Countdown #29 Review

COUNTDOWN #29
Story by Paul Dini
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Script by Adam Beechen
Art by Carlos Magno

Another solid outing from Countdown this week. I am really enjoying the Challengers storyline and it has been the best part of Countdown over the past several weeks, which is surprising since I hated their part up until Kyle joined and they finally started exploring the Multiverse.

I was completely surprised they killed off Jokester already. After the excellent origin in last week's Search for Ray Palmer and his joining the group in Countdown, I figured we'd be seeing him for the next few months. They didn't even touch on the Atom mark on his neck, which makes his death even more pointless. I would have liked to have seen him and Jason interact more, as I enjoyed the interplay between them and the "shared" history with Joker having killed Jason on our Earth. Another minor complaint is how the 'evil' Monitor could hold his own against the Extremists yet the 'good' Monitor was easily captured, despite having Green Lantern and Donna Troy with him, who are both fairly strong and capable fighters.

However, the biggest thing holding this comic back for me is the other stories. The Rogues has faltered in the past month and very little has happened since meeting up with Flash. This issue has them in a coffee diner having a chat in full costume and with the chain binding the two of them together. How, exactly, are they trying to lay low or hide from the cops and superheroes pursuing them? I hope they just capture them in the next few issues and end this storyline or move it onto the next phase already.

The Holly / Harley story also continues along this issue. I honestly don't care for it and last week's Detective Comics did nothing to bolster my enthusiasm for this particular storyline. They basically just fight some sharks and make it to shore in the span of a few pages. They are finally on the island though and I hope the trials are over and they can just get on with the Granny Goodness / Athena plot.

Moving onto Mary Marvel, she pretty much goes bonkers and floods a small village and turns all their cattle into fish... Ya, it was completely random and made no sense to me either. Doesn't look like Eclipso had anything to do with her in the last few weeks since meeting Mary and I have no clue as to how this could be blamed on her corrupting Mary. Hopefully they can redeem Mary by the end of this as I am not getting the tragic villain angle here like I did with Black Adam in 52, who had his wife and family wiped out before losing it.

Jimmy Olsen continued his escape in the sewers below Cadmus. How Cadmus could have 3 million dollar robot security guards, but left the sewers connected to the lab for easy escape / access is a mystery to me. They have Jimmy meet up with the Newsboy Legion in the sewers and after a quick exchange, Jimmy leaves with them. Not sure what they were doing in the sewers in the first place or what they want with Jimmy and how they know all about the New Gods dying, but it seemed completely out of left field.

Finally, in relation to the cover, Karate Kid gets about 2 pages here and Brother Eye decides to attack him and lock down the facility to keep everyone there. I think Karate Kid has been on more covers than pages in Countdown and why they didn't do a Lord Havoc based cover is beyond me. Do people see Karate Kid as a big name and reason to pick up a book? Is he popular enough with anyone to warrant a purchase of a book based on the cover alone? Usually covers are different from the interior or hype up a non-existent event, like a fight between 2 heroes, but this cover, aside from being superficially related to a couple pages inside, seems like a poor marketing choice on DC's part.

As of this issue, Countdown has been really hitting its stride. This marks the third straight week I have enjoyed this weekly and most of the tie-ins have been excellent of late. I still dislike several of the storylines it is featuring, but they are all finally seeing some progression and I don't feel like I am being ripped off each week with 2 page non-stories that were recaps of other monthly books like earlier issues featured. If you were shying away from Countdown, now might be a good time to start considering jumping in on it, which is something I never thought I'd end up saying just a few months ago. Definitely not the best book on the market, but probably one of the most improved books and looks to be set to go higher.

Verdict - Check It

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