33 and counting...

Starting with the cover, there's a new element in Countdown 33. Kyle Rayner is on the cover, and he's back wearing the 'crab-face' version of the Green Lantern uniform. Am I the only person who liked the crab-face mask? Back when he was the only Green Lantern, and his original costume didn't match the traditional Hal Jordan version, there was a lot of flack tossed DC's way. I liked the different costume. It looked good, and in the time-travel issues (where Kyle fights side-by-side with a young Hal Jordan) Kyle's design stood up well against the traditional model.

Inside? Yes, it's Kyle! The Challengers Of The Whatever are trying to get Donna Troy back from the evil Queen Belthera, and failing, when Kyle drops from the sky seemingly out of nowhere (durn, the Guardians Of The Universe really are omniscient!), he grabs right into the portal and drags Donna back.

It seems Kyle has been sent by the Guardians to tell Bob The Monitor that Ray Palmer (the previous iteration of The Atom) has left the nanoverse and headed out into the multiverse. Given that Bob is a Monitor, and the departures don't seem to have been all that recent, Isn't Bob supposed to know all this already? After all, monitoring things is supposed to be what the monitors do best. Between Bob and the rest of the Monitors, there certainly seems to be a pronounced lack of omniscience. Good thing the Guardians are on the ball.

Kyle seems awfully friendly to Donna Troy, considering that, last time I looked, he was her ex-boyfriend. Gee, it's nice to know they still get along so well.

Ryan Choi (The.. oh, you know who he is.) get snagged up by a giant hand. Where the hand might be coming from, I dunno. Considering they're in the nanoverse, at least two levels deep, it can't be someone from "our" level of reality. They've not bug sized, they're sub-atomic in scale. So where's the hand coming from? More importantly, who? If not for the bare skin on the hand, I'd almost suspect The Spectre. But no, despite the Neal Adams-inspired art this issue, I seriously doubt he'd be brought into this mix, especially at this late date.

Once The Atom is taken, the majority opinion is to forget him and move on in the search for Ray Palmer. I understand how important finding him may be, but I tend to agree with Kyle that one doesn't just leave a man behind. For good or ill, it comes across as much too cold. It definitely tends to prejudice me against the team. I thought a big part of the reason for the series of crises was to remove the moral ambiguities from the heroes, and let them be heroes again. This certainly isn't helping.

The art, by the way, has picked up in the last week or two, and the Neal Adams style rendering isn't bad, though there's a few panels with some clumsy interpretations of Keith Giffen's layouts. All-in-all, though, they're improving greatly in the art end of things.

Turning away from the sub-atomic realm, Wally West (The Flash) is still dealing with Trickster and Pied Piper. He becomes convinced of their innocence, takes them to a safe place, and warns them to stay put -- or else. Of course, Trickster's first instinct is to escape, and, well, that turns out about as well as anything else he does.

Mary Marvel and Klarion -- I'm having some trouble following just what happened here. Mainly what I got from it is that he's being controlled by Eclipso.

Jimmy Olsen is running for his life from folks who turn out to (arguably) be his friends. Not much more to say here.

The editors are finally throwing us a bone with a page of notes on story crossovers so far. It's a big help in finding where stuff is going on that's not shown in the book. I'd still like to see embedded editor's notes or a regular page of notes, but this is at least a big step in the right direction.

34 and counting...

And then there's Piper and Trickster, hanging upside down many stories above the streets of Gotham. As we all know, that's going to be the least of their problems. First a confrontation with the Batman, followed in quick succession (sorry!) by the Flash. To say Wally's pissed would be quite an understatement. After all, Pied Piper was his friend, and to have Piper participating in Bart's death was beyond unforgivable.

Still, Wally's reaction seems a bit -- off. When they claim that Bart's death wasn't their fault, and they were acting undercover; then tell Flash what Poison Ivy and Deathstroke are up to, he turns darker and angrier, possibly on the verge of murder. So, is this really Wally? Our Wally? What's really up here?

Jimmy Olsen, meanwhile, is being examined by John Henry Irons (aka Steel). They're using machines that are supposedly CAT scanners, albeit "metaphysically different", that look more like iPod-enabled barber chairs. Things, ahem, go wrong, and Jimmy, with swollen head (one suspects this is an evolved Future-Jimmy from the silver age) overloads and 'attacks' the machines. I'm just guessing here, but I think the core of Jimmy's issue is that he's carrying the Anti-Life Equation around in his head. This can't be good.

