Too Much Crossover: Hibbs starts 4/25

52 Week 51: Ah, the end is nigh. Quite a number of "happy endings" in this installment -- Buddy and Adam and whatnot -- and the solid point to the grand finale, in the form of the New Mister Mind. Frankly, I always liked the big glasses and the radio around his neck myself. Maybe I'm crazy, but the last few issues have been fairly satisfying, and I'm thinking we'll get a "good enough" resolution in... six days, sheesh. A lot of it is going to depend on just how the resolve the central "52" mystery (exactly 52 parallel worlds seems to a) miss the point of parallel worlds (that wouldn't even be three seasons of SLIDERS, would it?), and B) be a little too coincidental), but it seems that the latest issue of SUPERGIRL & LSH pretty much gives that away, anyway. All in all? GOOD. AMAZONS ATTACK #1: If a) I had the slightest idea what was happening in the setup (Apparently one NEEDS to read WONDER WOMAN #8 first... which isn't flagged either on the cover of WW or inside of AA itself), b) this (and WW3) didn't, by and large, feel like an attempt to preemptively kick the legs out from WORLD WAR HULK; c) felt this "mattered" at all -- since virtually no other book is tying into it, it can be "safely ignored"; d) felt like it had any narrative weight upon the DCU itself (the carnage we've seen in just the first issue would certainly make CIVIL WAR look like a liberal's wet dream when it came to Government reaction... esp. coupled with Black Adam and the IC Superboy actions recently from the DCU-bystander POV), then I probably would have really liked this.

It's reasonably well written (barring the smidge of introduction to edumicate people not reading WW what the hell is going on, and how Polly is back from the dead, anyway [from the "Our Worlds At War" crossover a few years back]), and, really, really nicely drawn (there's a real sense of scope on that first double-sized spread, ain't there?), but what kills it for me is my personal sense that DC editorial hasn't got the first fucking idea what to do with Wonder Woman, and appears to be casting blindly around for some sort of a direction that might resonate. Given how recently they just had gotten rid of the Amazons (A year ago this week in INFINITE CRISIS #7? Or do I misremember?), this seems like a pretty quick and absurd return for them. Everywhere I look, it sure feels like the DCU architects are saying "We have a plan!", then 3 months later its "Uh, that plan didn't work... we have a NEW plan!"

Basically, the fault of AMAZONS ATTACK #1 isn't anything in the execution of the book (except for the lack of explanation about some of the key plot points), but in the greater, ongoing problems of DC editorial and the direction and point of the DCU. That yields an EH.

FALLEN SON: AVENGERS: I didn't have a lot of faith in this, I have to say, going in, but as chapter 2 of a 5 issue mini (as opposed to the second stand alone issue, as the naming schema would seem to indicate), this moved along much better than I would have expected. The "Mighty" half was a little weaker on the theme, but Spidey and Logan's interactions were really Classic Marvel, and I liked it tons more than I would have thought. A strong OK

More tomorrow, what did YOU think?

-B