Countdown to Mystery #4 of 8

"Countdown to Mystery" flips the stories in this issue bringing the Eclipso story to the front and relegating Dr. Fate's story as backup. A word of caution, read "Countdown to Final Crisis" 17 before reading this as the Eclipso/Mary Marvel fight plays out better in there. The Spectre comes into the Eclipso story and I really enjoyed the story for the first time. Stephen Jorge Segovia's art, backed up my excellent coloring from Dan Brown, provides an excellent window into the Spectre's world. For the first time, I'm looking forward to this story finishing out.

Dr. Fate serves as backup this issue and rightly so. There's not a lot happening in this issue as Kent Nelson basically goes into self pity mode. The art is very good and the story is quite depressing providing a look into an alcoholics addled mind.

I hope the next issue brings the Dr. Fate story back to prominence as that is the primary reason for this miniseries.

Blue Beetle #21

I dread when a series brings on a guest writer and artist to fill in while the regular creative team catches up. When I heard "Blue Beetle" #21 would not be the regular team I had my usual reservations. I was pleasantly surprised by Andy Kuhn's art and found that he stuck pretty much to the look and feel of the usual "Blue Beetle". Justin Peniston's writing could use a little tweaking in the transition department. Some of the transitions from scene to scene were quite abrupt and, at times, had me looking to see if I missed a page. I'm not up to speed on the who's who in the Spectre's current continuity and I'm not sure I like the goatee look he's sporting here.

Given my starting reservations, I enjoyed this read and found that Peniston did a good job of moving the plot forward with admirable backup from artist Kuhn.