Countdown 44 Spoilers!

[Cayman]

We used to call Jonah Weiland, our esteemed leader here at CBR, "Jonah the Monitor." :)

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Until he killed off poor Duela Dent, just to score some server money.

[Captain Jim]

I am aware that the powers Jimmy shows are homages to the Golden Age (Elastic Lad, Speed Demon and a human porcupine)...

Er, actually it's silver age. (Yeah, I know. Picky, picky, picky.)

[Captain Jim]

I am still not too sure about the holly story. Anyone with knowledge of Amazons Attack and Catwoman want to fill me in. I am not following either and could care less to buy them.

That's too bad because Catwoman (at least) is one of the best books DC is publishing right now. The larger story is that Selena Kyle (the original Catwoman) became pregnant during the "missing" year and had just recently given birth OYL. Since, as the mother of a newborn, she was not able to function in her role as "protector of the east side," she asked Holly (a young friend who was first introduced in Batman Year One) to become the new Catwoman. Before doing so, Holly received training at the hands of Wildcat.

She did a half-way decent job, but of course never came close to reaching Selena's level. Holly had basically retired from the position when she became aware of a hostage situation in which a young girl's life was in danger. With Selena unavailable, and the police ineffective, Holly responded to the scene. Though the girl was saved, in the process Holly was unmasked on live TV. And before things ended, a pair of super-villains arrived on the scene and decapitated a police detective who was with Holly. The cops arrived on the scene later, saw Selena (masked) and Holly (unmasked) in the vicinity of the cop's severed head and came to the wrong conclusion.

Both of them nearly lose their lives in the ensuing battle with the super-villains and eventually escape. But in the end, Holly's identity is known and the cops think she's a cop-killer. So she has to disappear. Next thing we know, she shows up on the streets in Countdown. (Preceding two paragraphs are a summary of "Catwoman Dies" in CW #66-68--highly recommended.)

No connection between Holly and the amazons has been shown yet in Catwoman or Amazons Attack, but those certainly do look like amazons with her here, so I suspect there will be further developments on this later.

[Captain Jim]

Although HISTORY OF THE MULTIVERSE (the backups in the past few issues of COUNTDOWN) mostly just rehashes what long-time DC readers already know (it is useful for Multiverse newbies, though), some of the little details are telling. This week, for example, covered the original Crisis On Infinite Earths. What I found curious is that the Monitors spoke of the *original* Monitor as if he were not one of them...as if he were an entirely different entity altogether, even though his appearance, name, and function was identical to theirs.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I noticed that too. Interesting.

[Captain Jim]

No offense, but I think I'll be glad when some of you *do* drop the book.
What a bunch of whiners. :rolleyes:

Still enjoying it, personally.

[Nintendite]

Bob is the best name for a Monitor. Especially since "Uatu" was already taken.

[Kara Zor El]

No offense, but I think I'll be glad when some of you *do* drop the book.
What a bunch of whiners. :rolleyes:

Still enjoying it, personally.

Me too. I think it's a unique comic. I can't think of anything quite like it apart from 52 and it's different enough from that.

[Froggy]

Me too. I think it's a unique comic. I can't think of anything quite like it apart from 52 and it's different enough from that.

I really want to see the end of this and the Jimmy Olsen story

[Hawkman]

Last three issues have all been good, in my opinion. It seems like I'm in the minority, but I for one am glad that I stayed with Countdown as long as I have, as it's really picking up now.

And Billy's a jerk. I totally agree with Mary. Of course, he'll probably turn out to be right in the end, but I'd personally like to see her keeping BA's powers (or at least a portion of them), while still being the nice, sweet Mary we all know and love. Or, it could play out in a somewhat more predictable manner, where Mary's gone full-blown evil by the story's climax, then sacrifices herself in a final act of redemption to save the new Multiverse. Either way, though, I just want Billy to be wrong in the end.:)

[hawkeyefan]

No offense, but I think I'll be glad when some of you *do* drop the book.
What a bunch of whiners. :rolleyes:

Still enjoying it, personally.

I'm not sure if you were refering to me, but I wasn't whining. I was saying that I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to this book. I just don't think it is living up to its potential. Dini is great....the other writers are all at least decent....and the last weekly was a solid book. But for some reason, this doesn't live up to that at all. It is very disjointed and relies far too heavily on other books to tell tis stories.

That doesn't sound like whining to me.....it sounds like someone expressing their opinion in as constructive a manner as posisble.

Whining would be "This book sucks. I hate it....I want it gone."

I hope it turns around to the point where most readers are as happy with the book as you are. It definitely could happen.....like I said, all the ingredients seem to be there. For me, though, it isn't worth waiting for that to happen any more.

That's too bad because Catwoman (at least) is one of the best books DC is publishing right now. The larger story is that Selena Kyle (the original Catwoman) became pregnant during the "missing" year and had just recently given birth OYL. Since, as the mother of a newborn, she was not able to function in her role as "protector of the east side," she asked Holly (a young friend who was first introduced in Batman Year One) to become the new Catwoman. Before doing so, Holly received training at the hands of Wildcat.

That does sound kind of intersting. It is too bad no one working on the book thought that maybe a little brief summary of that would have been useful. Or at least telling readers not familiar with the past year of Catwoman who this girl Holly even is. Maybe people would even give Catwoman a try based on Holly's appearance in Countdown. But if they don't know that is where she is from.....it is kinda hard to generate such interest.

[CMBMOOL]

It seems that Billy is more concern about the magic in the new DCU earth than the life of his sister. :(

I mean come on within just one issue we see how Billy is almost lost his only contact left that has a connection with humanity. We see him act more like the controller of all magic instead of the concern brother that we all know and love. :(


I can't see how DC is going to save the former name of the Marvel Family, because until we get an new ongoing series showing us some classic retelling of great stories on the New Earth-5, then we are just going to be stuck with the emotion rampage that was once the glorious Marvel Family. :(

It with stuff like this that makes me avoid Countdown. :(

[Orah-kel]

Er, actually it's silver age. (Yeah, I know. Picky, picky, picky.)

Ow, sorry about that. And here i thought i was being a smartass :D

[Jonah Weiland]

Lots happened in the DCU this past week and Brian and Justin are here to make sense of it all, from this week's "Sinestro Corps Special" and how it plays into events in "Countdown" #44.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...m.cgi?id=11007

[The Xenos]

Me too. I think it's a unique comic. I can't think of anything quite like it apart from 52 and it's different enough from that.

Um... No Man's Land? That came out weekly even if it was in a rotating assortment of Bat books.

Really, a weekly comic isn't that unique of an idea. Hell, they do it in Japan regularly on many comics magazines. Though clearly the format is much different. Of course, it also sells bucket loads better and has a constant self contained story told in each comic that comes out that week. The best selling comics magazine in the world is weekly and isn't published by DC. It's Shonen Jump published by Shueisha.

Now clearly the weekly black and white anthology doesn't really work that well in America. Then again, I haven't checked the sales of the US edition of Shonen Jump recently.

Of course, I really wonder if even any regular monthly comic is doing all that well anymore.

[Pinnacle]

Countdown has been decent but not great. It still has a lot of potential. My biggest critique is that not enough has happened yet. I'm anxious for the action to pick up.

Now Sinestro Corps Special that was all kinds of awesome!!!!!