Let’s start with the good: this week’s cluster of issues is interesting in that it has some of the more consistent art in the series yet, due in part to the presence of multiple guest artists. Issue #25 is by industry veteran Ron Lim, and he turns in probably the best art of the series so far besides perhaps the early issue by Dennis Calero. Perhaps it isn’t on the level of, say, his “Infinity Gauntlet” work, but it’s stylish, clear to read, and just plain old fun to look at. He’s then followed by Tom Derenick in issues #24 and #23, who we haven’t seen since issue #47. And unlike the #47, his art in these issues, while maybe a bit generic, manages to be consistent despite being two back-to-back weekly issues. Even Carlos Magno, the weakest of the regular artist, is… well, he’s okay in issue #22. #21 is the first (main feature) appearance of Jamal Igle, and while his work falls a bit short of the all-around quite good art he’d provide in “Supergirl” a couple years later, it isn’t bad by “Countdown” standards (I know, I know, damning with faint praise, but I don’t want to throw one of my favorites under the bus). Perhaps the worst of this selection in terms of visuals is #20, illustrated by Howard Porter, which has some “interesting” panels throughout, but you know what? At least Porter has a sense of style, and I’ll take that over, say, the technically more consistent but more generic look of series regular Jesus Saiz.
These issues also have the first confirmed appearances of internet darling Superboy Prime (only he’s insisting that he be called Superman Prime now, which I refuse to do). It appears he’s traveling from reality to reality searching for a new Earth to call his own. Which, considering the myriad problems he had with Earth-1 in “Infinite Crisis,” is going about as well as you’d expect. We see him murdering the Justice League of Earth-15 one by one (an Earth that is unremarkable aside from the fact their Superman looks like Ross Douthat), and once they are all dead he destroys the entire fucking planet by ramming into it really fast. Hell yeah, now this is what I’m talking about. This is then followed by nearly an entire issue of him torturing Mr. Mxyzptlk (remember his one-page appearance/disappearance a few issues ago?) that is the second issue so far solely scripted by lead writer Paul Dini. Of course, Dini is on record of being a huge fan of Mxy, so I imagine that has more to do with it than any burning desire to write Superboy Prime, especially since it ends with Mxy revealing he let himself be captured just so he could figure out what kind of guy Prime is, and concluding he’s a massive loser. Which is great! More Superboy Prime please; this isn’t “good,” but it at least keeps the series somewhat entertaining.
On a similar note, the Karate Kid arc is surprisingly getting a bit fun. We pick up on him, Una, and a few others looking for the source of the mysterious virus he has in the radioactive hellhole that is post-“Infinite Crisis” Bludhaven. They’re joined by Firestorm, who is looking for Dr. Stein. Now, normally I’d poo-poo this as another one of the series myriad attempts of introducing a character with little to no context given as to what has been going on with them in other series, but I’ll give it a pass because it leads to one of the more stupid-yet-cool moments in the series so far. When the impromptu team locates and enters a sealed off room far under the city, they find Dr. Stein imprisoned by Desaad, who then manipulates Firestorm’s energy to become the new host of the Firestorm Matrix. Desaad Firestorm! That’s rad! Unfortunately it only lasts for a few pages in the next issue, but A+ for the dumb but cool idea. While this is going on, Brother Eye detects whatever it is they’re doing underground and turns into a goddamn death star before flying to Bludhaven and forming a giant dome over it. Much like Firestorm Desaad, this is very dumb and very cool. Unfortunately Howard Porter didn’t get the memo, because in the very next issue he draws Brother Eye as just a boring ol’ UFO.