The Challengers of the Clueless are still dealing with Queen Belthera. There's a fight (You don't say!) and Donna Troy pushes the Queen into a portal into which the queen wanted to go anyways. At the last instant, Belthera grabs Donna and drags her through the portal with her. Why? I don't know, he's on third, and...


Aside from the senselessness of dragging Donna with her (and leaving Bob the Monitor behind), there's the question of when/how/why was Ryan Choi turned human again. One senses that Queen Belthera might be powerful in her magic, but isn't the brightest bulb in the fixture.

Aside from that, though, the change back obviously did happen, somewhere between issues. A lot of elements in Jimmy Olsen's story have been happening between issues, as well. Jimmy rips Clark Kent's shirt open, exposing the Superman Suit, and next we see, Superman is introducing Mister Action to the Justice League of America.

The Powers That Be say that what happened between wasn't shown because it was too obvious. Well, yeah, we can guess most of what happened, but why should we have to? Many things, interesting happenings and even discussions might have happened. After all, Jimmy now knows Superman's Secret Identity. Maybe they did in one of the Superman titles. I wouldn't know. I'm way behind on reading them, and shouldn't need to in order to know what's going on. This is just basic storytelling, people.

Again, here's where either an editor's note or a page-of-references would be invaluable. In a title like this, I'd really like that page. Something like Kurt Busiek did in Power Company. It'd point to the backstory elements and where they came from, as well as pointing the reader to connected happenings in other titles. I know Dan Didio doesn't like them, but they are really needed in order to make the book accessible, and to help it be the 'spine' it was meant to be.

Holly Robinson is still fighting in the arena, and her foe turns out to be, as expected, Harley Quinn. Athena tells the two of them that they've 'passed', and they're to be taken to Paradise Island to become full Amazons.

There's just one little detail. It's been revealed elsewhere, but not in Countdown, that this isn't really Athena.

Athena is being impersonated by Granny Goodness, one of Darkseid's minions, who's recruiting humans to form a new Female Furies. Kind of important stuff to know, and it's not as though it was being held as a surprise. After all, it's already been revealed in another title. Editor's note, anyone?

Mary Marvel encounters Klarion, and at least there's enough in the dialogue to tell us what's going on. To be continued...

Finally, Karate Kid and Una finish their meeting with Elias Orr, who tells them of Brother Eye, and directs them to a scientist named Buddy Blank. We're obviously getting closer to the world of Earth A.D.

Once they go off on their merry way, we discover who's Orr's employer. It's Desaad, another of Darkseid's minions. Seemingly on New Earth, all roads lead to Apokolips.

35 and holding...

It didn't strike me until today that comic shipments were going to be late this week because of the holiday. Whups! More tomorrow...

35 and counting...

We've arrived at Countdown 35. Please return your seatbacks and tray tables to their upright and locked position.

In the Palmerverse, um, nanoverse, our heroes (The Challengers of Whatever) awaken to find they're prisoners of Queen Belthera, who claims to rule the dimension. She transforms the Atom, Ryan Choi, into a bug creature. Malicious or uncaring and capricious? Umm. I'm going for malicious.

Perhaps a tad predictable, especially her 'turning' of Bob the Monitor, but then again, it does fit in with the Darkseid plot. Looks like he's going to have some competition for ruling the multiverse.

Mary Marvel, still under the influence of Eclipso, continues her battle with Zatanna. Now, however, Zatanna has regained her footing, and she wipes the floor with Mary. She not only shows her the door, she makes it impossible for Mary to ever find Shadowcrest again.

Jimmy Olsen, once again, has had his dreams shot down. Auditioning with the Justice League, his powers failed because he wasn't truly in danger.

Karate Kid and Una get their face-to-face with Elias Orr, who's apparently working for Checkmate. He claims to have the answers Val needs, but time will tell (so to speak).

The Monitors (or, as I prefer to think of them, the Legion of Righteous Self-Important Arrogant Busybodies *, fret about Kyle Rayner (formerly Green Lantern, Ion, and now Parallax) and the possibilities for chaos if a certain low-probability event happens. So, of course, they decide he should be killed, which attempt will presumably precipitate the very event they fear.

* It just occurred to me that the title could also rightfully belong to the Guardians of the Universe. Maybe that'll be another Countdown spin-off? Monitors Versus Guardians?

They also, by a 'wink and a nod', decide that Bob the Monitor must die, as well.

