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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.