Countdown #29

One-sentence summary: While, technically, things happened in this issue, nothing of any importance did, which is a bit irritating.

I've probably given Countdown more patience than the average comic book reader. However, between the three Countdown tie-in titles a week (Captain Carrot? Really now?) that serve no purpose (looking at you, Search for Ray Palmer), and issues like this, which I'll rant about more next paragraph, well, they wear a reader out.

This seemed like some sort of bizarro issue, where the main title did nothing but support the tie-in titles' existences, and even then fairly thinly. It reminds me of watching the Turtles (of the Teenage Mutant Ninja kind) as a kid and them having their annual hour-long special which, I would realize later, served no purpose except to introduce characters which had already been made as a action figures, or had molds in process. That seemed to be the logic behind this issue. We had the exhilirating conclusion to the Jokester's plotline in that, well, he died. We introduced Lord Havokk or whatever his name is in order to to sell that 8 issue mini-series starting next month.

However, it's not all bad. I do like how ridiculously evil Mary Marvel has become so instantly. The Amazon storyline still doesn't interest me, which is pretty impressive considering how easily interested I am. The Karate Kid storyline, however, is pretty great, even if they only gave it a page this week. I'm definitely looking forward to see how badly Batman has managed to eff the world up again through Brother Eye. I'm not particularly interested in this DC-wide subplot of metahumans being captured and stored (I guess Marvel has ripped off of DC enough that turnabout's fair play), although I could have my opinions quickly turned if they actually did something with it (as is, the Suicide Squad series is still pretty unfocused).

The art's improved in this issue, I'd say. I'm sure there are some who'd say otherwise, but from my quick read nothing stood out too badly, and that's a good thing for a weekly title.

All in all, not too bad, really, but DC is doing some marketing things that are done tactlessly enough that they're distracting, and that gets to me.