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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You could read this *before* 52 if you don't know the DC Universe, November 2, 2007
This review is from: 52: The Companion (Paperback)
This is a collection of recent, old and positively ancient stories featuring the ten main players of 52 ( 52, Vol. 1). Unless you are a big DC Comics fan you will not know these D-list characters since some of them (like Rip Hunter) were never really popular. 52 is a phenomenal saga of the forgotten heroes of the DC Universe and these old stories help set up the stage. The material collected here is of variable quality and tone, ranging from golden-age simplicity to contemporary complexity and from high-art to pure pulp. The effect of this variation was very positive, very refreshing to me.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great reprints, July 19, 2009
This review is from: 52: The Companion (Paperback)
This is an over-short, over-priced volume of short stories and even excerpts of various things relating to the "52" storyline, including comics from the '50s to the '00s, by creators ranging from the masters to the justifiably unknown. The stories are mostly good, fairly important (in fact some have been reprinted a few times before) and the sheer variety of the contents make it an extremely interesting read. The recoloring, etc. is superb and Mark Waid's comments about each selection leave little to be desired. My only complaint is that there should be a lot more stories. We need more things like this. Let's see some B'Wana Beast, the original Hawk and Dove, Kirby's Manhunter, more Eclipso and Dial H for Hero, or that fat kid Herbie.
Almost everyone who reads these collections of off-beat Silver Age gems seems to wish DC would "dip more into this well"; only rarely do we get anything of this kind and it's often recolored badly or something like that. These collections get eaten up quick by hungry collectors anxious to see what inspired the good contemporary stuff (DC's top writers like Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, and Mark Waid make constant references to older, mostly-unknown material) and within a year or two the sleepers can't get ahold of them anymore and we wait for the next "Batman: The Black Casebook" or "Green Lantern: In Brightest Day" to come our way... well, DC, why not put out some more, and with greater frequency? This generation of comics-folk, relatively uneducated but with potentially the best resources of all time, needs as many reprints as possible so it can be our turn to re-evaluate "the classics".
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid companion collection, November 13, 2007
This review is from: 52: The Companion (Paperback)
DC's weekly, innovative, real time comic series 52 proved to be a successful endeavor with a cast of lower-tier DC characters at the forefront, and 52: The Companion is here to help novices out in terms of the many characters and their previous adventures. This TPB contains stories of varying quality starring characters like Animal Man, Adam Strange, Booster Gold, Steel, The Metal Men, Rip Hunter, Black Adam, and Gotham City Detective Renee Montoya among others. The stories themselves range from the golden age to the modern era, and are decent enough to give novices some background information on the stars of 52. That being said, 52: The Companion is only really worth picking up for said readers, or for those with a nostalgiac flavor or those needing a quick refresher course. Other than that though, this companion isn't entirely essential.
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