Emerald Eye of Ekron Revealed
This week is a busy one, what with Batwoman about to bite it and all. There was a great deal of build up last week in getting Renee and Vic back to Gotham in order to save Kate Kane. The duo’s jumping from one part of the globe to another is just part of the jumping in story telling this week, taking readers from Gotham, to down under, and finally to deep space.
One of the biggest questions set up last issue was if the Crime Bible was an accurate predictor of the future, and if so, could the future be changed? Vic and Renee kick the week off back in Gotham trying to get the attention of Batwoman.
It’s been 28 weeks since Batman and Robin have disappeared from the skyline, and crime in the big G has jumped to alarming levels. As we’ve seen in the Batman OYL titles, Harvey Dent did take over as the lead crime fighter in Gotham, so the question now is, “Where is he?” And is Batwoman doing anything to help? (Hint Issue 30 may explain everything).
When Kate does show, she doesn’t appear to believe in prophecy. But as events play out, she is assaulted several days later by Mannheim, who does believe in the tales of the Crime Bible and is ready to strangle the life out of the heroine. Unfortunately for him, Renee and The Question have been in hiding the entire time ready to save her.
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The Questions? Is he referring to the two as a team, or questions that remain unanswered? He almost expects them to show up at some point by not so soon. Could it be Mannheim has looked into the future?
New heroes that fight crime often don’t capture the bad guy the first time out. This is true for Batwoman and The Questions as Mannheim is able to escape to fight another day.
Meanwhile, in Australia, villagers are being displaced from their land by an unruly band of land rustlers. Instead of going quietly, one of the villagers brings out a weapon to help fight the battle
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This is certainly not the Red Tornado we’ve come to know over the years, as his body isn’t all there – having been pieced together from whatever bits of junk were lying around. And it isn’t just the body that is incomplete; Red is only able to say 52! over and over again, like some stroke victim trying his best to communicate. His consciousness (the soul) of the machine hasn’t made its way back to the body, with Red Tornado only running on Auxiliary Conscious Backup.
Even though he is able to move around, Tornado is no match for a couple well placed sledgehammers, and soon finds himself in a scrap truck bound for destinations unknown.
UPDATE: Ridge-Ferrick is the company that is kicking the people off their land. Last we saw that company it was in Kahndaq and was a front for Intergang.
The final story of the week finds us in deep space checking in with Starfire, Adam Strange, Animal Man and Lobo as they attempt to out run the Emerald Head of Ekron. They are eventually able to trap the head in the skeletons of one of the dead worlds destroyed by the great Stygian Passover.
As the group examines the head closely, the realize the head isn’t some horrible monster hell bent on getting a power source back, but rather a member of the Green Lantern Crops., who had its primary weapon ripped from its head while the sector it was assigned to protect was destroyed. I’d be a little angry too.
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Regardless of who is right or wrong, it appears whatever destroyed the sector is heading straight for Earth.
Now knowing the origin of the Emerald Eye of Ekron, it feels somewhat anti-climactic. I mean, it is cool the eye is actually an eye from a Green Lantern (as I predicted somewhat inaccurately), but since readers don’t know who Ekron is in the grand scheme of the Green Lantern Crops., the big reveal is confusing, and a let down. Until we know Ekron’s back story, it’s hard to get behind an eye gone bad.
Readers: Now that we know the Emerald Eye of Ekron is from a Green Lantern, do I get partial credit for making the prediction way back in Week 19? Post your comments below!
The Good
- The Questions
- Emerald Eye origin revealed
- Two become three in the form of The Questions/Batwoman team up
The Bad
- Vic Sage’s condition gets worse
- Emerald Eye’s origin kind of anticlimactic
- Lobo isn’t as good as he claims
As many questions that were answered this week, even more pop up. Even though the series will end on 5/2/07, I don’t see a logical end in sight. There are just so many stories to tell and so much back story information we don’t know, that one of two things will have to happen; 1) DC Annuals will abound this summer and next filling in some of the missing information fans are dying to know, or 2) expect a huge omnibus edition of 52 complete with pages and pages of bonus material that we’ll have to snatch up to make the story complete.
I’m rather frustrated this week by how the issue ended. I think I was waiting from some big revelation (bigger than the Emerald Eye at least) that this issue didn’t deliver. It was still a good read, and I suggest readers take a second or third read of the issue to appreciate what is really laid out. I’ll give 52 – Week 28 a solid 3 Stars with the hope the next couple of weeks knock my socks off.
Parting Shot
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Discuss this issue in the Major Spoilers 52 forum.
3 Comments
The Ekron revelation was a little anti-climactic, but at the same time, there’s a larger threat that (I think) it was running away from, wasn’t it? Either way, I’m completely in the dark about what significance Ekron has to the GLC.
As a Green Lantern, Ekron wouldn’t have run away from Lady Styx who is said to have destroyed Sector 3500. Ekron would have fought, but with Lobo stealing the Eye, I get the feeling Ekron was left half powerless in defending the sector. This, in turn, could have turned him “mad”, much like Jon Stewart did in the early Green Lantern days.
Just my thoughts on the subject, thanks for posting Nick!
Basically: It’s all Lobo’s fault.