No Piper and Trickster segment this issue, but based on the next issue's cover I'm guessing they have a major role in that issue.

Holly Robinson begins her "purification ritual", and as she realizes she's being armored but not armed she grows increasingly uncomfortable with the situation. Once the battle starts she kicks butt. Not too big a surprise, since at one time she was Catwoman. The only person she doesn't wipe the floor with is a masked competitor whose mask carries a sort of smirk. I think I'll go out on a limb here and guess that behind the mask is Harley Quinn.

You've probably noticed that this week I haven't groused about the art. It's nothing spectacular, but good solid workmanlike drafting. I didn't see anything particularly eye-catching, just good solid art. It's kind of a shame that it's worth remarking on that the art is competent.

Again, the story this week was nothing to write home about, but the pacing was much better than in the early issues. Not trying to cover every story in every issue is a good move. It gives the story more room to breathe, allowing it to feel more like a story and not just an unconnected series of events. I still feel the difference is in the editorial side of things. Mike Carlin and his assistants have a much better feel for the material than the previous editorial folks.

Sean McKeever has a good touch with the dialogue and captions. My only objection is that he's overusing one transition technique, where in the last panel of one scene we get the first thought of the next scene. It's a technique that works, but by the time it's noticeable it's been overdone.

What can I say, if that's my biggest kvetch with the issue then the book is on the right track.

Don't forget, go out and spend that three dollars a week for Countdown. Despite it's faults, I believe the book is well worth your money. Let's show DC that there's a demand for this type of book.

Please remain seated until the blog comes to a complete and full stop. Thanks for flying KimAir, and have yourself a great day!

Lies, Damn Lies, and Previews

There's been a tendency in recent years for both DC and Marvel to lie about forthcoming developments. Both Dan Didio and Joe Quesada have done this and been caught repeatedly, and basically taken the attitude of 'got one by you, didn't I?'.

Gone seem to be the days where they'd just shut up about things they didn't want to reveal, or even being truthful but allowing the listener/reader to make wrong assumptions. It now seems to be accepted that lying is an acceptable tactic to keep plotlines secret.

I know that, with the pervasive communications about what's coming up, it takes more creativity to keep the wraps on. We've come a long way from waiting for the next issue of Mediascene or The Comic Reader to get a few tidbits, but that doesn't give the companies license to lie to the fans.

36 and counting...

DC's Countdown hits issue 36 this week. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, that doesn't mean we're 36 issues in. It means we have 36 left to go.

Now that that's settled:

We begin this week with the Challengers of the Beyond (or Challengers of Beyond, or Challengers from Beyond, or Challengers from the Beyond. It's all kind of confusing, since they were named in convention panels rather than in the book, and there's several versions of the name circulating. Some direction here, please?)...

Um.

We begin this week with the Challengers of the Whatever, still down in the nanoverse, seemingly stuck and fighting a party of insectoid creatures. They're pretty much defeated, Atom can't reach his belt controls to shrink his way free, but he can reach... Eh?

Is it just me, or is there a slight gap in logic here?

Oh, and a mystery (and english-speaking) armored character holds the "bang stick" in question. How? Where is the character speaking from? The visible forearm appears to be 'framed' by, um, tree limbs? The perspective of the scene makes it appear that he (?) is watching them on a screen (or in some sort of scrying portal). I'm wondering whether Giffen's layouts more clearly showed the character in front of a viewer and the penciller misinterpreted it. And the 'tree limbs'? There's indication in one panel (page 2, panel 2) that there's trees around, maybe. They could as easily be part of some floating rocks in this Brunner-inspired level. I'm deliberately not looking back to Countdown 37 to see whether there were trees around. If I have to do that to find out, the artist failed.
I've got a lot more criticisms of the art in this issue. I'll mention some elsewhere, but it looks like the artists just aren't very good. I'm sort of used to their slotting some second-tier artists into the mix on the weekly books, but this past two weeks we seem to be dredging down to the third-tier. I'm sorry if this offends anyone (mainly the artists in question and their wives and girlfriends), but it's true. They're just not ready for prime time -- a major book from one of the 'big two'.

At least this week we can see that the artists did render the book instead of tracing over the layouts. Some of the linework shows up a bit, well, strange. It's not that the artist has a quirky style, it's just a lack of experience. More on this later.

