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Interesting to see some comments from someone who didn't read the series when it came out. Not that that is a problem, but part of the mystique of 52 that I think made it a success was that it was like LOST (the TV series). Every week we were left with 2 questions answered and 52 more in their places. So then we found oursevles sifting through back issues looking for hints and clues as to what the %^&* was going on. Maybe I was too accepting of the series, but for me personally 52 was one of the top ten comics of the 00s decade. I mean, we had Grant back on Animal Man, Geoff working with Black Adam again, Rucka writing the hell out of Montoya and Question, Mark Waid dropping his monumental DC knowledge in amazingly drawn secret origins... Giffen just being Giffen and possibly the greatest cover series of all time (with exception of Leihola on Fables). 52 was just fun and riveting, ad it kept me engrossed for a year.

I liked the series as well. It was my introduction into the DC universe as it was the first issue I picked up when i first entered a comic book s tore. I proceeded over the next several months to catch up and buy the rest of the issues.

I liked this series. FYI it's not the Japanese group, Super Young Team, in issue #6, rather it's the Chinese team, The Great Ten.

I figure this should be in the quarter bins at cons by now, right? But you're saying it's lame? Hmm.

Jon, I said Super Young Team gets mentioned in week six, not appeared. Give me some credit at being able to tell characters apart.

I read 52 in the trades as they were released and tore through the series in 13 issue bursts. For me, it was the best thing ever, and I imagine that rereading it would only serve to heighten my appreciation since now I actually know who these B and C list guys are (not to mention my increased awareness of Morrisonian tropes and themes). While a lot of awesomeness is put off for the later volumes (e.g. "Rain of the Supermen," so cool), Volume 1 still has the blackboard, steel Steel, schizo Captain Marvel, and straw Sue Dibny.

Plus, I know you didn't like it, but the Question thread finally got me to care about the character of Vic Sage, something legendary creators Denny O'Neil and Steve Ditko both failed to do.

"I assume she’s underage here since her uncle wants her to go to summer school… "

Plenty of University students do summer courses to pick up extra credit / graduate early / boost their GPAs etc.

I actually didn't think much of Robertson's work on this series... I generally like his stuff, but especially towards the end, it looked a little rushed.

It's pretty interesting to think that these early issues were what they had planned all along, before the writers decided to tweak where things were going a bit. You can sort of see that Johns is trying to set something up with the JSA, but that never really comes to fruitiion as they don't play much of a role in the middle of the story - same with the Teen Titans.

I'd second Ben's observation - a lot of my love for this series is tied up in the experience of reading it. This book got me out of an exclusively wait-for-trade mode. I would read each issue in my car before driving home. I would talk on the phone with my brother about it, and wait for Douglas Wolk to update 52 Pick-Up so I could compare/contrast my grasp of the references and thoughts about where things were headed.

That said, I can definitely appreciate that many are underwhelmed by it in retrospect. I've had it sorted and set aside for re-read for quite a while...but haven't brought myself to pick it up and dive in, I think at least partially due to fear of a similar reaction that might "spoil" my positive experience with the single issues (that and the lack of 25 hours in each day).

Anyway, I remember loving the Buddy Baker lost in space and Magus/Morrow/Oolong Island stuff, liking the Booster, Dibney, Question(s) and Black Adam stuff and pretty much hating the Luthor/Steel plot.

I don't know if it was the bad idea that was One Year Later, my lack of attention to most core DC titles or, the problem that usually afflicts Grant Morrison's solo work, others not knowing how to follow the ideas - but that's the main thing I remember when I think of 52. Outside of Montoya, which Rucka has been allowed to continue across a variety of titles (and which I quite enjoy, although your mileage probably varies depending on your thoughts on his brand of conflicted, self-destructive heroine), and Booster, whose title was pretty fun until Johns left, I think there were a lot of cool possibilities left dangling in the wind. Chad mentions a few above, and I'd include Alan Scott/giant Hawkgirl as unresolved, but also things like the details of Diana's soul searching, Lobo's space religion and Lady Styx's motivations, Super-Chief and probably more that I'm forgetting or just missed.

Actually, Lady Styx's origin/motivations were JUST explained in Strange Adventures #4.

I read these in trade for the first time, as I was away from comics altogether when the single issues were coming out. I really enjoyed the trades, and while a few of the story-lines didn't overly impress me, there was always enough going on in the other plots to engage my interest and leave me itching to pick up the next volume.

