FiftyTwo 42

Now this is more like it. Fifty-Two has been dreadfully hit and miss for the past 15 issues or so.

The premise was dodgy to begin with, the prevalent feeling was that the good bits would fel curtailed and make you wish they had their own book, and the bits you didn’t care about would seem to go on forever.

And so it’s gone. Black Adam’s exploits and the end/rebirth of The Question deserved their own miniseries. Less so the tiresome space exploits, predictable Everyman story line and the massive disappointment of what the evil scientists were up to.

It was 4…….big……..robots. Wow. They’ll take Green Lantern all of 30 seconds to destroy.

We’ve also been let down through teased death’s and resurrections Booster’s dead! ….no he isn’t. Animal Man’s dead!!!….. wait, no he isn’t. To be fair though The Question really is dead. And now so is Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man.

Ralph’s wife died in the pages of Identity Crisis. Since then Ralph went utterly to pieces. There’s a lot of criticism of the “Girlfriend in the fridge” tactic in comics (Hero’s girl gets killed horribly by Bad Guy to create angst that lasts at most a TPB. Hero defeats Bad Guy, then moves on to shag the next alien chick that comes his way), but Sue’s death is different.

Her loss consumed Ralph, and he’s spent the last year trying to bring her back or, if that fails, join her.

So Ralph’s been chatting to the helmet of Nabu as to how he can bring her back. The helmet’s been talking back, bringing him through various magical tests in order to finally resurrect his bride.

As it turns out this issue though, the helmet of Nabu is in fact Faust, and the old wizard’s been trying to get Ralph to give his soul to Neron in exchange for him gaining power. It’s all explained very well, all the little scenes from the year come together brilliantly. Faust however is no criminal genius, and the worlds second greatest detective could see through it.

It turns out Ralph was onto the fix from the start and has manipulating the situation into a way for him to trap his tormentors. Faust is defeated, Neron shows up to take him back to hell, but Ralph claims Faust as his own. Neron responds to this by killing Ralph with his own wedding ring, only to realise that both he and Faust are trapped forever in a tower by Ralph’s magic. The Elongated Man dies with a smile on his face as he goes to meet his wife.

Best book DC’s put out this year. A fitting goodbye to Ralph, who's always been characterised by his detective skills and love for his wife than his powers Buy it now.

A+