52 Pickup

I'm pretty interested in the current direction DC is taking.

I mean, I pretty much concur with the prevailing opinion that Countdown is a subpar product. I only bought the first issue before deciding to bail out, but I've been flipping through it at the store and reading the occasional pages at Scans Daily, and I haven't been impressed with anything I've seen so far. The Multiverse aspect does interest me, however -- alternate universe stories are easily my favorite element of super-hero stories -- and I'm pretty stoked for some of the upcoming Countdown spinoffs.

The Search for Ray Palmer is the big one. A travelogue of the new Multiverse? I am so there. I don't have any real attachment to Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner, or Jason Todd, but the prospect of exploring the realms of possibility is too much for me to resist.

Arena, though, looks like kind of a let-down in the making. The fact that Didio openly compares it to fanfiction does not help. The fact that it's by the author of half that excreble World War III mess helps even less. Unlike World War III, though, I won't have to buy them all at once, so I'll have the option of checking out the first issue and seeing if it's worth my time and money.

I'm also looking forward to most if not all of the 52 spin-offs, as 52 now ranks among my favorite comic book titles of all time. I've already gotten Booster Gold #1 and that was a ride and a half. The Crime Bible, starring Renee "The Question" Montoya, is being penned by Greg Rucka himself, so I've high hopes for that one as well. Black Adam: The Dark Age #1 has passed me by, but I may consider checking it out this Wednesday if it's still in stock to see if I want to stick with it. I'm on the fence about Infinity, Inc., The Four Horsemen, and Countdown to Adventure, but my curiosity will probably get the better of me, especially on the last one.

I'm just wondering when we'll get a miniseries following the spectral hijinks of Ralph 'n' Sue: The Dead Dibny Detectives...

And then... Final Crisis. By Grant Morrison. I liked Identity Crisis, loved Infinite Crisis... I'm having a hard time seeing how this can go wrong.

Anyway, anything else you all are looking forward to? Please share!