THE COUNTDOWN RUNDOWN: WEEK 43 - THE FUNERAL

THE PLAYERS
Most of the DCU!
James Olsen/Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen
Donna Troy/Troia
Jason Todd/Robin II/The Red Hood
Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper
James Jesse/The Trickster
Floyd Lawson/Deadshot
Holly Robinson/Catwoman II
The New Earth Monitor
Nathaniel Adam/Captain Atom/Monarch
Forerunner
. . . and, from beyond the grave, Bart Allen/Impulse/Kid Flash II/The Flash IV

ISSUE 43

(written by Paul Dini with Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray; Pencils by Manuel Garcia w/ David Lopez)

This week starts off with the aftermath of DC's Flash #13 in which the One Year Later title came to a tragic conclusion with the death of Bart Allen, the latest hero to wear the crimson uniform of the Flash! Reporting from the funeral is the Daily Planet's Jimmy Olsen. Also attending are a veritable Who's Who of the DCU, including Robin (Tim Drake), Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark), the original Flash (Jay Garrick), Cyborg (Victor Stone), and many many others.

Listening to the eulogies of the heroes who worked with Bart Allen, Jimmy comes to a fateful decision - with all the new abilities he's been manifesting, he feels a responsibility to use those powers for a greater good. Hmmm . . . sounds similar to another urban newspaper's resident photog over at the Marvelous Competition.

The book looks in on Holly Robinson, recently taken in by an Amazonian hostel in the Suicide Slum area of Metropolis. Holly has an interesting conversation with one of the spa/shelter's other newest residents, Harleen Quinzel, a/k/a Harley Quinn!

Back at the funeral, Piper and the Trickster are surreptitiously paying their respects to their fallen arch-nemesis. But a case of the jitters sends them packing, leading them right into the arms of Deadshot! When the crack-shot has you in his sights, things can't be good. The question remains, though, who's the assassin for hire working for? His old taskmasters in the Suicide Squad? The Society? Whoever it is, they mean business.

Also attending the funeral are Jason Todd, Donna Troy, and their new Monitor ally. This Monitor (the same who witnessed events at the Source Wall back in Issue 51) explains that before they can even begin to battle the coming threat to the DCU, they must first travel to the nanoverse to find the one person who can assist them - Dr. Ray Palmer, the original Atom! Remember, Ray Palmer has been missing since the events on Identity Crisis, when he discovered that his ex-wife, Jean Loring, was a cold-blooded killer!

Finally, this issue also checks in on the Monarch and his new ally, Forerunner. They seem to be in a place bathed in red light (possibly the Bleed from the WildStorm universe) where the former Captain Atom recently traveled through in his adventures outside the DCU. It's also revealed that he's gathered an army in this secret location and he needs Forerunner to train and command that army. What against or where he plans on using that army is yet to be revealed.

All in all, this week brought closure to the Bart Allen/Full Throttle storyline, celebrating a hero that DC may have killed right before he grew into a hero that fans could have embraced. The story also took some nice leaps forward, pushing characters towards the much-teased scenarios promised during last summer's convention season (The Search for Ray Palmer, Villains Defiant). Finally, we got more of a glimpse into the mysterious machinations of the Monarch - a story that has yet to reveal if we the readers should be rooting for or against the convoluted anti-hero.

Next week, come back for Issue 42: Stuck in the Clay!

THE COUNTDOWN RUNDOWN: WEEK 45 - MONITOR DUTY

THE PLAYERS
Donna Troy/Wonder Girl/Troia
Jason Todd/Robin II/The Red Hood
Forerunner
James Olsen/Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen
Holly Robinson/Catwoman II
The Monitors
Val Armorr/Karate Kid
Thom Kallor/Starman V
Nura Nal/Dream Girl
Pieter Cross/Dr. Midnight III
Nathaniel Adam/Captain Atom/The Monarch

ISSUE 45
Written by Paul Dini with Tony Bedard (incorrectly credited as Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray); Pencils by Jim Calafiore

This week opens right where last week left off – with the Monitor’s agent of destruction, Forerunner, continuing to drop a beating on Donna Troy and Jason Todd. Just as Todd’s about to go down for the final count (again!), Donna steps it up and brings the battle to the mysterious Forerunner. The intergalactic enforcer proves more powerful than even a woman with the powers of the gods, however, and if not for the interference of a rogue Monitor, Donna and Jason would have been toast.

We learn a little bit about the origins of Forerunner from her encounter with the Monitor, and about her races' unique relationship to the Monitors. Mysteries still abound here, but it looks like the Monitors have been active for quite a bit longer than anyone’s previously considered.

We’ll get back to the end result of Donna’s and Jason’s run-in with Forerunner and the rogue Monitor a little later, but first let’s hit the other players of this week’s issue.

