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  • (lively electronic music)

  • - Have you ever noticed that DC loves

  • to use the very specific number 52, like, a lot?

  • This is something that has perplexed me for a long while.

  • Seriously, it's everywhere, like

  • in the channel 52 news backups in some of DC's comics,

  • the number of breaches in the Flash show--

  • - There isn't just one breach, there's 52

  • of them scattered throughout the city.

  • - [Voiceover] Or Captain Lance's call sign

  • in Arrow being DC 52.

  • - Blast patrol Delta Charlie 52 10--

  • - [Voiceover] And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

  • So what's the deal there?

  • What's the story between DC and its apparent love

  • for this number?

  • (playful electronic music)

  • Hello and welcome to The Show With Issues.

  • I'm not Scott, and I'm back here on NerdSync

  • because he's in the process of moving.

  • So deal with it.

  • Anyway, let's start by going back to 2005

  • where DC's New Earth was about to clash

  • with another one of it's famed crises.

  • For those unfamiliar, a crisis in DC terms

  • is a universe shattering event

  • that usually introduces some huge status quo changes

  • with a bunch of retcon style antics along the way.

  • DC is infamous for these, as they seem

  • to have one every few years, even going

  • so for as to reboot their entire multiverse twice.

  • Anyway, back to the crisis at hand.

  • In 2005, and event struck up by the name

  • of Infinite Crisis, where a lot of stuff happened

  • this is not necessary to this episode.

  • All you need to know about it, is that it ended

  • with a mysterious one year time skip.

  • "What happened in that mysterious 365 days?"

  • fans asked themselves.

  • "We'll tell you!" said the DC writers and artists

  • as they began slowly producing the first,

  • significant appearance of the number.

  • This came in the form

  • of a year long event titled simply, 52.

  • The series closely examined that missing plot hole

  • week to week for an entire year.

  • It featured lesser known characters as the protagonists,

  • seeing as heroes like the big three

  • were out of commission as a result of Infinite Crisis.

  • But why is this series named 52 in the first place?

  • Well this is where things start to get a bit fuzzy.

  • At face value, you could probably

  • say that the book is called 52 because

  • of it being a weekly series that ran

  • for exactly a year, and a year has roughly 52 weeks in it.

  • By using that logic, you could call any weekly series

  • that runs for every week in a year, 52.

  • This is where the actual canon significance

  • of the number comes in, and where

  • the actual origin gets even fuzzier.

  • So at the end of this huge run,

  • it's revealed that at the end of Infinite Crisis

  • the universe slowly started to

  • create identical copies of itself, 52 to be exact.

  • This is where things get a little weird.

  • Why were there 52 parallel worlds and not, say 50 or 60?

  • One might say that this is based

  • on the amount of weeks in a year,

  • or that it's based simply on the name

  • of the book, but nothing is very clear here.

  • The name of the book is potentially based

  • on the number of weeks in a year,

  • or the number of parallel universes in DC's Multiverse,

  • and the exact number of parallel universes

  • is either based on the number of weeks in a year,

  • or the name of the book.

  • It kinda creates this weird diagram

  • where things cause other things to happen

  • with no real source other than

  • the amount of weeks in one full year.

  • So you kinda just have to live

  • with that being our only constant explanation.

  • So what about The New 52?

  • Why is it called what it's called?

  • The main reasoning behind The New 52

  • being named The New 52 is in reference to two things,

  • the most obvious being that it's just

  • a simple reference to the amount

  • of comic series that the reboot launched with.

  • The New 52 originally launched

  • in 2011 with 52 new titles, but again why 52?

  • The 52 in New 52 was also referencing

  • the original 52 comic series.

  • Or wait, maybe it's referencing the amount

  • of universes rebooted after Flashpoint.

  • Or it could be a reference to the number

  • of weeks in a year again.

  • Hold on, maybe DC is just being self-referential

  • at this point, and is referencing

  • the fact that they love that number.

  • That last part is what I find really interesting here.

  • The idea that this number started

  • as something really super simple

  • and pretty much was just a "Hey why don't we

  • "use this number?" type of thing.

  • It turned into something bigger than expected,

  • and is now a synonymous number when talking DC Comics.

  • In fact, DC seems to do this sort

  • of self-referential, self-indulgent

  • type thing a lot, actually.

  • I mean, come on, it's even in their name.

  • DC originally stood for Detective Comics,

  • but now that can't be the case because

  • the company is called DC Comics,

  • which in reality, would just be Detective Comics Comics.

  • I'm almost certain the reason DC is called

  • what it is today is because no one

  • actually said the full name originally,

  • so they just went with it, and hey, it worked out.

  • Although Scott and Derek did team up

  • to do a 13 minute video last week

  • about DC's full name history,

  • so go check that out if you want.

  • After this though, I'm not done here yet.

  • This whole self-referential bit that DC seems to love doing

  • is evidenced even further with how almost

  • every New 52 book is ending a issue 52,

  • just before their subsequent rebirth books are released.

  • Just goes to show how much DC loves this number.

  • So let's recap here.

  • DC holds an event called 52 which

  • is a weekly comic series that runs for a year,

  • and it becomes immensely popular.

  • DC realizes this and slowly the number

  • becomes synonymous with the company,

  • even having it be a part of their 2011 major reboot.

  • Along the way, the origin of the number

  • is disputed until it's just watered down

  • to just being related to 52 and its success.

  • Now, the number appears everywhere

  • across DC's multi-media empire.

  • What do you guys think about this whole debacle?

  • Do you think there's even more significance behind

  • the number that we still don't know,

  • or is it simply just one random decision

  • that blew way out of proportion?

  • Let us know in the comments.

  • And if you wanna check out some more videos

  • from my side of things, you can click right here

  • to see the newest episode of The Show With Issues.

  • Or you could always check out some more NerdSync goodness

  • by clicking right here to watch

  • the latest episode of Comic Misconceptions.

  • And of course, don't forget to hit

  • that big, spazzy, subscribe button up there,

  • so you don't miss out on anything we do here at NerdSync.

  • I'm really tired though, so I'm gonna go now.

  • See ya.

(lively electronic music)

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