Another really cool cover for 52. This week is a Question-centric issue where everyone involved in the Crime Bible’s prophecy. Right away, a few pages in and I have a problem. I like Darick Robertson’s art and everything I’ve read with him on it (The Boys, Transmetropolitan) I’ve loved. His style is “ugly” to me and I like it tremendously, but I don’t like it here. Maybe it has to do with the time in which Robertson had to draw it in, but not all artist's interpretation of established characters work for me. Namely, Nightwing.
I don’t like how Nightwing looks in this issue, and he’s in it quite a lot. I also didn’t like how the various hybrid monsters looked. A dog man holding a gun is just too funny, not scary! The art seems to shape up later on in the issue, but maybe the lack of a shabbily drawn Nightwing in those later scenes is affecting my ability to judge the art.
As for the story itself, I didn’t really care about Bruno Mannheim’s wicked scheme to rule the world and spread crime throughout Gotham and the world. There is lots of fire and fury, but I think that Renee Montoya and crew should have been done with them much sooner. I was more interested in Renee Montoya’s life than her battle against crime.
Week 48 ends on not one but two cliffhangers. How can you not come back for some more? Well, at nearly a year, why would you ditch 52 now? The back-up is of the Birds of Prey, one of my favorite DC Universe teams as of late. The quick version of their history is that they’re a kick-ass team of women led by the former Batgirl, Barbara Gordon. This is penciled by Nicola Scott, who is the ideal partner for Gail Simone’s writing. Nicola Scott is all sorts of awesome. I’d hazard to say that she’s one of the best artists I’ve seen in comics.
For more information on 52, check out 52's official site.
Article comments