The Death of the New Gods #6 of 8

I know that the title of this book is "The Death of the New Gods" but I'm tired of death in the DCU. "Countdown to Final Crisis" has really numbed me to any deaths so much so that the big death in this issue didn't affect me that much. Writer Jim Starlin does a fine job of characterization on both Superman and Orion and I like his Metron a lot as well. The grief that Mister Miracle is dealing with is also handled well in this issue. Starlin really stepped up the art here having fun showing both Orion and Superman flexing and posing. However, the big reveal at the end had me scratching my head and shrugging. I think if the character presented as the bad guy had been developed a bit more during the series or if I had a PhD in the Fourth World I may have been shocked. As it was, I just didn't really care much.

I haven't been that big a fan of the Fourth World characters with exception of Mister Miracle during the Giffen "Justice League" days. This miniseries along with "Countdown to Final Crisis" comes across as DC cleaning house. You throw in "Salvation Run" and you have three miniseries dealing with whacking various DC characters. I hope "Final Crisis" isn't about that. I've had enough of death as a story device. It can be done well but across the board in DC it has gotten a bit gratuitous.