52: Difference between revisions

[[File:52.jpg|frame|It was a year without [[Superman|DC's]] [[Batman|greatest]] [[Wonder Woman|heroes.]] There would be others [[Heroes Unlimited|to take their place.]]]]

'''PANEL 5''': "''I'm [[The Question|Renee Montoya]], second-stringer from the Batman books and [[Batman: The Animated Series|the Batman animated series.]] And I am'' '''a lesbian.''' ''And also very, very'' '''awesome.'''"|'''[[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]]''', ''52 In 5 Panels''}}

 

 

While Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman appear occasionally throughout the story, the main focus is on the rest of the DC Universe as it functions without its iconic heroes, devoting most of its panel time to second and third string characters, including some who had been all but abandoned at the end of [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]]. Because of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|sheer number of characters]] to keep track of and all the continuity and decades old story lines used as the backbone of the story, ''52'' could be accused of veering into [[Continuity Porn]]. This is alleviated to a certain degree by the collected volumes of the series, which included creators' notes at the end of each week that tended to illuminate various parts of that week's chapter (including some of the more obscure references). DC also produced a companion book to the series that reprinted some classic issues featuring some of the major characters of the series that are not as well known (Rip Hunter, for example, had been pretty much been out of DC Comics since the 1960s, but becomes pretty important as 52 presses on), as well as more recent issues that set-up the characters for their individual stories.

 

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* [[Abnormal Ammo]]: Will Magnus eventually starts actually shooting miniature versions of his [[Metal Men]] out of a homemade gun.

* [[Aborted Arc]]: The original Booster Gold/Skeets arc involved the duo fixing the time-stream after it had been damaged during the [[Infinite Crisis]]. However, several issues into the series, after Skeets had already noticed several discrepancies between events as they happened and as they were recorded in the future, the writers decided that this plot had been used too often by other time-travel heroes and was too generic, so they switched to an actual malevolent threat that intended to manipulate time and reality for its own gain.

* [[Arc Words]]: "Who are you?" and "Are you ready?" By [[The Question]]. {{spoiler|Both incarnations.}}

* [[Artificial Intelligence]]: The [[Metal Men]], which are a team of well-beloved superheroes created by Dr. William Magnus, one of the main characters of this series.

* [[Asteroid Thicket]]: Turned [[Up to Eleven]]; apparently the thicket that [[Adam Strange]], [[Animal Man]], and [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Starfire]] are stuck in has a diameter measured in ''parsecs''. This is handwaved with the explanation that it is not a natural asteroid field, but that comes nowhere close to explaining the sheer amount of mass that is present.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The Batwoman outfit comes complete with [[Combat Stilettos|high-heels]], which would make even running a difficult challenge, let alone combat and leaping from the rooftops. The writers actually recognized this and, in her later appearances in ''[[DC Comics|Detective Comics]]'', her father explains that those were the only boots that could be found in the proper color, and her new footwear is considerably more practical.

* [[Bad Powers, Bad People]]: {{spoiler|Hannibal}}. He has to ''eat'' a part of something in order to turn into it. [[Squick|Ugh]].

** August General in Iron, who fervently believed that China's superheroes were strong on their own, was forced to allow outside help to stop {{spoiler|Black Adam}}'s rampage.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: [[Ambush Bug]], who else? [[Word of God]] stated it was reflecting Grant Morrison's fatigue during the series.

* [[Brought Down to Normal]]: Superman recently lost all of his powers and is spending the year simply as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent, learning to do things as we humans do them (including shaving and picking up scalding hot pots). Both he and Lois are taking the entire affair in rather good order, content to be only human, but according to Perry White his work has really suffered as of late (since he is not used to actually having to ''look'' for news) and he is on the edge of termination.

* [[Buffy-Speak]]: "It's been three weeks since I saw Mister cryptic-I-have-no-face-but-plenty-of-attitude."

* [[Captain Ethnic]]: The Great Ten of China. [[Enforced Trope|Deliberately]].

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: At the Black Adam/Isis wedding in Week Sixteen, the Intergang bomber quotes from the Crime Bible that serves as the foundation of the Religion of Crime. The bible itself and the religion as a whole would not be featured or even named until Week Twenty-Three, when the Question and Renee Montoya infiltrate one of their occult meetings.