I really enjoyed the Animal Man in space storyline, the mad scientist island, and the Question storyline. I wasn't too into the Dibny stuff, the Black Adam stuff, or the Luthor/Steel subplot, but I didn't think the work was bad - just not something that really captured my interest.

I've been re-reading my floppies of "52" for the past month or so and really, really enjoying them. I loved the series when it first appeared, and now I'm enjoying the way it works together as a whole — it's nice to read a "DC event" that is a thing unto itself, rather than a crossover between many other series and characters. (And yes, I'm voluntarily choosing to forget that "World War III" ever happened).

One of the things that made "52" special when it first appeared was that it was something special — nobody, as far as I knew, had ever tried to tell such an integrated story on a weekly basis over the course of a year and nobody, I assumed, would ever try to do so again. Now that DC seems hell-bent on publishing a weekly series every year, here are my suggestions for incorporating other aspects of "52" that made the series great:

1). Relying on a cast of B-list characters that weren't tied up in other series. One of the things that made "52" like a novel — and not like a standard comic book — was the fact that characters like Renee Montoya, Booster Gold and Ralph Dibny were allowed to grow, and change, and even die. As innovative as Grant Morrison is being with Batman, we all know that things will go back to the status quo eventually. Yet some of the changes in "52" are likely to last...at least as long as anything lasts in the world of comics.

2). Taking the idea of the "character team-up" to its logical extreme in ways that made the DC Universe seem like a consistent whole. Putting Adam Strange, Starfire and Animal Man... and later, Lobo... together for a space adventure? Brilliant. Doctor Sivana, Will Magnus and Veronica Cale on an island of mad scientists?
Even more brilliant. But Firestorm, Super-Chief and AMBUSH BUG together as the new Justice League? That's genius.

3). Stories that focused on the effects of super-hero actions, rather than the machinations of super-villains. I hadn't seen the idea of American super-heroes being resented or even questioned around the world explored in this way since "Justice League International," and I liked seeing how Intergang's actions affected the people of Gotham and Khandaq rather than concentrating on what the master plan of the organization was (which is probably a good thing, since I'm not sure any of the writers had a clear idea of what they were up to). And seeing hundreds of people fall from the sky on New Year's Eve made Lex Luthor a villain to me in a way he hadn't been in years and reminded me why the DC world might just need a Superman after all.

I'd argue that "52" is well worth the time investment, even in trades — though I completely concur with the others who (like me) read it when it first came out: That experience of reading it week after week, in "real time," heightened the series' punch significantly.

52 is the textbook example of an absolutely horrible trend that has infested comics in the last five years or so:

Step 1 - Take a character few people have heard of or care about.

Step 2 - Publish a story that shows why he is such a cool and awesome character.

Step 3 - Kill him.

I want to add one more thing. 52 really captured the "popular culture" mediums of storytelling, and I think that is what really makes it successful. Like LOST, characters areat first deconstructed, maybe to the point wehre you dislike them, but always in good faith returned to former or new glory so they can be killed off. But that's always part of he shock of the death; unlike deaths in Marvel recently (and admittedly, DC), deaths in 52 were truly hard to swallow. Meanwhile, every issue, no matter the content, ended with at WTF moment like in LOST that really made you go back and reread or at least rescan the issue for more nuggets of wisdom. And like LOST, 52 resurrects classic tales such as the Odyssey or Dante's Inferno and retells them in a modern setting.

Like 24, 52 utilized a meidum constricted yet contingent on time.

Like recent movies like Cloverfield, when some major events occur in 52, our main characters are "on the streets" or out of the picture, resulting in the Everyman announcement simply being broadcast on TV, similar to how the deaths of Bialya were reported.

52 is the textbook example of an absolutely horrible trend that has infested comics in the last five years or so:

Step 1 - Take a character few people have heard of or care about.

Step 2 - Publish a story that shows why he is such a cool and awesome character.

Step 3 - Kill him.

Which part of this don't you like?

Killing a character that is well established and popular is nigh on pointless because no-one will believe it.

Killing a character without making people care about them first is pointless because no-one will care.

Not killing characters at all is quite limiting and unrealistic and reduces the perceived threat level in stories because we know the good guys will always survive.

[...] the final post as I reread volume four of 52, which contains weeks 40 through 52. Here are parts 1, 2 and 3. This is the home stretch, people. Let’s get to it. Again, my previous writings/thoughts [...]