The Dissector

The Nitpicker #24-END OF 52 SPECIAL.

DISCLAIMER

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

Well, here's the end of 52 special; only a week later after 52 #52 came out. You'll find nits that have already been featured in the column, back before it was in the form of this blog, but after a certain point, I decided to save all 52 nits for a special... this special! You can see how, up to week 34 (the first nits written up especially for this installment), I give less Bazzars than you'd expect me to... that only goes to show how I grow less and less intolerant month after month!

Enough chatter, on with the nits!
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"I'M FROM THE FUTURE! I KNOW EVERYTHING! SAY... WHO'S THAT GUY WITH THE GLASSES? HE KINDA LOOKS LIKE SUPERMAN!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 1 of 52.

CULPRIT: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka & Mark Waid (writers, henceforth known as The Writing Team).

NIT-TO-PICK: Wonderful start for 52, I've been eagerly awaiting for this book to start, not only because it will tell you what happened during the past year in the DCU, but because one of the main stars is The Question, and he's one of my favorite characters.

But alas, there had to be a nit, even if I have to grasp at straws to find it. In page 21, when Booster Gold goes haywire, he punches somebody while he's struggling and Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) are trying to restrain him (BTW, I know Booster's armor is from the future, but really, can't J'onn and Hal restrain him?).

In the next panel we see that who he hit is Clark Kent, who is bleeding from his nose, meaning that the loss of powers he suffered during this year was already in effect this early into the year. When Booster punches him, Clark says from off-panel, that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are not coming; and in the following panel, Booster looks straight at him and asks him "How the hell do YOU know?"

I'd wager that Booster, after his time with the JLA, probably knew Supes' secret ID... even if he didn't, he has detailed historical records from the 25th Century, and he stresses that several times... even if they were wrong because of the Infinite Crisis, the little tidbit about Clark's ID should be there. But then again, he could be so out of his mind with the shock of his records being wrong that he doesn't recognize Clark.

NIT-O-METER: Can't give this more than a 2, since it's very easy to explain as I said above, with Booster is not thinking straight at the moment.
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DOPPERGANGLINESS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER."

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 3 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team, but I think this particular scene is the handiwork of Geoff Johns.

NIT-TO-PICK: In page 16, when the scientists at Star Labs and John Henry Irons (aka Steel) find out that the Lex Luthor corpse they have is not "our" Lex, but Alexander Luthor, from Earth 3... Are you really telling me that the only way to find out when somebody is from an alternate reality than by his eye color? Something like the vibrational frequency of the body's matter?

I mean, I bet Alex Luthor could change his vibrational frequency... couldn't he change his eye color as well?

NIT-O-METER: Just a small nit, 4 Bazzars.
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IT'S IN HIS EYES, THAT'S WHERE IT IS!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 9 of 52.

CULPRIT: Shawn Moll (penciller), and/or David Baron (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 14, first panel, Adam Strange clearly has eyes, even if they're white, and none of the scarring around where his eyes used to be.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars, big but not important, this nit was even admitted by Stephen Wacker (editor of 52 at the time) on Newsarama.
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"EYE SEE YOU!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 9 of 52.

CULPRIT: Shawn Moll (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Alright, this is one of my pet peeves... mostly because it's one of my favorite characters. On page 21, panel one, The Question's mask has eyes... IT DOES NOT HAVE EYES. THE WHOLE POINT OF THE MASK IS THAT HE LOOKS FACELESS!!!

NIT-O-METER: 9 Bazzars.
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"OH, I'VE BEEN EXCERCISING, THANKS FOR NOTICING."

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 11 of 52.

CULPRIT: Keith Giffen (breakdowns) and Joe Bennett (penciller for this particular subplot).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 11 (and on the rest of the book), Charlie (aka The Question) looks too big, too beefed up; he looks more like Batman or Superman. The body type is wrong, Question is fit; muscular, but not broad shouldered as they've drawn it here.

