Countdown #28

The Origin of the Trickster & The Origin of the Pied Piper

Writer Scott Beatty
Artist Ethan Van Sciver
Colorist Hi-Fi
Letterer Jared K. Fletcher
Editor Elisabeth V. Gehrlein

Our cover by Ian Churchill shows Jimmy Olson being flown away by his alien bug girlfriend because ... Countdown. And Jimmy hasn't put on his pants yet because ... Countdown. Yeah ... I've figured it's best to stop asking questions about this series.

The main story shows us that Trickster and Pied Piper are still handcuffed together and on the run from the Suicide Squad, who are still rounding up all super villains. We also see that Kyle Rayner has joined Donna Troy and Jason Todd on their search for Ray Palmer, visiting Earth 8 in this issue. But all we really care about in this issue is the two-page backup story.

Even though it's two pages, these origin stories are astonishingly brief. We get one panel of them as children, one as Rogues battling Barry Allen, and one of the death of Bart Allen. And that's pretty much it. This backup doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know about these characters.

The origin stories are presented as criminal case files, so the terse style makes a bit of sense. But on a whole, this was an underwhelming backup. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but Ethan Van Sciver's art only seems to have gotten worse since his days on Impulse. His characters are stiff and unnatural. And he drew Trickster as someone who is pure evil and Piper as someone utterly bored. A little nuance would go a long way. Let's check out the ads:

Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane on DVD.

The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore.

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties for Windows.

Transformers on DVD.

Justice League padlocks.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for PSP.

The Adventures of Aquaman and The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians on DVD.

Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow on PSP.

Resistance: Fall of Man on PlayStation 3.

School of Computer Animation. FullSail.com.

Countdown presents: Lord Havoc and the Extremists.

The DC Nation page is written by former Young Justice editor Eddie Berganza, detailing an upcoming Halloween Special, including a Flash story written by Mark Waid.

Blue Dragon for Xbox 360.

Next time, we'll return to adventures of Bart's second evil clone in Teen Titans #52.