History YMMV / FiftyTwo

* TearJerker: See CListFodder, particularly [[spoiler: The Question's lingering death, ending with him dying at the literal gates to what would have been his salvation]].
** [[spoiler: Isis' death]] in the arms of her husband. The fact that she had been broken so utterly that she admitted that she was wrong... just gets to you.
** [[spoiler: Skeets telling Booster Gold that he (Skeets) was proud of him, just before Skeets had to be sacrificed to stop Mr. Mind.]]

* NightmareFuel: There are some truly spine-chilling moments in this series, many of them revolving around the Four Horsemen.
** TheReveal of Sobek's true identity, and [[ImAHumanitarian HOW it is revealed]].[[note]][[ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}} At least he didn't say "Tastes like chicken."]][[/note]]
** The scene where we see the Four Horsemen being unleashed. Even [[MadScientist Veronica Cale]] is horrified into a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment.
** There's what Intergang says to the ruler of Bialya [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when he begs for help against Black Adam]], and what Adam himself does to the people of Bialya.
** [[spoiler: Waverider's]] death and [[FlayingAlive what we learn happens to him]]. We don't even get to see it happen, as it cuts away right after [[spoiler: Skeets]] states what his fate is going to be, but leaving it to everyone's imagination somehow winds up [[NothingIsScarier making it worse]].
** [[spoiler:The straw Sue Dibny]] coming to life. Even the creators thought it was horrifying.
-->'''Mark Waid:''' "And when Keith [Giffen] -- who is the scariest, creepiest, most menacing life form I know -- called me to tell me how much [[spoiler:Wicker Sue]] made his skin crawl, that was a very good day."

* TearJerker: See CListFodder, particularly [[spoiler: The Question's lingering death]].

** In general, this series was intended to explain a lot of things that were depicted in DC's concurrent "One Year Later" event, in which DC's books took up the story exactly one year after ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' to show that many things had occurred differently. However, the writers of ''52'' ended up ignoring a lot of these in favour of their own stories, meaning that some of these (such as, in ''Batman'' comics, the events that saw Commissioner Gordon re-instated and his successor resign in disgrace) have still not been explained.

* AlasPoorScrappy: Alas, poor [[spoiler: Osiris]]![[note]]The writers still ''hated'' the character.[[/note]]

* MagnificentBastard: Ralph Dibny of all people. Cross him and ''you lose''. It is that simple.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Despite the Justice Society of America being openly disgusted by Lex Luthor's graverobbing to create a new Infinity Inc., and their confrontation with the team when the new Jade is revealed, they're nowhere to be found when Steel and the Teen Titans finally make a move against Luthor. You'd think they would've taken an active interest in stopping Luthor and dismantling his little group.

** There's what Intergang says to the ruler of Bialya [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when he begs for help against Black Adam]], and what Adam himself [[KillEmAll does to the people of Bialya]].

* TheyWasterAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Despite the Justice Society of America being openly disgusted by Lex Luthor's graverobbing to create a new Infinity Inc., and their confrontation with the team when the new Jade is revealed, they're nowhere to be found when Steel and the Teen Titans finally make a move against Luthor.

** [[spoiler: Skeets telling Booster Gold that he (Skeets) was proud of him, just before Skeets had to be sacrificed to stop Mr. Mind.]]

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The original intent of ''52'' was to fill readers in with what had happened after the year-long time skip in-universe after the events of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' from the perspective of secondary character, but it was overtaken by the stories about those characters; this led to DC to publish a few tie-in books that covered the more well-known characters, which sold well. It wasn't a problem here, because there weren't that many (there were only 4), they were relatively self-contained, and they were made because of unintentional consequences, but then came ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' (which intentionally set up plot points in the main story and only had them resolved in tie-ins, as well as having both multiple tie-in stories and entire tie-in ''series'', and tied in to ''a ton'' of what was going on at the time), and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' (which wasn't ''as'' bad as ''Countdown'', but introduced the final villain of ''Final Crisis'' in the ''Superman Beyond'' tie-in)[[note]]''Final Crisis'' is somewhat better, since when the trade was collected, they included ''Superman Beyond'' as part of the main story's trade, not to mention the main series is only 7 issues, and even with a select number of tie-ins, the trade for the main event is only 1 volume; ''Countdown'', on the other hand, has ''52'' issues in it's main series, and the trade for the main story is split over ''4'' 13-issue volumes - and that doesn't include any of the tie-in material[[/note]].