Continued belowIt’s just the ideas that are fun, though. The execution continues to be mediocre at best, miserable at worst. Perhaps the best (worst?) example of this is a ponderous sequence where Una goes on a long monologue to Val and some kid that has been tagging along with them about how she may perhaps have feelings for Val even though she knows she can’t act on them. I’m a failure as a comics critic, because I can’t even put into words how bad Beechen’s script is, you must see it for yourself:
We also have some plot lines converging on Apokalips. In one of the first somewhat interesting and unexpected twists of the series, it turns out the “Athena” that Holly and Harley have been training under is actually Granny Goodness looking for her next batch of Female Furies. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, Jimmy Olsen has found himself in a tough spot, losing track of Forager and being forced to work in the pits of the hellish planet. Thankfully for Jimmy it isn’t too long until he’s found and rescued by the star of everyone’s favorite Eisner-winning series, Mister Miracle, who promptly decides to, uh, throw Jimmy into the firepits. I get the idea of doing so was to trigger Jimmy’s life-or-death powers, but why he decided it was necessary to trigger those powers in the first place is unexplained. Thankfully Jimmy manages to stumble his way into a completely unguarded room where Forager is being held captive. Not so thankfully, upon Jimmy freeing Forager (and basically making va-va-voom noises at finding out she’s cute under her helmet) she turns on him and chokes him in a non-arousing way, I assume because she’s brainwashed or something.
Meanwhile on another part of Apokalips Mary Marvel is introduced to Darkseid. When she learns the big bad New God wants her to join him and add her mastery of magic to his formidable power she does a whole bit about how she’s not like him and runs off. I need to remind you that a few issues prior she straight up murdered some guys with barely any provocation, and entertained the idea in multiple prior instances. At least Darkseid is a man/godlike being with a plan; until now Mary has just been engaging in wanton cruelty. When Eclipso catches up with her in space Eclipso reveals that her plan was to have Mary become Darkseid’s concubine and bide her time until the two of them could topple him and take over. As you might imagine, Mary doesn’t take this too well and turns on her “mentor.” For the first timein the series, though, Mary doesn’t win, and Eclipso manages to escape, leaving Mary all alone in space. Boo hoo for her.
The arguably “main” arc concerning Donna Troy’s super-team (who were apparently dubbed the Challengers when I wasn’t paying attention) follows the party to Earth-12, a Batman Beyond-inspired earth. Not to be nitpicky, but isn’t that more an alternate timeline than an alternate universe? Anyway, this is one of those moments where the writing team brings up something at least vaguely related to “Final Crisis” with the first ever appearance of everyone’s favorite Judge of All Evil, Nix fucking Uotan! Only here he’s a square trying to capture the Challengers at the behest of the big bad Monitor, who has dubbed himself “Solomon.” The party escapes with ease, and Bob informs them that until now they’d manage to stay ahead because he’d manage to offset the feed that the Monitors have that shows them anything that’s currently going on in the multiverse, all of which is set-up for him to utter the phrase “52 minutes ago.” I’d put an eye-rolling emoji here were it not probably a violation of the Multiversity style guide.
The Pied Piper/Trickster arc actually has a pretty significant development in these issues that for once isn’t reliant on an outside event (at least, not any more than the rest of the series). The pair are found train-hopping by Deadshot, and while they manage to lose him by booting him out of the car in the process he totally ices Trickster. I’m sure there will be some way this will be walked back, but so far it isn’t just being treated as a fakeout cliffhanger; at the very least, his pulse has stopped, causing a failsafe to activate that will cause the handcuffs connecting Piper and Trickster’s supposedly dead body to explode in 24 hours. Which… seems like quite a long time for a failsafe like that? Unfortunately the one thing I was looking forward to with Trickster’s death is that his homophobic jokes about Piper would stop (remember, it’s the character making the jokes, not the writers, that makes it okay), but now Piper is making them to himself. Terrific.
Overall, not a bad bunch of issues. Of course, that’s by “Countdown” standards; I doubt I’d score any of them over a 5.0 individually, and even that would be generous. With the late introduction of Superboy Prime to the series things are at least getting entertaining, whereas nearly the entire first half of this series was dreadfully dull on top of being bad. See y’all next week, when I’ll inevitably eat my own words.
