Countdown #5 continued the transformation of the Earth to the world of Kamandi. While this and issue 6 were an interesting read, they also felt like a diversion from the main event of Countdown. I realise the Great Disaster’s been what the Search for Ray Palmer storyline was playing towards, but these issues, while fullfilling that, just didn’t seem part of the main story to me for some reason. Possibly this is related to the decision to focus on this Earth’s Buddy Blank for the narration, a character only in these two issues, while every other character in Countdown took a back seat. Given that we should be firmly in the “wow! This is finally paying off!” stages of Countdown, frankly it just served to underline the disappointment of the title for the last 45ish issues. I’m pretty much sticking with it because there’s only 5 issues to go, but frankly, there’s no chance of me picking up the next weekly, and Countdown’s left me fairly unenthusiastic for Final Crisis. If they’re smart Superman Prime’ll turn up next issue and blow something up, because those were the best issues.

The other Countdown monthly I’ve been picking up was Countdown to Adventure. I’ve really enjoyed this epilogue to the Space Team’s adventures in 52. I’m a sucker for Adam Strange stuff and he, Animal Man and Starfire work well together. The Forerunner backups seemed fairly pointess, just serving a character that appeared briefly in Countdown. Its a structure that was handled much better in last year’s Mystery in Space title. Talking of which, I’m now really looking forward to Rann-Thanagar Holy War. Adam Strange and Captain Comet. Two characters I’ve really enjoyed the last few years. Although I see they’re still trying to drop the “Captain” from Captain Comet’s name. Gah!