45 and holding... (Updated)

There may be a day or three delay in my post on Countdown 44. I don't have the book in hand yet, and it may be another day or two before I have a chance to pick it up. Oh, well. I'll be right back with my review and synopsis.

UPDATE: It's Sunday, July 1 and I still don't have my comics from last Wednesday. *sighs* Nothing much to be done about it just now, I fear. As a few of you may know, I've got some health issues going on, and they've been interfering somewhat with my doing things this past week.

I even tried, as an expedient for getting the write-up done, going to Demonoid and downloading the comic, but it seems their health this week is even worse than mine. Sheesh! Some weeks you just can't win for losing.

The Fastest Man Alive?

It should be taken as a given that everything on this blog is spoiler warning worthy. This post is, more than even the usual. You've been warned.

So.. In Flash #13, released yesterday, The Flash (Bart Allen) was killed. Kilt daid. Not that there aren't holes left so that, if the powers-that-be wanted, they could bring him back. He was killed in the presence of his grandmother, Iris West Allen, widow of the second (Barry Allen) Flash. Let's just say it wasn't a very happy issue.

In Justice League #10, also released yesterday, the Flash is brought back to life. This story has been ongoing for several months, straddling between Justice League and Justice Society, and it's been a few months since I figured out that it was leading towards reviving The Flash.

Only thing is, I was betting on it's being Barry Allen. Surprise! Who got revived was Wally West (Flash 3), his wife, Linda Park, and their twins (looking somewhat older than when we last saw them). Good going to them!

But... one little kicker... at the end, back in the Legion of Super-Heroes time, Brainiac 5 holds one of the lightning rods that were used, and a 'reflection' in the rod hints that Barry Allen is back, as well. Well, whaddya know?

45 and counting...

Given the cover of this week's Countdown, wouldn't you figure that Karate Kid and the Justice League would be kicking some butt this issue? Well, not exactly. I'll explain in a moment.

p 1-4: Now there's some serious butt-kicking. Donna Troy and Jason Todd vs Forerunner. It's kind of the finish to a scene interrupted in progress last week, so it's kind of oddly placed; the climax to an issue as the beginning of the next one. Still, it works as a scene, and I suppose it'll be a bit less out-of-place when it's in a collection and will read smoothly with the preceding part. I do wonder a bit, though, have collection sales gotten to the point where they are now the 'dog', and single issue sales are the 'tail'?

p 5-9: Jimmy Olson is being watched. And no, I'm not referring to the bearded man on the street. Look carefully at the building behind him -- the one where Sleez was killed last week -- there's someone watching out a ground floor window throughout the scene. Who? Hard to say at this point, but in certain panels the silhouette is suggestive.

So, Jimmy's going to enter "Who Wants To Be a Superhero?" Umm. No. He does seem to want to recapture the feeling, in the worst way, though. I suspect he may end up doing so, in the worst way, of course.

p 10-12: Many years ago, when I lived in Indianapolis, I attended a showing of the stage play(s) WARP! (I was going to link here to Wikipedia, and for the first time EVER found a topic upon which they don't have coverage!) During an intermission, I was standing in the lobby, looking at some photos from the play, when another audience member sidled up to me, looked at the pictures for a few seconds, then without preamble turned to me and said "I just love women with knives." Needless to say, I beat a hasty retreat.

I get a similar vibe when I see some of the comments on Donna Troy with the machine gun. I just feel a bit icky and want to take a long shower -- not at the sight of her with the gun, but at the tenor of some of the remarks. Yick!

p 13: Short Holly Robinson scene here. Nothing much worth mentioning, except that the shadowed figure is definitely NOT the same person who was watching Jimmy. Not unless the person is both a shape changer and able to be two places at once.

p 14-16: So, both sides in the little intramural Monitor scrap are considered renegades. And yet, the greater body of monitors seem content do do nothing but bitch at the warring two.

p 17-18: We finally see the Justice League and 'guests'. It's mostly a character-expository scene, no butt-kicking here. I do like the "Sarah Conner" comment.

p19-20: Forerunner feels disgraced, shreds her hair, and, oh, yeah, by the way, Monarch shows up. Nice cliffhanger, this time.

Musings...

So, a few hints out of the weekend-o-cons. Nothing has really been nailed down, but they've definitely laid out much more of their plans.

I'm not going to even try and summarize things... just go to the Newsarama site and there'll be a lot more detail than I can provide.

I'm interested in a lot of the things they talked about. There's the re-started Flash series, with Mark Waid writing. Can we all agree that this past series was botched from day one? Not to slam the creators, but they never seemed to be on the right wavelength for the character, surprising since they were the creators of the Flash TV show, which I'd thought was pretty good.