** The trope is later played with by the [[Genre Savvy]] authors, who realised that past experiences would color the perspective of any readers. {{spoiler|[[Booster Gold]]}} was never meant to be [[Killed Off for Real]], it was always planned to be [[Faking the Dead|a deliberate trick to fool the villain]], but the writers wanted to conceal that fact from the audience and they knew that comic readers would ''automatically'' view any "death" with skepticism. So, they had to find a way to actually convince readers of his death while not actually killing him, and they eventually settled on the simple and effective plan of showing his corpse. The trade paperbacks feature several rough sketches of attempts to pull this off, with panels showing his bisected body falling to the ground in several places, but this was determined to come off as [[Narm|hilarious instead of dramatic]]. The panel eventually decided upon was a half-success; fans did not actually believe {{spoiler|Booster Gold}} was dead, but they ''did'' believe that [[Put on a Bus|he was permanently out of the series.]]

* [[Death Seeker]]: Renee begins the series suicidal after the events of ''[[Gotham Central]]'' and, after she is forced to kill an Intergang suicide bomber that was just a child, she begs Black Adam to kill her when he finds her "drunkenly taking pleasure with one of [his] citizens."

* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: There are actually many of them, each taking place in one of the independent storylines where they are turning points not just in the story, but in the lives of the characters as well. Commentary released in the trade paperback reveals that some of these scenes were specifically designed to push the envelope as far as possible in a comic book and others drew from painful personal experiences of the writers.

** The deaths of {{spoiler|[[Morality Chain|Osiris and Isis]]}} sends {{spoiler|Black Adam}} into a deep depression and homicidal rage that dramatically affects not just him, but the entire planet.

** When {{spoiler|[[The Question]]}} dies, {{spoiler|Renee Montoya}} seems to be okay, but actually has a personal crisis of faith, identity and purpose.

* [[Destination Defenestration]]: In her introduction, Batwoman throws one of the mutant human/animal cultists out a window [[Technical Pacifist|after she stopped Renee from shooting him]].

* [[Dream Team]]: The four writers. Some of the biggest names in comics working on a project that involves fan-favorite, and author-favorite, characters in an undocumented period of history in the DC Universe. They went wild, and the critics and fans ate it all up.

* [[Drop the Hammer]]: Steel's weapon is, technological gimmicks aside, a steel-driving ground-thumping hammer.

* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: {{spoiler|The Black Marvel Family's decimation}}. Creator commentary reveals that they were deliberately pushing the envelope as far as they possibly could in a comic.

* [[Fan Service]]: Natasha was written as wearing proper welding gear in the scene of her building her own armor, but the artist drew her without proper protection and [[Male Gaze|focused on her chest when she hit an air pocket]]. The writers were very disappointed with the change, since it not only made Natasha less sympathetic when she gets burned, but also undercut her argument with her uncle. By recklessly forging ahead without protective gear, she shows that she really is not ready for the responsibility of wielding [[Power Armor]], and the legitimate disagreement she has with John Henry begins to become more one-sided.

* [[Fiery Redhead]]: "Kate Kane has the kind of beauty that leaves you ''breathless'' and the kind of temper that leaves you ''bruised''."

* [[For Science!]]: The Science Squad on Oolong Island.

* [[Glory Hound]]: Booster is reckless in his search for glory.

* [[The Golden Age of Comic Books]]: It is solidly set in the [[The Modern Age of Comic Books|here and now]], but many of its characters are classic creations of the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] with the baggage that comes with them.

* [[Significant Green-Eyed Redhead|Green-Eyed Redhead]]: Kate Kane combines [[Fiery Redhead]] and [[Green Eyes]] into a red and green explosion.

* [[Green Eyes]]: A necessary part of the [[Significant Green-Eyed Redhead|above-mentioned trope]] for Kate Kane.

** {{spoiler|Skeets}} tries to lock Daniel Carter in a time-loop believing he saw too much in Hunter's lab, actually quoting the line.

* [[He's Back]]: Ever since ''[[Identity Crisis]]'' Ralph has been "un-Elongated" and near-suicidal, and he verges quite close to outright insanity over the course of this series. He is [[Drowning My Sorrows|perpetually carrying a flask]] and [[Beard of Sorrow|has let his personal hygiene fall by the wayside]], but when Ralph {{spoiler|unmasks Felix Faust and reveals he knew it was him all along}} he is, for the first time in several weeks, clean-shaven and properly dressed while his opponent cowers and trembles.

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: Renee Montoya has a long, passionate and heartbroken history with red-headed Kate Kane, and the Question himself has delirium-induced flashbacks to his love, Myra, from his own series.

