Superman #668

One-sentence summary: Following up on a development from over a year ago, a new story arc is introduced in this decent issue.

This issue wasn't too bad. It's always fun to see the various takes writers have on the relationship between Batman and Superman, and this issue was no exception, with those scenes being the highlight for me.

While this served as a good introduction to the story, it wasn't much more than that. It was sort of fun, which is always good. The art was decent, but that's about it. All in all, not too bad, but nothing to feel too strongly about.

Superman #665

One-sentence summary: Just in case you didn't know, Jimmy Olsen sure is Superman's pal!

Is it really necessary to have an origin story for Jimmy Olsen? I mean, I guess it flushes out his character some, but I think Countdown's doing a good enough job on that itself, and if you really needed more, you could've picked up the last Action Comics. This was nice, and it showed us the niche Jimmy fit early in Superman's career, but it really felt rather superfluous. I guess they decided that everyone reading Superman should also know that Jimmy Olsen sure is important in Countdown.

Tie-ins just burn me out. As this is the second Jimmy Olsen tie-in this month, I just stopped caring. I like his story in Countdown, but I really didn't need to hear about him so much. It just makes me reflect on how little sense it makes to me that Jimmy doesn't buzz Superman about his powers in the present day and ask him.

The lesson learned? If you're going to do a tie-in, make it one that's relevant and don't make one that makes your readers question the basic premise of what's going on in the main book.