** An organization called "the Religion of Crime" that has a text called a "Crime Bible" is perhaps hard to take seriously.

* HarsherInHindsight:
** Several of The Question's lines take on a new meaning once you find out [[spoiler: he is dying from cancer and knows it]]. This line in particular from Renee is especially wince-worthy.
--> "I swear before this is over [[spoiler: I'm gonna hold his dead body in my hands.]]"
** Similarly, Sobek's constant complaints of hunger suddenly hit a lot harder when you learn that [[spoiler:he's really Famine, a Horseman of Apokolips]].

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The original intent of ''52'' was to fill readers in with what had happened after the year-long time skip in-universe after the events of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' from the perspective of secondary character, but it was overtaken by the stories about those characters; this led to DC to publish a few tie-in books that covered the more well-known characters, which sold well. It wasn't a problem here, because there weren't that many (there were only 4), they were relatively self-contained, and they were made because of unintentional consequences, but then came ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' (which intentionally set up plot points in the main story and only had them resolved in tie-ins, as well as having both multiple tie-in stories and entire tie-in ''series'', and tied in to ''a ton'' of what was going on at the time), and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' (which wasn't ''as'' bad as ''Countdown'', but introduced the final villain of ''Final Crisis'' in the ''Superman Beyond'' tie-in)[[note]]''Final Crisis'' is somewhat better, since when the trade was collected, they included ''Superman Beyond'' as part of the main story's trade, not to mention the main series is only 7 issues; ''Countdown'', on the other hand, has ''52'' issues in it's main series[[/note]].

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The original intent of ''52'' was to fill readers in with what had happened after the year-long time skip in-universe after the events of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' from the perspective of secondary character, but it was overtaken by the stories about those characters; this led to DC to publish a few tie-in books that covered the more well-known characters, which sold well. It wasn't a problem here, because there weren't that many (there were only 4), they were relatively self-contained, and they were made because of unintentional consequences, but then came ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' (which intentionally set up plot points in the main story and only had them resolved in tie-ins, as well as having both multiple tie-in stories and entire tie-in ''series'', and tied in to ''a ton'' of what was going on at the time), and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' (which wasn't ''as'' bad as ''Countdown'', but introduced the final villain of ''Final Crisis'' in the ''Superman Beyond'' tie-in)[[note]]''Final Crisis'' is somewhat better, since when the trade was collected, they included ''Superman Beyond'' as part of the main story's trade[[/note]].

** Kate meeting Renee and Vic in the park in the middle of the day wearing a red cocktail dress, the same one she wore previously at her party. It's not what someone would wear to the park, which is emphasized by Vic and Renee's normal looking clothes.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: As an [[EnsembleCast ensemble piece]] with [[TwoLinesNoWaiting multiple plots]] there are individual Crowning Moments for each character as they each triumph in their own stories.

* CrazyAwesome: The climax of the series is [[spoiler: a time traveling glory hound saving the universe from a giant alien butterfly with glasses who inadvertently creates a multiverse by eating ''time''. In space. With a football pass.]] This is why we read comics, folks.

** In general, this series was intended to explain a lot of things that were depicted in DC's concurrent "One Year Later" event, in which DC's books took up the story exactly one year after ''InfiniteCrisis'' to show that many things had occurred differently. However, the writers of ''52'' ended up ignoring a lot of these in favour of their own stories, meaning that some of these (such as, in ''Batman'' comics, the events that saw Commissioner Gordon re-instated and his successor resign in disgrace) have still not been explained.