Countdown Review - Holly Robinson And The Amazons

The second of my summaries and reviews for Countdown features Holly Robinson & The Amazons. If you missed the introduction to what this series of reviews is about, be sure to check out that first. Once you're finished with that, be sure to check out the first review, which featured the Darkseid: Unto Man Shall Come...A Great Disaster storyline. When you're ready, hit the jump to find out what Holly has been up to over the past half a year.

Holly Robinson & The Amazons

First showing up in Countdown #47, Holly Robinson is seen rescuing an elderly, homeless man who was about to be crushed by falling debris from the fallout of the death of the New God Sleez.

With her good deed for the day done, the homeless Holly was quickly offered residence with the Athena Women's Shelter - a shelter supposedly for battered and bruised women. It is here she meets Harley Quinn, the on again, off again Batman villain.

During her time at the shelter, the Amazons Attack storyline took place and manifested itself in this Holly storyline with a protest outside the gates of the women's shelter, the shelter related to the Amazons through Athena, their leader. When the shelter refuses entrance to a mother and her baby son, Holly is furious and demands to see Athena over it. Somewhere in between these issues, Athena is revealed as Granny Goodness at the conclusion to Amazons Attack. Later, when Holly speaks with Athena, she is convinced to go on a quest, which leads to more interaction with Holly and Harley.

Eventually, the duo put their training to the test in a mock gladiator battle in the shelter, where the women are all forced to fight. Harley and Holly end up being the victors of this battle and are selected to continue their training with the Amazons. This fight was masked as part of a "purification ritual" and, once finished, the duo are brought to Themyscira Island, home of the Amazons. Before reaching land, they, along with several other chosen women, are thrown to the sharks and monsters in the waters surrounding the island and forced to swim to shore or die as the first real test of their worth.

The current issue, Countdown #27, has Holly separated from Harley on Themyscira Island after both survived the swim to shore. While in the barracks with several other women, the Amazons inform Holly and company that they have no time to rest and unleash some dogs on them, forcing them to flee or die to the dogs and that is where we are left leading into Countdown to Final Crisis.

Kirk Says: Holly's entire appearance in Countdown, so far, has been fairly random and unexplained. Post-One Year Later, she had been the replacement Catwoman for Selina Kyle and not much has been expanded on why she remains homeless here or what she is doing outside the Catwoman book. There, she was arrested for Selina's murder of Black Mask as Catwoman and Selina had, in turn, broken her out of jail. After escaping from jail, she just magically ended up in Countdown with no reference to what she had been previously been doing.

This was okay at first, as I had expected an explanation or re-introduction for non-Catwoman readers at some point, but none came. Why was she in Metropolis? Why'd she leave Selina to live on the streets? Where's her girlfriend, Karon? Why does she keep agreeing to these ridiculous demands of the Amazons? This entire storyline is easily the worst of the Countdown lot, featuring too many unexplained and mind boggling plot developments that serve only to move the story forward at the expense of the characters. Being associated with Amazons Attack probably didn't help it too much either.

Verdict - Terrible. This is one of the main reasons for Countdown's less than stellar first half. They managed to drag this thing out over 20+ issues and the only that's happened in this storyline is that Holly met Harley and they are now on Themyscira Island.

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