NIT-O-METER: Just 3 Bazzars, can't give it more.
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"IT JUST GREW BACK."

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 11.

CULPRIT: Dan Jurgens (layouts) and/or Andy Lanning (finishes).

NIT-TO-PICK: In the History of the DCU section, namely in page 25 of the book, panel 5, we have a reproduction of a section of the scene from Infinite Crisis 7 where Wonder Girl mourns the death of Superboy... and we got ourselves a DOUBLE NIT!!!! I'm not going to bitch about the tears in the costumes or the poses not matching the original art (because they don't), but there's two things that do bother me. The first one, and the subject of this particular nit? Well, Superboy (Kon-El) lost his right hand in the battle against Superboy Prime, and in Infinite Crisis 7 you can clearly see it was cut-off at the wrist, even leaving what appears to be a "closed" stump... but in this recreation of that scene, even though the panel border cuts it off, you can see the beginning of his right hand, specifically his thumb joint.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"WHILE IT GREW BACK, I HAD TIME TO CHANGE CLOTHES."

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 11 of 52.

CULPRIT: Jeromy Cox & Guy Major (colorists).

NIT-TO-PICK: Aaaaaaaaaaaaand the second part of this double nit is brought to us by two of our favorite colorists. Who can forget Jeromy Cox, who gave us such classics as "THE INCREDIBLE COLOR CHANGING CAPE" (I'm going to milk this one forever, am I not?) and "GREEN LANTERN GLOVES, THEY COME AND GO...". And nobody will fail to remember Guy Major... well, yes, I think he's only appeared here once, and for something minor.

So, what did they do? Simple, they colored Wonder Girls pants blue, instead of red... they might have been thinking of the jeans she wears OYL... tsk, tsk, tsk...

NIT-O-METER: Just 5 Bazzars, can't go higher with this one.
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"I JUST HAD TO SAY IT AGAIN."

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 12 of 52.

CULPRIT: Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 7, the last dialogue by Adrianna Tomaz (soon to be Isis) on panel 1 is repeated as her first dialogue in panel 2.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars, it's a stupid error, but hardly major.
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"I SHUST DONT KNOW HOW, TO WRITE THIS SENTENCE."

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 13 of 52.

CULPRIT: Nick J. Napolitano (letterer) and/or (but not very likely) The Writing Team.

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 9, panel 1, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) says to Ralph Dibny (aka Elongated Man) "You wanted friends here (...) you're afraid you've cofused desperation, for judgment." Wow, that's three nits in one sentence! First, and most obvious, the word is not "cofused", but "confused", second, between "you're afraid" and "you've cofused", there should be a comma, which, third, appears in "desperation, for judgment", where there should be none. The correct sentence would have been "(...) you're afraid, you've confused desperation for judgment."

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, even if it's big, it doesn't make the dialogue impossible to understand. Just because you're the letterer doesn't mean you get to screw up.
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"GOTHAM CITY, CITY STATE?"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 14 of 52.

CULPRIT: Travis Lanham (letterer) and/or The Writing Team, Greg Rucka being the writer most likely in charge of this scene.

NIT-TO-PICK: When Renee Montoya's passport is stamped in Khandaq (page 2, panel 8), it reads "U.S. Embassy, Gotham City, United States"... wtf? I thought Gotham went back to being part of the USA after the No Man's Land. Since when countries have embassies in their own cities?

NIT-O-METER: 9 Bazzars, big mistake, but not story-affecting.
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"ALL THESE INJUNS ARE THE SAME TO ME"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 22 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team.

NIT-TO-PICK: This is an old one, and one I found out thanks to 52 Pickup, a wonderful fellow blog that picks apart 52 on a, what less, weekly basis.

This issue has the appearance of the new "Super Chief", who gets his power from a "Manitou Stone. "Manitou" is a word used by the Algonquin speaking peoples of New England to mean 'spirit,' as in having spiritual power. Thing is, the legend of the first "Super Chief", states that he was "A great noble of the Iroquois nation". An Iroquois wouldn't have called on "manitou, the great spirit in things"; he'd have called it "orenda."

