52 Week #36

by Christopher Cummings

With this thirty-sixth issue, 52 hurtles toward its conclusion as one of the more drawn out storylines begins to conclude and several of the more interesting storylines start to gel. 

---

With this thirty-sixth issue, 52 hurtles toward its conclusion as one of the more drawn out storylines begins to conclude and several of the more interesting storylines start to gel.

For months, Starfire, Adam Strange, Animal Man, and Lobo have been tooling around in space with the heinous Lady Styx hot on their trail (or vice versa) in what has been, generally, a very slow moving arc with nothing much of interest taking place. This issue opens with Lobo, betraying the other heroes and offering them to Lady Styx in exchange for bounty. Styx doesn’t speak a language Lobo understands, so Lobo’s flying dolphin translates Styx’s responses to the Main Man. Styx has some unflattering comments on Lobo’s recent conversion to pacifism which quickly push Lobo over the edge and back to his bloodthirsty ways. The fight pinwheels out of control, resulting in the death of a longtime DC hero.

Back on earth, teenage hero Osiris ponders the ramifications of his slaying of the Suicide Squad’s Persuader; Renee prepares to bring the Question back to Nanda Parbat in search of a mystical cure for his cancer; and the time-traveling Rip Hunter and the mysterious Supernova, hidden in the bottled city of Kandor, work feverishly on a device that can destroy the murderous robot known as Skeets. The issue ends with a cliffhanger that is very exciting provided the reader is familiar with the ongoing storylines.

This issue features many compelling sequences, but the quick pacing dilutes much of the impact. For example, the battle between Styx and the space-faring heroes has been building for months—and is resolved in four pages. The hero who dies as a result of the battle is quickly pushed off stage, leaving no time to reflect on the character or his pointless demise. Renee’s departure from Gotham, leaving her rekindled love-interest to fend for herself against Intergang, should have felt dramatic, on par with Casablanca; instead, it’s just another series of four panels to rush Renee off stage. That said, the brief interlude with Osiris and his talking crocodile Sobek was one of the most touching seven panels I’ve read in a long time. As with every issue of 52 to date, the art in the main story (this time by Jamal Igle) is serviceable, nothing more. If anything has suffered from this exercise in weekly storytelling, the pencils are it. The bonus two-page origin story of Power Girl with great art by Adam Hughes only serves to underscore this point.

The highlights of the issue are the talking dolphin’s interpretations of Lady Styx’s growls and the sequence in Kandor. The talking dolphin sequence is especially intriguing because of its ambiguity. In eight panels, the dolphin lights into Lobo, calling him a coward and worse, but it’s unclear whether the dolphin is translating Styx accurately or if the clever porpoise is simply goading Lobo into action in an attempt to save Starfire and the others. Meanwhile, readers now know why Supernova stole Lex Luthor’s Kryptonite gauntlet from the Batcave—for Rip Hunter, who has been missing since early in the series—but we still don’t know why Skeets is after Hunter, who Supernova is, or how Hunter is connected to Supernova.

Supernova’s true identity has been one of the ongoing mysteries in 52 and many theories abound. Who is Supernova? Why is he protecting Metropolis in Superman’s absence? Given the weaving together of Supernova with Rip Hunter, and the earlier weaving together of Supernova and Booster Gold before Booster’s death, my theory is that Supernova is either Booster Gold himself (rescued from his ignominious death by Rip Hunter) or Daniel Carter whom Skeets attempted to toss out of the timestream back in week nineteen. Carter seems to be the logical choice, given his lineage with Booster Gold, his place of residence (Metropolis), and his stated interest in Luthor’s Everyman project. With sixteen issues remaining, answers are certain to be coming fast and furious. Hopefully the reveal and its aftermath receive more pages than the battle with Lady Styx.

52 Week #36
“How To Win A War In Space”
Written by: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Art Breakdowns by: Keith Giffen
Pencilled by: Jamal Igle
Inks by: Keith Champagne
Colors by: David Baron
Lettered by: Pat Brosseau