Just in case you've been having "Countdown" and no other comics shipped to you under a rock, this issue opens up with a kind-of replay of the death of the Flash. Leading into yet another gratuitious Mary Marvel crotch shot, with Mary's unmentionables occluded only by the shadow of her own ass.Seriously, guys, this is ridiculous. Cut it out.
Not much to comment on this week. Oh how I long for the days when Keith Giffen layouts were packed with little clues and references to decode. All of our plots move ever-so-slightly forward, except for the Karate Kid plot, which seems to move slightly backward from where we saw him at the end of the "Lightning Saga". Jimmy's contemplating being a hero (again). Donna, Jason and the Mutton Chop Monitor pick up the All-New Atom and finally head into the nanoverse, which may also indicate them moving out of "Countdown". Mary Marvel uses even more excessive force against Clayface, sending him whirling out into orbit for robbing a bank, leading her to...well, not quite question the nature of her powers. But almost. And the Rogues get chained together and thrown out of a plane.
Which was actually pretty cool.
I'm working off the assumption that Deadshot and Multiplex are working for the Suicide Squad, since they go all governmental and make an arrest. Not that it matters, since they manage to incarcerate Trickster and Piper for approximately five minutes. Two major questions come up in this issue, one posed out loud by Holly Robinson: what is Athena's motivation for gathering up scantily clad, acrobatically advanced women from all over the world. Is the Goddess of Wisdom hip to the fact there may be some deity vacancies opening up and getting set up for a power play?
More interesting to me is a little quirk in the backup feature, where Superboy's name is studiously avoided. There were rumors floating around that DC no longer had the rights to use the name Superboy and that this might have motivated the offing of Connor Kent. PsychoSuperboy's new moniker as "Prime" seems to back this up, although DC has on occassion stopped using characters that had any kind of legal entanglements, a policy which has kept much of Grant Morrison's "Doom Patrol" run out of print even after DC won a lawsuit filed by Charles Atlas regarding Flex Mentallo. I hope for DC's sake that no one from Malibu Comics knows they're using the name Prime for a kid in a cape.
In other news, DC has announced that Jim Starlin will be writing a "Death of the New Gods" miniseries in October, running for eight issues and probably finishing up at the same time as "Countdown". Meaning that one more "Countdown" storyline will be resolved outside the book itself. I find myself simultaneously happy and angry about these types of things. If I'm going to read a New Gods story, sure, I wouldn't mind having it penned by Starlin. Gail Simone was writing the hell out of the "Search for Ray Palmer" and I consistently enjoy Ron Marz's writing on Kyle Rayner. These stories are ending up in the hands of highly qualified talents. But there remains the nagging question: "What is 'Countdown' supposed to be doing?"
As a complete aside, if you're looking for a mindblowing comic to read this week, please pick up "Madman". I caught maybe a fourth of a third of Allred's visual references and fully intend to go back to this book panel by panel, but it's one of the most visually impressive superhero-ish books I've read since the tarot issue of "Promethea".
1 comment:
Madman was amazing.
What's that about Countdown?
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