52 #1: Golden Lads & Lasses Must... Review

Medium: Comic

Release date: 5/10/2006

Review date: 9/23/2024

Score: 7/10

That was enjoyable; as a fan of the “Justice League Unlimited” cartoon, I've always loved the DC stories involving the more minor heroes, so doing a weekly series for an entire year of basically nothing but those stories is just the type of pitch that immediately resonates with me. Unfortunately, like a lot of superhero comics, you just can't jump into this series without knowing some background about what's going on in the larger DC Universe, and especially so in this case - DC had just completed this big universe defining, canon rewriting and rearranging crossover event called “Infinite Crisis” in 2006, which ended with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman disappearing for a bit, leading to other smaller heroes, who normally don't get the spotlight, to step up and cover the business the Big Three would have handled were they active at the moment. One of those heroes, Booster Gold, is a guy from the 25th Century who stole a super suit, a robot, and a record of every news headline from the present until the 25th Century to use to "predict crime" and “be a hero” in the present day. Per Booster Gold's future history though, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are supposed to reappear and reform the Justice League at a gathering of heroes in Metropolis after the events of “Infinite Crisis” (as the superheroes of the world aren't exactly sure who even survived “Infinite Crisis”) which was to take place that week (I personally thought the issue was a little unclear about what exactly this gathering was supposed to be for, as the issue had previous mentioned a funeral for Elongated Man's wife, but when the gathering actually took place it did not appear like they were at a funeral, so like I said, unclear). The character of Elongated Man is introduced in this series to be in a very rough place, what with his house destroyed and his previously mentioned recently deceased wife; we even see the guy stick a gun in his mouth and contemplate suicide at a point. Along with Elongated Man and Booster Gold, we see the antihero Black Adam lay out his plan to elevate his nation of Kahndaq (a fictional country in the Middle East in the DC universe) to an international stage to try and make the Kahndaq brand of justice more widespread after “Infinite Crisis,” a justice Black Adam quickly gets to demonstrate when he kills a suicide vest clad terrorist who attempts to attack the crowd listening while the Kahndaqi lays out his plans. Likewise, similar to the Elongated Man, the issue shows us the character of Renee Montoya, a former member of the Gotham Police Department, currently drinking herself to death following “Infinite Crisis,” at her complete rock bottom. And finally we see the hero Steel and his niece Natasha (who is also decked out in a metal super suit) getting into an argument over Steel feeling like Natasha hasn't 100% earned the cockiness of some of her recent behavior, with the argument ending when Steel remotely disassembles Natasha’s suit. However, all of that gets superseded at the end of the issue when at the superhero gathering that Booster Gold's history says Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman are supposed to reappear at, the three do not, in fact, show up, with a disguised Clark Kent emerging from the crowd to tell a freaking out Booster Gold that "they're not coming."

I liked this issue, I thought it was a pretty enjoyable set up; like I said, I've always enjoyed the weirder side heroes in DC, so a scenario where they get to take the limelight since the Big Three are MIA is great. The format of a weekly comic series that’s supposed to progress in real time (each weekly issue progresses chronologically day by day, so Issue #1 covered the first week of time in the DC universe after Infinite Crisis), is really cool: it's explicitly inspired by the show “24,” which covered an entire 24 hour “day” through 24 separate one hour episodes that were supposed to portray that day in complete. But that being said, I do think there's just a bit too much backstory you, the reader, have to understand to be on the same page as the series, like to really get where this comic is starting from you have to know that Elongated Man's wife died quite horribly and recently (as of 2006) in the comics; you have to know all about this massive universe changing super crossover event “Infinite Crisis” to understand what the setup and stakes of the premise of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman all being missing now even means, and I think that's too much to ask of anyone who’s not the hardest of hardcore DC fans. Not that I wanted half of the first issues of 52 to be a recap of recent DC events, but I did struggle to feel as invested in the stories as I think I could have, just because I wasn't even exactly sure what was going on.

But those gripes aside, a fun setup overall. I’m pretty intrigued to see where this goes, especially with the benefit of hindsight and knowing the series does manage to pull off the fever dream of 52 issues released every week for a year, so hopefully the gaps in me understanding what exactly happened during “Infinite Crisis” just get filled in down the road in later issues.