wonderwoman; but not a year without heroes.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Two- America Loves Booster Gold! What is The Question?! Sue Dibny: Alive?!? Booster Gold: From zero to hero...

On Day One, Ralph arrives at the graveyard Sue's buried in to check out the vandalism from two days before. While he's there taking pictures, the brother of a boy Ralph and Sue rescued years ago shows up to console him and ask who would do such a thing. Ralph reveals that he travels a lot, so whoever did it wanted to leave a message for him in the one place they knew he'd get it. We don't actually see the graffiti yet. Elsewhere that night, Booster is in the basement of Doctor William Magnus, father of the Metal Men, who fixes Skeets after his breakdown last week. Here we find out that the Metal Men are, apparently, out of commission (and thankfully that the Nineties mini-series was retconned to Hell). In Week Fourteen, we're going to see Mercury return, though, so something is going to happen with them. Booster thanks Doc Magnus, as does Skeets who calls him the "father of artificial intelligence." Will says he wishes that the real father of A.I. could get credit for his work, and asks Michael for a ride to Haven to visit him.

Will Magnus drops in on Professor Morrow in his cell. I don't know if it was established in any of the Metal Men series, but Will was once Morrow's student and visits him monthly while he's imprisoned. This visit starts with the topic of how they're keeping Morrow from accessing any sort of technology for the fear of triggering, what he calls, "Machine War One." Will brings up his greatest creation, Red Tornado, sacrificing himself in space, to which Morrow replies that it must have been some sort of self-destructive programing glitch, or the dawning of synthetic courage, and that one of his brothers (who we've never heard of before), Red Inferno, ever showed the same self-awareness. Now, this is key because we'll be seeing a Red Tornado model android in the new Justice League of America series soon. It may or may not be him. And the cover of issue three features a vast army of Red Tornado model androids. Lots of Red Tornadoes. Red Inferno. Machine War One? Morrow then informs Will that somebody is rounding up mad scientists like themselves, which we know from Teen Titans and Outsiders One Year Later. Among the captured are Sivana, who we saw last week, Ira Quimby from the IQ Gang, Dr. Death (and old and underused Batman villain), Dr. Tyme (a one-time-only Doom Patrol villain), Dr. Clugg (an old, old Dan Garret/Blue Beetle villain), and Dr. Cyclops (a one-time-only Robby Reed/H-Dial villain). He warns Will that either of them could and probably would be on the list of candidates, and to watch his back.

On Night Two, Vic Sage drops in on Renee in her apartment while she's asleep with some woman. He wakes her up and she instantly reaches for her gun and fires two shots towards his chest, both of which he dodges. After this he disappears, but not before leaving her a note: "520 Kane St. ?" There's a 52 joke and a Bob Kane joke right there. Also, there's a magazine article on Renee's floor with a "No More Heroes" title, which may or may not be a House of M joke about Wanda saying, "No more mutants."

On Day Four, Booster Gold and Skeets are soaring over Metropolis waiting for Flight 2428 to experience technical problem so they can save it. It's supposed to be coming from the North, yet it comes from the South and completely surprises him. He and Skeets still manage to save it, though, with little trouble, and for once Booster appears to be genuinely heroic. We find out, however, that the flight they saved was Flight 2824, and that Flight 2428 still crashed and killed hundreds. Here, again, is an effect of Booster and Skeets messing with events bungled in time. Note, though, that the flight they saved wasn't the correct flight, yet it still experienced engine troubles.

That night, in Gotham, Renee is investigating the warehouse Vic directed her to with his mysterious note. It's just an empty building at first glance, which is exactly what Vic says when he appears behind her in a wave of smoke. She attacks him and he throws her into a wall. Calming her down a little, he offers her a job. Two hundred a day plus expenses, plus three weeks paid in advance (for the three weeks she will be spending watching the building while nothing happens). She's sort of forced to accept, but she does accept, and Vic disappears again in a wave of smoke. He, apparently, has a few niftier tricks now, in addition to his psuedoderm and his Richard Dragon kung-fu.

On Day Six, Ralph finally tracks down the person who defaced his wife's grave, and we're shown what the graffiti was. An upside-down Superman "S." The culprit was Wonder Girl. Cassie's finishing up a sermon over the Internet for the already-global Cult of Conner, when Ralph shows up at the Titans Tower with the photo. He tells her that he did his research (and man, this crazy bastard is one effin' hard detective!) and found out that Superman's symbol is Kryptonian for "hope." Inverted, it stands for "resurrection," and Ralph's there to find out why Cassie scrawled it on his wife's grave. Thus, the second week ends without any events on the seventh day. This issue, however, marks the first "History of the DC Universe" back-up, which I will devote an entire section to at the end of this summary.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Three- Lex Luthor: The Fall and Rise of an American Icon. Midnight in the House of Irons?! Power Girl unleashed! The King of Kahndaq!

On Day One, very early in the day, Captain Maggie Sawyer of the Gotham Central Police Department is called to a crime scene by Detective Jiang and Detective MacDonald to examine the corpse of, who appears to be, Lex Luthor. Now, we know it isn't, thanks to the hilariously sick ending of Infinite Crisis where The Joker murders Alexander Luthor at Lex's indiscretion. Why it's taken three weeks to find the corpse is anyone's guess. Later that day, over Northeast Africa, Powergirl is chasing down Terra-Man after he robbed a Ferris aircraft in mid-air over the Mediterranean Sea. Their fight leads them into Kahndaq airspace when Black Adam physically detains Power Girl from pursuing him anymore. He tells her he won't allow outsiders to fight in his country and that her being there was trespassing, and if she or any of her friends were to do so again, he wouldn't be so kind. This'll be hilarious in a few paragraphs. He also asks her how many people died in the Crisis, which she doesn't know, but apparently he does. Five million, seventy-nine thousand, four hundred and thirty-two people.

On Day Two, in a recurring theme for the first couple of months, Natasha and John are fighting again. This time, she's angry that he's forcing her to take summer school for the "D" she got in English, telling her that while the sciences came easily to her, and she aced them, she never really had to work for those grades. The one grade she would have had to work for was English, and she didn't. He tells her again that wisdom is just as important as intelligence and something she has to earn. She storms off angrily as John picks up the phone. S.T.A.R. Labs needs his help identifying a body.

On Day Three, in Kahndaq, two representitives from Intergang, Noose and Rough House (who've shown up plenty of times in Superman stories), appear in Adam's palace with gifts. Two million in African gold and the most beautiful virgin in all of Egypt. They want to buy Adam's support in Intergang setting up shop in Kahndaq as a trade route from North Africa to the Middle East. Also, they tell him they can supply him with alien technology if he wants. Apokoliptian and Thanagarian. This is the first indicator that Intergang isn't just run by Darkseid anymore, if at all. Another hint comes from Superman #654, where Mannheim himself shows up and informs Superman that it isn't the same Intergang anymore. The girl, who we later know as Adrianna, tries to escape, and Noose manhandles her. This enrages Black Adam who grabs Noose's face and squeeze his head in. Then, Terra-Man shows up and tells Adam he "likes his style." Again, this'll be hilarious in a couple paragraphs.

On Day Four, Booster Gold stops Shockwave from robbing the gold reserve in Metropolis in a fight that spreads into the streets. He makes sure not to waste any chance he gets to yell a memorable, "heroic" quote, and afterwards makes sure that Skeets put money down on the Meteors game that afternoon. The Meteors beat the Cardinals 5-4, which Skeets had said was a sure thing from his databank of historical sports information. Later that night, Michael signs an endorsement deal with a pharmaceutical company, Akteon-Holt, who Skeets assures him is going to make it big in the future. However, their afterparty is disrupted as Mr. Akteon is arrested by the S.E.C. for fraud, which sucks for Michael after buying so much of their stock. Sure that Skeets is broken beyond repair, he asks him to track down Rip Hunter to help fix him.

On Day Five, John is investigating the corpse of Alexander Luthor when he finds blue contact lenses. He knows that Lex's eyes are green, not blue, and the fact that the contacts haven't caused any damage to the corpse's corneas indicated they were inserted postmortem. John realizes right away what's up when, suddenly, Lex himself bursts in with a full camera crew from various news stations. He reveals Alexander's body and claims that this doppleganger has been impersonating him for years, ruining his image, while he was trapped in another dimension. This effectively gets Lex off the hook for every insane thing he's done in the past six years or so. Now, One Year Later, we knows that Lex is ruined again, and John seems absolutely set upon seeing it happen during this and the next issue of 52, so down the line we'll see confrontations between them. For now, though, Lex is a free man.