* [[Heroic Bastard]]: The Question. It is not a big part of either his character or the story, but when Renee calls him a bastard [[Insult Backfire|he agrees that, since he was raised in an orphanage, he most likely really is a bastard]].

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: It will bring tears to your eyes.

* [[Hive Mind]] / [[Hive Queen]]: Lady Styx and her empire of zombies.

* [[Hot Amazon]]: When Batwoman [[Big Damn Heroes|bursts to the rescue]] to save Renee Montoya and the Question, Renee ogles her with almost slack-jawed awe as she backhands one of the mutant human/alien creatures.

* [[How Dare You Die on Me!]]: Happens in the climax of Renee's storyline, after {{spoiler|Renee's girlfriend Kate is kidnapped and stabbed through the heart}}.

* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]:

** Natasha Irons ''is'' special, but it takes her most of the series to realize that being special does not actually ''make'' you special. Brains she was given, but she needs to ''earn'' wisdom.

* [[I've Got an X and I'm Not Afraid to Use It]]: "Stand Back! I've got a particle wave ray gun and bipolar disorder!"

* [[Insult Backfire]]:

'''The Question:''' "Well, I was raised in an orphanage, so you're probably right." }}

* [[Intrepid Reporter]]: Since [[Brought Down to Normal|he lost his powers]] it seems that Clark Kent is actually ''not'' an example of the trope, and has actually been in such a reporting slump that Perry White is prepared to terminate him from the ''Daily Planet'' since he seems to be expecting stories to just fall into his lap. Once he understands that his job is on the line, however, he decides that he might as well go out with a bang. He steals a page from his wife's playbook and ''leaps from a window'' in order to attract the attention of Supernova, the newest hero in Metropolis, in order to get the first interview with the mysterious figure.

** Renee when {{spoiler|she becomes the new [[The Question|Question]]}}.

** [[Batwoman]] makes her first return to DCU comics continuity in several decades when Katherine "Kate" Kane is introduced.

* [[Let's See You Do Better]]: When Booster Gold and Ralph Dibny meet, one of the very first crossovers of the separate stories, Ralph becomes almost violently angry when he remembers that Booster is from the future and, as such, should have known about his wife's murder and been able to do something about it. This leads to [[What the Hell, Hero?|general contempt for Booster Gold's glory-seeking ways and overall status as a sell-out.]] Booster, however, is having none of it, and points out that even though he sympathizes with Ralph, he will not be lectured by a former hero who has not even put on his costume in eight months, and at least Booster is still ''doing'' something.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: Damn near every character in the DC Universe shows up at some point. [[Memetic Mutation|And they are awesome!]]

* [[Lodged Blade Recycling]]: {{spoiler|Kate kills Bruno with the same sacrificial dagger he has just used to cut her heart half-way out.}}

* [[Love At First Sight]]: Sort of. It turns out they already know each other, and had actually dated in the past, but in the few panels before Renee realized that Batwoman was Kate Kane, her old girlfriend, she was dumfounded and awe-struck by the [[Hot Amazon|dramatic, gorgeous woman who has leapt into the fray to save her life]].

* [[Lying Creator]]: In the commentary for Week Seven, Mark Waid points out that not even Booster Gold would be '''so''' stupid as to pay a sham-villain by check, and people should keep reading and have some faith to see the payoff. This is ''never'' brought up again. He does it again in the commentary for Week Thirteen, where he discusses the obscured-in-shadow figure in the background of the last panel; he says that he thought he knew who the character was when he wrote the script, but Week Forty-Two showed him that it was a different character entirely. Except that the trades include occasional reprints of the original scripts, and the revelation in Week Forty-Two is ''exactly'' who the original script said it would be.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: Intergang actually goes around the world to collect all the mad scientists it can for Oolong Island, where it lets them run free and create to their wildest and most wretched dreams.

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]:

** In the midst of his attempts to tear down what he feels is the scam-backed Cult of Conner, which has claimed to be trying to resurrect his dead wife, Ralph Dibny is horrified to see the ceremony actually ''work'', only for his efforts to disrupt their efforts reduce it all to ash.

** Renee is forced to kill a [[Suicide Attack|suicide bomber]] that Intergang sent to disrupt the Black Adam/Isis wedding, but the bomber herself was only a young girl, a ''kid'', and Renee begins to pray to God, begging forgiveness [[Shoot the Dog|for what she had to do]].

