Re: The Semi-Complete Story of "52" (abridged)... any interest?

Posted by Gnostic85 on 2007/2/18 10:44:36

PART TWO:

- Renee's investigation into the abandoned building leads her to former lover Kathy Kane, heir to the Kane estate. She tries to ask Kate if she knows who the building's owners are, but their history gets in the way, and Renee gets shown the door. However, Kane decides to do her own investigation, in the guise of Batwoman. When Renee and the Question learn that Intergang owns company which owns the building they were investigating, they break into the company's Gotham headquarters, only to be ambushed by an army of atavistic shape-changing thugs led by werewolf Abbot and the snake-woman Whisper A'Daire. Thankfully, Batwoman saves them, but they learn that they'll now have to follow Intergang to Kahndaq, Black Adam's territory.

- Meanwhile, Black Adam assembles the various allies he's made for a meeting, which is interrupted by Adrianna Tomaz, who's been an unwilling refugee in Kahndaq ever since Intergang smuggled her in during their failed attempt to bribe Adam. Adam tries to speak with Tomaz, only to be chided by her for ignoring his own people in his arrogant attempts to isolate the country from the rest of the world. When Adam tells her about the murder of his wife and children, she tells him how her own parents were murdered by Intergang while her little brother was kidnapped. Deciding that he needs someone to keep his power in check, he consults former enemy Captain Marvel, who's been growing increasingly powerful - and increasingly disturbed - since inheriting the powers of the wizard Shazam. With Marvel's blessing, Adam gives Tomaz a pendant which allows her to become the god-like Isis.

- Booster Gold, irritated by the increasing inaccuracies of Skeet's predictions, and humiliated after a staged super-battle is exposed as a set-up, decides to seek out Rip Hunter, the so-called "Master of Time" to find out if he can determine why Skeets' predictions keep going wrong. However, in Hunter's present-day lab, Booster finds notes which seem to indicate that he himself is causing the problems... or so he tells Skeets. Later, Booster apparently dies while trying to stop a nuclear explosion.

- Natasha Irons, convinced that her uncle John gained his new steel skin from Luthor's Everyman Project, a project which promises to give superpowers to the common man, applies and is accepted by Luthor himself. Luthor gives her the works, turning her into the light-powered Starlight. This results in a confrontation between her and her uncle, who is humiliated when she kicks his ass.

- Red Tornado's torso turns up in Australia, repeatedly chanting "52", where it's discovered by a young mechanic named John Warrawa, an aborigine whose people happen to believe in a being called Tornado Dreaming...

- Ralph Dibney seeks out Wondergirl, after the Cult of Kon-El steals some of his late wife's clothing from a storage locker. Finally confronting her, he learns that the cult intends to do a trial resurrection, raising his wife from the dead, and needed the clothes and the ring to construct an effigy. Desperate to have her back, he agrees to help, but brings in Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Metamorpho, and Zauriel to help him take out the cult in case the resurrection turns out to be a scam. As the ceremony gets underway, his friends convince him that it's not worth it to try and raise Sue, and so they bust up the ceremony. However, as the cult escapes, Ralph sees the effigy of his wife apparently moving and calling out to him. The building collapses and Dibney is nowhere to be found...

- Renee and Charlie travel to Kahndaq in order to investigate Intergang's activities there, and find the country celebrating the impending marriage of Black Adam and Isis. Despite the throngs of people gathering in the streets, the two detectives find Intergang's hideout, only to discover 8 murdered guys and a load of rat poison. They are subsequently framed and thrown in jail. After escaping and hiding out for a week, Renee realizes that the rat poison indicates that Intergang is plotting to set off a suicide bomb at the wedding. They hurry to the ceremony, where Renee shoots the would-be suicide bomber, only to learn it was a young girl. Distraught, she goes back to her old sex-and-booze ways, which is not a very smart thing to do in a Middle-Eastern country. An angry Black Adam nearly kills her, but the Question convinces him that the wiser course of action would be to enlist the two detectives to help rid his country of Intergang and find Tomaz's little brother Amon.

- Dr. Morrow disappears, leaving his friend Magnus a piece of paper that provides the machine code needed for Magnus to resurrect the Metal Man Mercury. It comes in handy, as Magnus finds his house besieged by crude duplicates of his creations Platinum, Iron, and Lead. Together, he and Mercury manage to eliminate the mindless robots, only to be captured by a larger one and taken to Oolong Island, where he is reunited with Dr. Morrow. Morrow informs him that the missing scientists have been brought to this island to work on Intergang's "Four Horsemen" project.

- After going missing for several weeks, Ralph Dibney is found in Marseilles by Detective Chimp, who asks him to help investigate the death of Tim Trench, one of their mutual friends from way back. The deceased was found wearing Dr. Fate's helmet, so the chimp's teammates from Shadowpact are brought in to help tap into the helmet's spirit and learn how the hell it ended up with Trench. The helmet's spirit, Nabu, speaks to Dibney and promises to help him resurrect Sue if he'll go on a pilgrimage. Thus, Ralph sets off, much to the discomfort of Shadowpact, who think he's talking to himself...