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52, Week 41
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Story Title: 'Miracles & Wonders'
Writer:
Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid
Art Breakdowns by: Keith Giffen
Penciller: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inker: Rodney Ramos
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editors: Michael Siglain
Cover by: J.G. Jones & Alex Sinclair |
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Reviewed by:
Bruce Logan |
Another week of 52 and let us see what does the magic crystal
ball show us time around. Which character get shafted and crapped on, all to
make way for yet another a ‘legacy’, one which as with just about everything DC
lately is so shamelessly P.C. that that it doesn’t even border on the cliff it
outright jumps into the abyss of ‘Easy-Breezy-No-Thinking-Involved’ ideas…well,
if you can even call it an idea. Hmm, take an existing character, knock him off
and put a ‘special interest’ character in his place.
Batgirl, Atom, Blue Beetle, Firestorm and more, all got, ahem, updated for the
21st century. I’d put Hawkman in there too, but in his case only the
title underwent a change (to Hawkgirl), and that he is back…that is until he
dies the next time around and returns again to die again. (Well, you get the
idea.) Once a mainstay of fan fiction (or Elseworlds/AU stories), the
different-sex different-race shtick has become the holy grail of the mainline
DCU. So, it should not come as a surprise to any DC reader if a few months (or
even weeks) from now, a new Question shows face (or in maybe does NOT show it).
Yay for easy character assassinations, both figurative and literary.
Day 1: The journey through space continues as the now two, Adam Strange
and Starfire, get attacked on and barely make it out alive, but not without
Koriand’r getting severely wounded.
Day 2: And the Renee Montoya self-blame train takes off again, this time
from Death Central station. For those wondering about her current state, don’t
fret, after all seeing as she is to carry on a legacy, not only will Ms. Montoya
miracously find her inner strength (to go with her spectacular martial art
skills), she will also soon enough get the ‘conspiracy theorist’ attitude that
her predecessor carried of so well.
Day 3: Don’t quite know what to make of this, other than having picked up
the bottle (that Renee dropped off) the now perpetually drunk Ralph Dibny
continues on his journey to try to get back his wife. Correct me, but wasn’t the
whole purpose of Infinite Crisis to do away with all the Frank Miller-esque
darkness blanketing the DCU? Oh sorry, I forgot that it was only for the
Trinity, for Batman, Superman and…and…uh, that third one. Sorry but the name
slips me right now. As for the Dibny plotline, even though it all seems to be
building up to something worthwhile (and it better be), the whole journey thing
has started to seem quite dragged out and monotonous.
Day 5: Back to Renee and with Drama Queen Montoya taking a back seat this
day, Horndog (or will that be Hornb!tch?) Montoya sets a foot forward, only to
get booted back. As for who this other woman is whom Renee meets, well, it could
be anyone from Lady Shiva to (yet another earth version of) Vic Sage, one where
he, uh, she is a woman. Then again, it could be Wonder Woman in her Post-IC but
Pre-Hindenburg, I mean, Heinberg days, and the friend she is going to meet,
well, I forgot the name of that oh-so-important Silver Age
trinket-of-a-character’s name. Yeah, lets go with that one. That and her
presence on the cover.
Day 7: Y’know, I really wish that instead of just forgetting about them
(for weeks at a stretch), the writers of 52 would have done to the ‘space’ plot
what they are doing now…that way, the emotional interactions (and its impact)
between Starfire and Adam Strange would have been much more pronounced than
coming off like ‘too little too late’. Still, anything that has a Mogo
appearance gets double thumbs up from me.
Onto the ‘Origin’ and this time around it is Starfire.
The artwork of both the main story and the ‘origin’ backup works out quite well,
albeit with a slightly over saturated coloring.
Conclusion: With just under a dozen weeks to go, here’s hoping
that the story speed picks up. As for the Wonder Woman appearance (if I am
correct about that), just seeing the duration of it should be an indication
enough of her ‘real’ importance to the DCU (in the eyes of the writers if not
DC’s TPTB). RATING: 7.5/10
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