#49- The Great Escape

And three issues in, we finally have a mystery worth solving. Jimmy's elastic moment played out better than any story beat so far and marks the most effective use of the two page spread we've seen in the first six issues. There's something inherently unnerving about a superpowered Jimmy Olsen, as Alan Davis demonstrated in "JLA;The Nail", and with Superman's Pal showing off his Ralph Dibny impersonation, "Countdown" sets its first effective story hook.

There's a reason both DC and Marvel keep Everyman characters like Jimmy Olsen and Rick Jones around. They simultaneously act as a ground for their superheroic pals and a manageable lens (hey, more camera/eye metaphors!) through which the reader can view superheroes from within a world full of superheroes. Kurt Busiek has practically made a career out of spotlighting the Everyman characters, conveying to readers what it feels like to walk among giants. One of the things that made Busiek's "Up, Up and Away" storyline so great was that he actually nailed the feeling of being Clark Kent walking powerless through a world of supermen.

Dini plays this perfectly over these two issues. Jimmy waltzes into danger as if he has an angel watching over him, because he literally does. The Killer Croc attack is paced brilliantly. With Jimmy on the phone, the reader gets a sense of exactly how much time elapses between Croc breaking his restraints and Jimmy going stretch-o. Plenty of time for Supes to notice the situation, swoop down and rectify. But instead, Jimmy, whose only power has always been his ability to narrowly escape danger, manifests a superpower in order to narrowly escape danger.

A quick survey of Jimmy's sordid little past reveals myriad possibly explanations for the superpowers, most of which involve either alternate universes or the New Gods. Let's hope this isn't leading to a permanently powered-up Mr. Olsen, since DC needs another well-mannered caucasian male who stumbles into powers roughly as much as it needs the return of Turtle Boy.

Unfortunately, this is the only well-paced section of the issue. It takes two pages to show that the JLA really did toss Karate Kid in the brig, just like they said they would, and the interrogation pays off with the same exchange of half-witted insults the Rogues have been regularly treating us to. Speaking of which, we get five pages of those wacky Rogues here which does nothing but stress how poorly Mirror Master is being scripted.

In the reveal department, we also get our first glimpse of the Bearded Monitor's universe-hopping targets, since apparently when the Bearded Monitor fled the scene in the first issue he fled directly to Monitor HQ.

And the big reveal: Teth-Adam makes a shocking return after being absent from DC's pages for a whopping five weeks of publishing time. Kind of a slap on the wrist for that whole world war thing.