There's the (planned) change in writers for Justice League. Brad Meltzer had never made a secret of when he planned to leave, but now we know who'll be following him up. Dwayne McDuffie is a pretty good choice, though I'm not totally happy there'll be a roster change already. *sighs* Ah well, each writer on a team book brings his or her favorites with them. I'm hoping Prince Brion isn't one of the losses, though. I'd love a clue what's up with him -- especially since he's back to the original costume, the only one which has ever looked good on him, despite the bad memories.

I'm happy to see Doctor Fate getting a book, though only a limited series for now. I know it's related to Steve Gerber's illness, but I do hope the good doctor gets an unlimited series soon. And, of course, I wish the best for Steve.

Now, who's going to do something about giving Ralph and Sue Dibny their own book? Hell, if nobody else wants to, I'll volunteer to do it myself. (Hey, DC Folk, are you listening?) I can think of several interesting angles for their stories, and after all that was invested in their characters in 52 (indeed, as much as the readers invested themselves into the characters) it seems a shame to let them lie fallow.

DC announced that it has bought in to Flex Comix, a Japanese publisher of Manga, with a heavy concentration of on-line comics. Is it just possible that, among other things, it's DC's way of testing the waters for on-line distribution? As a former retailer (with a chain of five stores) I can see where a move like this might frighten the retailers (and moreso frighten Diamond), but there's a lot of potential revenue being foregone because neither they nor Marvel are tapping that stream. I know there's a LOT of fans who get their weekly comics via torrent sites and buy only collections in paper. With some sort of iTunes-like structure, they could bring much of the potential revenue back in-house.

Enough random musing for now. There's lots more news, and I may be talking about more of it shortly.

Field mouse follies...

Latest news, such as it is... there's a field mouse habitat been established at the edge of our yard. First discovered by my dog, it seems to be housing at least a few of the furry little fiends.

Penny (the doggie in question) isn't exactly the most territorial of dogs. Many is the time she'll go outside and there will be one or more bunnies out grazing at the salad bar, and she'll totally ignore them. Well, till they decide to run. Then she (seemingly) decides they're playing a game, and she'll chase them as far as the edge of the yard.

Squirrels she likes to 'play' with, chasing them whenever one has the effrontery to step into the yard (at ground level, at least), and even follows beneath when they're leaping about from tree to tree, as they cross the mighty rivers of... sorry. got a bit distracted there.

But field mice? Here she reverts to type. Penny is half Chocolate Lab and half mystery dog, and she looks so lab-like we've never been able to figure out what the mystery half might be. I'm starting to think it may be some sort of terrier, because she's taken a more than playful interest in these mice. Whenever I take her into the front yard she strains at her leash to get to field mouse country -- strains so hard it's more like "Let's take mommy for a drag across the yard."

She goes straight for the hole, and starts trying to figure out how to fit herself into a burrow the size of a mouse. Surprisingly, she's been able to grab a couple of mice and carry them out of the burrow. And yes, I'm too tender-hearted for my own good. I make her drop the mice so they can scamper back to their hidey-hole. *sigh*

I'm not sure what the proper thing is to do about the mice... traps, I suppose, though I think I'll let that part of the operation to Piper. In the meanwhile, Penny has found her own solution to the mouse problem. The past day or two, whenever she goes out there, she pees on top of the burrow!

46 and counting...

And here we are at week 46.  I've made some comments here (see below postings) and at Andrew Hickey's Blog, but I guess this is the real start of my blogging Countdown.  So, let's begin...

We're six weeks into the story, and we're finally starting to get a sense of what's going on.  The story is unfolding gradually, and we're still in the "What the bleep's goin' on here?" part of the story.  52 started out from the get-go with a lot of densly packed stuff, and that grabbed a lot of readers right away.  Countdown is structured in a more traditional manner, with the plot unfolding and building.  

If the story follows the "three act paradym", which it so far appears to be, there should be a small climax and a big reveal somewhere within the next six issues.  

p1:  So just when did Jimmy age?  He looks far older here than just about anything in which I've seen him.  Could this possibly be the Earth-17 (Jack Kirby's Fourth World) Jimmy?  That might also explain some of the recent continuity 'disconnects' we've seen with Jimmy and his supporting cast.  That doesn't mean that "Goody" Rickles will be showing up soon, does it?

p2-5  I'm getting the feeling that whule the "SHAZAM!" thunderbolt kept Mary at the same age, the "sorry" thunderbolt has fully aged her into an adult.  I don't think, by the way, that this is the Earty-5 Mary.  I'm guessing it's either "New Earth" or one of the other worlds.  Though nobody's said so specifically, there's been enough hints dropped that I can figure out that Earth-5 is the Jeff Smith Shazamoverse.  Then again, as far as "New Earth" goes, I was thinking that the Rock of Eternity had been put back together, and that Captain Marvel's job now was sitting at the center of the rock in order to hold things together.  Guess I should be reading The Trials of Shazam! to get a clue about this.  

