Warning: Herein I am spoiling the complete issue of DC’s 52 issue 37. It’s, in my opinion, the best issue of the series so far with a few shocking revelations. If you want to enjoy them for yourself, do not read any further. If you don’t follow 52 and want to find out what happens, read on…It starts in the Bottle City of Kandor, where we saw last issue Supernova and time patrol guy Rip Hunter were hanging out gathering the weapons of the DCU. (As a quick aside, it’s kind of funny to think that this year that Superman went without his powers he totally ignored the Bottle City that he’s supposed to be the guardian of.)
This issue picks right back up, with Skeets the now evil time robot shoving Kandor to get them to come out. And who should pop out to face him but… Booster Gold?!? Yes, Booster Gold (plus Phantom Zone tech) equals Supernova. People were originally guessing this, but I think we were thrown off by Booster Gold dying and us being shown his corpse and funeral. Good job DC, you pulled of a pretty good twist identity without grabbing anyone from far left field.
However, Rip Hunter and Booster’s plan to zap Skeets into the Phantom Zone doesn’t work out as he… eats the Phantom Zone. (In current DC continuity, who knows who is in the Zone these days. Not Zod.) This buys them time to escape with Rip Hunter saying “52… 51…” then zapping away, with Skeets following close behind. Rip’s words make sense by the end of the issue, taking into account the DC’s column. (I’ll get to that momentarily.)
Next we get the obligatory “Fill in the One Year Later gap” with Green Lantern rebuilding Star City, Oliver Queen running for Mayor, and Black Canary talking about her return to the east- all of which, of course, we knew about months ago.
Next, we go to Animal Man’s funeral on a distant asteroid, with Pope Lobo presiding. Adam Strange and Starfire head out… and then Animal Man wakes up. YES! And who does he see just as he’s panicking that he’s been left behind in space? The crazy space aliens who gave him his powers! I recognize them because of the part they had in the Animal Man series, but I also assume they’ll go on to explain who they are in the next issue so readers won’t be confused. To those of you who haven’t read the excellent series, the aliens grafted Animal Man to the morphogenetic field of the Earth to give him his animal powers. They also were fully aware they were in a comic book, and came from a higher realm (ours perhaps?) Yeah. So even though I’m sure their precense won’t be as cool as the original series, it still was a welcome surprise. I thought FOR SURE that the sly reference they did last week to the original series spelled Buddy Baker’s death. Another good twist!
And finally on the last page with the DC previews, we get another clue. Thankfully I didn’t have to figure it out, Newsarama’s guys solved it within hours: The secret of fifty-two is that the multiverse still exists. That sound you hear is the comic-blog legions knashing their teeth in opposition to the idea. Well you know what? I think it’s a great idea. We already had multiple universes basically running around. Why not bring it back? Just don’t make it so that some comics exist in different universes without it being the primary hook. The problem with the original concept is that you had too many to keep track of and you had to keep track of which book existed in what universe. Just follow DCU prime with the books, but have the 51 other universes (presumably) exist for individual stories. Great job. I can also assume that this will be introduced next week, as Rip Hunter’s comment probably means they slid into universe #51.
So to sum up: Booster Gold, not dead, they just took his dead corpse from the future in a great time travel trick. Animal Man, not dead, saved by continuity aliens. The Question, not dead, saved by cancer repelling flowers. The multiverse, not dead.
Thank you DC. Not only did you pull a big “GOTCHA” on the people who criticized sensationalist deaths in comics, you are also telling some good stories.
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