Re: JLA #9 It looks like I have until the next chapter to gloat about my correct guess that the (first?) death of Lightning Lad has something to do with this story.

I especially liked Hawkman's line about whether or not to trust the Legion: "I've travelled forward in time over 4000 years...the only reason people travel backward in time is to change it."

That's exactly the sort of dialogue I imagine a reasonably well-adjusted immortal hero to make. It encapsulated his past experiences and perfectly summarized his position.

FYI: Despite PG's ties to Earth-2 Krypton (very cool) that costume always reminds me of the "Golden Gaurdsman"'s daughter from the (sadly) long defunct Indy comic Hero Alliance. In that book, she discovered that her natural super-powers were significantly enhanced when she was 'aroused' (honestly, the book actually had very little 'kink' in it) which is why she wore an extremely tight-fitting costume.

Actually, now that I think about it, though, even then, the costume wasn't the movie-style costume, since it still had the weird red-stripe thing going from the S-shield up to her shoulders.

So is Jokers Daughter dead?

Cuz I thought she was always a fun charcter. Especially in the latest issue of the titans.

Same quips on Countdown...except I thought it was extremely interesting to see Superman blazing the door handle, gave me an Ultraman flashback.

Loved the new JLA. I like Hawkman a lot and thought he had a good role in the book. I feel uncomfortable having Hawkgirl and Hawkman seeing different people, but Hawkman with Power Girl is a great match. Is that her first love interest...ever ?

Hrm. Well, I was going from memory.

Could be. Still say it's supposed to be B-5's belt.

Yeah, that's kind of odd.

I didn't say he did. What I remembered was Mr. T commenting on why he was examining the belt; the big-S didn't have to be on-panel for that to happen.

Basically, I remembered the statement you quoted, with "Superman" in place of "Karate Kid"...

Nope.

Back in the day of JLA/JSA crossovers, she and Firestorm had a slowly building relationship.

In the days of JLQ, she had a relationship with an obsessed fan who, for comedy reasons, the other JL members assumed to be a villain.

And I think there are others (for example, the possible relationship she had with Hal Jordan which people thought might explain her pregnancy, but it turns out that the pregnancy was one of those typical magical pregnancies where there was no father and the baby becomes an adult instantly and stuff).

As much as any character ever is. The characters and the writers are acting as if she is dead, referring to her as if she was dead. She was shot by a Monitor with an energy rifle which he believed (and he ought to know) would kill her.

Of course, that puts her in such distinguished company as Bucky, Jason Todd, and other permanently dead characters.

He might've just removed her from the current Earth's reality. He might've just sent her back to her own.

However, none of that explains how Jimmy friggin' Olsen knows who Jason Todd and Dick Grayson are under their masks.

Yeah that really bothered me too. This issue wasn't much better than the last. Overall, I'm not happy with Countdown's start. The Jimmy in All-Star Superman was much more entertaining and neither Jason Todd, the "New" Monitors or Kyle Rayner interest me much, so I think I'll just pick up selected issues of this (mostly for the New Gods and Karate Kid stuff)

Supergirl, hmm do we really need another SG vs SG fight? Let's see PG and SG have fought, what twice (at least), and Kara fought her evil self. Now we are going to get a SG vs SA SG? But wait didn't we get a second Supergirl from 52/WWIII? Her whole OYL and Legion stuff doesn't match up. At any rate I'm tired of inconsistancies of the character in relation to her appearances in other books and her own. I like SG and the Legion of Superheroes, or at least the way she is portrayed there. Once this arc is over, buh bye.

JLoA, I think that historically thinking Wildfire's suit may be one of Reddy's old bodies. If Reddy's body was powerful enough to contain an Air Elemental's power why not the power of Wildfire. This is shaping to be an interesting arc. Obviously KK sticks around in the 20th century throughout Countdown, he's in the lineup on issue #51.

Countdown, IIRC 52 started off slowly, and from what we are going to see there are going to be a bunch of different plots going on just like in 52. One problem I see is that 52 didn't really have to stay in "continuity" it was retro anyway. Countdown will. So DC is going to be tight with their schedules, hopefully they can show Marvel how it's done.

Action, did anyone miss the next ish blurb where Superman takes Chris Kent on a tour of the DC Universe? Chris had a cameo over in Superman too, so after the Phantom Zone Criminals are sent back (obviously)does Chris stay behind permanently?

The LoSH in the 31st Century, bleah this really sucks, no where near the level of JLU, I haven't seen the cartoon on TV yet, but if it is anything like the comic I'll pass. It's a travestry to throw away LoSH cannon. WHERE IS COSMIC BOY!?!?

All Star Batman and Robin, uh why? Ok WW is a manhater, "out of my way Spermbank". Supes and WW have a love hate relationship. Batman is a psycho, really, he's a psycho......I'm serious. Wow Frank Miller must be on crank when he writes this, really. This series is like a train wreck, you don't want to watch but you can't help yourself, you can't turn away. It appears that All Star Supes and Batman are not in the same universe.

Checkmate, wow, I am loving this arc. I may just pick up Outsiders after this. Checkmate pressgangs the Outsiders to take care of Ooolong Island, the island of Mad Scientists from 52. Why is it that every new team has to have alternate lifestyle heroes now? Grace and Thunder, and now Tommy Jagger on Checkmate, okay I get it! Enough please, I don't care what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes but please don't bring it into my comics. kids read this for crying out loud. Please note this applies to excessive violence and all types of relationships, too graphic to be shown or mentioned.

Everytime I read somebody talking about this book, it makes me happier and happier that I dropped it after the first three issues. It's like the antithesis of All-Star Superman which is being written very well, in my opinion.

And it makes me happy that I never bothered with AS Batman at all. All Star Superman reads like a great big thank-you/love letter to the Mort Weisinger era. The descriptions of AS Batman make it sound like a Clockwork Orange version of romance.

Given the horrible shipping schedule for All Star Batman, I totally forgot what was going on.

Un/fortunately I really enjoyed the last issue. Batman is crazy, Alfred is shown to be physically training , and a version of the Justice League feels like they should reign Batman in. Wonder Woman is a she-woman man hater but has a soft spot.

What an excellent summarization of the two books. Except Clockwork Orange and AS Bats should never be in the same sentence.

AS Batman went from any movie with Chuck Norris bad, to any thing made by Uwe Boll bad. In other words, it was so bad that it had a redeeming comical value, now it's so bad it's actually frustrating.