Faster than a DC Bullet: Prose Fiction #9: Project Crisis!, Part XXXIV: 52 [novelization]

Trade paperback, 359 pages
Published 2007
Borrowed from the library
Read March 2015

52 by Greg Cox

Prose and comics are two mediums that have very different strengths, and nowhere is that more evident than here. One of the things that made 52 so successful was its very investment in the comics model of long-form serialized storytelling: it told a single story in 52 parts, adding up to over a 1,000 pages of comics. Though obviously you could in theory reproduce this in other mediums (prose, television, &c.), I don't think it would play to their strengths, at least not as those mediums are produced in contemporary America.

So while a novel version of 52 could in theory work, I suppose, this novel version never could. The whole point of the story was its hugeness, its sprawl, its peeking into every corner of the DC universe/multiverse. That just cannot happen in a 359-page novel. Cox is hampered by trying to simulate the very format of the original comics; while in his later novelization of Countdown to Final Crisis, he can just lop out whole subplots, here he emulates the original comics in having 52 chapters, one for each week. This means at least some part of each issue has to make it into the book, which makes it much more difficult to cut the story down. Countdown focuses on just a couple of the subplots in great detail; the novel of 52 hits most of the subplots at a very superficial level.

The result is a book that would probably be mildly interested if you hadn't read 52 as a comic, but is thoroughly uninteresting if you have. I'm sure Greg Cox did his best with the hand he was dealt, but in this format, I just don't see a way this project could have ever succeeded.

(Also I'm pretty sure there's just one flat-out error: the Nightwing who meets Batwoman in Gotham is Dick Grayson here, but I'm pretty sure that in the comics he's meant to be the undead fellow former Robin Jason Todd impersonating Dick.)

Next Week: Time to begin a countdown... a Countdown to Final Crisis!

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part XXXII: 52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen

Comic trade paperback, 144 pages
Published 2008 (contents: 2007-08)
Acquired December 2012
Read August 2014

52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen

Writer: Keith Giffen

Pencils: Pat Olliffe
Inks: John Stanisci
Letters: Pat Brosseau, John J. Hill, Travis Lanham

This is one of those comic books that has no narrative reason to exist. You know, someone's like, "52 was popular, let's do a book with '52' in the title. People will buy it!" And the joke's on me, because I did buy it and I even read it, too. Even at six issues, though, this is pretty substanceless; the Four Horsemen were one of the less interesting aspects of 52, and I did not really desire to see them face down against Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Nothing of what made 52 work-- the rich tapestry that is the DC universe-- is present in this banal spin-off. Which is a shame, because Keith Giffen can do so much better!

Coming to the end of the Infinite Crisis tie-ins marks a switch in Project Crisis!; I'll be reviewing Batman: Year One comics next before coming back for Final Crisis and its tie-ins. Though first, on Friday, I'll be hitting up a bonus story...

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part XXXI: 52 Omnibus

Comic hardcover, 1202 pages
Published 2012 (contents: 2006-07)
Acquired December 2012
Read August 2014

52 Omnibus

Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid
Art Breakdowns: Keith Giffen

Pencillers: Eddy Barrows, Chris Batista, Joe Bennett, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Tom Derenick, Dale Eaglesham, Jamal Igle, Phil Jimenez, Drew Johnson, Justiniano, Dan Jurgers, Ken Lashley, Mike McKone, Shawn Moll, Todd Nacuk, Patrick Olliffe, Joe Prado, Darick Robertson, Andy Smith
Inkers: Marlo Alquiza, Eddy Barrows, Mariah Benes, Joe Bennett, Belardino Brabo, Keith Champagne, Draxhall, Drew Geraci, Dan Green, Jack Jason, Roy José, Andy Lanning, Jay Leisten, Dave Meikes, Nelson, Tom Nguyen, Jimmy Palmiotti, Rodney Ramos, Norm Rapmund, Darick Robertson, Prentis Rollins, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Rob Stull, Ray Snyder, Art Thibert, Walden Wong
Colorists: David Baron, Pete Pantazis, Alex Sinclair
Letterers: Phil Balsman, Pat Brosseau, Jared K. Fletcher, Travis Lanham, Rob Leigh, Ken Lopez, Nick J. Napolitano

At some point, I planned on doing something big for this book-- you know, "52 Reasons That I Loved 52." But then time got away from-- very away from me-- and as it is this review will go up a whole eleven months after I read this book, and a lot of my specific memories have faded, which is a shame, as I did write very specific reviews about a number of very unmemorable books taking place in and around 52.

