Review: World War III

If you were on the fence about buying DC's World War III series, I'd advise you to hop off on the side of not getting the four issues. This series didn't add anything at all to 52, but instead dots some "i"s and crosses some "t"s for One Year Later. What a waste of time. Let me spoil it for you:

They fight
and fight
and fight and fight and fight
fight fight fight
fight fight fight
The Black Adam vs. Everyone show!

I just saved you ten-plus bucks. So yeah, Black Adam goes crazy-ape bonkers and battles the whole world, leading to a big showdown in China, where he fights all the Superheroes until he vanishes in a flash of lightning. You have to read 52 #50 to learn what happened to him, and-surprise, surprise!-the two endings don't quite match up. Most of WW III is sheer mayhem and fighting, while the interstitial scenes are devoted to pushing all the "One Year Later" players into the places they need to be for OYL. Plus, Martian Manhunter is sad. This is all stuff that would have been better dealt with in the monthly books (if at all), and is pretty much unrelated to the main action, other than in a "All hell's breaking loose, time for me to change my costume/attitude!" sense.

Worse, after all that, most of 52 #50 is squandered in retelling the same story. Fight, fight fight, until a last minute save that promises to be as permanent as a Jean Grey death. With only two issues to go, that's...not so good. I still don't think we've seen the last of Ralph Dibny, but they're fast running out of time to address his fate. There's also unfinished business with Montoya, Batwoman, Booster, Intergang, and probably a half-dozen other things I've forgotten. While 52 has generally been much better than I expected it to be, I hope they can wrap it all up in the two issues that remain, or the whole thing could collapse under it's own weight.