On Day Six, Black Adam holds a press conference outside of his embassy in New York. With him is Terra-Man. This is the hilarious part I was telling you guys about. He tells the press that he's spent the last year worrying only about his country, but now that the world's greatest heroes are gone, he's going to redirect his attention on a global scale. This is his informal creation of the Freedom of Power Treaty, which will restrict (among other things) the involvement of heroes outside of their respective countries of origin. He also states that evil men do not deserve to live, at which point he rips Terra-Man in half! He closes with the line, "It's time for heroes who don't just patrol the world, they change it." Meanwhile, in Dr. Sivana's lab, Mr. Mind has cacooned himself.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Four- Montoya vs. A Monster. Who survived the Rann-Thanagar War? Cult of Conner: Way of Life or Way of Death!

On Day One, Montoya's chugging Sundoller Coffee early in the morning, watching the warehouse on Kane Street. She's been watching it for two weeks, and has one week left of her three week advance from Vic. Meanwhile, in space, a team of astronauts is manning a station that's keeping a lookout for the heroes that were fighting in the Rann-Thanagar War and its aftermath. They haven't had any leads all month, until Halo searches across several waves of radiation until she feels something on the zeta frequency, that used by Adam Strange and the Rannians to teleport. She also constantly chants, "Lightning that can't strike." Whether this is about the zeta beam being unable to connect to Earth or something related to the Marvel Family isn't certain yet, but we find out later in this quarter than Black Adam cannot summon the wizard's lightning when he says, "Shazam." Later that night, Fire visits Booster at his home in Metropolis to tell him that the heroes from space may have survived and that J'onn was putting a team together to search for them, asking if he'd like to join. He has a meeting with Big Belly Burger in less than an hour, something he feels is more important at that moment, when Bea snaps at him that she though Michael would get his act together after Ted's death. He flips out on her, telling her that he did his part and risked his life and now it was time for him to get what he deserved. She storms out on him and lights his door on fire. Interesting note! On the table in Booster's kitchen is a list of people he's been trying to contact about Rip Hunter's whereabouts. On that list are Jeff Smith and Bonnie Baxter from the Time Masters.

On Night Three, in Gotham, Renee's still watching 520 Kane Street, when Vic drops in on her and tells her something will happen soon. He also criticizes her smoking, which becomes a recurring joke. Renee tells him that she's got four more days and then she's done. Meanwhile, in Metropolis, John's apparently dismantling his suit. The radio's talking about how survivors of the Rann-Thanagar War may be trapped in an interrupted zeta beam. As John's working, he starts to have what appears to be a flashback, but gradually grows into a hallucination, culminating in his body becoming stainless steel in a painful explosion. We'll find out soon enough that it's all the work of Luthor's metagene program.

On Day Four, Ralph is meeting with Cassie and the Cult of Conner in a Kryptonian style crystal room. We're first introduced to Devem, the cult's leader. They tell him that bathing in the water of the River Memon will grant him visions of the afterlife, and that Cassie saw Superboy coming back from the dead when she immersed herself. One Year Later, we know this cult is either bogus or Cassie decides that she doesn't want Superboy to come back unnaturally, yet her visions produced by the water could be a hallucination, a theme that is explored later on. They ask something precious from him, but before he can refuse or agree, they submerge him. He apparently has no vision and, instead, nearly drowns before ripping himself out of the water. Afterwards, he realizes that they've stolen his wedding ring.

On Night Five, something finally happens at 520 Kane Street. Renee is nodding off when a hulking man sneaks into the warehouse. She follows him inside, hoping to sneak up on him, when Vic appears and sneaks up on her. They come to a dead end, Renee ponders if there might be a secret passage, Vic makes a D&D joke, and the two fall through a trap door. Then Vic makes another D&D joke, and I completely fall in love with this duo. They stumble upon an alien-looking beast in a trenchcoat rifling through some crates. When he notices them, he hurls one at Renee and she empties her clip into him, which does nothing. The monster breaks her arm and some ribs, and throws her into a pile of guns that were inside the crate. Vic tries fighting it, but it's too strong for even his martial arts to make a dent in it, so Montoya saves him by firing one of the alien weapons from the crate at the monster, pretty much destroying it. We'll learn later that the monster is a member of Intergang, and that the warehouse was part of a ring in Gotham to set up a weapons trade for the organization until they can arm enough members to make a stand.

On Day Seven, in Australia, Halo and some Rannian scientists think they can direct the zeta beam from space to Earth to bring the heroes trapped inside back in one piece. They attempt it, and the beam strikes, and several heroes are recovered, but they're in horrible shape. Alan Scott staggers around with one eye, which we see more of One Year Later in Checkmate. Kenda's become a giant. A piece of debris went straight through Vox's chest, Bumblebee is wrecked (and we find out One Year Later in Teen Titans that she's stuck in her smaller size permanently). And Cyborg and Firestorm are fused together. Weird, eh?

52: Week Five- Return of the Space Heroes. Starfire, Animal Man, Adam Strange- Dead?

On Day One, already seemingly recovered, Alan Scott visit's Buddy Baker's wife, Ellen, to tell her that he's still missing in space. She thinks there's still hope. Later, in Metropolis, Luthor publicly announces his synthesized human variant metagene. Booster sounds surprised, signifying another glitch on Skeets's part. Meanwhile, John is called to Sait Camillus hospital to help Alan and Dr. Mid-Nite help treat the superheroes recovered from space. Until something can be worked out to seperate Vic and the new Firestorm, Dr. Mid-Nite has used time-freezing drugs to keep them in suspended animation. Alan talks about how he lost his eye, and how his other eye isn't even his own (a hint is dropped later that it could be Adam Strange's). And we see that Mal "Vox" Duncan's voicebox has been replaced with Red Tornado's speaker, and that his body isn't taking to the fusion. On top of this, he has a chest infection and septicemia. John suggests using pseudocytes, which he used to regrow his hand after The General tore it off.

Pieter asks John why he's wearing his suit in the hospital, then mentions that John called him earlier for something, which John shrugs off and decides he'll talk about with him later. We can assume that he's in the suit because he can't fully control his new steel skin, and that he called Pieter to check it out for him. Then John asks where they all were for a month while trapped in the zeta beam. Alan says that after the rift in space was healed, it exploded with energy, warping reality around them. Mal trued to use his horn to open up a portal to Rann, hoping they'd send a zeta beam through to recover them. They sent the beam, but instead of bring them to Rann, it resulted in the carnage seen at the end of he last issue, including sending Supergirl spiraling into the future with the Legion. He says he doesn't know what happened to Adam, Kory, and Buddy, but that he thinks they all died like Red Tornado did. And then he laments his daughter, Jade, dying. As the conversation ends, Mal goes into respiratory arrest.

In Gotham, Maggie Sawyer is visiting Renee at her apartment, off the clock, to ask her more about what happened to her two nights before. Renee tells her the same thing, the truth, which Maggie believes, but doesn't want to, because it means Renee's acting without a badge or a private investigator license. She tells Renee to be careful, and that if she's drawn into again, she'll be more forceful about making her stop next time. Back at the hospital, Mal's waning and Pieter's trying to perform CPR on him as his team deals with giant Hawkgirl in convulsions outside. John grabs a circut breaker and jolt's Mal, bringing him back. He sits up and yells, "It's coming! 52! 52!" His voice shatters the windows in the hospital, and when Pieter and John ask what it was all about, Alan says that those were Red Tornado's last words in space before the explosion.

On Day Seven, Buddy, Kory, and Adam are all alive and well (or well-enough) on an alien planet. Well meaning Buddy gets to stare at Kory nude while she bathes and eats fruit while maintaining perfect composure. The man's a rock! Poor Adam Strange can't get so lucky, though, as he's lost both of his eyes from the explosion, which is why we are led to believe Alan's one good eye is one of Adam's. He's working, blind, on repairing a spaceship for them, while Kory relaxes and enjoys the beautiful paradise, and Buddy frets about a "serpent in paradise." His supersenses allow him to feel out a planet's morphic fields and detect animal life, and he detects something big near them. We learn in a few weeks that it is Devilance the Pursuer, and that their paradise island isn't so great.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Six- Chinese Heroes! Booster Gold's Secret Rendezvous! Time is Warped!

