DC COMICS
WRITERS: Paul Dini, Sean McKeever
ARTISTS: Keith Giffen, Jesus Saiz
COVER: Karl Kerschl

Granny Goodness and Desaad take center stage, revealing details about Darkseid's plot and how it involves all the superheroes. Meanwhile, one of the Flash rogues bleeds to death and the OMACs make a surprise reappearance. This story is still a bit disjointed but at least events are building up to something rather than seemingly meandering about. This storyline could still use fewer subplots. The events on Paradise Island, Jimmy Olsen's plight, they still seem like distractions. It is also rather deceptive for the writers to keep saying that the cast is on the verge of locating Ray Palmer-- only to have him keep one step ahead, staying well out of sight.

The art, like the story is a mixed bag: some great dramatic scenes but also some action scenes that just look messy. It is also frustrating that DC Comics makes no attempt to re-cap what happened in previous issues. It is almost like they expect the readers to buy the trade paperbacks when they come out next year.

This issue also has a back-up story on the origins of Granny Goodness that has many of the virtues that the main story lacks. The art is clear and comprehensible, the story is told directly without too much digression and yet it still succeeds in re-capping Granny's background in a pleasing and concise manner.

I'm giving the entire issue two and a half stars out of five.