Not the Entry Point It Wants To Be
I finally got around to reading the first issue of DC's big event series 52 which was supposed to be the kickoff for a 'New 52' DC titles. I have to say it really didn't feel either epic or particularly new and innovative. And definitely not very new reader friendly.
The story begins after a massive cataclysm of some sort (presumably the events of Flashpoint?) where the villains of the DC universe united and pretty much ran roughshod over everything. Shazam!'s villains, in particular The Monster Society of Evil, seem to have played an important role in this. Dr. Sivana is one of only a few villains that appears in this issue, and Black Adam gets at least as many pages as any other character in this book (except Booster Gold who seems to be the closest thing to a protagonist here), so if you're not particularly attached to Shazam!, it's already a little rough going.
What follows is a disjointed narrative of characters, skipping time and place every few panels - sometimes every panel - as humanity and superhumanity pick up the pieces. Notably absent from the proceedings are the Trinity (Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman), though several other big names like The Flash are also missing. Well not exactly, there is a guy in a Jay Garrick vintage Flash costume, but he's in a conversation with some other characters referring to Jay Garrick in third person as if he was not present, so maybe it's someone else?
And that's the big problem with 52, it's written and drawn by a whole stable of writers and artists, and it suffers from the too-many-cooks situation. Like watching TV while holding the channel change button down, it jumps from story to story and character to character with no time for character development. By the end of the issue we're left with little more than we had at the start, except seeing a bunch of superhero cameos.