On Day One, in Metropolis, Booster saves a subway platform full of innocent bystanders from a villain called Manthrax. He, reportedly, leaves an endorsement deal to save the citizens. However, we see that the villain he fought off is actually a paid actor he hired to make him look even more heroic, by leaving an endorsement negotiation in order to save innocents- something he probably wouldn't normally do. After he pays off the actor, a considerably large sum from the reaction he has, Skeets tells him that he's located the last known residence of Rip Hunter in the Arizona desert.

Meanwhile, in China, Hal and John Stewart are chasing Evil Star, when the Great Ten appear to inform them that they're violating Chinese airspace. We're introduced to the August General in Iron, Socialist Red Guardsman, Celestial Archer, Ghost Fox Killer, Accomplished Perfect Physician, Mother of Champions, Immortal-Man-In-Darkness, Seven Deadly Brothers, Thundermind, and Shaolin Robot. While we don't see the effects of it immediately, August General mentions that coalition reinforcements will be on their way to help them deal with the two Green Lanterns. We see an impressive battle between the active fighters, especially from Thundermind, who downs Hal easily until he's able to concentrate. The dilemma is that Green Lanterns are an intergalactic police force and they're pursuing a convicted arms dealer on Earth, but are violating the Freedom of Power Treaty. This is addressed once more this issue, and again in the year long gap where Hal violates the treaty multiple times.

In America, Will Magnus is having his next monthly visit with Professor Morrow, who has recently had all of his material taken out of his cell after he made a guard's iPod into a disintegrator ray. A security person is installing a camera in Morrow's cell so the guards can continue to watch him. Will tells him he should try reading the meditation book he gave him, which he said helped him through some stuff withhis Metal Men. So, there may be something leftover from the last Metal Men series that's in-continuity. Then he mentions that he's been looking into the scientist disappearances, and that Morrow might be on to something. He brings up Luthor's metagene program and how everyone's on edge and watching everybod else. At that moment, several people are watching them from the camera that was just installed, including a large, round, talking shadow. Now, here's something to note. While they're talking, Morrow's eating a soft-boiled egg. There's been some speculation that it's Egg Fu, an old Wonder Woman villain from the Sixties, watching the scientists from his lab. Which would, possibly, mean that he is responsible for the disappearances of the fifteen missing scientists, and possibly connected to Intergang. Which, honestly, isn't all that impossible to believe. Byrne brought him back after the first Crisis as an evil computer from Kirby's Fourth World, which would connect him to Apokolips and Intergang. Still, weird idea, could be completely off-base.

Back in China, the battle rages on. Hal and John are having trouble holding back the Great Ten and pursuing Evil Star at the same time. John decides to just blow up his ship and contain him while Hal blocks the Great Ten, until he's interrupted by a shot to the back of the head by Black Adam. See, the coalition mentioned earlier is that of Kahndaq, North Korea, Myanmar, and now China. As part of his coalition, now that the Lanterns are violating the Freedom of Power Treaty, Black Adam has reign to smack them around. Before things get too out of hand, the Rocket Red appear and defend them, as they are now in Russian airspace. Hal makes a stand against Adam, saying that he's tired of his mouthing off to the world, which lays the groundwork for whatever foul-up Hal commits in the future. Adam and the Great Ten leave as Hal and John wait in Russia to transport Evil Star back to Oa.

On Day Two, Booster and Skeets arrive in Arizona at an underground bunker, the last known residence of Dr. Rip Hunter. When Michael asks why he'd need these sorts of precautions, Skeets reminds him that in the past year alone, seventy-nine attempts have been made to steal his temporal machines, the blueprints to his time sphere, and his time capsule minutemen. He doesn't answer the blast door, so Skeets talks it into opening. It's an atomic lock set for, get ready, midnight on January first, fifty-two B.C. Hunter, you sly fox. Once it's open, Michael goes in alone, because Skeets has to keep talking to the lock to keep it open. He descends into Rip's lab where he's confronted with a royal mess. Two chalkboards littered with crazy scribbles about how time is broken. He follows the train of wacky ramblings to a little corner of the room where the wall says, "52 is all his fault," with a picture of Booster himself. Way to go, Michael! Ya' boned up great, this time! I'll add an entire post devoted to Rip Hunter's lab later, just like "The History of the DC Universe" gets its own post, too.

52: Week Seven- EXPOSED! Citizen Kane! Booster's Blunder. An old flame for Montoya.

On Day One, on the alien planet Adam, Buddy, and Kory are stranded on, Adam's pissed because Starfire and Animal Man keep eating fermented fruit, which makes them lazy and uncaring. Neither are a help to Strange as he's trying to fix the Thanagarian Warbird that might get them off that planet. It kind of reminds me of this one "Land of the Lost" episode. Starfire gets angry because Strange won't eat the fruit, then she leaves to get herself some air. Adam declares that they're launching "before sundown." Note that several issues ago, Buddy realized that the sun had been setting for two weeks on that planet, so sundown won't be for a little while longer.

On Night Two, Renee is questioning her involvement in The Question's case, and how she's been recovering for weeks after their confrontation with the monster in the warehouse. While she's rummaging around her crappy apartment, wondering what she could be missing about the case they've been working on, she comes across a paper with the headline "Kane Family Charity Gala." She recognizes the girl in the photo as Kate Kane. Kathy Kane. And then she makes the connection to Kane Street and decides to give Kate a visit.

On Night Three, Booster's arguing with the man who played Manthrax over the phone about his money. Apparently that gracious check bounced. As he's arguing with him, Ralph shows up to ask Michael for help searching for the Cult of Conner in Metropolis. Booster says he's busy and Ralph snaps at him about all of his endorsement deals. Then Skeets interjects with an announcement that in mere minutes, violence will erupt outside the Lexcorp Building, and that Booster'll be there to stop it. Then it dawns on Ralph that, since Booster's from the future, he should have knowledge of the recent past, at which point he throws him into mirror and yells at him about not warning him that his wife was going to die. He says he never knew about it, but Ralph really knows that he never cared enough to want to know about his friends and how he could help them. He barks about how he's just a spokesman and not a real hero, which Booster foolishly attempts to defend. Suddenly, an explosion is heard in the distance, probably the onset of the riot Skeets predicted, and Ralph tells him to prove it.

Back in Gotham, Renee is showing up to Kathy Kane's party. We're given a few hints along the way about why Kate would become Batwoman. Renee mentions that the Kanes "own the half of Gotham that the Waynes don't," and that they made most of their money from the Hamilton Rifle Company, and that there's as much blood as there is money in their family. This could be something she'd want to sort of atone for by using her money to make herself a better person, a better fighter, and fight the crime her family's legacy could have helped produce. We'll find out in time, I'm sure. Anyway, at the moment, Renee's dropping in on her old flame to see if she knows anything about the warehouse at 520 Kane Street. She riles her up a lot, gets punched in the face, remarking that "somewhere along the line, someone taught her how to throw a punch," but eventually pushes the right buttons and gets her help.

Meanwhile, in Metropolis, a burning tanker is in the middle of a crowded intersection as people wonder if it's a stunt staged by Lexcorp to field test their new metahuman gene program, which everyone's lined up for outside, or if it was a real accident. Booster arrives and busts through the street, breaking a water main to douse he flames. And you think to yourself, "If he wasn't such an ass, he'd be a great hero." As Lois Lane appears to interview him, from the crowd emerges the actor who played Manthrax last week, claiming it was all a stunt staged by Booster. Lois directs the interview to the man in the armor, who admits to attacking the subway station last week as a stunt for Booster to get more publicity. Aftewards, his check bounced. Everyone flips out and starts barraging Booster with questions, until Ralph steps in. He takes the lead and really lets Booster have it, hammering in the idea that he's a horrible hero, a horrible person, and a worse friend for allowing what happened to Sue and Ted to happen. He turns all of Metropolis against him and then leaves.

Elsewhere, on the alien paradise our space heroes were standed on, Kory finds a huge spear sticking out of the ground, several hundred feet tall. Suddently, Devilance appears out of the trees and grabs his lance, capturing her to lure Buddy and Adam in later.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Eight- Be Your Own Hero. Act Now! Ralph runs into Green Arrow.

