52 #25 Review

Last issue was a solid read. Nothing great, but certainly not bad. Hopefully, 52 #25 will be a more entertaining read. I can’t believe that we are almost at the halfway point in way has been a wonderful title. And so far, this title has shipped on time every single week. I know that we still have the second half of this title to go, but almost everybody out there thought that DC would never be able to pull off 52 on time each and every week. All right, let’s hit this review.

Creative Team
Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Penciler: Phil Jimenez
Inker: Andy Lanning

Art Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: Week 25, Day 1: The issue starts in Gotham City with a meeting between Bruno Mannheim, the leader of Intergang, and the various crime bosses of Gotham. Bruno tells the bosses to either affiliate with Intergang or die. Bruno then kills the bosses who decide not to join Intergang. We learn that Bruno has ties to the occult and has become an apostle of evil. An evangelist of crime.

Week 25, Day 3: We see a large demon rampaging on Halloween night. Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel are struggling to stop the demon. Suddenly, the Black Marvel Family shows up on the scene. Osiris and Black Adam take down the demon. Captain Marvel, Jr. then tells Mary Marvel that he intends to find out who Osiris is.

We cut to Ralph Dibny and Dr. Fate’s helmet somewhere in the netherworld. Dr. Fate’s helmet shows various souls being tortured for eternity since they abused magic. The last person Dr. Fate’s helmet shows Ralph is Felix Faust. Faust’s soul has been turned to stone. Ralph understands that this is the punishment for people who abuse magic. For people who think they can beat the devil. Ralph tells the helmet that he has had enough show and tell and is ready for Fate to help him get his wife back.

We shift to New York City. Icicle and Tigress just pulled off a heist. Infinity Inc. show up to stop them. The newest member of Infinity Inc. who replaced Trajectory takes down Icicle and Tigress. We shift to Alan Scott walking away from the fight scene. Alan meets up with Mr. Terrific. Alan tells Mr. Terrific that he is the new White King for Checkmate and he wants Mr. Terrific to be his White Bishop.

Week 25, Day 4: We shift to Oolong Island where Dr. Magnus is telling Professor Morrow that he is not some insane scientist and he won’t help build a plutonium robot for Intergang. We see Bruno Mannheim arrive on the island. Mannheim is greeted by an alien looking creature named Chang Tzu. Mannheim asks him if he has a solution to the problem in Kahndaq. Chang Tzu says that he has weapons so terrible that they have been called the Four Horsemen. End of story.

We then get a two page back-up story about Nightwing. End of issue.
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Comments
The Good: 52 #25 was another solid read. We finally got some valuable and much needed insight into Intergang. Mannheim is a standard issue villain, but I dig the multi-faceted structured of Intergang. The unusual combination of regular crime bosses with the occult and alien creatures is a pretty interesting mix. At first, I wasn’t that impressed with Intergang. However, the more I learn about them, the more interesting of a criminal organization they become.

This issue ends with a nice hook. We get the introduction of a new character in Chang Tzu. We have no idea if he is an alien with a Chinese name or if he is one of the Great 10 and is some hybrid human/alien mixture. I’m betting he is the product of the Chinese metahuman program and has been infused with alien technology or biology. Either way, I think he is a pretty neat character and I’m looking forward to learning more about him.

The writers then dangle the threat of some brand new weapons in the form of the Four Horsemen. No, I don’t mean Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Ric Flair. Evidently, we are going to be treated to some new characters. At any rate, this was a good ending that got me interested in the next issue. There is no doubt that the entire Intergang plotline is finally becoming more and more interesting as it is starting to combine several of the various plotlines.

The scene with Dr. Fate’s helmet and Ralph was well done. The writers are being slow and deliberate with this plotline by just giving the reader small teasers with each issue. I am enjoying the slow and steady build up of what is undoubtedly going to be a very exciting plotline.

The writers are continuing to pull of a wonderful job of balancing the various plotlines and by slowly dovetailing certain plotlines together. Plus, the writers continue to give the readers answers that sprout even more questions. 52 is impressively structured and that is what makes it so much fun to read.

The Bad: While I don’t mind a slow and deliberate pace, 52 #25 was a bit too slow. Other than learning about Bruno Mannheim and the introduction of Chang Tzu at the end, this issue did little more than tread water. The scene with Black Adam was largely uneventful and rather pointless. Yeah, the Marvel Family knows about the Black Marvel Family, but that could have been done in a much more meaningful and interesting manner.

The scene with Alan Scott and Mr. Terrific was boring and merely told us what we already know. I know that we have to see the foundations of the new Checkmate being laid, but this scene isn’t very interesting when you have already known about all this from reading Checkmate.

The Infinity Inc. scene was also rather pointless and boring. Sure it showed off the new member, but that is about it.

I thought that the dialogue for this issue was unusually weak. It felt very standard at some parts and rather cheesy in other parts. One line was particularly weird. After defeating the demon, Osiris tells the bystanders “Happy Halloween, Judeo-Christians!” Now, I know that the roots of Halloween may stem from Judeo-Christian faiths; however, it is really a secular holiday that is celebrated by pretty much everyone. I mean, all Americans regardless of your faith or lack of faith celebrate Halloween. As a matter of fact, it is usually the really religious types that refuse to celebrate Halloween. So, I think that just saying “Happy Halloween, Americans” would have been much more appropriate and made a lot more sense.

The artwork was very unimpressive. The mishmash of 4 pencilers and 4 inkers was horrible and created a terribly schizophrenic look to this comic book.

Overall: 52 #25 was a solid read. The art was a little worse than usual and the story was slower and didn’t really give the reader anything new to chew on other than the very last page of this issue. All in all, I am still enjoying this title.