But anyway, 52 covers the year after the Infinite Crisis on a week-by-week basis. It's a year where Superman is without his powers (he exerted them more than ever before to defeat Superboy-Prime during the Infinite Crisis), Batman is travelling the world trying to remember how not to be a dick, and Wonder Woman is on a spiritual retreat. So it falls to the true greats of the DC universe to watch over the Earth. You know, Booster Gold, Elongated Man, Steel, the Question, Batwoman, Lex Luthor. Those guys. The giants.

Of course, I was predisposed to like this. It's those also-rans of the DC universe that I love the most about it; I have a complete run of Justice League Europe, I have read every Green Arrow comic published between 1983 and 2011, and I believe that the 1992 Elongated Man miniseries is an unjustly overlooked highlight of the superhero genre. On the other hand, it's hard to deny that this has its problems-- some plots unnaturally spin their wheels for months, while others leap ahead between issues. Some of it is just boring; I really wanted to like the space heroes, but aside from their encounter with a newly peaceful Lobo, I never really connected to these adventures. There's a little too much of Black Adam punching people to death. And by "a little too much," I mean any. Some of it is confusing, like whatever Booster did to beat Mister Mind at the end. Some of it seems misguided, like Wonder Girl joining some kind of super-weird cult devoted to Superboy.

But then, there's the island of super-geniuses finally putting one over on the the one they see as the ultimate super-jock in Black Adam, there's Booster Gold's moment of final redemption, there's Renee Montoya losing everything and learning why it's important to do so, there's the Elongated Man revealing just how much he's worked out all along, there's Renee's desperate trek through the snow to save a life, there's Doctor Magnus (creator of the Metal Men) having monthly visits with the imprisoned T. O. Morrow (creator of the Red Tornado). And, in my favorite favorite moment, there's Clark Kent realizing he doesn't have to be Superman to be a great journalist-- and the amazing action he takes as a result.

I know that auteur television is all the rage these days, and certainly people really dig auteur comics a lot, too. But there's something to be said for really solid writer's room television (I think Ira Steven Behr on seasons 3-7 of Deep Space Nine was really great at this, and Ron Moore learned from him to repeat his success with seasons 1-2 of Battlestar Galactica, but that's another blog post), and 52 is basically writer's room comics. Johns, Morrison, Rucka, Waid, and Giffen are all really good comic book creators, but they all have completely different skillsets and interests. Each has done great comics on his own, but their work as a group blends their strengths in a way you'd never expect. One of the thrills of the DC universe for me is the diverse kind of storytelling it has. Who'd think that Superman: Last Son, Seven Soldiers of Victory, Gotham Central, The Brave and the Bold, and The Great Darkness Saga all take place in the same millieu? And yet all of those diverse perspectives take place in the same book. 52 is the definitive statement of what DC can be at its best.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part XXVII: 52: The Companion

Comic trade paperback, 224 pages
Published 2007 (contents: 1962-2006)
Acquired March 2013
Read June 2014

52: The Companion

Writers: Mark Schultz, Gardner Fox, Dan Jurgens, Jack Miller, Greg Rucka, Steve Ditko, Grant Morrison, Steve Gerber, David Goyer & Geoff Johns

Pencillers: Doug Mahnke, Carmine Infantino, Dan Jurgens, Alex Toth, Kano, Steve Ditko, Chas Truog, Murphy Anderson, Walter Simonson, Leonard Kirk
Inkers: Tom Nguyen, Carmine Infantino, Tim Dzon, Alex Toth, Stefano Gaudiano, Steve Ditko, Doug Hazlewood, Murphy Anderson, Walter Simonson, Keith Champagne

52 is, as you might know, an 52-part series filling in a year in the DC universe where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are all gone. It draws on DC's vast tapestry of characters and concepts. 52: The Companion helps illuminate those backstories, making it useful preparatory reading for 52: here we see Steel's relationship with his daughter, Elongated Man solving a mystery, Booster Gold telling Blue Beetle his origin, Rip Hunter on a mission through time, Renee Montoya dealing with the death of her partner, the Question standing up for his principles, Animal Man on a trip to Paris with his wife, Adam Strange battling a threat to the planet Rann, the deaths of the Metal Men and the breakdown of their creator, and Captain Marvel learning the tragic history of Black Adam.

I'm about halfway through 52 now, and I can tell that some are directly relevant to it (Will Magnus's breakdown, Black Adam's past, Renee's emotional state, Booster's origin), while others are more general, just letting us see those heroes in action in younger days (Steel, Elongated Man, Rip Hunter, Adam Strange, the Question, Animal Man). But I find myself making note of things I learned from them frequently, so the time reading them was well spent. Also appreciated is the commentary from Mark Waid on why the characters were picked for 52, their place in DC history, and why the stories were picked for this volume. (Isn't Mark the greatest at continuity? It always feels like a useful foundation in his hands, never a prison.)

They're not all great stories, but most of them are good, and they reveal the breadth of what the DC universe has to offer at its best.