On Day One, at two in the morning, John walks in on Natasha working hard on her own suit of armor. He asks if she's going to bed, and she asks if he'll build her a new suit or armor. "No." Then she asks if she can get Luthor's metagene therapy. "Hell no." She says she'll keep working on her armor, then. He seems proud to see her so determined to make it on her own, though. The television's on, and the news is covering Booster's fraud allegations and Luthor's "metagene for everyman" program. As he turns off the T.V., he starts having a chest pain, which turns to smoke, which leads to his chest heating up until it glows, leaving in its afterglow shiny stainless steel.

Meanwhile, all the way over on the West Coast, in Star City, Ollie's patrolling with Ralph, looking for the Cult of Conner. He stops a man from chasing a thief after he stole baby food and diapers from the man's store. Star City is still in terrible shape after the demolition it went through just before the Crisis, and inflating prices in a disaster area is every bit as illegal as stealing, so Ollie let's the "thief" go. He talks to Ralph about how much worse Star City is than it looks, when Ralph tells him (indirectly) that he should run for mayor and turn the town around on his own. He shoots the idea down, while we know that One Year Later he has actually successfully run and was elected mayor of Star City. In the meantime, though, he and Ralph bust into an abandoned warehouse that was previously used by the cult. Ollie asks what exactly they worship, and Ralph tells him they believe in resurrection, that the dead can return to the living. Then he realizes who he's been with all night. For those who don't know, Green Arrow died a while back but was recently brought back from the dead. Also of note, we find out in these scenes that Ralph's been off of his Gingold since last year, presumably right after Sue's death.

On Day Three, John visits Kala Avasti of S.T.A.R. Labs to test his blood in hopes of finding out what's happening to him. She asks him if he can control it, and he says he can control the skin itself when it appears, but has no power over when it manifests, seemingly only under intense stress. Kala questions its origin, thinking it may be alien, when John says he hasn't been off-planet except to fight Brother Eye in the Crisis. He asks if it might be similar to the O.M.A.C. virus, and she says there's no nanobot presence, so that isn't it. Then she breaks the sample down for him, saying that his skin is made of concentrations of chromium, nickel, carbon, and iron. John knows right away that his skin is turning into stainless steel, and realizes immediately who's behind it. Luthor. It's his sick joke to infect him with a virus derived from his metagene program that turns him in to stainless steel. He assumes he injected him during the press frenzy surrounding Alexander's corpse being found. Kala asks why Luthor would do that when plenty of people are lining up for the program when John says that Lex doens't want to create supermen, he wants to control them. Suddenly and unexplainably, his samples become active and heat up until exploding as he shields the doctor from the debris. They were either unstable, or Lex has more control over the program than even John could imagine.

Sometime that same day, a mysterious new superhero, who we'll come to know as Super Nova, saves a woman and her grandson from being crushed by a falling monorail car by seemingly teleporting them across the street in a burst of light.

On Day Four, he saves two firemen from from a collapsing ceiling by making them vanish, again, in a burst of light.

On Day Five, he stops a gunman by shearing his rifle clean in half. Then he saves a litle girl from being sucked into the riptide while swimming. All of this greatly pisses off Booster Gold, who's ranting about the mystery hero to Daily Planet reporter, Clark Kent. Skeets warns him that he's ruining his image, which Booster admits is already in the toilet. He asks Clark if he knows who the new hero is. Clark says he doesn't, but he's going to find out. Meanwhile, in the Steelworks, Natasha's eating lunch when Kala Avasti calls for John about his test results. Instead of waiting for John, like a normal doctor, she tells Natasha that his DNA is being rewritten by the Luthor metagene strain. Then Natasha finds an ad for the Everyman Project in John's briefcase and assumes he's undergoing the program. Later that night, while she's working on her new armor, she hits an air pocket and burns herself, which causes her to break the table she's working on, knocking several pieces of her armor to the ground and breaking them (pfft, that's some shoddy armor!). She snaps as John walks in and she throws her mask at him, which he deflects with his metal skin. That drives the nail deeper for her and she storms out screaming about how hypocritcal he is for undergoing the program and not "earning" his powers.

Meanwhile, on the alien planet that Devilance is hunting Adam, Buddy, and Kory, the two men go off to look for her after she left the other week/evening (remember, time is moving incredibly slow on this planet). Adam goes on about how she's fine, and how women are more independent and powerful on alien planets, like Kory's home planet of Tamaran, than on Earth. Then they find her, strung up in a net, right out in the open. Just as Buddy puts it all together, Devilance traps both of them, too, completing his game of pursuit.

On Day Seven, in Metropolis, the Everyman Project is about to chose its next batch of candidates, as Luthor grins about all of his lovely slaves. Then he spies Natasha being hassled by a guard for being a minor. When he brings up her uncle, Lex appreciates her newfound displeasure with him and offers her the first spot on the list that day. Later that night, Natasha is strung up to an awkward machine as the experiment is programmed. She told Luthor she wanted the works, and that's what she gets. The entire "resequencing string" package. Next week, we find out just how insanely powerful she's become.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Nine- PLANET HELL! Steel battles Natasha?!? Who is the Batwoman?!?

On Night One, Luthor's hosting a party to toast the success of his dream of making every man a Superman. John barges in, pinning Luthor against a wall and asking for Natasha. Mercy opens fire on him and the bullets richochet all over, hitting two bystanders. Here we see John use one of his new tricks as he hurls searing hot steel at her to disarm her. Holding his molten steel hand over Lex's face, he tells him to hand his niece over, when Natasha shows up with five other superhumans (one we learn is named Herakles) in tote, all wearing purple and green, Lex's colors. She tells John to let go of her "boss," then throws him like it was nothing when he doesn't. In addition to having grown at least a good foot or so, and apparently having aged several years, Natasha now has super strength. She shows off her flight, too, when she knocks Uncle John out a window.

He asks what happened to her that she sided with Luthor and she, pretty bluntly, says that it was John's preaching that discouraged her. No matter how hard she thought she tried, she believed she deserved more, so she turned to Luthor. She then continues to demonstrate how much stronger she is than him by slapping him all over the place, even taking a full shot of burning steel to the chest and shrugging it off like it was nothing. She hits him so hard in the gut through his stainless steel skin that he bleeds internally. Whatever the "full package" was, she got it. We've heard from Meltzer that a hero's family member will be a villain for the group in one of the early arcs. The way things are going, it could definitely be Nat. She uppercuts John in the face and sends him flying into the bay.

Meanwhile, back on the alien world created by Devilance the Pursuer, he has Buddy and Kory strung upside-down and Adam caged. When Strange asks him why the New God is holding them captive, he tells them that after their battle in space, at the center of the universe, they "saw beyond the veil, beyond the two score and twelve walls of Heaven." There we get the second significant mention of the number fifty-two. A score is twenty, two score is forty, twelve more is fifty-two. Whatever happened in space that gave Red Tornado whatever vision had him screeching "52!" is also why these three heroes are being hunted. Adam remotely ignites his jetpack as Devilance is looking into its burner, giving Buddy the chance he needs to use the power of the electric insects on that planet to attack the god while Kory breaks free and steals his lance. They stagger him into one of his own vine traps and she blasts him with her energy, putting him down for a bit while they figure out a way to turn his lance into an energy source for the Warbird.

Back on Earth, in Gotham, Vic (wearing a face, for once) drops in on Renee at a lesbian bar. She's watching a ballgame and the announcer mentions that in attendence is candidate for mayor, Oliver Queen, which means he did take Ralph's advice. Vic sits down next to Renee, who asks him if he knows that he's in a lesbian bar, to which he replies, "So no men's room, huh?" I love their dynamic! Anyway, she eventually figures out who this strange man is and finally finds out both of his names, Vic and Charlie. he leads her outside where he tells her that he knows she's still interested in the case they worked on together, as she's been looking into it on her own. He admires that enough in her to show her that he trusts her by using his psuedoderm and binary gas to change his appearance again, revealing his secret to her. Then she asks him about the weapons and where they came from, and he tells her that Gotham is now the target of Intergang. At that sam etime, Batwoman officially debuts, watching from a nearby rooftop. Also, this issue marks a trend of condensing the story into a one or two day time-frame instead of spreading it all out across the week, focusing on one or two plots at a time. This issue could also, apparently, take place on July 4th, as fireworks are going off in Metropolis and Gotham around the same time. If this is true, we now have a date for ever single event from this series before and after this issue.

52: Week Ten- Supernova Bursts Onto Scene. You'll believe a man can fall.

