52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen #1 Review

52 AFTERMATH: THE FOUR HORSEMEN #1
Written by Keith Giffen
Art by Pat Olliffe

DC really dropped the ball on these 52 follow-ups. They have all been fairly decent quality, but are also robbed of any momentum and hype they had through the huge downtime between the end of 52 and launch of these books. The other books I refer to are Black Adam and Metal Men. All good books launched long after they should have been.

This issue picks up after the destruction of Bialya, which was destroyed by Black Adam for harbouring Death during World War III in 52. A great deal of time is spent setting up the story for the rest of this six part series and I feel this issue wastes too many pages putting the pieces in place. In fact, I can almost guarantee that most people could do without this issue and start picking up this series next issue and not miss a beat. It is not that this issue is terrible or not worth buying, but that nothing plot worthy really happens until the final couple pages. The interactions between the post-52 Clark and Bruce are well done and quite enjoyable, but have been seen in other books already months ago, robbing these scenes of any impact or freshness they may have had. Wonder Woman's role in this issue feels tacked on, just to let people know that she is actually going to be part of this crossover.

I have my doubts about the need for this series to be six issues, but I think this issue brought enough to the table for most to at least take a look at. Not much happens, but the interactions between Superman and Batman are especially well done and we see the rebirth of the Horsemen by the end of the issue and, with how one manages to take a bite out of Superman, literally, we see that they will actually be a major threat to the three heroes as well. I will save judgment of this series for later, but I am not sure if this series will be worth the money by the end of the day or not.

Verdict - Check It

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