"The age of the super-citizen is dawning." - Lex Luthor

"52" Week Five

Week FivePreviously in 52...

Renee and the Question find out what's in 520 Kane Street, and it's not a dungeon. John Henry Irons goes on a bad trip, and not the cross-country kind. Ralph Dibny gets conned, and some heroes return from the far end of the universe. Booster remained Booster.

The Key Players

Renee Montoya and Steel, though Booster Gold and Ralph Dibny appear in single panels.

Guest appearances

Hawkgirl, Alan Scott, Vox and Bumblebee, Dr. Mid-Nite, Starfire, Animal Man and Adam Strange.

Highlights

Week five, and month two, begin with Alan Scott visiting the Baker residence, to tell Mrs. Baker that her husband, buddy (aka Animal Man) won't be coming home. Alan later returns to the hospital where he and the others were taken, where Dr. Mid-Nite and Steel are checking out the wounded heroes.

It seems that, during the space mission, Alan's team met with some seriously bad space energy when Alexander Luthor was defeated, which resulted in severe backlash. Red Tornado was torn apart, and part of him ended up in Vox's chest. Alan himself lost both eyes, though somehow got one back, but he knows that it isn't his own. Firestorm and Cyborg are fused, and it looks like Bumblebees growing powers got passed along to Hawkgirl, jumping her up to 25 feet. Animal Man, Starfire, Supergirl and Adam Strange were not to be found, though it seems that Adam saved his fellows by jumping them into a Zeta beam. Then, during a particularly bad seizure, Vox awakens and shouts "It's coming! 52! 52!"

As for Adam, Starfire and Animal man, it seems they made it to a mysterious paradise world, though all may not be as it seems, as Animal Man makes contact with the life force of the planet and is very scared by what he finds. And that eye Alan said wasn't his? It's Adam's, though where his other one has gone is anyone's guess.

Renee Montoya is visited by her old boss, and refuses to give out much information regarding what went on inside 520 Kane Street, though she has kept the ray gun she used on the monster at the end of last issue.

And the announcement has come: Lex Luthor has isolated the metagene, the sole aspect of super powers, and he says that anyone can now be a super hero, so why rely on an elite few?

Justin's Thoughts and Concerns

  • So I was half right on the melted heroes (I thought Cyborg and Tornado). Nasty.
  • Good for Renee, keeping some powerful weaponry. Still, I have to think I would have kept the whole pile for myself, just to be on the safe side.
  • So Steel's back in armor, and he's got a concern he wants Dr. Mid-Nite to check out? And no apparent problems relating to last issue's poisoning?
  • Did anyone else think Animal Man was a little too, well, stupid? With Starfire prancing around naked in front of him on a nearly deserted world with little chance of getting home alive? You'd have thought he was as blind as Adam is.
  • What's coming? What's "52," aside from a thinly-veiled promotional stunt that links the title to something in the book other than the missing year?
  • So that's what happened to Supergirl, though "Legion" did make note of that last month.

Predictions

Nothing too special this week, though look for a lot more Batwoman news as issue #11 draws closer. My retailer is awash with excitement, as people who don't even read comics are already reserving the issue. And look for some relation to "52" being Red Tornado's last words and the dissertation on machines and souls that Dr. Magnus had with Dr. T.O. Morrow.

The Daily Planet

A nice editorial on the nature of heroism, a favorite topic of mine, is up under headlines at www.52thecomic.comDiscuss this story and all things "52" in CBR's Infinite Crisis/52 Forum.