52 #33 (Christmas Issue)
Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Nightwing brings Batwoman a gift, Luthor plays Santa, and Ralph spends Christmas on memory lane.
Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid
Breakdowns: Keith Giffen
Pencils: Joe Prado, Tom Derenick
Inks: Jay Leisten, Rodney Ramos
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Origin Art: Tom Mandrake
Editors: Stephen Wacker & Michael Siglain
Cover Art: J.G. Jones
Publisher: DC Comics
It’s Christmas in the DC Universe’s missing year, and this week the 52 crew is taking the time to touch base with most of our ongoing storylines. As Batwoman holds her vigil over Gotham City, Nightwing pays her a visit and gives her a very important gift. Back in Kate Kane’s apartment, Renee Montoya is keeping a quiet vigil over her friend Charlie (alias The Question), whose cancer is quickly eating away at him.
Ralph Dibney, meanwhile, has elected to spend the holidays in Central City, visiting the Flash Museum’s Elongated Man exhibit. Ralph is on a mission here, but the way we see him makes on worry exactly what path he’s headed down. Back in Metropolis, Lex Luthor has Christmas gifts for the members of his Infinity, Inc. team. One of the team is down, though, and in him Luthor may find the key to unlocking the Everyman project for everyone. Meanwhile, the Black Marvel family makes a gesture to prove Black Adam’s change of heart to the world.
It’s rare for an issue of 52 to touch upon so many of the ongoing storylines in one issue, but this issue balances things very well. None of the scenes feel superfluous and, in fact, each of our many storylines contains genuine development for the plot. The writers even manage to work in a quick two-page montage demonstrating what other characters from across the DCU are doing on this Christmas.
This week’s origin two-pager is the Martian Manhunter, with art by Tom Mandrake (whom longtime DC fans will remember was the regular artist on J’onn’s last chance at a solo ongoing series). As usual, the origin is a neat, concise summation of the character. On the bad side, this issue confirms for me that it isn’t just the Martian Manhunter artist’s rendition of J’onn’s new look that I don’t like - if it doesn’t look good with Tom Mandrake drawing it, I doubt any artist could get me to like it.
Rating: 8/10
An archive of all my reviews is online at Evertime Realms.