The Revolution was blown away with the last issue of 52. It was probably the best issue so far in this series. You can feel the tension as the writers begins to crank up the intensity as this series hurtles toward the conclusion. I am confident that 52 #28 is going to be another fine read. Let’s do this review.
Creative Team
Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Penciler: Drew Johnson
Inker: Jack Jadson, Ruy Jose and Rodney Ramos
Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Week 28, Day 2: We begin with the Question and Montoya back in Gotham using their homemade Batsignal to try and get Batwoman’s attention. Batwoman appears and is less than thrilled to see Montoya. Montoya and the Question fill Batwoman in on the Book of Crime’s prophecy of Batwoman’s death that is supposed to happen in three days.
We shift to somewhere in the Outback of Australia. A bunch of white guys show up to kick out a bunch of aborigines from their sacred grounds. (Yes! I am so relieved to know that white dudes are evil no matter in other countries around the globe. I mean, comic books have taught me that in America, white people are evil, but I never knew about white people in other countries. Glad to see it is the same around the world.) One of the aborigines says he isn’t leaving and produces what appears to be a Sony Playstation controller. And then we see what the controller controls: a really ghetto looking Red Tornado.
The Red Tornado starts laying a beat down on the evil blancos. During this entire time, Reddy keeps saying “52!” The Red Tornado begins to get out of control and starts creating tornados. One of the aborigines uses a sledge hammer to knock Red Tornado’s head off and yells that this robot isn’t right and that it is going to kill somebody. Then the blancos join in and the Red Tornado gets beaten into the ground.
We then see the police arrive and arrest the aborigine controlling the Red Tornado. The white dudes throw Red Tornado’s head and other parts into a scrap pile to be taken to the junkyard. We see that the blancos are working for Ridge Ferrick who is creating another uranium mine on the Aborigine sacred ground. (Oh yeah, the only thing more evil that white dudes, are white dudes working for a greedy corporation.)
Week 28, Day 4: We see out lost heroes in space along with Lobo running from the Emerald Head of Ekron.
Week 28, Day 5: We see Batwoman laying the smackdown on some Intergang bad guys. Bruno Mannheim appears and gets Batwoman in a death lock. Suddenly, Montoya and the Question appear and tell Mannheim to let go of Batwoman. Mannheim freaks out that “The Questions” are here and he throws Batwoman at them. Mannheim yells that the questions have not yet been answered and then escapes from our heroes.
We slide back to our heroes out in space. The begin brawling with the Emerald Head of Ekron. During the fight, we notice that the Head of Ekron is no longer attacking. Starfire mentions that the Head doesn’t seem that ferocious. We see a person in the head calling for help. On the cockpit window we see the Green Lantern insignia. This is the Lantern of Vengar. Starfire confronts Lobo and says that Lobo stole this Green Lanterns’ primary weapon, the Emerald Eye, and left the Green Lantern defenseless against a power that devastated the planets under his protection. The Lantern’s space sector was tramples to dust by the same “Stygian Passover” that attacked them a few weeks ago. Starfire tells Animal Man and Adam Strange that the Stygian Passover is headed toward Earth. That they must stop it. End of story.
We get “treated” to a two page back up story about the origin of Catman. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: 52 fell back to Earth with this issue. While 52 #28 was certainly a good read, it wasn’t nearly as powerful a read as last issue. Still, I thought that the boys at DC did another good job on this issue. 52 #28 was nicely paced and moved along several plotlines that had stalled out over the past several issues.
The writers addressed the Red Tornado plotline for the first time since 52 #21. It is clear that Red Tornado is going to play a rather pivotal role in this series since he keeps yammering on about “52” in every scene. Red Tornado clearly has the events that happened out in space at the end of Infinite Crisis stored in his memory banks. This plotline is only going to get more and more interesting and we head to the end of 52.
Of course, now that Reddy is headed back to a junkyard, it will be interesting to see how he gets discovered and by whom.
The writers addressed our lost heroes in space for the first time since 52 #20. I liked these scenes. I loved the revelation that the Emerald Head of Ekron is actually a Green Lantern. That was a pretty cool twist. We are now presented with the question of why Lobo would steal the Emerald Eye from a Green Lantern leaving him powerless to stop the Stygian Passover from destroying his space sector. I’m interested to learn more about this Stygian Passover. At this point, it seems like just another generic rampant destructive force from outer space. I hope that the writers have an interesting origin for the Stygian Passover. Stygian means of or pertaining to the river Styx, the principal river of the underworld in Greek mythology; hence, hellish; infernal. It also means dark and dismal. I have a feeling that there is much more to this plotline than the writers are lettings us onto at the moment.
The writers generated some nice chemistry between Animal Man, Adam Strange and Starfire. These characters are really gelling well with each other and deliver some excellent dialogue. Especially Animal Man. He gets all the good lines. I really hope that Animal Man survives 52. He is such a great character.
The scenes with Batwoman, Montoya and the Question were solid. Once again, we get more excellent chemistry between Montoya and the Question. I always enjoy the dialogue between those two characters. It is also neat to see how Montoya has grows and matured over the course of 52. That she has more confidence and has tapped into some new inner strength. Plus, the reader can see how Montoya’s relationship with the Question has bloomed into a strong friendship and watching the Question die is killing Montoya. Remember, Montoya’s partner in the Gotham Police Department died on her as well. It will be interesting to see Montoya deal with those emotions all over again.
The art is average. But, that has been the norm for this series ever since the beginning. 52 has never been about the “hot” artwork. It has always been about the story.
The Bad: I just can’t get into Batwoman’s character at all. I will admit up front that I have a bias in this certain situation. I have never liked derivative heroes. Spider Girl, Spider Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Aquagirl, or She-Hulk. None of them. I find them to be unoriginal, needlessly repetitious and forever regulated to an inferior role to the original hero.
Right now, Batwoman appears to exist for one reason only: sexual titillation. A smoking hot lipstick lesbian in a leather costume and high heel boots. Hey, I can’t say that I don’t find that hot, but I don’t really need that in my comic books. There are other better avenues if you are looking for that type of stimulation. Batwoman is as one-dimensional as a character can get. I probably will never like this character, but it would be nice if DC could make Batwoman into something more than just cheesecake.
I also still don’t dig Lobo. DC went all out of their way to promise us a Lobo that was all new and different and that would shock us. What do we get? A pacifist Lobo who wishes he could still be violent and nasty. Great. What a departure. Lobo still talks in his same annoying style of dialogue and is basically the exact same boring personality that he was back in the 1990’s. Lobo was a lame character back in the ‘90’s and guess what? He is still a lame character. Hopefully, he will die in 52 rather than Starfire or Animal Man.
Overall: 52 #28 was another good read. The boys at DC continue to impress me with this title. Each plotline is starting to heat up and you can feel the tension increasing with each and every issue. I’m still amazed at how consistently good 52 has been each and every week.