Jimmy Olsen is trying to wring some answers out of the wreckage of the building where Sleez was attacked and in so doing gives a brief rundown of the New Gods. Holly Robinson is also still skulking around that same building in Suicide Slum and before the book leaves her, she encounters a mysterious character shrouded in shadow. More on those two in coming weeks.

Next, the book checks in on Karate Kid and his Legion of Super-Heroes compatriots meeting with Dr. Midnight on the Justice League Satellite. This interlude is a bit behind the rest of the DCU books, as over in Justice League of America and Justice Society of America, the crossover story, the Lightning Saga, reached its conclusion this week. Check out those books for more info on the appearance of the 30th Century heroes in our time period and the ramifications of that story on the entire DCU – next week the Rundown will take a closer look at those developments.

Finally, this week’s issue ends with a beaten Forerunner and a new alliance forming between the rogue Monitor, Donna Troy and Jason Todd. With the defeat of Forerunner – who is apparently powerless against the Monitors, genetically bred by them over centuries in accordance with a mysterious prophecy – the Monitor disappears with Troia and Red Hood. Alone, stranded on Earth, disgraced by her defeat and failure to complete her mission of assassinating Troy and Todd, the Forerunner severs her physical link with her masters, the Monitors.

Alone, however, isn’t quite right, for in the final panel of the issue, it’s revealed that none other than Monarch is watching over Forerunner! The former villain seems about to put Forerunner to his own uses, claiming she is too valuable to discard. Hmmm . . .

Who is Monarch, you ask? In simple terms, Monarch is Captain Atom. Now he is, at least. But the history of the character is more convoluted than a study of the human genome.

In 1991, DC Comics rolled out its latest summer crossover event, Armageddon 2001. Originally conceived as a simple event comic involving a dystopian future ruled by a former super-hero who had destroyed all of his fellow heroes and become a powerful dictator, the story behind the story became the bigger pageturner!

In the year 2030, the DCU is ruled over by the Orwellian Monarch – a powerful entity that ruled with an iron fist. Once a hero of the DCU, the Monarch had turned against his allies, destroying them all, and taking over the world. The crossover event consisted of two bookends, spanned by stories through that summer’s DCU Annuals. When a rebellious scientist named Matthew Ryder uses time travel technology to escape the world of 2030, he is transformed into Waverider.

Upon reaching the year 1991, Waverider vows to use is temporal powers to discover, and then destroy, the present-day hero who will be corrupted and eventually become Monarch in the year 2001. Over the course of a dozen Annuals, Waverider glimpsed into the futures of DC’s most popular heroes and villains, all the while revealing clues to who would become Monarch. Finally, in the summer’s last annual before the bookend, Armageddon 2001 #2, was released, Waverider encountered Captain Atom and their physical contact ripped a whole in the space-time continuum allowing Monarch to travel from 2030 to the then present-day DCU.

As Monarch rages against the assembled DC pantheon, he beats and kills Dawn Granger, a/k/a Dove of Hawk and Dove! Now without the counterbalance of Dawn's pacifism, Hank Hall, her lover and the warlike Hawk, attacks with the full force of his power. As the battle ensues, Monarch is killed by Hawk and his armour is damaged, revealing that Monarch is really. . . Hank Hall!!??? Suffering a psychotic break, Hank Hall instantly takes the armour of Monarch and becomes him!

Huh-wha??

Apparently DC had been planning to reveal Captain Atom as the time-traveling Monarch, but word of the decision leaked to the fan press, and an editorial decision was made to change the reveal to Hawk, so as to keep the surprise of the event intact. The problem was that in the course of the summer's annuals, Waverider had looked at Hawk & Dove's future which showed them actually battling against Monarch, therefore ruling either of them out as the future villain! The fan and creator outcry against the change to the story was loud and clear.

The story ends with a guilt-ridden Captain Atom (since it was his power that ripped the timehole open and let Monarch back to the 20th century to kill Dove) takes on the villain one-on-one and the two tumble through time in a battle that was shown to readers in the pages of Armageddon: The Alien Agenda. The two eventually are caught in an atomic blast during WWII and while Captain Atom is sent to the present day by the blast, the fate of Monarch is left open ended.

So, how does that bring Captain Atom to the point where he is wearing the Monarch armour? What happened to Hank Hall/Monarch?? Be here next week for another Countdown Rundown Special Edition looking at the parallel histories of Captain Atom and Hank Hall and their fates within and without the DCU!

And then, be back on Friday for our regular installment: Countdown #44 in stores on Wednesday June 27th! Return of the Monarch!

Oh, and if you are wondering what happened to the Rogues in this issue -- they were a little busy over in Flash #13, the final issue of the series!