Week Twenty-One

Well, I’m on beer number six, so I figure it’s about time I put something up about this week’s edition of “52.” The primary focus of this week is on a group of Luthor Everymen that I’ve been referring to as “The Generic Six,” but, according to the cover, we’ve been asking for something, and the answer is Infinity Inc. That’s right, Luthor’s group has taken on the team name and personas of Infinity Inc. Were you asking for it? I wasn’t. We should find out who was. Because, seriously, they’re stupid and deserve to be beaten with a pillow case full of batteries.

Let me explain exactly what transpires in this issue. The fast girl on Luthor’s supergroup decides she wants back in, so she hops aboard, and Luthor sets up a big media spectacle to debut the new team. Their task is to bring down the new Blockbuster, a character who shouldn’t be mentioned, let alone revived, and the team makes short work of him. It’s fun watching them talk about how scripted the whole thing is, and seems like a spoof of cheesy superhero rescues. The Teen Titans then show up and the two groups talk for awhile, until the fast girl, the new Trajectory, starts getting ideas about being the new Kid Flash. She makes an attempt to be a star when Blockbuster gets free, and as soon as she takes claim of the Kid Flash name, Luthor pushes a button and it’s curtains for the stupid cooze. At the funeral, John Henry Irons shows up, Natasha throws a hissy fit, and that green guy from the Titans whose name isn’t important enough for me to even try to remember, says that the Teen Titans know something’s wrong and want to help. The only other bit of an alternate storyline in this is Ralph Dibny and Dr. Fate getting past some guard to some netherworld type place. Dibny’s a bad-ass, and that’s all you need to know. Also, some crazy Aussie is building a new suit for the Red Tornado. It’s almost done.

So, we now know definitively that Luthor has the ability to take away the superpowers he is giving away with the Everyman Program. Good to know. That’s probably the most revelatory point in this issue, and the rest is just a cookie-cutter fight and some cheesy dialogue; although, it’s done in an entertaining fashion, so I can’t complain.

I think the most interesting thing this week, in regards to “52” comes in the form of some dialogue during the new issue of “JLA.” When the Big Three bring up the idea that they should have Booster Gold join the team, one of them mentions that it would be a good tribute to Ted to put somebody new in the suit. Either Ted Kord comes back from the dead and becomes the new Booster Gold during “52,” or the writing staff and editorial team on “JLA” made a typo. Or, they dislike the old “JLI” guys so much that they forgot who was who. I’m hoping it’s not a typo or a brain cloud. That being done on purpose lends itself to many more interesting happenings. What if Ted Kord is miraculously raised from the dead, and, upon seeing that the scarab has found a new Blue Beetle, decides that his role should be to pick up the legacy of Booster Gold? I guess they’d have to kill him off again, and I can’t imagine them thinking up a more impactful death than the one they already did. Plus, it’d be incredibly hard to sell people on bringing back a character whose brains we saw splattered across a tile floor, but I like Ted Kord, and I wish he’d come back.

It’s probably just a typo.

See ya in seven.