Countdown to Final Crisis #7

Our intrepid heroes are now back on Earth...or are they? This issue has the collected heroes running around Earth looking for help for Karate Kid and finding out that they may not be back to where they started. The characterization of Ray Palmer continues to jump all over the place with him now acting as a hero and not a whiny ass. This issue rambles along really going no where. It is better than last issues repetitious story, but not by much. I get the feeling that the writers are starting to stall again. After stalling for 26+ issues, throwing in some decent action, now we are back to treading water.

You could probably skip this week's issue and not miss a whole heck of a lot.

Countdown to Final Crisis #10

Finally, the action heats back up in "Countdown to Final Crisis". I thought Paul Dini may have let it all out for the battle over Earth-51 and the rest of the series would be a let down. Well, after a couple of lackluster issues we get a decent, action packed read. I apologize for the spoiler but it was good to see Mary Marvel back. This series has put the character through the wringer and I was hoping for this ending. With the body count in this series it was never a given that Mary would be back in white. The growth of Jason Todd continues as well. He may make it out of this series as a likable character. Even with all of the action, the cliffhanger ending sets the stage for another huge battle. Scot Kolins does a good job with the art as well.

While I wasn't completely satisfied - Pied Piper's arc ending so quickly - I did enjoy this read.

Annihilation TPBs

Marvel released its "Annihilation" series in three TPBs. Based solely on the reviews I read across the internet I decided to check them out. I was worried because I wasn't too up-to-speed on the who's who in the outer reaches of the Marvel Universe as the last time I read a story with Nova he was a part of the fledgling New Warriors and I had never heard of Drax: The Destroyer before. Anyway, I jumped into the pool all in and picked up all three TPBs. Writer Keith Giffen weaves a very fun story in "Drax the Destoyer" 1-4. Mitch Breitweiser's art is exceptional. Along with Brian Reber's outstanding coloring, the art in "Drax the Destoyer" is quite good both supporting and adding depth to Giffen's excellent story. Is this story required reading for the overall "Annihilation" - no, but it does present good background on Drax and stands alone as a good story.

Giffen also wrote the "Annihilation Prologue" with art by Scot Kolins. This prologue serves to touch the various stars of this series and provide a way to get that "who's who" that is needed. Along the way - in all three TPBs - you get a look at the Nova Corps files on each of the main and background players. These help out a lot.

Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning provide the story for "Annihilation: Nova". Growing up I always thought Nova was cool, but I didn't realize what a "Green Lantern" rip-off he was until the beginning of this story. DnA take what is a copy-cat character and turn him into a true force by the end of this 4-part story. From Kev Walker's art to DnA's story this blood pumping, action filled story is very good.

"Annihilation Book 2" brings three character stories centering on the Sliver Surfer, Super Skrull, and Ronan the Accuser. Giffen's Silver Surfer provides almost a restart to the character. Giffen provides a clean slate for Silver Surfer moving forward. The Super Skrull story by Javier Grillo-Marxuach is a lot of fun. Gregory Titus' art really shines in this story. I've never been a huge fan of the Super Skrull but Grillo-Marxuach paints a different story for the character. Finally for this TPB, Simon Furman writes Ronan the Accuser. I felt this was the weakest story of the bunch, but to truly understand Ronan's motivation it is a must read.

Keith Giffen pulls out all of the stops in "Annihilation" presented in "Annihiliation Book 3". The story is action packed and includes all of the primary and secondary characters presented in the previous books. This war is on par with DC's "The Sinestro Corps Wars". By the time I made it to this point, I was invested in the characters and the outcome. The "Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus" two-parter is a bonus to Giffen's excellent "Annihilation" story. Serving as a prologue the story focuses on the current and former heralds of Galactus.

You can go into these three TPBs cold, not knowing any of the characters, and enjoy it. Giffen and company do a good job of introducing each character so that the reader can absorb it all. If you liked DC's "The Sinestro Corps Wars" or are a big SciFi buff, pick up these TPBs, you won't regret it.

Geoff Johns Running with the Flash

DC's Geoff Johns has been out and about the last couple of days with a few interesting interviews. He first popped up over at CBR with a two part interview (part 1 & part 2). I found it interesting that Johns has some ideas for an Aquaman book. I think Johns on Aquaman could be very good whether he would use the traditional Aquaman or the newer, younger version. I enjoy his commitment to the DCU. I think that he has good vision and produces great stories. It was also neat to hear that he has a couple years of Iron Man stories plotted out.

The NEWSRAMA article is an exciting turn as well. Johns hinted about returning to the Flash in the CBR interview and goes into some detail here along with artist Scott Kolins. I missed Johns run on "The Flash" and have since gone back and picked up most of the TPBs to catch up on what he did with the Rogues. I like his take on these villains. The Rogues were the main reason that I bought "Salvation Run". I'm definitely up for a new Rogues miniseries by Johns and Kolins.

Countdown to Final Crisis #18

I'm not giving anything away by saying that we finally catch up with Ray Palmer in this issue. It is on the cover. This issue focuses on two groups - the Challengers and the Mary Marvel crew. This may just be that pivotal book that I've been looking for. Things are explained. Issues are put in motion. Stuff happens. If you were looking for a jumping on point, this might be it. I'll hold my final judgement to see how the next few weeks of issues play out, but this issue was gold - I just hope it wasn't fool's gold.

Countdown to Final Crisis #26

"Countdown" has been renamed "Countdown to Final Crisis" as of issue #26. While "Countdown" issues #52-27 choose to utilize the "Heroes" method of story telling - jumping from group to group showing a few pages of each story line as you go - issue #26 is generally exposition focusing on the Monitors. I believe DC was shooting for this issue to be a good jumping on point for readers as the first two-thirds of the book has the various Monitors talking to each other regarding the current state of the Multiverse. I thought we already went through this earlier when they all agreed to something but now they are all agreeing to "war", whatever that means. The true motivation behind Monarch, formerly the very cool Caption Atom, is still not revealed. He must be brain damaged as Captian Atom was never evil and he comes across as such in these pages. In the end we jump to Earth 8 to catch up on "the Challengers", Kyle Rayner and company, on the search for Ray Palmer. Why are they searching for Ray Palmer? Who knows? Then we jump to Earth 15. Why? I don't know. I need a scorecard for all of these Earths. Can DC put up a chart at DC online to help me out? Oh and Darkseid has something to do with all of this as seen in the last splash panel. I know we are headed to Final Crisis, but head writer Paul Dini and company are taking their sweet time getting there. I just don't see the character motivations and what this all has to do with the New Gods, Ray Palmer, Monarch, et al. Hopefully these guys will kick it into high gear as we get to the home stretch but color me unimpressed with the series to this point.