On Day One, in Kahndaq, Black Adam is getting ready for a meeting with members and potential members of his coalition. Before he meets them, he's on his balcony when he speaks the word, "Shazam." Nothing happens and he seems concerned. We'll learn later that this is because Billy's still adjusting to being the new wizard Shazam. At his meeting, he makes it clear that he wants countries with political problems with other countries to let those things go in order to make a stronger coalition. In attendance we also see Eve, the female Kobra (representing... I don't know- she's a terrorist, so I don't know why Adam has her there), who is very busy One Year Later, the original Sonar (respresenting Modora), who hasn't been seen in forever, Lady Zand (represening Zandia- a criminal nation), who hasn't been seen since her introduction in Young Justice, a young looking Ibis (representing Egypt), August General in Iron (representing China), Cascade from the Global Guardians (representing Indonesia), and Rocket Red One (representing Russia), which means that Russia has finally folded into the coalition, as Adam predicted they would several weeks ago. The meeting is interrupted by the woman Intergang left with Adam as she storms into the room and spits in his face, calling him a terrorist.

On Day Two, Perry White calls Clark Kent into his office. He's terminating him for failing to get the exclusive on the new mystery superhero, dubbed Supernova by rival paper, the Daily Star. He notices that Clark's been slipping these past months, like his ability to find a story has completely disappeared. Of course, since Clark's lost his powers, he's unable to do as much as he could before to get a story. He notices that Supernova is flying around the street outside the Planet and unlocks the window, as Perry turns around to see him jump out, thinking Kent would actually kill himself over being fired. Taking a page right out of Lois's book, he plummets until Supernova catches him, giving Clark the chance he needs to initiate an interview.

Meanwhile, back in Kahndaq, Adrianna is thrown back into her room after a day in a holding cell. Adam visits her, asking her why she was interrupted his meeting the other day. She replies by telling him she won't be a prisoner. He tells her that she's simply a refugee because her family and home have been destroyed by Intergang, and her brother sold into slavery. He apologizes for killing the men who captured her, denying her vengeance, and she's ashamed of his response- that he'd be sorry for that and not sorry for holding her captive. He says she's free to leave, but before she does she tells him that she thinks he's psychotic for trying to form his coalition. That they aren't going to change the world, rather they'll plunge it into another global war. She asks him why he is the way he is, and hits the nerve of his loneliness, which shuts him up.

On Day Three, at casa de Kent, Lois flips out on Clark for pulling the little stunt he did to get Supernova's attention, which he think is hilarious. She makes it clear that the world is reeling after the Crisis, and that the absence of the JLA is noticeable. Clark tells her that Metropolis, at least, is in capable hands and then recounts his interview with Supernova. After he saved Clark from being a spot on the ground, he interrupted a terrorist group from making off with a new all-terrain armored vehicle. Using some kind of eye beam, he takes an entire chunk of the ground out, which seems to have simply just disappeared. After stopping the terrorists, which Clark captures on film with a camera he paid someone in the crowd for, he gets his interview. He says the hero seems guarded and gives him the usual "I'm just here to help" speech. Supernova then leaves on a heroic note, saving a child from falling into the hole he created and then disappearing. Clark seems to trust him, even if he doesn't know who he is.

On Day Four, Booster voices that very concern as he's moving into a crappy three-room apartment. He blames Supernova for his sudden fall from public grace and rips into Skeets for not knowing who he is. As the 25th century robot points out, current history is diverging more and more from what it's supposed to be. They decide to focus on finding out who Supernova is so Booster can resume being the hero of Metropolis, which will reach its conclusion, we're led to believe, in Week Fifteen.

On Day Six, Will visits Morrow again, who is apparently allowed to have books again (notably copies of Brave New World and 1984 :p). He tells him about the military allowing him to search Dr. Sivana's lab. There, he found a sivanium robot with the doctor's personality. This could be incorporated into the Metal Men later, possibly. It's also revealed here that Magnus did, indeed, go off his rocker in-continuity, which raises the question of what exactly will be kept in line with the Metal Men and their history in New Earth. Then Morrow thanks Will for visiting him all this time, and for being his friend, talking like this will be the last time they'll ever see each other (because, in fact, Morrow disappears the day of their next visit). Before Will leaves, though, he shows Morrow a broken cacoon he found in Sivana's lab that he'd been treating with radiation. Mr. Mind has evolved. Also, there's apparently a typo on this page. Morrow calls Dr. Sivana "docter."

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Eleven- Batwoman Begins! She's here! Batwoman! Elongated Man: Unhinged?

On Night Five, in Washington, DC, Ralph Dibny is still hunting down the Cult of Conner. He jumps two kids and drills them for information before he realizes how insane he is for beating up kids. One of them fights him off the other and then they run away. While he's wallowing, his phone rings. Opal City Storage is calling to tell him that his storage garage has been broken into.

On Day Six, Vic and Renee are in the park giving each other crap about her smoking while waiting for Kathy Kane to show up. She told Renee a few weeks ago that she'd look into 520 Kane Street for her. When she shows up, Vic starts oggling her. Whoever the artist for these pages was, I think he wanted to give her an ass and rack to rival Power Girl. Anyway, she provides Renee with information about the warehouse, telling her that up until six weeks before it was rented by Ridge-Ferrick Holding, a company in Gotham. Also to note, the woman Kate shows up with is reading the Gotham Gazette with a headline about Gordon returning to the force. After they get the information they want, Renee pretty much tells Kate that she's thankful, but doesn't want her to have anything to do with them afterwards. She'd rather Kate not get involved considering they're going up against Intergang.

They go back to Vic's van. Renee tells him the reason she acted like an ass was to keep Kate from following them into this and getting herself hurt, when he realizes she still has a thing for her. She says she doesn't, she just doesn't want anyone else dying because of her. Vic tells her she has a lot of guilt for someone so young. He tells her he knows about Crispus's death and how she blames herself for it- for letting Jim Corrigan walk free instead of killing him for what he did. She feels bad for doing the right thing. Of hilarious note, in these pages we see that Vic's got a van full of odd files on corruption cases. One on "Ohio 2004," indicating the election year. One on Checkmate, another on the Gotham Police Department, one on Hub City (he frequently outted corrupt cops in Hub City back in his day), one on Big Tobacco, and another on Lex Luthor. After a little digging, and several cigarettes later, Vic finds out more about that company. It's a subsidiary of HSC International Banking, part of Intergang's legit front. It's run by Whisper A'Daire and her bodyguard Abbot, both of whom were part of Ra's Alghul's organization and were last seen in Detective Comics when Rucka was still on it. Vic says they'll find out more about their front by breaking into their head office that night. A caped figure, Batwoman, is listening to them from a nearby rooftop.

That night, they break into Ridge-Ferrick Holding's main office. They take out the security and make their way to a meeting room where they overhear a bit about arming and "converting" manpower. Converting them, possibly, into that monster they faced weeks earlier. Just as they overhear that shipments are coming from Kahndaq, Abbot shows up as a giant wolf and tackled them through the door. Whisper mesmerizes Renee as Abbot holds her and Vic by their throats. Also, in these pages, I think it's safe to say that the artist wasn't intending to draw Kate Kane as busty and curvy as Power Girl, 'cause he apparently does it with all women figures. Whisper's effin' stacked compared to her appearance in Detective Comics. She tells Abbot and the other men in the room to kill the two, and as she leaves they all turn into animals- a hyena, a lion, and a gorilla. They're getting their asses kicked when a batarang comes from out of nowhere and takes out the lights. Renee thinks that Batman is back, knowing he'd never leave Gotham unattended, when she sees who it really is. A Batwoman. Batwoman knocks the hell out of the monsters and stops Renee just before she nearly vaporizes another one of them. The punch Batwoman nails her with reminds Renee that "somewhere along the line, someone taught her how to throw a punch," which apparently makes her realize that Kate is Batwoman. Or not. It has't been brought up since. She tells them not to mention her to the police and leaves.

On Night Seven, back in Opal City, Ralph is checking out the garage he rented that was burglarized recently. The door's broken down and the Kryptonian resurrection symbol is spray painted across it. He searches the shed for whatever they could've stolen and can't seem to find anything in particular. We see, however, what they're up to. Cassie and Deven have made what will become the creepiest thing in recent DC history. Suecrow, a straw Sue Dibny, wearing Sue's clothes (which is what they stole) and Ralph's wedding ring.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Twelve- Meet Isis! Has She Stolen the Heart of BLACK ADAM? She's beautiful & powerful! Jealous? Montoya questions the Question. Wonder Girl revealed.

