And, we’re back. You miss me?
No, no, that’s okay, no need to lie. I missed you though, but that’s got more to do with an inferiority complex that demands the validation that only having someone reading my poorly constructed prose online can bring.
So I was all geared up and ready to go. Then, I went to look for news online and”¦ apparently, DC did not get the memo that I was coming back. How embarrassing for us all. I totally fired my publicist and my agent over this and I hope DC does the same with their equivalent people because this is a tragedy of the highest order.
With a dearth of news, I had to get creative. Thus, this week’s column is given over to a “Tim’s Tirade” concerning “52”. I hope you enjoy it. Or, if my words make your eyes hurt, there are pretty pictures to look at. So there’s that.
TIM’S TIRADES
Why “52” Will Never Be More Than “Pretty Good” to Me
Right off, I should make it clear, I like “52”. I appreciate that DC took a chance and gave this large undertaking a roll of the dice. The concept of filling in a missing year is theoretically a sound one.
The thing is”¦I do not care about what happened in the missing year.
Okay, that’s not totally true. “52” does still hold some mystery for me that I’d like the answer to. I’m curious who will die, of course, and specifically hoping that the Question, Montoya, Animal Man, and Black Adam dodge that particular bullet. Supernova’s true identity is going to be a nice reveal, I expect. The “where” of Batwoman in the OYL world is a story I’m looking forward to reading. Actually, the “where” of any of the big characters in “52” is of interest. The mystery of why anyone would ever recruit Ambush Bug to the JLA is incredibly perplexing.
For me, however, those are minor mysteries. If “52” was cancelled tomorrow, it would be of minor disappointment to me. I’d be annoyed, of course, because I’d invest six months of dollars into it, but the open ended mysteries and unanswered questions would not actually bother me all that much. I mean, we are not talking the cancellation of Aztek or anything.
The problem is that, after six months, I’ve come to the conclusion that the OYL DCU is not really all that different than the DCU we had just before the flip. Even in comics, where almost all change is actually just the illusion of change, this would be an incredibly quick whitewashing of the events, whatever they may be, of “52”. Thus, all the immediacy is removed from the series. There’s no sense of danger, fear, concern, etc because we all know that the DCU will come through “52” largely unchanged.
Think of it this way: remove “52” from continuity/existence right now. We no longer have it as a touchstone. Does the DCU confuse you now? Do you feel like you’ve missed something? Personally, I do not. Truth be told, given what’s going on and important now to the OYL DCU, I think it could’ve all happened in an OML (one month later) situation and we’d be fine. Batman could do his world tour with his protégés, Superman could be depowered and repowered again, Wonder Woman could spend a month out of the spotlight before becoming Diana Prince, Blue Beetle could be MIA, etc, etc. The only difficulty I can think of is Green Arrow becoming Mayor because you’d need more than a month to mount a campaign.
Again, none of this is to say “52” is bad. It’s not. The main stories have consistently been interesting. Even the least of them have entertained me in some way. The backups are largely useless to me, but that’s neither here nor there. However, because I do not feel it is leading anywhere, it does not feel “important” to me. Without that sense, the intensity drops off and the book is stranded on the island of “pretty good”.
Well, there you go. Let me know what you think of my opinions and how wrong I am at parallax2@juno.com or by visiting the message board thread.
Thanks for being patient with the hiatus, hope you enjoy the weeks to come. There will be some changes to come, but nothing drastic. More of an attempt to make it pretty for you, that sort of thing. See you next week.
Un Gajje is Back in the Building
