29 and counting...

One page? ONE LOUSY PAGE? You can see the cover to this issue, over there to the right. Notice it features Karate Kid? Attacking Brother Eye? So, HOW MUCH space does it get in the book? One grifing page!

And yeah, my earlier HAL-9000 comment was pretty much dead on.

The Challengers are now on Earth-8. They're captured, the 'evil' monitor meddles, resulting in their escape, and the Jokester is killed. Monarch shows up to recruit someone or other.

The Jokester's death is a shame. He'd been developed as an interesting character, and I'd have liked to see him hanging around for a while, to further explore him and the differences from the Joker.

Jimmy Olsen meets the Newsboy Legion in the sewers. He's happy because he's finally among friends.

Maybe. They say they're in the sewers looking for Jimmy, thinking he's gonna need help. The main flaw in this is that he's only been in the sewers for five minutes. Truly amazing they could find out about his 'escape' from Cadmus and get there so fast.

I'm reminded again of a major theme of the title: Not everyone who opposes you is your enemy; not everyone who helps you is your friend.

Holly Robinson is still fighting sea serpents. Um, last issue wasn't she fighting sharks? Was there a timeslip between issues? Remember, "Time is broken."

Piper and Trickster are having lunch at a truck stop with their new friend. It turns out the threat to slit Piper's throat was just, um, a misunderstanding. Yeah, I can't explain it, either.

Mary Marvel, well, she's getting good at abusing her power. That's about all need be said about her this issue.

Recent issues have been pretty good, and this week was quite a disappointment. There seemed to be lots of continuity glitches this week. I'll be back next week when I'll hopefully find something worth writing about.

30 and counting...

The numbers are getting smaller, and the stories are getting bigger. In another month we'll reach the halfway point, and at that mark the title changes to "Countdown To Final Crisis". The storyline is getting more cohesive, less a random series of events and more a story that's going somewhere. If only the book had started this way.

Jimmy Olsen is still being tested by Cadmus, and things are still out of control. He seemingly splits in two -- Stretchable Olsen and Giant Ghostly Olsen. They're both sharing the same mind, but the stretchable one feels he has to escape, and leaves via the sewers. Big Immaterial Olsen confirms that it's as gross as it sounds.

The big Ghostly Olsen just jogged my memory. DC once had a feature called "Cave Carson - Inside Earth". One of the stories dealt with people being split, the ghostly half looking much as Jimmy does here. I'm wondering if the writers might have delved back that far and connected this to that? If so, kudos.

I'm wondering how he could so easily escape through the sewers. First of all, you'd think they'd have precautions against just such a thing, and second they'd want to avoid infiltration through the same means. It's been obvious for decades that Cadmus has crappy security, but I had no idea they were this sloppy. Three million dollar robot guards and yet they leave the drains uncovered. Sheesh!

Karate Kid and Una are taken to Brother Eye by Buddy Blank. Brother Eye (who comes across in this incarnation as somewhat like HAL-9000) immediately diagnoses the problem. Val (Karate Kid) has been infected with the OMAC virus. It's in an incomplete form, but still enough to prove fatal. However, there's a second virus there, which seems to be interacting. Brother Eye closes with an enigmatic "It seems the great disaster has come to me."

It's probably worth noting that I'm somewhat irked as I write this. Due to my computer doing a choke-n-puke, I lost everything I'd originally written beyond this point. Ah well, such is life.

Holly Robinson reaches Themyscria at last, or at least almost reaches it. The warrior candidates end up having to swim for land while fighting a school of extremely large, vicious, eyeless sharks. I know Holly has been suspecting that something is off-kilter, but this, if naught else, should be a flare-lit tip off that something is seriously wrong.

Piper and Trickster are hanging around the battle between the Justice League and the villains, mainly to make sure the league took their warnings seriously. Foolhardy at best, they manage to do some good when they destroy the Joker's plan for ruining the wedding while they get their revenge on Poison Ivy.

In making their getaway, they are taken by the Ace Of Spades from the Royal Flush Gang. He's apparently a fan of Dexter, since he copies a scene from the very first episode of the series. Good taste in television, not that it's likely to please Piper.

Which brings us to the last storyline seen this week. The Challengers have now reached Earth-15, where they meet other versions of themselves. This world appears to be what we once all envisioned for the future of the DC Universe, back in the days when everything seemed simple.

Donna Troy has become Wonder Woman, and Jason Todd has grown up to be the Batman. (By the way, this version of Jason is a prick, too, though it works better with the Batman costume.) Ray Palmer's daughter (?) has become the Atom, and Kyle Rayner is, um, Green Lantern. This is pretty much back in the seventies how we thought the future would unfold .

Seeing this, there's a bit of nostalgia for what never was, and I'm glad that somewhere there's an earth where the dreams from a more innocent time came true.