There are some padded spots: an entire page devoted to BD dressing down a quailing Ragman, for one. Also, an uncomfortable exchange between the Chimp and Nightshade where he questions her magic ability. There's something not right about that entire conversation. It makes you feel like they scripted something else altogether, changed their minds after the art came back, and got stuck filling the word balloons with anything... almost like the speech stretching that goes on when they dub anime to make the English dialogue fit the Japanese mouthwork. I don't know, it just seems like something that should have been cut. Part of the fun of reading comics is the visual language of panels and layouts, obvious clues to important action and sequences... and the layout of this particular conversation makes it very important (there's a massive rendering of a skeptical Detective Chimp that takes up almost an entire page, a very dramatic shot), yet the actual verbiage comes off like reality TV contestant sniping.

And who is Lori Zechlin? This miniseries' Deus Ex Machina, that's who. Given the way Infinite Crisis is recycling old DC trademarks (Secret Six, OMAC/Brother Eye, Checkmate), I wouldn't be surprised if Lori turns out to be a completely hipified, mermaid-in-exile Lori Lemaris. Or Ultra the Multi-Alien, for that matter. More likely, Lori is the Comics Find of 2005 whom DC is prepping for a spinoff series.

OMAC Project #3. Max Lord has the best hair in villainy, that's for sure. You just never see guys with a coiff like that anymore, the LEGO Mini-Figure Generic Male Brown Hairpiece look.

I am so glad they restored Gardner's GL status, because I have missed that Guy. Now that he's back in the Green, he's the tension-buster that the DCU sorely needs. And it is so nice that he's back to being a regular-sized dude, rather than the hulking shirtless alien Indian chief he became during the Warrior days, a victim of the post-Coast City mandate of ONE Green Lantern at a time, I suppose. And they didn't change his costume one bit! With the Max Lord / Blue Beetle thing such a major (if upsetting) part of this story, it is entirely appropriate that the rest of their gang should show up. In Guy's scene, Booster Gold opts to go with Guy instead of the current Big Gun JLA and tells Wonder Woman "You were never part of our League." That is an incredible moment, although I think there's more ill portents to come for the Giffen-era Leaguers. They'll round up Fire and Power Girl, maybe Elongated Man since we haven't seen much of him since Sue's death. Captain Atom is back to normal, hopefully expunged of his 'Extreme Justice' kick; get him too. Is Crimson Fox dead?

The last two pages are amazing. You can hear Max's voice get louder, feel his "push" power working. And then it leads directly into a sidebar story told in the Superman titles, plus an issue of Wonder Woman since DC canned the fourth Superman monthly some time back. I get the Super-books, but I didn't get the OMAC connection until re-reading them in sequence. I miss the triangle system.

Villains United #3. Hey, Ragdoll's secret origin! And bonus: he has the stupidest blackmail reason ever... Mockingbird has all his joint oil.

Catman continues to not act like Catman. Several mysteries still follow this guy: Talia and Calculator both suggesting he's not really Catman, and his letter to Green Arrow. I'd suggest he is in fact an undercover Batman if Bats wasn't getting his ass kicked by Superman over in the OMAC/Superman tie-in. Plus, he fights to kill, which even a disguised Batman hip-deep in villains won't do. In this issue Catman manages to do something absolutely awful to Captain Nazi.

What's with Weather Wizard's dialogue: "I'll cook you like an egg on the sidewalk, Catman! A very naughty egg indeed!" The hell?!? And I was set to respect the guy too, with his new Van de Graaf hair and all.

I'm still not sure who Scandal is and what her powers include, but I just saw her eat an ear.

The book ends with the Six escaping their imprisonment and vowing to come after Luthor's Society... but I don't think anyone would argue that they should have killed every opponent in the room. (Note that Catman is the one who counsels against killing them all...) Let's look at who the DCU would lose had they followed Cheshire's execution plan.

Sledge. No need to keep him. Just another strong dumb guy. Dime a dozen.

Weather Wizard. A vital - but silly - member of Flash's rogues' gallery, but would probably benefit from being dead for a year or two. (And he's already been substantially dead at least once.) Easily resurrected if the Flash writers want him back, just have him fizzle back to life out of lightning or something. Although if I remember correctly, his powers come out of his wand, right? He's not some kind of meta with a required fetish object, right? So anybody could be WW if they get the wand.

Killer Frost. I've always liked her (great name!), even though she's just a Firestorm villain, which is probably terribly embarrassing. No one in the DCU would miss her, but I would. She was great in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Knockout. A Superboy villain, and not classic 1960s/70s Superboy... no, she's current-Universe Superboy. Knockout did have her own OverPower card, but even that won't save her from obscurity. Could have been easily killed, plus, because she was the "nice one" in this group, it could have been a terkjerker assassination.

Count Vertigo. He's one of those guys who debuted with such a vague explanation of his powers (makes people dizzy) that contemporary writers get to keep amping him up every time they use him, like Sonar or Dr. Polaris. In this series, however, he does not use his powers once, unless his powers now include "gets easily caught in a leglock by Ragdoll." I've always liked his cape's interior pattern, but that won't stop me from endorsing his death.

Captain Nazi. This goes without saying that this sad caricature belongs buried in the Golden Age. Just another old Fawcett villain that totally sucks.

Fatality. You know, when she first appeared in Green Lantern, I was interested. She is the sole survivor of Xanshii, the planet John Stewart accidentally blew up in Cosmic Odyssey. It's generally considered the flashpoint at which John Stewart became an interesting character; shame he had to kill a planet to do it. Years later, this gal shows up in the GL books for righteous revenge. I was surprised to see her in Villains United since most of the guys in this book are more Earthbound villains. She really ought to have been dealt with by now; her story path seems best suited to pull a Vegeta-like reconciliation and end up becoming a Lantern. I would miss her solely because I think she hasn't been fully utilized yet.

Firefly. Is that Firefly? Or did somebody find the original Killer Moth costume and paint it black? Whatever. He's not a meta, so, again, any old jerk can be Firefly if somebody wants him back. Off him.

The Crime Doctor. A useful supporting villain, in my opinion. Every comics universe needs an evil plastic surgeon. But he's just a doctor; I'm sure somebody else would fill the role should this guy die.

Hyena. Who is this werewolf again? The only Hyena character I knew was the cross between Sabretooth and The Joker from the Amalgam Universe (which was a funny idea but a hideous character design). A justified homicide.

Overall, not an A-list of characters. Fatality is really the only one worth keeping, because she has an irreplaceable Green Lantern connection. The rest are all completely replaceable or just plain stupid. (I would argue strongly for keeping Killer Frost around, though!) Of course, thanks to some unexpected charity, only Hyena gets killed. Whoops!

Rann-Thanagar War #3. I figured out why this one still doesn't do much for me. I don't care about Rann and I don't care about Thanagar. And this whole story is one sci-fi cliche after the other. Almost every word balloon is trite and reads like a dashed-off radio play. The writer is Dave Gibbons, best known for the incredible art on Watchmen; authoring space opera junk just isn't his forte.

It really is crap. Part of the problem - aside from the uninspired Worlds at War plot - is that almost everyone speaks in regalese. "I shall have my revenge!" "It is as I feared!" "Please accept my comradeship." It makes everyone in space sound pompous and boring. As a character, Adam Strange (of Rann) is just a Flash Gordon ripoff, and the Hawks (of Thanagar) have been missing link heroes in search of a backstory for decades... this miniseries is doing neither group any favors.