52 #50 and World War III #1-#4

52 #50 and World War III #1-#4

EH. I really don't see how you can get a World War out of this. It's basically a many-on-one fight. No countries are involved, no enemy superheroes, just everybody on Black Adam. And the art is extremely confusing. I still can't make heads or tails of the panels where they're supposed to be manoeuvering Adam into position for the lightning strike. And who caught him? And how in the world could Billy change his magic word? The explanation given here is ridiculous, that all magic flows through him. And what's with the white streak in his hair? And when are all the events that were alluded to in the OYL books going to occur? Ugh. Forget it, I changed my mind, this is AWFUL. However....Booster Gold does reappear in this issue, as does Rip Hunter, and it seems that next issue we'll finally learn the significance of 52, and this issue features the only satisfying plot resolution of the entire series, so, huh, I don't know. Okay, I've made my decision. AWFUL. Seriously, bringing Green Arrow and Arsenal, and Manhattan Guardian, along to take down Black Adam? Are you insane? Why didn't it just start and end with the Marvel family? The rest of the big fight is superfluous nonsense, made for the specific purposes of having a few "character" moments. Ridiculous. Black Adam doesn't go right to China, but instead proceeds to attack nearly every other nation on Earth first. Italy, Greece, Egypt, USA, Australia. Why? Uh, that's not ever really explained. AWFUL.

And don't even get me started on the actual WWIII issues. Again, how stupid is that? Calling it WWIII? First of all, the DCU already had a WWIII, and that one was much more deserving of the appellation, being that it was partially characterised by many nations taking arms against each other simultaneously. So, this would be WWIV. But what kind of World War features not a single nation fighting any other? Um, none that I've ever heard of. And what's with the WWIII issues pretending that every single thing that happened between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later happened during this exact week? Donna taking Wonder Woman's armor, Themiscyra disappearing, Deathstroke recruiting Batgirl, Hawkgirl being shrunk back to normal size, Firestorm getting unmerged, Supergirl reappearing, Crispus deciding whether or not he'll choose to be the new Spectre, J'onn finding a new form, Aquaman becoming the Dweller, the plight of Sub Diego (which, by the way, makes zero sense in light of the pre-crisis issues of Aquaman - did the writers of WWIII even read any of those books? Riiiight, the Western coast of San Diego is raised by - wait for it - magic. Wha huh? What, is Rick Veitch writing Aquaman again?), that's so ridiculous. And Zatara falls in action, but then he's back again at the rock of Eternity, as if nothing happened? Are the writers even communicating with each other? Plus, the dialogue by Martian Manhunter is so hackneyed. Even the art is bad, since, for example, apparently the Bronze Tiger has red skin. Seriously, at first, I thought he was Brick. And what the hell is all this about Rick Flag? And truthfully, it's been soooo long since Infinite Crisis that I barely remember what was happening pre-Crisis, let alone One Year Later. And amidst the final gathering of heroes, don't you think that someone would have noticed that Hal was missing? And then possibly tracked him using some sort of satellite? How can plastic man bleed? How can his costume be ripped, his goggles cracked? That makes no sense! He doesn't have blood, and the costume is merely a manifestation of his shapeshifting ability! Also, isn't the great wall of China actually inside China's sovereign borders? If so, then how could the heroes wait there? And never have I seen J'onn so useless in a fight.
These books deserve a rating of ASS - and in fact, due to the inability of the myriad writers of 52 to provide any sort of allusion to any of these events in any of the preceding 49 weeks, the entire series of 52, as a whole, deserves an ASS too. Because really, they had how many months to plan all of this out, and they still couldn't pull it off? Ugh.