So, Farewell Then . . .

This is a rhetorical question, but does anyone else think Countdown To Final Crisis ended with more of a whimper than a bang?

After all that hype, all that universe hopping, the key series leading into the forthcoming Final Crisis limped to an end. Pied Piper - last seen being blown to hell in issue #9 - somehow survived and landed in Gotham City; Jason Todd who appears to have foregone the Red Hood identity is also in Gotham, as surly and nasty as he was when he started out; Mary Marvel is still wearing black and has become a petulant bad girl; Buddy Blank has become an OMAC more recognisable to older readers (and readers of older comics) and the boy who would be Kamandi on another Earth here turns out to have been named Tommy all along in a nod to the post-Crisis On Infinite Earths retcon; and the Challengers From Beyond . . .

After moping around Ray Palmer's house they address the Monitors and tell them to watch their behinds because they are monitoring the Monitors.

I can't help wondering if this whole idea of Kyle Rayner, the Atom, Donna Troy and Forager (I notice Jimmy Olsen didn't make the cut) keeping tabs on the Monitors is just going to get swept under the carpet. Rayner's a Green Lantern so will have duties elsewhere; the Atom's already due to appear in The Atom series alongside Ryan Choi, the latest Atom; Donna Troy's back in with The Titans; which leaves Forager . . . one new character (with little characterisation) is going to monitor all of the Monitors? In which series is this likely to happen?

No, I think it's more likely that a few months down the line, after Final Crisis, we'll never hear about this whole monitoring the Monitors lark again.

Which won't be a bad thing to my mind.