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Countdown to Final Crisis #1 (DC - Dini / Giffen / Kolins)

The Great Disaster has occurred, and all hell breaks loose as all the storylines in COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS come to a climax, threatening Darkseid and Jimmy Olsen and Mary Marvel and the future of their Earth! 

Whew!  It’s over!  And the crowds roar! Okay, for the record the last half dozen issues or so have been fairly good… in fact they have been phenomenal compared to the rest of this series.  This issue ties up the Countdown characters, or at the very least gives us a passing view of them.  Nice bookend covers by Kubert and having Ray Palmer give the Monitors the “you are now on notice” speech  was excellent… but even some the high points of Countdown does not cancel out all of the garbage the fanboys had to sit through.  And let’s be honest if there was a “Best of Countdown moments” book, it would be like one super-sized issue, leaving behind 51 weeks of leftovers and filler.  After enjoying 52 and sitting through Countdown, this is one fanboy who will be taking a break from weekly comics for a tad.

In my heart of hearts I hope Trinity is a whole lot better than this.

Issue Grade: B

Series Grade: C-

Countdown to Final Crisis #2 (DC - Dini / Giffen / McKeever / Saiz / Palmiotti)

The Great Disaster has occurred, and all hell breaks loose as all the storylines in COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS come to a climax, threatening Darkseid and Jimmy Olsen and Mary Marvel and the future of their Earth!

Well, don’t know how Mary is doing… didn’t see her this issue. But kudos to the Countdown creative team, for not leaving us hanging.  We have finally caught the meaning of a few of these catch phrases throughout the year. Darkseid yells “Jimmy Olsen Must Die!” in reference to his plan to make the Fifth World… too bad it didn’t work. The Death of the New Gods apparently ends with the burning corpse of Darkseid, at the hands of his son, but I have a hard time believing Darkseid is out for the count (in-particular due to some of the spoiler shots from Final Crisis). Ray Palmer is the key as he stops Darkseid’s plan by removing the “soul crystal” from Jimmy’s brain that was giving him the powers of the New Gods.

As a stand alone, this issue was pretty cool… a giant mutant Jimmy / Darkseid throw-down leading to Orion battling his father.  Quite an issue for fans who have been following the New Gods.  Quite a few positive things about the issue.  I just think it was too little, too late for the series.

The main negative here has nothing to do with content issue #2 or necessarily the direction that the Final Crisis looks like it is going to take.  It has to do with how much filler there was in Countdown over the past 12 months… Arena, Crime Bible, Monarch, etc.  None of this really mattered at all.  A decent ending for what was not a “worthy” continuation of 52.

Issue Grade: B+

Series Grade: C-

Countdown to Final Crisis #3 (DC - Dini / Giffen / McKeever / Lim / McKenna)

The Great Disaster has occurred, and all hell breaks loose as all the storylines in COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS come to a climax, threatening Darkseid and Jimmy Olsen and Mary Marvel and the future of their Earth!

We finally got it! The big battle issue! Woo Woo!… wow… yea… the excitement lasted about 2 minutes after I got done with the issue and started thinking about Countdown on the macro. There is a big Superman - Darkseid throwdown, a Mary Marvel vs. the Challengers brawl and a Ray Palmer / Jimmy Olsen combination catches Darkseid off guard. Good art, good action… but a little late to save most of the previous 49 issues of this series.  I do hope that DC Zero and the Final Crisis run has a lot more meat to it than what we have seen in Countdown.

Now, after getting that bad karma out the way, I want to say that I think there is one statement in this issue that could cause ripples through the DCU. Just as Darkseid and Supes are ready to go to blows, Darkseid mentions that he is insulted that the rest of the JLA weren’t there yet. Superman responds by saying they would just get in his way anyway.  I can see Batman responding to that sometime in the future.  Plus: the Origin of Amazo.

Issue Grade: C+

Series Grade: C-

Countdown to Final Crisis #4 (DC - Dini / Giffen / Beechen / Mango / Ramos)

The Great Disaster has occurred, and all hell breaks loose as all the storylines in COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS come to a climax, threatening Darkseid and Jimmy Olsen and Mary Marvel and the future of their Earth!

Frodo is about to throw the ring into Mount Doom, when Saruman cast a teleport spell and sent Frodo back to the Shire… yea, it’s kinda like that! Our heroes have taken a huge leap backwards this week.

Everything that they have been trying to stop has come true… Darkseid has Jimmy, Mary has embraces that dark powers again, Jason flips out, Ray Palmer is missing and it is quite possible that the plague has made the jump to the original DCU. The writing here is not as good as the last few weeks, but better than the majority of this run. Three left… let’s see what comes

Issue Grade: C+

Countdown to Final Crisis #5 (DC - Dinin / Beechen / Giffen / Starlin / Ramos)

The Countdown ticks down as storylines converge and collide — a Great Disaster is clearly proving to be unavoidable

What is better than an unprecedented solar eclipse that is no cause for alarm? Yup, you guessed it… Having two weeks in a row where Countdown doesn’t suck. There are so many factors that made these last two weeks worth reading. The storytelling conglomerate of Dini, Beechen and Giffen creates a fantastic end result. To be honest it creates what most of us have been hoping for all year with this book.