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, a little research, particularly on cultural issues such as this one, doesn't hurt.
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"THEY CHARGED BY THE CANDLE..."

(NOTE: This nit, and another one further down originally contained the word "Jew" in some instances, as I believed "Jew" and "Jewish" were the same when referring to a person. Apparently, it is, but some Jewish people take offense at the use of "Jew", due to its past use as part of racial slurs. I opted to change the wording as to not offend anybody.)

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 33 of 52.

CULPRIT: Keith Giffen (breakdowns) and Joe Prado & Tom Derenick (pencillers).

NIT-O-METER: It's the end of Hanukkah, and on page 10, we can see that at Renee Montoya's apartment, the Jewish festivity has been celebrated by herself, Aristotle Rodor, Vic Sage, and Katy Kane (aka Batwoman, who's the only Jewish person of the bunch). There's a menorah, the seven-armed candelabrum used by the Jewish people; problem is, on Hanukkah, they light a Hanukkia, which has 9 arms. Oh, there it is again, on page 13.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, please research this kind of cultural/ethnic things.
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"I KEEP IN SHAPE!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 33 of 52.

CULPRIT: Joe Prado & Tom Derenick (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On pages 10 and 11, Vic Sage (aka The Question) is shown with his face emaciated due to cancer, gaunt, as if he's lost a lot of weight; which one of the symptoms of lung cancer; yet his pecs are looking as muscular as ever. His open shirt shows his chest muscles, which look athletic as he was before the disease kicked in... and as far as I know, if you lost enough weight as to make your face look quasi-skeletal, you're gonna lose muscular mass.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"I'M NOT REALLY HERE"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 33 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team, and/or Keith Giffen (breakdowns) and/or Joe Prado & Tom Derenick (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 14, several scenes of DC heroes celebrating Christmas can be seen, and one of them is Green Arrow, with what are most likely Black Canary, Arsenal and Speedy in the background. Wait, isn't Green Arrow, along with most of his "family", supposed to have spent the 52 year in a remote island, training?

Incidentally, on the same page, Guy Gardner is seen creating a Santa-with-reindeers-and-sled, and a menorah with his ring, he's excused from knowing which candelabrum is the correct one, since he's not Jewish, and apparently doesn't have any friends that are. I do, and that's why I know the difference.

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars, I guess they could have returned home for a few days to celebrate the holidays.
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"THE BATSIGNAL IS BROKEN, SO WE'RE USING SMOKE SIGNALS"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 33 of 52.

CULPRIT: Keith Giffen (breakdowns) and/or Joe Prado & Tom Derenick (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 16, Jim Gordon is shown smoking a pipe. I thought he'd quit.

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, he might have started again.
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"ESSENTIAL... A MATTER OF SEMANTICS"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 33 of 52 (backup origin story).

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer) or Michael Siglain (editor).

NIT-TO-PICK: At the end of the Martian Manhunter's origin story, an essential storylines list is given. Among them are two stories where J'onn only has small appearances, almost cameos: Formerly Known as the Justice League (which in fact has been largely ignored by DC's editorial, as if where out of continuity) and Countdown to Infinite Crisis.

There's other problems with this essential storylines list, mainly continuity issues stemming from the reboot to Earth-1 after Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the semi-reboot into New Earth after Infinite Crisis. A good analysis of these problems, and other issues with the Martian Manhunter's can be found on Everyday Is Like Wednesday, another damn fine comics blog.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"WHAT'S IN A NAME?"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 33 of 52 (backup origin story).

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer) or Michael Siglain (editor).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the last page of the Martian Manhunter's origin story, specifically in the "Powers and Weapons" section, his name is misspelled as "Jonn", instead of "J'onn".

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, might be a typo, but it's still in something important like a name.
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"TIME IS BROKEN!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 34 of 52.

