Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Countdown #33 Review

COUNTDOWN #33
Story by Paul Dini
Script by Adam Beechan
Art by Carlos Magno

After a few weeks off from reviewing Countdown, I figured it was time to take another crack at it. The immediate concerns from this week are the obvious spoiling of the outcome of the Sinestro Corps War in the Green Lantern books. Seeing as how Kyle added absolutely nothing to the Challenger group dynamic in this issue or the Search for Ray Palmer special this week, I do not really see the reasoning behind forcing him out of Green Lantern and into the train wreck that Countdown has become.

That said, this week's installment of the Countdown machine was a lot better than the last month or so worth of issues. I much prefer the current layout of the issue with the larger focus on three or four storylines instead of two pages of every story that they have been using for most of the series.

I enjoy the Rogues' interactions with Flash, but, much like most of Countdown's stories, it ignores too many obvious and logical points of contention in favour of telling the story Paul Dini has laid out. The Rogues' told Flash last issue they had bombs in their heads about to explode and Deathstroke is going to crash Green Arrow and Black Canary's wedding. The bombs turn out to be real, so Flash takes everything the Rogues have said at face value and believes they had absolutely nothing to do with Bart's death in Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13. Regardless of whether they dealt the killing blow or not, they were involved and are guilty of at least being accessories to murder and Countdown continues to try and ram home the illogical point that they are innocent and it draws me out of all the conflict in the story.

Mary continued in her adventures at the magical bazaar with Klarion. Apparently Klarion wants a piece of the Black Adam magic all his own and helped Mary avoid an explosion at one of the vendor carts. A short and to the point episode from her this week and, to be honest, the story is dragging on way too long and nothing is happening. Everything seems forced with Mary's fall from grace and I do not agree with the changing of her character in this manner. I wish the would just stick her with Eclipso already and shunt her off to the mini-series so we can get the actual story already.

Jimmy gets a brief mention as Cadmus people corner him and ask him if they can help him with his powers problem. Jimmy asks the logical question of why he did not think of them earlier. I ask myself lots of questions like that with Jimmy's story, like why he did not go to Cadmus or Star Labs or the numerous other experts he knew earlier in this storyline.

The rest of the plot is dedicated to the Challengers and the introduction of Kyle. Kyle is back from the Sinestro Corps War and is no longer powered by Ion. Apparently the Guardians forsaw these events and the need for Ray Palmer and sent Kyle to help out. I am not sure how Kyle entered the Palmerverse though. I suppose the GL ring allows him to do whatever he wants though. Dislike how they basically kick Atom to the curb and none of them even really put up much of a fight over it. Not sure what the giant hand that grabbed him was from. The Palmerverse is really freaking small and to have a hand able to pick up the Atom out of thin air like this did seems out of place.

I also hate how Jason Todd actually thinks he has a chance with Donna Troy romantically. He is a killer and wanted criminal, yet acts like he is her boyfriend or Kyle is honing in on his territory. It is pretty bizarre behaviour and I do not know why Donna has not said anything to him about it yet. Even Kyle takes his presence without batting an eye. Another example of writing that uses the characters to further the story instead of writing stories about the characters. I wonder, with the debut of the Search for Ray Palmer series, if we will be seeing any more of the Challengers in Countdown proper or if they are effectively written out of the series. I suppose we will find out next week.

Not a great issue of Countdown, but probably one of the best in the last while. I hope this is a sign that the series is actually starting to right itself and might actually creep up into at least decent level of quality. The art was less than stellar again this week, but not outright terrible like some previous works.

Verdict - Check It


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