Lower Decks

Here’s another column where there was only one topic possible given its number. Anyone who followed my comics writing from Paperback Reader.com to Lower Decks knows I hold one particular recent project in high esteem, and in fact, rather than abating since it was completed in May of 2007, my enthusiasm and estimation of ‘52’ has continued to grow, to the point where I would find no problem in labeling it the signature project of the modern era, as some would call ‘Watchmen’ and ‘Dark Knight Returns’ of the late 1980s and the Image explosion and ‘Death of Superman’ of the 1990s. Regardless what else the first decade of the 2000s may be known for (the Ultimate line, arguably), ‘52’ completely redefined the concept of the event book, ushered in an era of weekly comics (which was eventually adopted by a mainstream ongoing title, ‘Amazing Spider-Man’), cemented the pivotal roles of Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns as the major writers of DC, and proved once and for all that big stories don’t have to feature the most popular characters.

When I originally scheduled this one, I thought I might do something cute like make a list of fifty-two reasons to love ‘52’ (I probably started that list at some point, but then, here we are). Instead, there are a number of ways to let ‘52’ speak for itself. Since collected into four trade paperback collections (five, if you count the companion volume for ‘World War III;’ six, if you count a reprint volume featuring original tales from the featured characters; seven, if you additionally count the collection featuring JG Jones’ groundbreaking covers), the story can be experienced without the original bonus material that covered DC history ground but with a beyond-generous commentary for each issue, pound for pound more material of that kind than I’ve found in any such collection (and even then, I’d beg, borrow, and steal whatever superfluous office folk the company might have for more such insight). It’s a good argument that ‘52’ is an excellent candidate for a future Absolute edition (the beyond-deluxe hardcover editions the company has been putting out for the past few years for some of its more notable work, and since Neil Gaiman’s long-running ‘Sandman’ has been inducted into the fraternity, there is certainly precedence for longer works to be included). Barring that, perhaps a single paperback volume, even if those generous commentaries must be sacrificed.

Beyond that, there’s the simple fact that DC followed ‘52’ with ‘Countdown to Final Crisis’ and ‘Trinity,’ two additional your-long weekly series, amounting to three years worth of material put together by a limited pool of creators, telling three stories, surely an incredible accomplishment, which was succeeded this year by ‘Wednesday Comics,’ a twelve-week project of an entirely different kind, which if it didn’t put DC on the vanguard of the public eye than surely made the company the cutting edge of superhero comics.

I’ve mentioned Morrison, Johns, and Jones, but three additional key names remain in the creative staff: Mark Waid and Greg Rucka among the writers, and Keith Giffen as the unifying interior artist. The writing dream team deserves most of the glory, but it certainly is worth a moment of this column’s time to dwell on the art. The one way you could mistake ‘52’ for something resembling common is that most of the art was done by the kind of workhorse artists who never receive everyday glory, who aren’t championed in the industry, whose presence won’t affect sales, who would under normal circumstances, through no fault of their own, cause a lot of stir. They simply don’t have the distinctive style (this is not a slight toward Darick Robertson, whom I’ve angered in the past, because I’m sure his fans from ‘The Boys’ and other projects would vigorously disagree) of a Jim Lee or Jack Kirby. Keith Giffen, on the other hand, is certainly a name worth mentioning, but if you’ve read ‘52’ but didn’t pay too much attention to the credits and therefore don’t know where exactly he comes in, you can be forgiven. He’s probably the only artist (with apologies to Mark Bagley, who illustrated the lead stories throughout ‘Trinity’) with the ability to say he drew every week of a weekly series. Keith sketched out every issue, just as JG Jones did every cover, so if you didn’t know immediately that there was an incredible amount of continuity going on, one way or another consciously, you knew in your gut that there had to be.

With more apologies to Kurt Busiek, Paul Dini, and the writers they had working with them during their series (though it might be argued that like Bagley, I’m not giving the ‘Trinity’ team enough credit, and maybe we’ll touch more on that later in the column), the first writing team to tackle a weekly book will probably go down as inarguably the finest. I started with them and I’ll finish with them, so Morrison and Johns will wait. Waid is an icon for his work in DC and Marvel, and had long left his mark in both companies by the time he worked on ‘52.’ He has since moved on to Boom! and original creations such as his current masterpiece ‘Irredeemable,’ but he will always be associated with his epic revisioning of Flash lore, ‘Kingdom Come,’ and definitive runs on various key Marvel characters including Captain America (Johns and Ed Brubaker, currently handling The Flash and Captain America respectively, owe their work to him, because without Waid, it might be argued that neither character would hold as much relevance today as before he got his hands on them). ‘52’ was his last big hurrah with DC (he would subsequently return to The Flash for a brief period and relaunch ‘The Brave and the Bold,’ but both were ultimately less important than fond farewells, at least for the time being, for fans of his work with the company), and his imprint can be found throughout the commentaries in the collections. Whatever else he is, Waid is always the fan’s writer.