On Night One, Renee meets up with Maggie at the Central Police Department. Maggie reams her for butting into the Intergang case, tipping the organization off about parties knowing about them, and making it harder for the police to do anything about it now that they've gone deeper underground. She returns to Vic's apartment where he's meditating on their next step, which is obvious to both of them. The next link in the chain is Kahndaq, and they both agree that they should go there next. Fun little note, in one panel, there's a copy of The Life Story of The Flash on Vic's bookshelf.

Meanwhile, in Kahndaq, Black Adam and Adrianna are talking about his position. She says that his people worship him like a god, but he insists he's only their leader, not their ruler. She asks why he would waste his time with something like his coalition when he can do so much more good, like he's apparently done the past few days: changing the course of a river to provide water for hundreds and disarming mine fields across Kahndaq's highways. Adam says he did it only because she suggested it, and she says it's all she can do without power like his. "Why act out of anger when you can act out of hope?" He responds by taking her to his shrine of his wife and sons who were murdered millenia ago. He tells her that he could've killed their murderer before, saving himself the grief, which is why he executes criminals, so others won't feel that loss. He asks her why she doesn't feel angry over her family's death and her brother's fate. She replies by saying she doesn't feel angry, just lonely.

Adam moves the shrine back and grabs an amulet from its base, revealing a passageway that leads underground. They follow it into the Rock of Eternity where Billy sits in the wizard's throne, apparently going slightly mad with all of that power. He tells Adam his power is a hundred-fold within the Rock and that many of his old enemies, like Sabbac, Mr. Atom, and Johnny Sorrow have attempted to attack the Rock. He also tells Adam that because of his change, he's just getting used to being able to trigger the transformations caused by speaking the wizard's name. Then he asks who Adam's friend is. She introduces herself and Adam tells Billy he'd like to invite her into the Marvel Family. On the back of the amulet Shazam trapped him in long ago is a jewel that possesses the power of another of the wizard's champions and Adam wants Adrianna to have that power.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Cassie is returning to her apartment while flipping through messages on her cell from the Teen Titans, looking for her. She walks in on Ralph sitting on couch. She's surprised he tracked her down, when he reminds her that he isn't Plastic Man. He drills her about why she stole only a suit of Sue's, when she starts laying on a real trip on him. She tells him that with certain personal effects, Devem thinks he can revive the dead through their loved ones. They want to have a trial run on a resurrection using Sue before they attempt to resurrect Conner. She apologizes for tricking Ralph when he surprises her by telling her that he'd like to help.

Back in Kahndaq, Adam's convincing Adrianna to become Isis. During the 15th Dynasy, the queen, Pharaoh Hatshepsut, used the power of Isis to bring peace to her kingdom. She's been waiting for a worthy successor, and Billy agrees that Adrianna could be very worthy. She rejects the offer at first, afraid that power would corrupt her, but Adam reminds her that she told him herself that power need no corrupt, and that she could do even more good than he could with the power of Isis. She accepts and takes the jewel, speaking her name and becoming Isis! Adam asks her to help him in his crusade to change the world, to make it better, and she agrees. She'll help Adam just as soon as she finds her brother. Hopefully power won't corrupt.

"The Origin of Wonder Woman"

For centuries, the race of warrior women known as the Amazons secluded themselves on the remote island of Themyscira. Over the years, under the tutelage of the goddess Aphrodite and their quee, Hippolyta, the Amazons mastered the peaceful teachings of Gaea, the Earth Mother. Eventually, Hippolyta's prayers for a daughter who could fully embody the Amazon spirit were granted. The Grecian gods commanded Hippolyta to cave the child of her dreams from clay then brought the infant to life, gifting the princess Diana with powers and abilities equal to their own. As she grew, Diana continually impressed even the Amazons with her strength, speed and hunting prowess, making her, when she came of age, the natural choice to deliver the message of Gaea and Themyscira to the outside world. Donning a uniform decorated with symbols representing a legendary Amazon heroine, Diana brought her courage and skills fully to bear as Wonder Woman, ambassador of peace. Now, guided by an indomitable will and a compassionate heart, she fights to protect innocents everywhere from the forces of tyranny.

Powers and Weapons: Wonder Woman possesses godlike strength, speed, invulnerability, and the ability to fly. She is a skilled swordswoman and, like her namesake, is a master of the hunt and at communicating with animals. Wonder Woman's arsenal includes a magic lasso which compels its captives to speak the truth, a boomerang tiara that can cut through diamond, and bracelets that can deflect gunfire.

Essential Storylines: Wonder Woman Archives Vol. 1-4, Gods and Mortals, The Hiketeia, and Eyes of the Gorgon.

Alliances: Justice League of America.

It looks like they're keeping Hippolyta's stint as Wonder Woman in continuity, as well as Diana's time as Wonder Girl.

[Jack Zodiac]

52: Week Thirteen- The Resurrection of Sue Dibny! Isis and Adam: Just Friends... or more?

On Day Two, Ralph is present at the resurrection ceremony of his wife, but he's invited along Ollie, Hal, and Metamorpho- Rex Mason- all of whom have died and come back before, and also Zauriel, an angel from Heaven. Rex thinks Ralph invited them there to bust up the ceremony, but he tells them that he actually wanted them there to see if they thought it was possible. He then points out that all of them know of the existence of the afterlife and how they've died and been brought back before, as have others. As they're talking through a telepathic connection formed through Hal's ring, Devem is beginning the ceremony by passing around a chunk of "blood Kryptonite." Hal tries talking sense into him, telling him that they all miss Sue, but that ths cult is no true answer to his grief. He asks him to decide whether or not he wants to hang on to his rationality, or his hope.

Meanwhile, in Southwest Asia, Black Adam and Isis bust up a slavery ring and rescue dozens of children while looking for her brother, Amon. They don't find him, and she begins to lose hope, when he reminds her that hope is all he's known since he met her. He promises her they'll find her brother, and she decides that as they free more and more children with no homes left to go to, they'll all be taken care of in Kahndaq.

Back at the cult's ceremony, Ralph decides to stick with rationality as he tosses the blood Kryptonite to Rex so he can smash it and end the ritual. Ollie shoots out the windows and scatters the children while Hal dismantles the altar and Ralph goes after Devem. Then, Cassie backhands him across the room. Hal steps in and contains Wonder Girl while Rex, Ollie, and Zauriel lead the kids outside. As Devem kicks a brazier over and starts a fire, Ralph sneaks up on him and punches him in the jaw. Any idea that he was a Kryptonian before should be gone now. As he's yelling at him about conning these kids and giving them false hope, a straw hand reaches through the fire. As he looks down, Ralph sees Suecrow reaching up for his robe and whispering his name. He flips out and tells everyone to stop. He apologizes to Cassie and Devem, who fly off into the air blaming him for the cult's failure. As the others get the last of the kids out, Ralph lies down with Suecrow and the entire building comes down.

The next day, Day Three, they return to the burnt down building to look for Ralph. There's no sign of him, which means he isn't dead, but that he's gone off on his own. All that remains from the cult is his wedding ring. Holding the burnt Suecrow in his arms and rocking back and forth underneath an overpass, Ralph chants to himself that he'll try again. In the background, a shadowy figure can be seen watching him from behind a fence. Poor Elongated Man. His life's been screwed royally recently. And now...

"The Origin of Elongated Man"

Growing up in the tiny burg of Waymore, Nebraska, gawky Ralph Dibny- a born detective- never stopped looking for that which he found everyday: attention. Ralph was facinated by contortionists- performers who won applause by doing something for which lanky Ralph already had a knack. Every "rubber man" that Ralph talked to and emulated had one thing in common: a taste for a soft drink called "Gingold." Suspecting some sort of "trade secret," Ralph distilled the essence of the rare gingo fruit used in Gingold and acquired a taste for it- unaware that, in its concentrated form, it could be lethal. Luck saved Ralph from a toxic allergic reaction. Instead, the modified Gingold triggered something in Ralph's biochemistry allowing him to stretch his body like elastic. Calling himself "The Elongated Man," Ralph began a career as a costumed sleuth and traveled the world with his wealthy bride, Sue Dearborn. Clad in an array of colorful universe, Ralph became the first super-hero to make his secret identity public and became famous as a member of the Justice League of America. After Sue was murdered, however, Ralph's charmed life lost its glamour. Having since abandoned Gingold, he remains a detective, investigating the greatest mystery there is.

