On one hand there are moments when Chris Batista's work works extremely well as there's a lovely little sequence where we see Hawkman makes it quite clear that he's gone sour on the debate, and the big attack on the Red Tornado was quite impressive from a visual sense. However there are also sections in this issue where the art left me a bit flat as scene where Ralph is desperate to reach his power granting serum lacked any real sense of tension, and the scene where Catwoman does battle with Firefly, the entire exchange stands up as one of the dullest looking battles I've come across in quite some time. There's also a rather silly looking moment where we see the defeated JLA are thrown to the ground before Batman and J'Onn, and this powerful display of the Secret Society of Super-Villains effectiveness didn't work nearly as well as it should've. Still, the scene where J'Onn intrudes upon a romantic moment between Batman and Catwoman was rather cute, though one does have to wonder why J Read Full Review

Leaden: Carter Hall comes off as a conservative blowhard, with Oliver less than an articulate critic. Its nice to see Hal back, but hes a bit hard to take as the voice of reason to someone who hasnt been reading about his Rebirth. This issue is too decompressed, and flows out of a story that left too many danglers. The schematic, committee-approved design of Countdown is dreadfully obvious: long-term plans designed to provide story, but without the drama that true passion or inspiration would bring. Read Full Review

There is an emphasis on melodrama in these books, as if Im watching soap operas saturated in colorful spandex, and while I concede that it makes for some intriguing moments, a little imagination would go a long way toward making these comics something special. Read Full Review