Upon reading Countdown to—Couldn't We Have Thought Up a Better Title? last night I had a few thoughts:

• It was interesting to see Blue Beetle's competent side played up for once. Though I think the writers were pushing the whole no-one-gives-Ted-the-time-of-day thing way too hard to be believable. The Batman bit read as true, but not Oracle (who knows how capable Ted is) or J'onn (who's a frickin' mind reader).
• It really does seem as if Rucka is systematically scooping up all the characters Keith Giffen has written comedically and killing or changing them so they can't be used in that way again. Sue and Beetle dead, Maxwell Lord a villain (which I don't object to in and of itself - fits his character better than the slapstick), all their former associates so bummed they won't be usable for lighthearted stories for years... I can see why Keith might be pissed.
• After seeing the last page, my immediate thought was "At least it wasn't a superhero's significant other that got murdered to galvanize the plot this time."

"Well, maybe Booster Gold's..."

Countdown to Crisis sucked me back into the DC universe, and although I was bummed to see one of my favorite characters killed off, I rather enjoyed the ride.

Maybe it's naive of me in the extreme, but I can't help but wonder if the scarab will come back into play in some manner. I also see the mention of a third Blue Beetle to be foreshadowing of some kind.

Anne, I don't think it's naive at all. They foreshadowed a new Beetle pretty strongly, although it's entirely possible to read it as Ted Kord being ressurected through the Scarab, also.

As I've said elsewhere, I've liked how the overarching story has played out, but--while everyone's talking about the Big Three and how they've been effected by Identity Crisis and what have you--it's hard not to stop and look at the characters who've paid the highest prices out of the interconnected stories: Elongated Man, Firestorm, Atom, Booster Gold, Robin and Blue Beetle.

That's a pretty interesting lineup.

Lady Door wasn't so trollopy looking in the book, was she?

Huh. That's not the look I would have chosen for her, ita. I saw her as someone who'd try to hide within her clothing. The style she's got there (if it were changed to white) would be more fitting for Serpentine.

Now I'm a bit nervous about how they might draw the Marquis.

Anyone here read BLACK WIDOW? They had a little review of it in Entertainment Weekly this week for a TPB, and it caught my attention because Bill Sienkiewicz is the artist. Is this new, or is it a compilation TPB.

I guess it's not techincally a costume book, because it looks like the extent of the outfit is a leather cat suit. Also, the cover art they showed is way more conventional than I'm used to seeing from Bill S. Just thought I'd see if anyone out there had come across it, or give a head's up to potentially interested parties.

I've read one trade of Black Widow from when Devin Grayson was writing. It was decent, but not quite enough to pull me in for more.

I've read one trade of Black Widow from when Devin Grayson was writing. It was decent, but not quite enough to pull me in for more.

The review also praised the writer, Richard K. Morgan, who's name doesn't ring any bells with me.

I'll have to take a look. It won't be the first time I bought something just for Bill S's art.

I read early New Mutants exclusively for Bill S's art. After he stopped drawing the interior art, I became less interested, and only kept reading as the stories intertwined with the X-Men.

I hated Bill S when he did the New Mutants, until something else educated me in the Sienkiewicz love. And then I went back and marvelled.