Powers and Weapons: When does with Gingold, detective Ralph Dibny's body becomes super-elastic. Ralph specializes in a gift for lateral thinking that even The Batman cannot match.

Essential Storylines: Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man and Identity Crisis.

And that's the first, tragic, hopeful, emotional rollercoaster that is the first quarter of 52!

[Jack Zodiac]

"The History of the DC Universe"

Donna is on New Cronus reflecting on all her her thousands of pasts now that she is the possessor of Harbinger's Orb, which contains all information about the multiverse and each of its seperate universes. She begins to watch its most recent recordings, that which will be used to define the New Earth universe. And so, in the beginning, creation was sparked in the middle of darkness, and it spawned the multiverse. At the center of one universe, that of Earth-One, on the planet Maltus, which would later become Oa, the scientist Krona was attempting to discover what created his universe, which resulted in the accidental creation of the Anti-Matter Universe. In response to his actions, the Oans became the Guardians of the Universe, binding all of the wild magic in the universe and creating the Manhunters, who would soon rebel against them. Making the mistake of programming machines to be moral the first time around, they then created the Green Lantern Corps, which allowed mortal beings to wield the power of the Green Lantern rings to police the universe. This happened in many universe, but would be most important to Earth-One, the universe which was most prone to superheroics, followed by Earth-Two- both of which were home to two different, yet similar, Supermen.

Earth-One and Earth-Two were very similar, but not identical. On Earth-One, Clark made his appearance known as Superboy, while on Earth-Two he didn't become Superman until after his parents died, when he was a young adult. On New Earth, we now know that Superman was once Superboy. Other heroes from the two Earths were similar yet completely different people, unlike Superman, like The Flash and Green Lantern and The Atom. There came a time when the two Earths met each other (we'll assume this is still the same adventure from the original "Crisis on Multiple Earths" storyline), as Earth-One's Justice League and Earth-Two's Justice Society banded together to face a common threat. Still, on Earth-One, the age of heroics flourished even greater than on Earth-Two, with multiple generations of heroes fighting alongside each other, stretching all the way into the 31st century, with the Legion of Super-heroes. All of this would be changed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, though.

Krona's attempt to solve the mystery of the universe's birth resulted in the creation of the Anti-Matter Universe. With this universe's birth, the Anti-Monitor was born, and at that same moment, in Krona's universe of Earth-One, the Monitor was as well. Since nothing is mentioned to contradict the Crisis, we'll assume that all of the events leading up to the anti-matter wave destroying the multiverse remain the same. Eventually, the anti-matter wave released to destroy all universe reaches Earth-Three, where a benevolent version of Lex Luthor rockets his only son, Alexander, into the Earth-One Universe in order to survive the Crisis. There, he grows in a matter of hours as the Monitor and Harbinger, his daughter-like second-in-command, form an army of superhumans, hero and villain, in order to stop the destruction of the multiverse. During the course of events, the Anti-Monitor possesses Harbinger and kills the Monitor. The now-adult Alexander Luthor takes his place and leads Earth's heroes against the Anti-Monitor himself, resulting in the death of Kara Zor-El, Supergirl.

After Kara' death, the Anti-Monitor pushed for his greatest assault against the multiverse. He constructed an anti-matter cannon in the Anti-Matter Universe with the help of the Weaponers of Qward. In order to keep the cannon from being used, destroying all universe's but the Anti-Matter Universe, Barry Allen, Earth-One's Flash, raced around the anti-matter cannon's barrel, forcing the energy back inside of it until it destroyed itself. In the process, the anti-matter slowly killed him as his exceeding speed sent his screaming image through time to warn others of the impending doom. His cannon destroyed, the Anti-Monitor took the fight to the beginning of creation itself, in order to make the Anti-Matter Universe dominant over Earth-One. As he shapped the beginnings of the universe, The Spectre reach back into the Anti-Matter Universe and stopped him with one hand. Looking back at that moment from the future, Krona completely shatters reality, destroying every single universe except for Earth-One. In a last-ditch effort to claim some sort of personal victory, the Anti-Monitor attempted to destroy the remaining universe, but Superman, Kal-L from Earth-Two, destroyed him before he could, saving the very last Earth in the multiverse from destruction. The remaining heroes slid back into certain roles in the new reality, merging heroes from Earth-Two, Earth-One, and others into one, single universe and then rewriting time around that. Everyone forgot about the Crisis, except for Alex, Kal-L, Lois from Earth-Two, and Superboy-Prime, who resigned themselves into a heavenly pocket dimension created by Alex. Aside from them, the only people who would remember the Crisis would be Psycho Pirate, who went insane from it, and Donna Troy, who benefits from being the amalgamation of all of her alternate reality selves.

In this new universe, the heroes became progressively "questionable." Booster Gold came from the future to the past to make himself a hero with future knowledge. The Suicide Squad was formed to make villains work for the government. The organization Checkmate was formed, which paved the way for Maxwell Lord to use his ties to the new Justice League in order to gain power and safety while he plotted against the heroic community. And Batman became more and more reclusive as his life was broken time and again. After finally apprehending Joe Chill, the murderer of his parents, Batman finally found some piece of mind. His ward, Dick Grayson, was a model sidekick and eventually grew up to become a great hero, Nightwing. Jason Todd would take Dick's place and become his next ward, until the darker times came. The Joker would paralyze Barbara Gordon, former Batgirl, and then brutally murder Jason Todd and his mother. Bruce was heartbroken and slipped into depression. Unbeknownst to almost everyone, though, time effectively trying to right itself would resurrect Jason Todd. With the millenium coming, interstellar changes occured. The Oans and Zamarons banded together to fight the Manhunters, and the Dominators attacked the Earth, which resulted in the metagene being identified. New heroes emerged, like the Team Titans, and old heroes were broken, as Superman died fighting Doomsday and Batman was paralyzed by Bane. In Superman's absence, new Supermen would replace him, including Superboy and John Henry Irons, and Cyborg, an evil robotic doppleganger who used his appearance as Superman to reshape the Earth for War World. He destroyed Coast City, which sent Hal Jordan over the edge, allowing the Parallax fear entity to possess him. He killed the Guardians of Oa and destroyed the Central Battery. The very last Green Lantern ring went to Kyle Rayner, and a new age of heroes was ushered in once again. Nearly a decade after the original Crisis, they were moving closer to Zero Hour.

[Jack Zodiac]

Far into the future, Extant, once the evil Monarch, once the courageous Hawk, began a retroactive wave of entropy that would destroy all of reality. Waverider of the Linear Men, having recently stopped the Armageddon event from occuring, sought to defeat Extant in the past to stop him by gathering Earth's greatest heroes. The Justice Society fought him at the Vanishing Point, a place outside of time, while in the timestream, events began to unfold that would change certain aspects of history, such as Hawkman's past and the Legion of Super-Heroes' future. While watching his friends die, Kal-L (still living in his paradise with Lois, Superboy, and Alex) began punching the crystal wall of his reality. As events unfolded, it was slowly revealed that Hal Jordan, Parallax, was seeking to remake reality by allowing entropy to devour the universe until a central point where he could make it better, fixing the problems that he thought were important, like Coast City's destruction. Before he could do too much damage, The Spectre appeared to stop him and Extant. He held them at bay until Damage could be given enough energy to defeat Hal Jordan by unleashing it all in a synthetic Big Bang, recreating the universe basically the same as before with previous inconsistencies and anomalies corrected. And I can type that with a straight face because Jurgens wrote it in the book, so I'm technically not lying, just relaying.