The first person point-of-view from this world’s Buddy Blank makes a fantastic narrative as he lays out his thoughts and observation as he struggles to save his grandson from the virus and the now self-destructive Earth. Some pretty decent milestones in this issue… Death of Una and the untold origin of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth. This issue also had pencils by legend Jim Starlin… one work, phenomenal! This issue of Countdown makes me want to buy into the DC Final Crisis marketing machine. The low point of this week was the origin of Mr. Freeze.  This was approved by Hans Zarkov.

Issue Grade: A

Series Grade: C+

Countdown to the Final Crisis #6 (DC - Dini / Beechen / Giffen / Norton)

The Countdown ticks down as storylines converge and collide — a Great Disaster is clearly proving to be unavoidable!

Uncharacteristically, we have an issue of Countdown that deserves more than just a few bullet points. Issue #6 stands out from at least the last half dozen as an enjoyable read that actually brought the overall plot into motion. The narrative is from the point of view of Buddy Blank, but not our Buddy Blank. In this issue we find out that that the Earth that the “enigma” heroes returned to was not their own, but one really close. A bright spot in the story-telling is that instead of telling us straight out, the writers just lay it out in clue form for the reader… Martian Manhunter is around (not on Planet Hell - Salvation Run) and no one remembers Donna, Jason, Harley, Ray Palmer, etc. If this were our “Earth” that would be too much history re-writing to eliminate all of these characters from the time stream. Anyway, so the entire issue is one long narrative from the diary of Buddy Blank as he watched the Armageddon virus, with the help of Karate Kid’s 31st century genetics mutate, change the DNA of it’s victims and become virtually unstoppable in it’s ability to spread and kill. This Earth starts to go down in flames as the readers for the first time feel the weight of the coming Great Disaster. It was actually actually a very well-told story and a highlight throughout the Countdown series. All this and the origin of Felix Faust!

Issue Grade: B+

“Gone Tomorrow”

Here’s the Lowdown…

• Mary Marvel, Una, Karate Kid, Ray Palmer, Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner, Holly, Harley and the rest (sounds like Gilligan’s Island) return to the real Earth to try to help Karate Kid
• Turns out all of these characters have been erased from Earth’s timeline or they have returned to a different Earth but Ray can’t figure that out
• It takes a mini-brawl with the Justice League and the majority of this issue for the writers to get across the idea
• The group turns to Cadmus at the direction of Jimmy Olsen (hmmmmm… Firestorm, Ray Palmer, Donna Troy… no, I’ll take scientific advice from Jimmy Olsen)
• After an initial level 1 fight scene, they meet up with Dubbilex who also does not who they are
• He says he will help but Karate Kid is already dead
• Origin of Bane

Countdown to Final Crisis #7 is on par with almost all of the issues in this series, good old filler and not worth your time!  This issue didn’t even have any really cool well-done splash pages to “ooooh” at.

Issue Grade: D

Countdown to Final Crisis #8 (DC - Dini / Giffen / Gray / Palmiotti / various)

The Countdown ticks down as storylines converge and collide — a Great Disaster is clearly proving to be unavoidable!

Can you guess why the DC blurb on it was so short? It’s because nothing happened in this issue! This week’s Countdown #8, which defines series filler, led me to a different format for the weekly lowdown. My bullet point list would have had three points… all the Countdown characters gather in one place, Darkseid stands by his chess board and laughs “Muwah ha ha ha!” and then a 2-page origin / recap of Bizarro.

We know Karate Kid has this galactic plague virus that threatens everyone, we know the Fourth world is coming to an end, we know Darkseid is playing against the Monitors, we know Bob is a tool… Yes, We Know! We Know!… Nothing new!

When I think about, the only thing that ends up more disturbing than the endless paraphrasing that is happening within a weekly book is the fact that there were many Countdown spin-off series that had no impact on anything…

• Did it matter which worlds we searched for Ray Palmer?
• Was there a total of six frames that Monarch’s Arena army was seen in Countdown?
• Did Amazons Attack have any lasting reference in any monthly book, including Wonder Woman?
• Crime Bible?
• Black Adam?
• Lord Havok????… Lord Havok for goodness sakes!

The list could go on and on…

I do have high hopes for Final Crisis, given it’s creative team. But when I read issue like this one, I feel like it should be Countdown to the Final Fleecing.

Issue Grade: D

Pay the Piper!

Here’s the Lowdown

• Piper pulls himself back up from the fall, tries to wake-up Desaad (bad move) and when he can’t… presses a button on Desaad’s palm (worse move)
• Desaad explains how he has set Piper and Trickster from the beginning
• He also goes into explaining that apparently the Piper can play the anti-life equation with his flute
• an OMAC shows up stuns Desaad and takes Piper back to Eye’s “heart”
•  there, the Challengers plus a few stragglers crash Eye’s party, end up freeing Firestrom and stop Karate Kid from being dissected
• Eye then teleports the whole lot somewhere on the surface of Apokolips to take on an army of OMACs
• This leaves Piper and Desaad inside… where Piper gets a backbone and makes Desaad’s head blow up all “Scanners” style
• Once Piper gets his confidence back, apparently nothing is stopping him, he unleashes the anti-life power and apparently kills Brother Eye, taking the hell planet with it
• Origin of Black Manta… yup, I said Black Manta

Some of the bonuses that this week had going for it, one long story sequence rather than 12 2-page sequences… and no Jimmy Olsen!  Bravo!  Hopefully we can get a little bit more background on how Piper ended up with the anti-life power in him… or why this hasn’t come up before.

Issue Grade: B