CULPRIT: And the first freshly-written nit of the bunch goes to.... The Writing Team and/or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: The opening fight scene, on the first page, opens with "Week 34, Day 1"; and two pages later, still the same scene, reads "Week 34, Day 3."

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars, it confuses the hell out of you, since the chronology of this book is really important. I think Wacker admitted to this one as well.
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"DAMN HIPPIES! THEY'RE TOO LAZY TO USE TWO SEPARATE WORDS!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 34 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team and/or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 6, the famous environmental organization is referred to as "Green Peace"; when their name is only one word, "Greenpeace".

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, because a little research wouldn't hurt. Even my word processor's spell check knows it's one word.
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"MR. MIRACLE TAUGHT US THIS TRICK!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 36 of 52.

CULPRIT: Chris Batista or Jack Jadson (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the first panel of page 5, you can see that Animal Man and Starfire are wearing some sort of restraints, shackles on their wrists, and some sort of thick metal collar. You can also see Buddy's on panel 3. But then, from panel 4 (when they're mobbed by the Lady Styx's goons) on, they're clearly not wearing any restraints, not on their neck, not on their wrist. In that same panel, number 4, Animal Man asks Lobo to release them, but you don't see Lobo doing that.

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, I guess Lobo could have some sort of remote for the restraints, but it wouldn't have hurt showing how he activated it, or having Buddy ask him to release them one panel earlier.
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"I'M STILL KEEPING IN SHAPE."

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 36 of 52.

CULPRIT: Chris Batista or Jack Jadson (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: Back when talking about Week 33, I commented on how gaunt Vic Sage, aka Charlie, aka The Question looked due to his lung cancer (now extended to other parts of his body), or at least, how his face looked emaciated, but the rest of his body was as buff as a healthy man's. Well, three weeks later, and he's supposed to be even worse; yet on page 12 his face and what little we can see of his body look normal.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, it's getting worse, and not only Vic's health!
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"SORRY, I JSUT SLRUR WHEN I'M DRURRNK!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 37 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team (most likely Mark Waid or Geoff Johns) and/or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: What an issue! The Supernova reveal, he's Booster Gold, so Booster ain't dead! I loved this particular issue.... for that, and for learning that Animal Man had not really died. But there has to be some nits in this issue, right?

Well, on the first panel of page 18, Lobo says "partorl" instead of "patrol"; and I know he's talking in "tough guy speak", saying things like "figgered" or "stoopid" (a dialect made famous by Ben J. Grimm, aka The Thing, so much that I expected lobo to call Adam Strange "Stretcho"), but "partorl"?!?!??!

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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"GET RID OF THE BODY!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 37 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team (Grant Morrison, most likely).

NIT-TO-PICK: Well, are we supposed to believe that Adam Strange and Starfire would leave Animal Man there for there? What makes them experts in his physiology, in his powers, that they are 100% sure that he's really dead? But that's not the point here... or actually... .yes, it is. Both Adam Strange and Starfire are smarter than that.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
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"I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING, YOU CRAZY BLIND MAN!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 37 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team and/or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 19, panel 2, Adam Strange speaks as if he's replying to something Starfire just said.... but Starfire is silent, there's no speech balloon there or on the previous panel!

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
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"I'VE BEEN WORKING OUT TOO!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 41 of 52.

CULPRIT: Giuseppe Camuncoli (penciller), and maybe also Rodney Ramos (inker) and Alex Sinclair (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Apart from the fact that Aristotle "Tot" Rodor looks nothing like he used to (from frail old hippy to rugged Telly Savalas); why are his eyes lacking pupils on page 5, panel 5?

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
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"WEAREATAPREMIUFORSPACE!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 46 of 52 (backup origin story).

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer) and/or Phil Balsman (letter), or perhaps Michael Siglain (editor) and/or Harvey Richards & Jeanine Schaefer (associate editors).

