Couple of major purposes here: a return of focus on Sasha, arguably the main character of the original OMAC Project miniseries... and the re-establishment of Checkmate. Yes, a new Checkmate series is coming, but I'm here to tell you that it won't last, as usual. DC keeps trying to make Checkmate more than just a pleasantly interesting shadow organization, and it never works. You might as well try to make a series out of S.T.A.R. Labs or Cadmus. It's great as occasional background material - a la Bones and Chase and the DEO - but as an ongoing series, forget it.

We can only hope that this book was the sole purpose behind Sasha's hideous OMAC-makeover: a convenient plan to remove it and get her back to normal.

Jonah Hex #6 I'm actually starting to worry a little about this one. It is admirable to keep doing self-contained, single-issue Western vignettes, but the pattern is becoming far too obvious far too quickly. Hex rides into town, someone innocent is killed or is about to be killed, Hex goes badass, justice is served. In any other comic series, any given storyline of this book would be strung out over at least three issues... which sort of deadens the time the reader has to realize the pattern. I mean, the typical Justice League format is villain threatens world, league confused and scattered, league unites and goes badass, justice is served. But there, the pattern is stretched out enough to include B stories, characterization, and continuity nods from other series.

Jonah Hex is a weekly TV show in comic book form. This is DC's ongoing pitch for a big Hex cable series, believe it. I just wonder how much longer sales can justify the book's existence.

Marvel Zombies #5 Wow, what a sucky ending.

#4 and #5 are the proof, I think, that this was a good concept that nobody knew what to do with. For something like this to be really great, it has to take characters we know by heart and twist them. I want to believe that these guys have become flesh-eating monsters horrified by their actions and yet unstoppably driven to keep doing them. And I never do. It's more like a bunch of zombies who just happen to be wearing recognizable costumes.

And what's with Giant Man being turned into a Born Leader? In the whole history of comics, no one has ever ever cared about Hank Pym. This is a character that Marvel had to randomly turn into a wifebeater to make him interesting. Yet in this mini, he's the smartest guy around, the only one with a plan, and, I think, more dialogue than any other far-more-interesting character.

Maybe I'm just bitter because I refuse to believe Dr. Doom would fall so easily.

Infinite Crisis #6 I just love this series. It's full of great character moments interspersed with high stakes action. Seriously. To wit:

The born-again multiverse, giving DC a chance to show off for the fanboys. I love that the Tangent Universe has been designated Earth-97.

The magic cast summoning up Spectre again, who promptly ignores them.

The team going after Alex's spire is Superboy, Wonder Girl and Nightwing. That's a nice junior trinity.

Green Arrow: "What about me? Why the hell'd you call a guy who can shoot trick arrows?"
Batman: "Just to see if you'd show."

Mr. Terrific and Black Lightning discussing African American heroes. (Probably my favorite couple of panels in the whole book.)

Black Adam vs. Psycho-Pirate. Shunkkch. Note that the mask survived intact.

Brother Eye referring to Nightwing as "Your [Batman's] Favorite."

The fact that it's Hal Jordan who pulls Batman out of the exploding satellite at the last second. I really dig the "Batman hates Green Lanterns" meme, and even though Bruce and Hal made up recently, I hope the slight distrust continues.

Alex Luthor finding Earth-Prime.

And finally, about Superboy's death... my feeling here is that DC has, quite simply, done all they can with this character. So when the Infinite Crisis plotting began, he was probably a very early name on the Okay To Kill List (along with Risk and Pantha!) This Superboy was literally born during the Death of Superman cresendo... when he first showed up as a wise-cracking, cocky teen with lots of early Spider-Man bravado. Initially, he's a young clone of Superman created at Cadmus, just trying to carve out a place in this wacky world. Then he leads his own team of who-cares for a while (the Ravers, for fuck's sake), then he slums with Young Justice, then he finds out he can never age, then it turns out half of his DNA came from Lex Luthor (oh noes! the inner conflict!), then he slums with the Titans, then he goes goth introvert slacker. There's only so many "Waahhh, I'm just a clone" stories you can do, I guess. And he has matured considerably since his first appearance, so at some point, calling him SuperBOY just gets stupider than it was in the first place.