Rucka, meanwhile, might have considered ‘52’ to be his shot into the stratosphere of important writers, which isn’t to say he wasn’t relevant before (he had already established himself as a duel indy creator and mainstream presence, and his most important tenures on the latter front, ‘Gotham Central’ and ‘Wonder Woman,’ were already behind him), but that he had found an opportunity to present a still bolder hand. In fact, he played it quite well, introducing perhaps the most important and enduring new character during the series, Batwoman, a character who struggled for a time in finding a venue worthy of her flashy debut in ‘52’ until ‘Detective Comics’ opened up this year. It can’t be easy for a writer who likes to keep his feet grounded when parallel worlds keep popping up around them, but Rucka continually finds a way, and is constantly teaching his colleagues new ways to do it, such as in ‘Action Comics,’ where he’s currently trying to make it safe for Kryptonians on Earth again, or ‘Superman: World of New Krypton,’ where he’s working with James Robinson to make Kal-El feel at home among his own kind, even if they don’t feel like it. Give him another year, and Greg will be writing his own event book.

By the time they collaborated on ‘52,’ Morrison and Johns were already old hat on the concept, of course, and they were only getting warmed up. Grant Morrison would go on to write ‘Final Crisis,’ while Geoff Johns is currently working on ‘Blackest Night.’ Morrison had written ‘DC One Million’ last decade, near the end of his virtual monthly event book ‘JLA,’ while Johns had written ‘Infinite Crisis,’ the event that had immediately preceded ‘52’ (the second weekly, ‘Countdown,’ chronicled events leading directly into ‘Final Crisis,’ how the New Gods found themselves in such altered circumstances, which Grant’s own ‘Seven Soldiers of Victory’ had already hinted at). Working on Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, the Teen Titans, the Justice Society of America, and others, the two have virtually dominated if not completely rewritten the DC landscape. With ‘52,’ it could be said that they finally inherited the entire company. For the fans who had come back to DC with ‘Identity Crisis’ and its emphasis on the most intimate details of superhero life, ‘52’ was a banquet, and Morrison and Johns were ready to serve. Whether writing ‘Batman and Robin’ or ‘The Flash: Rebirth,’ they hardly need an introduction, either for what they’ve done or what they’re doing now, or what they mean to the industry.

All four writers pitched in, and they certainly had their share of influence in guiding individual elements and characters, but the sum of their work pushed Ralph Dibney, Black Adam, Booster Gold, The Question and Renee Montoya, Animal Man, and others along an unforgettable journey of twisted fortune, fate, redemption, heroism, and temptation, a tapestry that had time to visit with Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, and Diana while they were anything but the more famous names whose absences were supposed to define that year, but instead provided an incredible opportunity for one of the most spectacular gambles in comic book history. It can’t be forgotten that ‘52’ launched after ‘Infinite Crisis’ caused every ongoing DC book to skip a year of continuity, allowing an opportunity for every character to not only experience drastically altered circumstances, but provide a definitive mark for a new era, with ‘52’ at its heart. From now on, DC will always have two points to draw from if it ever wants to examine uncharted territory: a superhero’s origins, and what they were up to during ‘52.’

‘52’ told a remarkable tale, but above all it proved how variable the traditional storytelling structure really is, how infinite the possibilities are. It is memorable in so many ways, and I didn’t hit nearly fifty-two of them here, well worth savoring and coming back to again and again, commemorating more than two years after its conclusion, still in its infant stages as a touchstone of comic book reading. ‘Countdown to Final Crisis’ got a raw deal in having to follow ‘52.’ In many ways it was just as memorable (with a number of brilliant strokes thrown in for good measure), but it had too many rules, and too many fans who thought, even if deservedly, they’d seen the definitive weekly already. ‘Trinity,’ meanwhile, had bolder strokes on the creative staff, but had a far simpler task, even if executed with considerable complexity in presenting the need for the very characters ‘52’ had purposefully omitted. But both were created in a post-‘52’ world, and could never quite duplicate the effect of what they were following. ‘52’ was and is, simply, larger than life, as the best comics are.