NIT-TO-PICK: Not really sure who writes the text on the little profile at the end of these origin stories; but on Batman's, on page 23 of this issue, the "Essential Storylines" section lists as its last item "Batman: The GreatestStories Ever Told".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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"HELL, WHAT A FUN PLACE!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 41 of 52.

CULPRIT: The Writing Team (most likely Greg Rucka).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 4, Renee Montoya says "(...) a place where sins are indulged with abandon. (...) Hell." Uh.... isn't Hell where sins are, you know, punished?!?!?!?!

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars.
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"I'M GOING FOR THE MARYLIN MONROE LOOK!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 49 of 52 (backup origin story).

CULPRIT: Alex Sinclair (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: I found these origin stories to be nicely done, but, for the most part, they didn't add anything to what we already know. It was hoped that they would give some insight as to how the DC Universe has changed after Infinite Crisis, but apart from the JLA's origin, not one story told us something new (perhaps there were other stories that did, but I can't remember them). We didn't even get a definitive (until the next retcon or reboot) Superman origin!!!

But in this case, on the second and last page of the JSA's origin (page 23 of the book), Power Girl's hair on the last panel is a very faint shade of platinum blond; almost white (you can only tell it's not actually white by comparing it at the white fabric of her costume). She's blonde, a regular blond shade that is usually the same as that of Alan Scott or Stargirl (and you can see that the two ladies share the same hair color, as they're depicted together in the first panel of the same page).

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars. Liberty Belle (Jesse Chambers) also has the same hair color than Power Girl, Stargirl, and Green Lantern; maybe even a little bit darker... she's shown here in a platinum blond color one shade darker than Power Girl's wrongly colored hair, but I will let this one slide as due to lighting.
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"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 49 of 52 (backup origin story).

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer) and/or Rob Leigh (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the last panel of page 23, still on the JSA origin story, the current (as of that issue of 52, more or less) lineup of the team is show, and Stargirl is incorrectly billed with her previous codename, Star-Spangled Kid. And why the hell is Obsidian smiling? Creepy!

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"WHAT, ARE YOU TOLD FOR SUPERHERO NAMES?"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 49 of 52 (backup origin story).

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer) and/or Rob Leigh (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Same page and panel, if Starman (Thom Kallor), Hourman (Rick Tyler), Liberty Bell (Jesse Chambers), Mr. Terrific (Michael Holt). Dr. Midnite (Pieter Cross), and Sandman (Sanderson "Sandy" Hawkins), are all called by their codenames, even if they're not the first person to use that name (the whole JSA and the DC Universe in general is about legacy heroes); why then are Flash and Green Lantern billed as "Jay Garrick" and "Alan Scott".

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars, if you don't know that there are several people called "Flash" and "Green Lantern", what are you doing reading 52? It's kind of insulting.
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"THIS HEADLINE IS A KLUE!""

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 52 of 52.

CULPRIT: Gee, good question. I really don't know who this could have been. It could have been The Writing Team, and/or any of the pencillers (although this particular poem definitely looks like Mike McKone's art), or it could have been Ken Lopez (letterer). I don't think it was Lopez, however, since it does look like part of the art. So I say it was The Writing Team and/or Mike McKone.

NIT-TO-PICK: So, 52 had to end with a nit, even if it's a very small one. On panel 3, where we're shown Earth-2, Huntress (in her very groovy 70s getup) holds up a newspaper, the Gotham Gazette, showing that Earth-2's Kryptonians (Kal-L and Kara Zor-L, otherwise known as Superman and Power Girl) are missing (we all know what happened to them, Kara is in Earth-1, or is that New Earth, and Kal is dead, courtesy of Superboy Prime).

However, the secondary headline says "LUTHOR CLAIMS INNOCENSE"... so, Earth-2 newspaper editors and journalists can't spell?

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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"IS THE QUESTION STILL A DUDE?"

TITLE: 52.

ISSUE: Week 52 of 52.

