World War III

April 18th, 2007

Filed under: Comics

That was an expensive mini-series, and pretty much a complete waste of time, money, and paper. For those of you who haven’t read World War III, it basically retells and expands the events of 52 #50. The series also briefly explains how most of the non-”Big Three” heroes achieved their one-year-later status. Some of the revelations were interesting (Aquaman, Manhunter), most were not (Hawkgirl’s “Oh by the way, Dr. Mid-Nite shrunk me back to normal size” and Donna’s off-panel decision to dress as Wonder Woman).

Speaking of 52 #50, it struck me as a little silly that Black Adam was subdued with a gag from Futurama (and it probably wasn’t original there, either). Sure, it’s clever, but now whenever I see Black Adam I’ll be thinking of Bender.

On a personal note, it was nice to Hawk and Dove in action again, even if the colorist can’t decide if Hawk is a blond or brunette. I wonder how they regained their powers, since the last time we saw them (in the Infinite Crisis: Day of Vengeance Special), they had lost their powers after the Spectre destroyed the Lord of Order and Lord of Chaos who granted them their power (though as I noted then, they had already died once before).

To save you money, here’s the key points from each issue of World War III so you can decide whether it’s worth owning:

World War III #1
Black Adam is pissed. Martian Manhunter is hurt.

World War III #2
Black Adam is pissed. Martian Manhunter is moping. Supergirl returns. Batgirl revelation. Aquaman revelation.

World War III #3
Black Adam is pissed. Martian Manhunter whines. The Teen Titans appear (are any of them teens anymore?) and do quite poorly. Manhunter (Kate Spencer) revelation.

World War III #4
Black Adam is pissed, then defeated. Martian Manhunter revelation.

12 Responses to “ World War III ”

  1. Siskoid
    April 19th, 2007 at 11:24 am

    Ok, we’re convinced not to buy them. So might as well tell us those relevaltions.

    And thanks in advance! :)

  2. Scott
    April 19th, 2007 at 11:29 am
    Official Comment

    Graeme spells them out fairly well over at The Savage Critic.

  3. Scott Harris
    April 19th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    Add to several of those issues:

    The Marvel Family, including Captain Marvel, are strangely ineffectual against Black Adam when any one of thems should be a near-even match for him. Likewise Alan Scott Green Lantern, Jakeem Thunder, Donna Troy Wonder Woman, et al.

  4. Jonathan Eh
    April 19th, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    Of course they’re all teens, I mean editorial wants the name of the team to be “Teen Titans,” right?

  5. Medraut
    April 19th, 2007 at 2:59 pm

    To Scott Harris: Maybe the Marvel Family was so ineffective because Billy had shared his power with Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr? They made a big point in 52 that Black Adam was slightly weaker when he shared his powers with Osiris and Isis. Of course, now that Billy is mainlining from the source I am not sure how that works anymore. Still, your point that there are enough powerhouses in the DCU that someone should have been able to stop him is a good one. Especially because they were working together.

    To Dr. Scott: Thanks for the heads up on the mini-series. After what I read here and at other locations, I probably won’t pick up it up (although I will still pick up 52 issue 50). It sounds like most of the “burning questions” answered by the mini-series are ones I am not that interested in.

  6. mike.
    April 19th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

    Please? Thanks? Sorry? Funderful? Non-alcoholic? Compassion? Shrimptoast? Antiquing?

  7. Olde_Fortran
    April 20th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

    Which Futurama gag are you talking about? I just flipped through Week 50 again, and I still can’t find the connection.

  8. Scott
    April 20th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
    Official Comment

    The scene in question is when Captain Marvel can’t remove Black Adam’s powers, so instead he “resets” his magic word to one he’ll never say.

    In a Season 3 episode of Futurama (”War is the H-word“), Nixon implants a bomb in Bender, set to go off whenever Bender says his favorite word (”ass”). The Professor is unable to remove the bomb, so instead he resets it to a word that Bender will never speak.

  9. The Coffeespy
    April 23rd, 2007 at 7:25 am

    WWIII was the stinkiest stinker to stink up my stinky collection in a stinking long while. Manhunter putting on pants isn’t what I’d call a revelation. In fact, it wasn’t explained at all… it’s no secret JJ is the most depressed creature in the galaxy – now we’re supposed to believe he’s so depressed he’ll wear pants? Ugh!

    I have my own theory on why JJ is in a new suit, and all that other crap that ‘happened’ in WWIII.

    http://coffeespy.com/?p=228

    Man… I STILL can’t type about it without getting angry.

  10. The Coffeespy » And I Thought Civil War Was Bad…
    April 23rd, 2007 at 10:00 am

    [...] Polite Dissent on WWIII. [...]

  11. Andrew Getting
    September 24th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

    I’m still trying to figure out why DC had two story arcs titled World War III. It’s not like Morrison’s run on JLA was that long ago.

  12. lizbeth
    December 24th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

    i just bought it
    :)

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