Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Countdown

It isn't Spectre on that picture, it is Pied Piper you can see him playing a flute.

Thanks TW! Too many blasted "green hooded" dudes running around if you ask me!!

From Comics Continuum

based on my limited knowledge of LSH history I know that darkseid fought them. any chance that countdown could involve darkseid attacking earth in the present and future? might be a way to connect the Legion to the DCU proper.

What seems more likely is that what we're counting down to is the "Great Disaster". So it may be a battle as to what the actual future of the DC is going to be, given the fact that the Great Disaster timeline and that of the LSH have traditionally been taken to be a possible future opposed to any of those in which the LSH exists.

Once again DC is tantalizing us with a batch of puzzle pieces, first at conventions and thus on the internet and now, with this week's (comic book Wednesday= 3-14) books featuring ads with more copy and art visible.

5). WHAT WOULD MARY MARVEL DO? shown with a figure casting a shadow across half of Mary's face. The figure wears purple gloves. Eclipso? Copy reads 'seduction of the innocent'.

I'm kind of dreading this, but I'm glad she's getting some focus.

4). VILLAINS DEFIANT shows two gloved hands handcuffed together. The copy (villains defiant) plays on the title of a Tony Curtis/Sidney Poitier movie (THE DEFIANT ONES) in which two prisoners(?) are handcuffed together, escape and have to work together. It's been spoiled that the two villains are Pied Piper (villain? Wha'? I thought he was OK after Johns' last FLASH issue???) The Trickster in question looks to be the new kid (ugh!)... at least I don't recall James Jesse's gloves having writing on them. Did they?

Didio made a joke that suggested this pair might become a different kind of couple-- but if it's the new Trickster, that'll be crappy on a couple of levels.

3). THE SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER: not much to guess upon with this art and caption... maybe he's been investigating something? There's a magnifying glass through which we look at Ray... but he's also looking through the glass at us.

2). UNTO MAN SHALL COME A GREAT DISASTER: featuring Darkseid's head. Fourth World characters are popping up all over the DCU. Unfortunately, they've been in titles I don't currently read, so I don't have a grasp on the approach here. The last book I read with them was the 7 Soldiers MISTER MIRACLE title, which had them transformed into Earthmen with faulty memories (a lot like THE ETERNALS...)

1). JIMMY OLSON MUST DIE is the final blurb, but I haven't seen any art associated with this phrase yet, or any elaborative copy.

Any thoughts about these hints for 52's successor?

You know... one thing that actually bugs me about this series is them moving away from the one issue = one week structure of '52'. The basic excuse is that they want to move away from some of the constraint that put the writers under, such as preventing them from using cliff-hangers and such. But I actually thought that was something good about '52'. It kind of forced them to experiment with different kinds of narraative structures, and move away from a number of tired old comic conventions.

Jimmy Olson being a big player in countdown is very interesting news. (1) it was in the pages of Jimmy Olson's solo book that the Intergang was first introduced. and Intergang is Darkseid's proxy on Earth. (2) Jimmy had history has Elastic lad(right) with the Legion.

so, countdown just may continue the appearance of classic legion characters that has been going on. it also may feature my continuing notion that Brainy or somebody will develop time travel and all the LSH to visit the current DCU or vice-versa.

I will grant you, 52 has really changed the storytelling. The lack of cliffhangers hasn't affected the must-read nature of the book (it's my first one every week.) And excepting Black Adam's recent slaughter, they've managed to spread the tension over each week in an effective manner.

What worries me is if Countdown is in a monthly format, then 2 years will have passed since IC. Add to that the year of No Man's Land, and Tim Drake is as old as Dick Grayson.

I dig these stories, but my head is starting to hurt.

Especially since Batman can be no older than 34!

And there's no way anyone can ever convince me Oliver Queen has hit 40 yet, no matter how old his children may get!

The new creative organization has me interested. With Dini acting as an overall plotter, this gives a solid foundation for the story. With writing teams handling chapters, we'll get more flavour from the writers.

Seeing the creative names, I'm excited by so many "second tier" writers getting such a high profile gig.

The Jimmy Olsen piece is just a headshot of our cub reporter.

In this week's TRIALS OF SHAZAM, we got a different take on that promo piece. A hidden image, if you will, that's a killer.

Anyone else know of any other new promo pieces?

That's what I thought when I found out "52" would feature The Question ...

My cbs was sold out of TOS (#6, was it?) and I've been getting it whenever it comes out, rather than adding it to my pull list.

What was 'killer' about the hidden image?

The Jimmy Olsen photo looks the same, except...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Instead of Jimmy Olsen, we see the Joker holding a mask in his hand as if he had been pretending to be Jimmy. I guess this implies the Joker is hunting Superman's pal.</span></span>

Hehe, or Gary can just show it to you....

What's the significance of the bracelet with the Superman symbol? Does Jimmy Olsen have a Superman-callin'-wristwatch? Or, more to the point, *did* he have such a thing?

'Cause I'm not sure if there's a worse fate than the Joker having your private number...

Yes, Jimmy had an amazing signal watch to call his pal Superman whenever he got into or saw trouble.

I never realized before that both Jimmy & the Joker wear bow ties.

One more week!

If you have myspace, Coutdown will have its own page. If you join the offical myspace comic book page, they have a special sneak peek of the cover and the first like 12 pages. Someone tell Lash because his girl is front and center...

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> Dulea Dent aka Jokers Daughter gets a couple of pages to herself and faces off aganist Red Hood Jason Todd. Also Mary Marvel goes to vist someone in the hospital and gets a note that says DOn't coe looking for me. F. This is looking to be good kids. </span></span>

Of the various storyline teasers that've been released (Jimmy Olsen, Mary Marvel, Darkseid, Ray Palmer, Villains - were there any others?), which one has y'all the most intrigued?

Personally, I'm more interested in the New Gods stuff and seeing how they plan on reestablishing Darkseid as THE Big Bad. He's been used as Supes' punching bag too often and "killed" by Orion one too many times.

Uh... that actually kind of worries me, considering the forecast death in this issue...

Darkseid moving your figure around like a chess piece most likely wouldn't be a good thing. Actually, Darkseid *having* an image of you made into a chess piece wouldn't be a good thing.

Is it possible that Countdown Duela is from a different earth than Titans Duela? If not, she's really hopelessly insane now.

I must say I'm a little shocked that she's getting this much play. I share EDE's fear for the girl.

For me, it's the Villains Defiant one. Piper and Trickster are two DC characters that I like a lot. Though I'm a little ticked about labeling them 'villains' once again. Can't a bad guy go good anymore and have it stick? Not in the present-day comics climate, they can't, I reckon. Tsk Tsk.

A close second would be the Ray Palmer storyline. Love the little guy. I hope this does't have the same sort of ending for this JLAer as the ending of 52 saw for one of his former teammates.

Mary Marvel's in there, too. Though I'm dreading it, sort of. Corruption of innocence... not the most pleasing of phrases for me to read as promotional material.