52

One of the most unique superhero comics on the stands right now is DC's series called 52. As you might guess from the title, it owes its name and central concept to the TV show 24, in which a 24-hour period is chronicled in "real-time" before our eyes (allowing for some amount of suspension of disbelief, of course). In the case of 52, it's a 1-year period in the DC Universe, told in 52 weekly installments. And to ensure that it's of interest to the fans, it's not just any 12 months, but rather a mysterious stretch of time during which no other stories were told. How's that, you ask? Read on.

The big event within the DC Universe in late 2005 and early 2006 was the miniseries Infinite Crisis. This sequel to the 1986 landmark series, Crisis on Infinite Earths, had half a dozen mini-series leading into it, focusing on different aspects of the DC Universe (magic, the Sci Fi angle, the villains, and the heroes), before it launched into a 7-issue mini-series that was the direct followup to the original Crisis. All kinds of significant developments occured during all of this, so much so that at the end of it, the Big Three (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) decided that they needed to take a break to re-examine their roles. Actually, two of them decided that; Superman temporarily lost his powers and had the decision made for him (which makes more sense, since he'd never willingly abandon his duties, despite what the Bryan Singer Superman Returns film might assert!).

So the premise was then established: if the DC Universe didn't have those 3 foundational heroes around for about a year, what would it be like? And, because those are among the most popular DC heroes, and it therefore didn't make sense to actually publish DC's entire line of comics without them for an entire year, what they did was jump all DCU titles ahead one year, all at once! This was known as One Year Later (or OYL), and it occured across all of the titles in the same month (right after Infinite Crisis ended in the Spring). So each title picked up a year after the last issue, despite the previous issue having come out just the month before. This allowed for the individual series writers to introduce various changes to their supporting cast, since an entire year had gone by in the blink of an eye. And lots of developments from that year were hinted at here and there, but mostly we were left with mysteries (how did the original Green Lantern lose an eye? where's Hawkman? who's Supernova? why is there a new Wonder Woman? why's Supergirl in the Legion of Super-Heroes now? and so on). So many unanswered questions.

Enter 52. Its first issue picked up literally the day after Infinite Crisis ended, and at a rate of 7 days per issue, has slowly been filling in the blanks ever since. This past week marked the halfway point, with issue # 26 arriving on the stands, with each of the issues to date coming out on time, every week. Those not familiar with the current comic publishing landscape may not appreciate this fully, but we live in a time where late comics are almost commonplace; especially comics that are event-driven, where you can't insert a filler issue from an inventory drawer in the middle to get the title back on track (a trick that was used extensively in the past, where a writer and artist would be commissioned to create an issue that could be stuck in wherever and tell a simple self-contained story featuring those characters). Speaking for myself, I've gotten completely used to the fact that every week, no matter what else may (or may not) come out as planned that week, I can count on there being a new issue of 52 to enjoy.

Among the tricks they're using to keep 52 on time is a rotating stable of artists (no one artist could possibly churn out 20+ pages a week, week after week) and a 4-person writing staff, where each issue is co-written by all four, with each writer focusing on different characters. Both of those sound like recipes for disaster (too jarring, not enough consistency) but it's actually worked very well with only the occasional hiccup so far.

As for the stories themselves, it tends to be hit and miss for me, because I'm more interested in some of the characters and less so in others. They've got at least a half dozen major storylines underway, but because they're being told in 24-like real-time, we lose sight of some characters for issues at a time as they travel from one place to another (or sit rotting in jail for several weeks). Since I'm used to holding serialized storylines in my head for months anyway (the typical comic comes out once per month, and has continued plotlines month after month, requiring the reader to remember where things left off as they pick up each new issue), it's not that much of a stretch to recall what's going on with a character you haven't seen in 3 or 4 issues, when the issues are coming out weekly. But there's definitely a lot going on in this comic to keep up with.

I think in the end, 52 will be remembered more for the experimental format it proved viable, than for the actual storylines within it (which is not to say they aren't interesting, as they are). And I'll certainly always remember the amazing year in which there was a new issue out every week!