52 week 7
John Jack
Recap
We open on our stranded space group, Starfire seems drunk from some space fruit she's eating, Adam Strange tells her to stop and she leaves to clear her head.
We move on to Renee Montoya pondering the case given to her by the Question. She decides to check out Kate Kane, owner of the building she met the monster in, and an old flame.
We cut to Booster Gold the next day, as he is confronted by Ralph Dibny. Originally a visit to ask about the Kryptonian cult, Dibny is driven into a rage when he realizes Booster could have known about his wife's death before it happened, and stopped it.
Meanwhile Montoya is at the Kane estate, she meets with Kate, whose temper flares as well at the sight of Renee, they don't go into specifics but the two have a romantic history for sure. Montoya asks about the building and Kate agrees to help her, the former doesn't realize she has just enlisted the help of Batwoman!
We bounce back to Metropolis, where Booster, Skeets and Dibny have arrived in front of Lexcorp, where a tanker truck is on fire, Booster puts it out with ease and is flagged down by the press. Just as Booster begins to go into media mode a voice calls out from the crowd, the actor he hired to play supervillain last week tells the press everything with Dibny egging them on, Booster is outed as a fraud!
Review
Wow, another great issue! The opening in space is really interesting and I’m so curious what they’re going to find in that jungle. It’s been so long I’ve completely forgotten so it’s genuinely exciting me all over again, really cool.
The Montoya sections are very tightly scripted and feel like the work of Greg Rucka for sure. The way the subplot moves smoothly from a to b reads a lot like his work on Gotham Central, the density of this issue is spectacular. The first appearance of Kate Kane is really interesting as well and feels very much like a Grant Morrison move, with the updating of an obscure silver age character being exactly their kind of magic.
The Booster and Ralph segment is huge actually, possibly one of the bigger moments in this book and one that will play out for years, with Booster’s solo series that follows this directly opening in consideration of Dibny’s accusations. Just fantastic.
The art by Ken Lashley is great, with the Montoya sections and Booster being the highlights. I love the page where Booster puts out the tanker fire and the scenes with Booster and the press are great at drawing the eyes focus where it needs to be in an otherwise very busy scene.
Final Thoughts
Another great issue in an amazing series. This is what comics should be.
52 Week 7: Exposed
- Writing - 9/109/10
- Storyline - 10/1010/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 10/1010/10