52 #42

This post can be viewed as a follow-up to the previous one. In reviewing the two Shazam series currently running, I mentioned how the sense of whimsy and light-hearted adventure was missing from one and seemed submerged in the other.

The most recent issue of DC's 52 makes it clear, at least to me, that there is no longer any room for light-hearted adventure anywhere in the DC Universe as currently configured. What other reason can there be for killing off Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man? (If killing off his wife, Sue, in Identity Crisis weren't enough of a downer.)

Ralph was the superhero who could look at a simple jewel heist as a big deal, to whom solving a mystery was a kick, not a mission. He was the last vestige of the Silver Age sensibility in the DCU. And now he's gone. In an era when even a wacko idea like Detective Chimp is being used for dark and conspiratorial plots, DC has truly lost something irreplaceable.

Up 'til now, I've generally enjoyed 52--but this has put a damper on my enthusiasm. I was really hoping the Dibny storyline was intended to reinvigorate the character and make him see that life--a fun, involved life--could continue even without his beloved wife. If the "Lost in Space" storyline concludes similarly to this one, I'll know the DCU I grew up with has died.