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52 Week Twenty

By Hervé St.Louis
September 23, 2006 - 19:37

52 Week Twenty

After a shocking revelation last issue about the possible identity of Super Nova, we see him sneaking inside Wayne Manor and the Batcave. What does he want? Starfire, Animal Man and Adam Strange face off against a creature that looks like Unicron’s head from the Transformers’ movie. Will the trio, as well as the new archbishop Lobo defeats the planet scavenger?

The space adventure of the Starfire, Animal Man and Adam Strange resembles something from Marvel Comics instead of standard DC Comics’ turf. Giant cosmic creatures travelling from planets to planets are more Marvel themes. As with anything related to 52, the reader has no idea where it’s going. The writers and publicity keep saying that there is a grand scheme to all of this, but on the eve of the half a year point, I still see no real pattern. 52 is mostly padding with snippets of four regular comic book series stretched over a full year. I long for a real story to grab my interest instead of a few plot elements and a ton of subplots. A story is not just about the ending where the plot is revealed to its full extent to readers. The ride has to be entertaining too.

Batista is one of the best 52 artists, next to Bennett. He brings life to the characters. Although he doesn’t design the layouts, he does make the best use of them. His characters don’t look stiff. As many have pointed out, J.G. Jones has based his cover design off the Daredevil movie. Starfire looks a lot like Elektra. Comic book artists have always “borrowed” from other sources. However, putting borrowed items on a comic book cover is not a good idea, when it’s not a real homage. How much stuff has Jones borrowed since he started working on 52? Black Adam’s origin in 52 # 16 made him look like Bruce Willis.
7/10

52 # 19 Review

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12