Infinite Crisis #6: This is the big one, the penultimate chapter of the series. Last issue we saw that Superboy Prime (the Superboy that stayed with Alexander Luthor of Earth-3 and Superman and Lois Lane from Earth-2 at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths) was back from his trip with the combined Flash force (Bart, Wally, Barry from the future and Jay) with Anti-Monitor gear on looking ready to kick some major butt. The last battle Superboy Prime was in he killed a few old Teen Titans and beat up the Superboy of the current Earth pretty badly.
The rumors have been flying that this is the issue where a major someone (or someones) bites the dust. All signs point to Superboy of our Earth, especially after he and Wonder Girl had sex in the Titans annual before he went off to fight with Nightwing against the Alex Luthor weapon. Much like horror movies, you have a target on your head if you're under 18 and have sexual relations. There may be more people biting it as well. Heck, Alexander Luthor better watch his back. If Superboy Prime ever finds out that he was duped he can get in line with Superman from Earth-2 to pound the living daylights out of Alex. I can't wait to read this issue, I mean just look at Superboy Prime in Jim Lee's variant cover:
One Year Later: There are a few people we can take out of the death talk above. The biggest one would be Dick Grayson (Nightwing). He's obviously alive and well (and doing one night stands) again. I wonder what the heck happened between he and Barbara considering he proposed to her in the Nightwing before One Year Later. Other obvious characters still alive include Superman (more about him later), Batman and Robin (Tim Drake).
Most of the books have not been all that great in One Year Later. The Superman 8-part story certainly stands out of the crowd though. Clark Kent has lost his powers, possibly been powerless the whole year. He's back to being an investigative reporter and relying on his superhero friends to help him on occasion. Lex Luthor has fallen from grace in LexCorp and it sounds as if it is about to be sold. Lex is corroborating with the likes of Toyman and Metallo and is back to his old "scientist in a dungy place" spot in life. Even though "the alien" is gone, he is still up to old tricks. Obviously Clark will probably get his powers back by the end of this 8-parter, but while we're getting there I have to say Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek have created a wonderful story.
In the world of Batman there is also an 8-part story. It sounds like Bruce, Tim and Dick all went to the Middle East for the year to train and become a better "family" unit. Who knows if this idea is going to stretch to Robin and Nightwing, but it would be interesting to see what happened to them in the year missed. The first part of the story was fantastic, but the second part felt a little too much like the old days with everyone back in place (Jim Gordon is commish again, Harvey Bullock is back as well). From what I can grasp it seems Harvey Dent (and/or Two-Face) has taken to becoming a vigilante while Batman was gone and at the end of the 2nd part it looks like Magpie was eliminated (is that a shout back to Legends that I hear?). Now I wonder if this will clash with the supposed fact that The Question becomes Gotham's guardian while Batman is gone for a year...we shall see.
Firestorm is interesting in the fact that it is now Jason and Lorraine as Firestorm instead of Jason and Prof. Stein as it was before the leap. The interesting thing is I thought Lorraine was getting out of the superhero business, but she has the added benefit of being part of Firestorm AND being able to change into Firehawk. Of course there is that little matter of not being able to be apart by too much of a distance...
I can't think of any others that stand out. Teen Titans starts its jump tomorrow, which is of course perfectly timed with IC #6 and the rumor of Superboy's death. With TT being written by Geoff Johns chances are it will be well tied in to IC and the upcoming 52 storyline.
Well, onto Marvel...