I only hope that those characters are treated VERY reverently by DC editorial, Steph. The oldest two were given essentially a perfect happy ending, and if they are being pulled out of permanent retirement off in Misy Magic Land only to have some snot-nosed writer degrade them a couple years down the line to prove how edgy and cool he is (or, God forbid, have Golden Age Lois turn up stuffed into a refigerator at some point), I will go on the warpath .

I read IC #1 and have absolutely no clue what's going on or who the majority of these people are, particularly the old and young reversed Superman people at the end.

Guess that's what I get for most of my DC knowledge coming from the animated universe.

Hm, read Villains United...

Gail didn't do her homework. She has Luthor torturing and apparently fatally shooting Pariah. Who happens to be invulnerable on a level eclipsing the Pre-Crisis Superman—even those big anti-matter clouds that were destroying whole universes in Crisis weren't able to cause him injury. Admittedly he has no offensive powers, but defensively I don't think anyone short of the Spectre could harm him.

She should have had Psycho Pirate or Dr. Psycho manipulating his mind, a method that has been effective against him in the past .

Doctor Doom's Top 10 Euphemisms for Sex: [link]

Matt, do we know that he was harmed? The failure may not be on the writer's part, but on Lex's. Which doesn't help that much, now that I think about it...

Talked to a friend about IC #1, now thinking that I may need to read "Day of Vengeance".

They had him scream in pain and then collapse while showing what looked like blood (the black ink Comics Code Authority-approved variety) dripping down. Also, those stint/probe thingies on his face looked to be penetrating his skin .

FTR, In Crisis #12 he was being batted around by defensive countermeasures that drew blood from the Earth-2 Superman and just waved the heroes onward while saying not to worry, he was invulnerable .

Fair enough. I never thought he was dead, though. But I forgot how invulnerable.

Quesada talks about the upshot of House of M.

Hrrm. I just can't shake my skepticism. The idea of the "deep dark secret" that Professor X has been hiding for years makes me get a bit @@. Also -- there will be retconning of something:

in preparing for he story, he went back and found several moments that were never really explained when they occurred, and as a result, a "whole second story" can be laid alongside what was known to have happened.

Also:

there is now a mandate that no new mutants can be created wholesale - only five or six new mutant-based characters that were already in the pipeline will be seen. And that the ones going away won’t be coming back...

I wonder if that will affect anyone I actually like...

Covers for Angel #4:

Illyria and Spike

Also a synopsis of the upcoming Spike vs. Dracula mini:

Presenting the first chapter of a five-part Spike saga spanning centuries! A hundred and twenty years ago, a tribe of gypsies inflicted a terrible curse upon the vampire known as Angelus... a curse that brought a terrible vengeance upon the tribe in the form of Angelus's family: Darla, Drusilla, and most notably, William the Bloody, a.k.a. "Spike." But the gypsy clan has a dark and powerful supporter: Count Dracula. Outraged over the slaughter of the gypsies, Dracula seeks revenge upon the three vampires... and thus begins a rivalry between Spike and Dracula that will cover decades. A rivalry steeped in blood... honor... and eleven quid. Corroney will also provide covers for all five issues, as will variant cover artists Zach Howard, Sean Murphy, and Eric Wight.

The covers:

1
2
3

I think I like the second one the best.