Cream of the Comics – 4/18/2007

WORLD WAR III
written and drawn by DC’s army of creators

The long awaited “World War III” event lands this Wednesday at DC, and I’m here to help provide you a roadmap in how to navigate the five books that tell its story this week. After all, there are 5 different books coming out this week which tell the story, and it might be nice for you to know what’s what. Read on, after the jump, IF YOU DARE!

For starters, the entire story of World War III can be carried away if you only pick up issue #50 of 52. If you desperately want to cut corners and pinch pennies while still being aware of the DCU (crazy talk, I know), that’s your best bet. In fact, if you buy them all, editor Michael Siglain still says read this one first. So, storywise, it must be pretty important. That being said, those four other WWIII books coming out this week should be readable on their own too – no confusing arcs of Rene Montoya’s story, which has already had 50 parts. So if, like me, you’ve been skipping 52, you should still be able to make heads and tails of it.

These four books deal specifically with characters and groups not already getting the spotlight in 52 (so watch for The Great Ten in issue #50, despite their appearance on covers here), but most of all, it’s supposed to hit on a lot of notes regarding One Year Later. For example, the cover to Part One – A Call To Arms clearly shows Jason Todd in the process of (temporarily) picking up the Nightwing mantle. Remember that? Man, that seems like a long time ago. Almost a year, even. Thank God that storyline petered out. (Maybe someday I’ll do an article called “One Year Later: One Year Later,” looking at how much OYL matters one year later. Probably not though. It might be a little depressing.)

The World War III story itself, which you’ll know better than I can tell if you’ve been reading 52, involves Black Adam on one side… and pretty much everyone else on the other. To roughly sum the situation up, Black Adam recently lost his wife and his beloved, new brother-in-law (Isis and Osiris, in that order) to the Four Horsemen of Apokolips, so he went on a rampage against the Horsemen, and the scientists that built them. Unfortunately, an entire country got in his way, everyone there got killed too. And then he got captured by those same Horsemen-building scientists, and then he was sold to China, which is where WWIII picks up. You know, this made a lot more sense when my friend explained it to me the other day…

Anyway, aside from the main story, there are other major points to look for – as in, they affect the books we’re reading now, not the ones we read a year ago – such as: the explanation of how and why Supergirl is hanging out with the Legion, despite her also being in the here and now; Aquaman becoming the Dweller in the Depths; the Teen Titans getting beat down hard by Adam, and one even dies (ooh, death, that sells pretty well in comics), and then they disband; Martian Manhunter’s new look; and the new Suicide Squad series will also spin out of all of this somehow too.

To reiterate: These four books aren’t being put together by the regular 52 team – the writers are Keith Champagne on parts 1 & 2, and John Ostrander on parts 2 & 3. The pencilers, going from book 1 to 4, are Pat Oliffe, Andy Smith, Tom Derenick, and Jack Judson. All those lovely covers you see were drawn by Ethan Van Sciver. So don’t expect it to tie as heavily into the stories and characters you see in that book. Everything you need for that will be in 52, issue #50 – Whereas these four books won’t confuse newcomers by randomly hitting part 50 of 52’s stories; what they DO do is give you a bigger picture of how the DC Universe as a whole reacts to this.

All in all, if reading this has left you more confused than before, don’t bother with the books. I’m sure you’ll survive with that extra weight in your wallet. If you’re a DC junkie though, don’t skip these – they’re definitely on your required reading list.