CULPRIT: One of the pencillers, although I'm pretty sure it's not Mike McKone, Pat Olliffe or Darick Robertson, so it's Eddy Barrows, Chris Batista, or Justiniano.

NIT-TO-PICK: Speaking of 52's end, on that last page, is it me or does Montoya/Question (yay, Vic Sage is alive in Earth-4) look ... portly, to say the least? I know she's supposed to be the gruff cop type, and she is a lesbian... but she never struck me as butch... In fact, she actually looks like a man here. Look at Renee in the first weeks of 52:


And look at her on the last page of 52 #52:


I was going to let this slide as just an observation tucked away in the previous nit, but come on, not only does she look like a different person, she looks like a man! I know she's wearing baggy clothes, but her chest is flat, and she looks like she's doubled her body mass! If anything, after training with Richard, she should be leaner.

I am willing to over look the fact that, since she's wearing the mask, her trench coat should be blue, and her hair black, (since the chemicals used to affix the mask to her face react to the specially treated clothes and shampoo/lotion); but she might not be using her special shampoo, or wearing that particular trenchcoat.

I'm also going to be nice and overlook the mask having eyes, as they actually seem to an overly exaggerated depiction of the indentation the mask shows around the eyes. Look at the picture above were she's wearing the blue trenchcoat, that's how you draw The Question's mask if you don't want to show any facial features at all. If you do want to show at least the "topography" of the face underneath the mask, you do it this way:


See the difference?

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars. I know interpretations of a character can vary between artists (just look at the first three images of Montoya above, in the first one she's definitely more buxom on the first on from the left); but this is too much. Come on guys, look at the rest of the comic you're working on!!!
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Well, so that's that for 52... it was a hell of a ride; like a TV show, some episodes were better than others, and some were great, and some we didn't need. But overall, it was a great book, with well written plots, and a great artistic layout. The only thing that suffered was the art, since they had to use different artist almost every week just to keep up; but luckily, Keith Giffen's breakdown's kept the whole look and feel of the book artistically cohesive. Speaking of Giffen, having been along for the whole ride, why didn't he commit any more nits.

The Writing Team is responsible (totally or fully) for about 14 nits; while Keith is the culprit of only 4... and two of those are "maybes". Did he bribe me to stay off my radar, then tell me to blame me for a couple of things so nobody would get suspicious? Not exactlty... I wish he had, do you know how great a Blue & Gold or Legion original art would have looked in my place? What happened is that I could verify that many of the nits I credited him for at first were not his fault, but the fault of that issue's penciller or pencillers.

How did I do this? Well, 52thecomic.com is a great site that DC built as if it were the Daily Planet's webpage, and it's just great.... but I'm rambling... what's great about that site, is that under the SPECIALS section, you can see almost all (if not all) the breakdowns Giffen did for 52. And by looking at them, I was able to see whether a particular error had been made by Giffen, and then carried over by the penciller, or if Keith's layouts had it right, and then the penciller screwed up.

As for this special's average Bazzars, it's a measly 4.9; a lot lower than last week's 6.5, and the lowest since column 11's 4.7 Bazzars. I'm not surprised, because about half the nits in this special are from old columns, when I was softer. Every nit from before Week 34 would probably be a couple of points higher, and we'd obviously see a few more 10s around.

When should you expect my next column? Good question... I've got quite a few nits from the books already released in May; but I'd rather write them up and save them to have all May nits in one column at the start of June. If I get the time, I might to a Backlog column with the nits I have filed from February, and that will make us catch up with all of 2007 up to date. And don't, even for one tiny moment, think that that will deplete my mighty vault of nits. I have nits from almost every month of 2006, then a few from 2005, not to mention the whole lot of ancient stuff that I have saved up for a rainy day. And thank God that I let some stuff slip by; like typos in KODT and Sluggy Freelance, or some stuff that would only get me yelled at for considering them nits... or if not, I would have to write a 20+ nit column every day just to cope!

That's it for now, until next time, I'll be on the outlook for more nits, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!