Yesterday, DC Comics released the first issue of 52, a limited series that will run in (wait for it) 52 weekly installments, told in real time. Long story short: 52 is an immediate continuation of Infinite Crisis, their previous mega-event, and will explain what happened during the gap between the end of Crisis and the rest of DC's superhero comics, which now take place "one year later." (Make sense?) Also, instead of the big three—Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—it'll focus on the heroes who step up to the plate in their absence, including conspiracy-minded vigilante The Question (left).

Anyway, the NY Daily News makes much of the tremendous amount of work involved in co-ordinating four writers and nearly as many artists to hit a weekly schedule without fail. "The scheduling stuff is nothing more than a math problem," insists DC editor Stephen Wacker, "a really difficult math problem." As metaphors go, I much prefer breakdown artist Keith Giffen's description: "52 is the NASCAR comic. Nobody goes to a NASCAR race to watch cars drive in circles. They're all hoping for the crash."

Of course, comics fansite Newsarama is all over this, with preview art and weekly check-ins with Wacker. But will the story be worth hanging on for an entire year, especially when the main competition, Marvel, has a mega-event of their own unfolding? It would be ridiculous to judge based on a single issue, but here's my initial impression: While Crisis was something of a disappointment (and not just to me), as it quickly devolved into a series of plot points rather than a compelling story, 52 is off to a promising start, specifically because it's grounded so heavily in its characters—much, in fact, like the first issue of Marvel's Civil War.