52 Or Shatner: Week 10

52 Or Shatner: Week 10

Jul 13

You know the drill. You get a picture of Shatner, or words about 52, DC’s weekly comics series.

Bring it, mothertrucker!

This issue of 52 is the first one yet that has actually impressed me with its ART. Others, in places I cannot recall, have commented on how this unique series with a pretty strong authorial voice has been cursed with absolutely pedestrian art.

I actually felt like most of this issue looked pretty good, especially the Perry White/Clark Kent sequence and that full-page spread of Supernova. At points, the inking was really wonky, like Powerpuff Girls thick lines, but otherwise, I was pleased.

Of course, that just makes me a little depressed, cause I wonder if there could even have been a way to plan the series so that strong young artists could have given the series a more consistent visual identity. I realize Keith Giffen’s doing layouts, but then someone else comes in and does the finishes, and they’re just incredibly average superhero pencils. Which is no doubt a result of the whole weekly-comic-equals-tight-deadlines thing…but STILL.

Anyway. With DC of late, I find it’s better to focus on the good in what is offered, as opposed to how things could have been great instead.

On the writing side, I liked the Black Adam stuff (especially his refugee’s one-liner about “World War Three”…anyone else think of Rip Hunter’s wacky blackboard and globe? Maybe WWIII is some kind of American superheroes versus the rest of the world thang?) and REALLY liked the Clark Kent stuff. His jump out the window is gonna be one of my favorite moments from 52, guaranteed.

That’s all I really need. This is weekly. It’s a little cheap in the pricing department. It’s a sprawling experimental story involving every corner of my favorite fictionalized universe. I don’t expect standalone issues that somehow also advance this giant story, or even perfection in every panel. If I can walk away from every issue, or even every OTHER issue, thinking, “Hey, page X was really cool,” then I’m happy.

And now you are happy, for you have read my review, and I reward you with Shatner, though we are all undeserving of his bloated grandeur.