After Zero Hour, the Justice League of America reformed around a core group of seven (Aquaman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Superman). After Oliver Queen's death, Connor Hawke, his son, succeeded him as Green Arrow. Clark married Lois Lane. Soon after the time-crisis, the Earth was threatened again by the Sun-Eater during Final Night. Hal Jordan sacrificed his life to defeat it and reignite Earth's sun, which would work towards his eventual redemption. After the event, Superman was nearly powerless and had tried to rekindle his own powers, which resulted in them radically changing into the electro-magnetic realm for a while. Ray Palmer, The Atom, formed his own group of Titans. As Gotham City was wrecked by earthquakes, a new Batgirl appeared to lend a hand. Lex Luthor helped rebuild the city, paving his way to the White House. Many of the League's protégés formed the group Young Justice and the old Teen Titans, now the Titans, helped them bridge the gap between generations. The Justice Society of America was similarly reformed by combining the old with the new, and Hal Jordan was given a second chance as The Spectre. Just as things were looking good, they turned for the worse. Lex became President and got in cahoots with Darkseid and Brainiac 13, who kickstarted the intergalactic war with Imperiex, which resulted in more heroes dying, including Wonder Woman's mother, Hippolyta. Superman stopped Imperiex and Brainiac by dropping them both in the same Big Bang that stopped Parallax. Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku was given the last remaining bit of Hal's energy as Parallax in the form of a child he thought to be Hal's son. His son turned out to be his ring's conciousness, which sacrificed itself to remake Oa, which would later allow Kyle to bring the Corps back. Hawkman was reborn on Thanagar. Oliver Queen was reborn in Star City. Jason Todd was thought to have been a part of Bruce's battle with his old childhood friend, who would become Hush. And Donna Troy died, again, when a renegade Superman robot shot a hole though her heart. This split the Titans and Young Justice up, which resulted in the formation of the new Outsiders and the newer Teen Titans. San Diego was forced into the sea by a man-made earthquake, becoming Sub Diego, which Arthur ruled as Aquaman for a short time. The JSA saved Rex Tyler, the original Hourman, from his moment of death by replacing him with the android Hourman from the future. And Kara Zor-El made her Post-Crisis debut as Superman's cousin. Stephanie Brown, who had become Bruce's new Robin for a short time, was killed by Black Mask during a Gotham gang war. Things were winding up to yet another Crisis.

Of course, I mean Identity Crisis. On his birthday, as it happened every year, Ralph went out on a fake case while Sue and his friends planned to throw him a surprise party, which he pretends to fall for annually. That year, however, the party was ruined before it started as Sue was attacked and killed, burned beyond recognition. Afterwards, we found out that the first suspect was Dr. Light, as he had broken into the League's satellite years and years ago and raped Sue, which was covered up by certain members of the League at that time, including Zatanna, who would erase Dr. Light's memory and make him a baffoon forever afterwards. It was also revealed that she did the same to Batman, who had interrupted the activity and voiced out against it, but was restrained and mind-screwed afterwards. The story unfolded and more members of the League had family members threatened or killed. Lois was sent a death threat at the Planet, Jean was almost hung, and Jack Drake was shot and killed by Digger Harkness, Captain Boomerang, who he in turn killed in the fray. Eventually, Earth's greatest detectives found two tiny footprints on the surface of Sue's brain. As it would soon be revealed, Jean Loring, the ex-wife of Ray Palmer, The Atom, had used one of Ray's old suits to shrink herself down and threaten Sue, making people in the League worry more about their loved ones, something she hoped would bring Ray back to her. She accidentally killed Sue, instead, and covered her tracks by creating an elaborate murder mystery to surround it. Ray had her arrested and she was sent to Arkham. Meanwhile, Batman was slowly recovering his supressed memories, realizing that he couldn't trust his friends any more. All of these things would eventually lead up to yet another Crisis.

[Jack Zodiac]

After Sue's death and the revelation that the League had tampered with the minds of villains in the past, the majority of the active supervillain population banded together to create the Society. Wally was in the middle of a war between his rogues and the reformed rogues working for the government. Mia Dearden became the new Speedy and joined the Teen Titans. Superman's arctic Fortress of Solitude was destroyed and he rebuilt another in Ecuador. Hal Jordan was brought back to life and became Green Lantern again, leaving The Spectre without a host. Jean Loring, the new Eclipso, seduced The Spectre into believing all magic to be evil, setting him on a course of action that would literally destroy the Ninth Age of Magic before the newly formed Shadowpact was able to stop him. Rann and Thanagar were thrown into war. Batman's paranoid project, Brother Eye, was activated by Maxwell Lord, the Black King of Checkmate, which activated millions of sleeper agents capable of taking on any superhero by adapting to their powers. All of this could have been avoided had the League listened to Ted Kord when he went to them for help. After finding out about Kord's death, Batman admitted to creating the satellite controlling the OMACs that Max was using against the metahuman community. Wonder Woman killed Max for controlling Superman's mind and forcing him to almost kill Bruce and herself. This was broadcast to the entire world by Brother Eye, which also killed the Earth's trust in the League. This also sparked the most rage in Kal-L of Earth-Two, who decided then that Earth-One wasn't worthy of being the leftover universe. The new Red Hood revealed himself as Jason Todd to Batman. An uncountable army of OMACs controlled by a sentient Brother Eye declared all-out war on superhumans. Donna was reborn and reclaimed by her friends and loved ones on New Cronus, where her and a chosen few would make a final stand during the coming Infinite Crisis.

As OMACs attacked the superhero world and the Trinity of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman argued about ethics, the heroes who sacrificed everything during the first Crisis deemed Earth-One to be unworthy of existence. Kal-L, Lois Kent, Alexander Luthor, and Superboy-Prime all broke out of their heaven to judge Earth-One. Truly, though, it was all a plot by Alex and Superboy to restore the multiverse. Alex used Superboy to set up a series of events that would lead to the Crisis in order for the perfect conditions to be met for him to recreate the multiverse and create the perfect world out of its parts. They collected survivors of the first Crisis to power a tower made out of parts of the Anti-Monitor to harness the lingering magic from the death of the Ninth Age to bring back all the worlds that were destroyed so Alex could combine pieces of them. Meanwhile, Deathstroke dropped Chemo on Blüdhaven, destroying most of it, killing thousands, and irradiating the area beyond recovery. Lois Kent of Earth-2 died from old age after being freed from their heaven dimension. Batman and a squad of heroes went into space and destroyed Brother Eye. Nightwing and Conner Kent decided to attack Alex head on and destroy his tower. In a final battle between Superboy and Superboy-Prime, the tower was destroyed, shattering the multiverse completely, its shards combining to create the New Earth universe. Conner died to save existence, but Superboy-Prime didn't. He fought on, seeking to find another way to recreate Earth-Prime so he could go home, and in the ensuing battle between himself, Kal-L and Superman, the Superman of Earth-2 died at his hands. Superman was only able to beat Superboy-Prime after he'd considerably weakened himself, and the battle used up the last of his powers. Superboy-Prime was imprisoned in a Red Sun Eater on Oa. And now, New Earth stands as the only known universe left. For now.

As Donna's finishing rewatching the history of the multiverse, surprised by the sudden revelation that in a divergent timeline, she should have died in space during the final battle instead of Jade. This prompts the appearance of a Monitor, one of the five seen in Brave New World, who tells her that she is an anomaly, and because of these strange deviations in the timeline, they have not made their presence known. Not yet.

[mrc1214]

Good job on the summary very detailed.

[Jack Zodiac]

Good job on the summary very detailed.

Thanks. It gave me a reason to go back and read every issue over again, which allowed me to catch things- like the wolfman and snakeman who abducted Sivana, and the fact that A'Daire and Abbot used to work for Ra's and now, unexplainably, work for Intergang.

"Further Time" might be a play on words for "Father Time" who's been important in Battle for Bludhaven and Freedom Fighters.

Ah, interesting. I never even tried to connect him to that line. Was there a Father Time character in DC before? Maybe the fact that he's different and is now in control of SHADE is important to other events, especially since he's manipulating the government and the President.

[mrc1214]

Thanks. It gave me a reason to go back and read every issue over again, which allowed me to catch things- like the wolfman and snakeman who abducted Sivana, and the fact that A'Daire and Abbot used to work for Ra's and now, unexplainably, work for Intergang.
.

Im going to have to re-read them. 52 is alot to take in and remember. But its been worth it me.

[comicsgazillions.com]

Thats alot of good work you have done to make 52 a little more understandable. Thank you.
Ed

[gentlesatirist]

...is already more satisfying than Infinite Crisis. It's better-plotted, better-written and better-drawn.

Which is hard to understand, because you'd think a weekly multi-writer, multi-artist series would be more diffuclt that a monthly series that was supposed to reshape a company's entire publishing universe. Go figure.

I'd planned on picking up the first 2-3 issues of this series, but now have bought the first 18 and still have reason to keep reading. Well done, DC.


- FE