* [[Mythology Gag]]: The initial issues contain numerous references to people and companies important to the history of [[DC Comics]] and its iconic characters. These include, but are not limited to, [[Superman|Siegel Street and Shuster Road]], [[Max and Dave Fleischer|Fleischer Bros. Transportation]], and [[Batman|Kane Street]]. The last later receives a [[Justified Trope|justification]]; the Kane family is revealed to be a wealthy and influential family in Gotham City that owns the street in question. This also serves as another [[Continuity Nod]]; Martha Wayne, mother to Bruce Wayne, is often given the maiden name of Kane.

* [[The Namesake]]: Fifty-two {{spoiler|parallel universes; ie [[The Multiverse]]}}.

* [[Room Full of Crazy]]: Rip Hunter's lab.

* [[Sanity Has Advantages]]: Doctor Magnus really wishes his fellow mad scientists would believe him on this one.

* [[Sapient Cetaceans]]: Lobo is accompanied by an intelligent space dolphin and is a member of a church worshiping the Triple Fish God, also a space dolphin, but of large size.

* [[Screw the War, We're Partying]]: Oolong Island's under attack from a furious {{spoiler|Black Adam}}, the rest of the Science Squad are desperately firing off every countermeasure they have, and what's T. O. Morrow doing? Bid-sniping Red Tornado shrapnel on [[EBay]].

* [[Senseless Sacrifice]]: When Renee and the Question sneak into a ceremony for the Religion of Crime, they discover Amon Tomaz, Adrianna's missing brother, and they watch him being viciously beaten for trying to escape. Witnessing the beating, Renee plans to jump down and do what she can to save him, but the Question stops her and points out that it would be a truly senseless sacrifice.

* [[Series Continuity Error]]: The Question initially hires Renee Montoya with payment in advance for three weeks of surveillance, but subsequent references to the event mention only ''two'' weeks, and then later switch back to three.

* [[Two Lines, No Waiting|Seven Lines No Waiting]]: At first glance, the story looks bloated and overly-complicated, but its ability to mesh the individual stories into one narrative whole managed to accomplish the impressive task of avoiding [[Four Lines, All Waiting]], and is often credited as one of the series best points.

* [[Seventh-Episode Twist]]: Initially, the space heroes had a personal and self-contained story-arc, simply trying to get back to Earth from deep space. Then they meet Lobo, and find out about the Stygian Passover and what that entails for the continuation of life.

* [[Sex for Solace]]: Renee admits to Charlie that she has a clearly defined pattern whenever it comes to severe emotional trauma, namely [[Drowning My Sorrows|getting drunk]] and then [[Sex for Solace|hopping into the nearest bed she can find]]. The series opens with her picking up random women in an attempt to deal with the death of Crispus Allen and being left by Daria Hernandez, and the Question first approaches her just after one of her liasons. When it looks like she has gotten a handle on her emotional problems, she then [[Shoot the Dog|needs to kill the Intergang suicide bomber to protect the Black Adam/Isis wedding]] and is found "drunkenly taking pleasure with one of [Black Adam's] citizens." A key point in her [[Character Development|character arc]] is when she is eventually able to deal with her personal troubles emotionally, instead of running away from them through alcohol and sex.

* [[Shooting Superman]]: Superman himself [[Brought Down to Normal|might not be able to take any bullets right now]], but Black Adam steps in and takes enough to compensate. At one point, a mob even resorts to throwing ''rocks'' at him.

* [[Super-Hero Speciation]]: None of witnessed products of the Everyman project are seen to have duplicate powers, despite the thousands of metahumans produced by Luthor. When Everyman himself, a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifter]] from the project, squares off against Beast Boy of the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]], Beast Boy actually remarks there is only room for one shapeshifter.

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]:

'''Daniel Carter:''' "Uh... that's a pretty specific reference." }}

* [[Take Up My Sword]]: {{spoiler|Renee becomes The Question.}}

** [[Only Sane Man]]: The Accomplished Perfect Physician, Thundermind

** [[Mauve Shirt|Mauve Shirts]]: The Yeti, The Seven Deadly Brothers, The Celestial Archer, Shaolin Robot

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: When all the heroes who went out into space in [[Infinite Crisis]] are rescued and brought down to Australia they have all been mutated, transformed, merged or deformed in unique and disturbing ways. Original [[Green Lantern]] Alan Scott got off lighter than almost anybody else - he only lost one eye, but even the eye he still has was not originally his and his daughter Jade died during the Crisis. [[Steel]] recognizes that, physical rehabilitation aside, all these returning heroes are going to need counseling to help them deal with what happened, but Alan is adamant that that is not even an option.