Aside from the art, nothing much has gone on with this plotline for a while. They've shrunk to a world which looks kinda like the Amazon-ish jungle where Ray Palmer used to live. They've shrunk from there to the Frank Brunner inspired cosmos where they got some hints to the Great Disaster. I know DC has faith in this 'team' -- there's a number of specials scheduled, and rumors of a regular monthly title later, so shouldn't they be having more happen than acting as a placeholder waiting for the specials?


Zatanna is still training Mary Marvel in magic, until Mary explodes over nothing. It turns into a major battle, tearing up Zatanna's house and unleashing various magical energies. Mary is operating on a level of pure emotion, not intellect, but there's more than that. It's not unlike Lindsay Lohan being told that she can't get plastered, do lines, and have semi-public sex on the riverboat in Disneyland. What's that you say? Reports are that she did just that? I'm sure it's just a pernicious rumor.

It's all about the sense of entitlement that means there's a blow-up when anyone tells her "no". She's been increasingly unstable since gaining Teth Amon's (Black Adam's) powers, but this time it's way over the top. Is it the levels of power that're hard to adjust to, or something intrinsic in the powers? You might think so, but no.

It's Eclipso. Jean Loring must have found her way free. Where did this happen? Is this a new development, or did I miss it in a title I don't read? She's manipulating Mary, freeing her from moral constraints and all maturity in her responses. Why? We'll find out, though I suspect this thread may yet converge with the impending Great Disaster plotline.

Speaking of which, last week the book was rife with foreshadowing. This week, nothing. It might be coincidence, but it reads to me like someone made the decision that they should be inserted last week to please the fans, and this week it's been forgotten. There's a lot of improvement in the pacing recently, but this seems awkward. The references, maybe, could be sprinkled a tad more evenly? Larding one issue with it, then dropping it next issue just seems clumsy.

There seems to be lots of folks around 'New Earth' who have more than an inkling of the Great Disaster and what it all means, but aside from cryptic comments they haven't shared their knowledge, even among the hero community. Why? There must be a damn good reason, but we haven't a clue what the reason might be.

Jimmy Olsen is living inside his own head, thinking he's about to be admitted to the Justice League of America. Dream on, Jimmy.

The art here is particularly weak. Jimmy, when he's shown, looks 'flat'. I'm thinking this is another of those 'inexperienced artist' issues. It's as though the layouts called for certain perspectives, and the artist isn't quite up to the task of illustrating the shots. I'm really thinking DC needs to re-evaluate who they're assigning to the art duties on Countdown. They don't need to lock their A-list artists on the book (although it'd be fascinating to see), but they DO need to use artists who are at least competent. At the very least what about assigning inkers who are able (and authorized) to 'fix' the art when it falls short?

One nice touch, done by someone with a wicked sense of humor (whom I suspect to be Keith Giffen) is the 'Last Supper' arrangement of the JLA. Any significance to Batman being in the Jesus position?

Karate Kid and Una arrive at the hidden base of the 'legendary' Elias Orr. He was identified to me as being a former henchperson of Lex Luthor. Maybe so -- was he one of the scientists in 52? Here's another of those places where a scorecard is needed. I know they're resisting it fiercely (though they've done it at least once) but either editor's notes or a text page are needed to point readers to needed background info. They seem to feel it's both unnecessary and disruptive to the book, but it is really annoying when those moments arrive (in every issue to date) where we need to know more about who these people are and why we should care (and in some cases, how did they get into their current situation).

There's been a fair amount of criticism on the title, and DC (or at least Dan Didio) has been quite defensive about their handling of Countdown. I like the book a lot, but there are some things that need fixing (such as the art) and listening (and maybe even taking action) won't hurt. Don't be defensive. The criticism isn't to impress with our incisive wit, but to help evaluate and improve the book. Happy readers are ones who will return to spend more money on the product, so why not try and please them just a tad?

Maybe it's just the way the art was done in this issue, but there's more than a passing resemblance between Elias Orr and R. J. Brande. Given this is a Legion of Super-Heroes thread, that's an interesting coincidence.

There's no Holly Robinson / Harley Quinn segment this week, which is a bit of a shame, since the Holly segments and Piper / Trickster segments are my favorites.

Speaking of Piper and Trickster, they left off last issue as prisoners of Poison Ivy, and this issue they talk their way out of it by pretending to have been sent by her new (and unnamed) patron. They manage to string her along until the patron shows up, and boy, he's pissed!

It's Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, the Terminator.

This (along with the Holly / Harley plot) where I have no idea where the story is going. It doesn't look like it's going to lead into Salvation Run, but then again who knows?