p6-8:  Not much to say here.  I like the handling of the rogues so far, and seeing what's been hinted in Flash I think they're in for a bumpy ride.

p 9-12:  I'm inclined to agree with Olson; "What the hell is going on here?!"  Nothing here dissuades me from my Earth-17 theory.  I'm wondering if the mystery 'killer' might not be some version of the Black Racer.  Or, could be a monitor, I suppose, but at this stage I'm inclined to think not.  Whoever it was, Sleez has seen him before.

p 13-14:  In the old days I used to wonder whether Johnny Thunder ever realized that the magic word to call out his Thunderbolt was "Cei-U", or whether he just used to say "Say You!" at appropriate times by accident.  He never seemed to have a firm grasp on calling forth the Thunderbolt,  but then again there were a lot of facets to life that he never seemed to have a firm grasp on.  I'm getting the idea that Mary Marvel hasn't yet picked up on the fact that her new magic word is "sorry".   And, by the way, what DID just happen to her?  

p 15-20:  Not much to say here, either.  I'm still waiting for more developments.  By the way, why does Jason wear a mask under his mask?

p21-26:  It's a good recap if the multiverse is going to remain, otherwise why bother?  Although, since it's been about 22 years since the first big Crisis, I suppose a "what has gone before" might be helpful to the readers who came in late, though the time for the recap might have been a special between the last issue of 52 and the first issue of Countdown.  Oh, and by the way, Dinah's husband was named Larry Lance, not Larry Drake.

So, there's Countdown 46.  How'm I doing?

A matter of justice...

The new "Justice League of America" has a new headquarters. Well, actually, more than one. Part is in a satellite, where it's presumably secure against your garden-variety intruder. The other portion is located in Washington D.C., on the national mall.

To the right, by the way, is a photo of the new "Hall of Justice". Yep, that's a real building, though it's not actually located in DC.

When they revealed it in the JLA book, it was referred to as being on the site of the old "All-Star Squadron" and "Justice Society" headquarters. Interesting, since the All-Star Squadron was based in Queens (in New York City), at the site of the 1939 World's Fair. Their HQ was located in the Trylon and Perisphere, the central theme pavillion from the world's fair. The site, by rhe way, is now the location of the Unisphere from the 1964-65 World's Fair. The Justice Society's HQ, likewise, was in New York, in an upper-west-side brownstone. (Until recently. Now they're in a new headquarters in Battery Park.)

So... that's quite an error to make. How could the writer (Brad Meltzer) have been so careless? How could the editor (Eddie Berganza) let a howler like that one fly by?

Well, she's a bit slow, but eventually the solution comes to her. There's been a spate of "continuity errors" of late, most related in some way (presumably) to Countdown. My suspicion is that the whole "Hall of Justice" thing is part of this picture. This is going to be one of those 'bleed-through' things from a different one of the 52 universes.

Any bets?

Counting down...

Try to get two persons to agree totally on anything, and you're in for a 'herding cats' experience. That said, I'm finding myself more and more in disagreement with the conventional wisdom on DC's Countdown.

I'm sorry; I like the series.

Many of the complaints seem focused around the series' slow start. Well, yeah, in the first issue we only had one death (and that was after making us care about a character who's never been on anyone's favorite list).

What I'm seeing is a build-up. The story is, after all, some thousand pages long. It's striking me that it's following the archetypal three-act structure. We're still in the first act; matter of fact, we're still prior to the point where "everything changes".

We've had the opening kicker; now we're getting the introduction of characters and themes, and yes, I'm enjoying seeing things unfold even without lots-o-fighting-guys-in-spandex.

It's not the way 52 was structured, true. 52 was, well, 'busy'. What with four main writers (five if you count Steve Wacker) 52 had a much less structured approach, more a mosaic, and that led to a real 'density' in the book. There was lots crammed in, and because of the piecemeal approach it sometimes seemed as though there was more story there than actually appeared on the page. For example, much as I enjoyed the space heroes storyline, what exactly happened there that couldn't have been told in a 'done in one' issue?

Countdown seems to me to be just hitting it's stride. I don't fault anyone for being left cold by Countdown. It's far different from 52, and isn't everyone's cup-o-tea.

Seeing the reviews of Countdown, I'm kind of motivated to do my own. There's nothing wrong with someone who doesn't like/understand it reviewing it on that basis, but the reviews aren't reflecting my tastes. I believe I'm going to be doing more postings on comics in general, and Countdown in particular, and find out whether anyone agrees with me. Or, for that matter, whether anyone cares.