* [[These Hands Have Killed]]: Renee Montoya has killed people before, in her duties as a cop and when fighting for her life against Intergang, but at the Black Adam/Isis wedding she is forced to shoot an Intergang suicide bomber that is a young girl, just a kid. Regardless of the reasons for her actions she is wracked by guilt over having killed a child and prays for forgiveness.

* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: Batwoman, like Batman before her, has a very strict no-killing policy, even extending to knocking down her own teammates instead of letting them take a killing shot. Except against {{spoiler|Bruno Mannheim, which may have something to do with the fact that she killed him with a knife that he half-way cut her heart out with just moments before that}}.

* [[Throwaway Country]]: {{spoiler|Bialya}}

* [[Twofer Token Minority]]: Renee Montoya, a Hispanic lesbian, and her on-again/of-again girlfriend, Kate Kane, a Jewish lesbian.

* [[Underestimating Badassery]]: It seems like everybody, everywhere, does not give the [[Elongated Man]] the respect he deserves. His stretching abilities give him a respectable degree of combat capability, and his analytical and inquisitive mind that sets him far and away above many of those who would challenge him. [[Green Lantern|Hal Jordan]] himself has stated that Ralph, moreso than even [[Batman]] or [[The Flash|Barry Allen]], has always been the most rational person he had ever met.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: [[Greg Rucka]] refers to John Henry Irons as an [[Unreliable Narrator]] during his hallucinatory delusions, where not even the reader is aware of what exactly is going on.

* [[Unreliable Voiceover]]: When Renee tries to shoot the Question in Day Three of Week Two, she wonders how he managed to get away since "I ''know'' I hit him ''dead center''." However, in the actual panel her "dead center" shots are clearly ripping two holes in his jacket ''next'' to his body. She missed.

** When Booster Gold was saving Metropolis from the meltdown of the nuclear submarine, he was originally going to give a speech reminiscent of [[Daffy Duck]] in ''Duck Season! Rabbit Season! Duck Season!'' {{spoiler|"Look at me! I'm saving the day! I'm Supernova!"}} The scene was eventually re-written because the writers felt it would have been ''too'' blatant a hint as to the truth behind the story.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: Subverted. Renee is ready to kill one of the mutating human/animal cultists used by Intergang when Batwoman, [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|like her]] [[Batman|namesake]], knocks her down rather than let her get in a killing shot, even against one of these nonhuman animals.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Bea is rather disgusted that Booster Gold seems to have forgotten the sacrifice of the [[Blue Beetle]] and gone back to his glory-seeking ways, and Ralph feels personally betrayed that Booster did not warn him on his wife's death. This is all magnified when it comes out that Booster has actually staged some of his heroic acts with paid actors.

* [[Who Is This Guy Again?]]: Bea, though an important (if minor) character, never appears in costume, is never addressed by her superhero name, nor is her last name spoken. Though she provides emotional support for Ralph Dibny and a moral center for Booster Gold, identifying who she is in the larger DC Universe is not made easy.

* [[Wizard Needs Food Badly]]:

* [[World War III]]: The 50th week in the book, World War III is a week long war which boils down to {{spoiler|Black Adam vs. Everyone on Earth}}. Eventually a spinoff comic was written detailing it better (reviews were mixed, though).

* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: Intergang has absolutely ''no'' problems with sending out children as [[Suicide Attack|suicide bombers]].

* [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child]]: When trying to stop the attack on the Black Adam/Isis wedding, Renee is horrified to discover that the Inergang [[Suicide Attack|suicide bomber]] is a little girl, only a child. This makes Renee's [[Shoot the Dog|subsequent actions]] even harder.

'''Renee Montoya:''' "Tell ''her'' that." }}

* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: Renee Montoya. Her years on the Gotham City Police Department have taught her much about surveillance and the seedy underbelly of Gotham, and she is not even that surprised to fall down a hidden trap door after she enters the building...[[Genre Shift|and then she discovers the nightmarish alien monster and crates full of laser weaponry]].

* [[Yellow Peril]]: The Great Ten. While most of them are merely patriotic to China, {{spoiler|Chang Tzu}} is one of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of the story and August-General-In-Iron is pretty xenophobic about anyone who isn't Chinese.

* [[You Did Everything You Could]]: The Question tries to console Renee after she [[Shoot the Dog|was forced to kill a child to prevent a suicide bombing]] by pointing out that she did not have a choice, that it was pull the trigger or watch hundreds, possibly ''thousands'', of people die.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]

[[Category:DC Comics Series]]