Countdown #50 (4 pages)

[lipsofpoison]

This was one of the Countdown parts I actually liked was in Countdown #50, so I decided to post it as I hadn't seen it on the tags.

Without further ado, when Jason met Jimmy.










Tags: creator: j. calafiore, creator: paul dini, title: countdown, creator: justin gray, creator: jimmy palmiotti, char: robin/red hood/jason todd, char: jimmy olsen, char: superman/clark kent

Comments

[skjam]

We lost most of our Countdown posts with SD 1.0...not that all of the issues were worth saving, mind you.

There's a World's Finest story (a Robin/Jimmy teamup) in one of the Showcase volumes that has Jimmy knowing Robin and Batman's secret IDs, but not Superman's.

[lipsofpoison]

Was it Dick!Robin?

[skjam]

Yes indeed--this was early 1960s. The implications were roundly ignored in all non-World's Finest books, of course.

[thokstar]

Precrisis, Jimmy was given Batman's secret ID as a consolation prize for not being told Superman's secret ID. The typical Silver Age logic being that nobody would try to ask Jimmy Olsen who Batman was.

[icon_uk]

Indeed, and of course the notion they might try to torture him for Superman's ID, but he'd give them Batman's ID as a similar consolation, would of course never happen.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, why would they - he's a Metropolis reporter, and Batman lives in Gotham.

[icon_uk]

IIRC Not quite, it's a plot point in, of all things, an old Super-Friends comic.

[galateus]

Of course it takes a whole different continuity to actually notice something's up there.

[mad]

If I could bring back one thing from what went down with the ship on s_d 1.0, it would be everyone's comments on the Countdown posts. They were so much fun.

[mullon]

I remember those first couple of issues lookedlike they had such potential.

[lipsofpoison]

I had the same reaction. I started to read them and wondered "hey, why did peoplehate---oh."

[nezchan]

Okay, so now I see the disadvantage of having a densely drawn fight scene involving people wearing very similar colours. That whole second page is a blur of red, black and white, with blue tinges.

[foxhack]

If Jimmy knows who Jason Todd was, and who Nightwing is (and was) then he should know who Batman is.

What.

[lipsofpoison]

Continuity, what's that?

[icon_uk]

Who says he doesn't here, he just never says the name out loud. Plus, it's a plot point, Jimmy's awareness of such information is random and fluctuating, like the powers he displays.

And Nightwing being the original Robin is far from unknown, Dick doesn't advertise it, but a lot of people have put two and two together (Dark haired non-powered hero with a fantastic ass leading the Titans is followed by a dark haired non-powered hero with a fantastic ass leading the Titans)

[alienist]

I really want someone to recognise Dick as a civilian because of his ass.

[icon_uk]

If his (Shudder) career as a male model (BruceJonesrundidn'thappenBruceJonesrundidn'thappen) wasn't enough, I can think of very little that would!

[alienist]

Bruce Jones who? :p

Actually! I am reminded of an early BoP story in which Helena and Dinah recognise their date robbing something because of his ass. Clearly they worked out who Nightwing is ages ago.

[galateus]

Jimmy still dresses like he did in the sixties? When he was square by *the sixties'* standards?

[icon_uk]

That was commented on in the Jimmy Olsen series a few years ago, along with his tendency to use expressions like "Jeepers!" instead of "Holy FUCK!" The suggestions are that it might be down to an almost obsessive, slightly immature, desire to not disappoint his mother by being anything other than a "proper young man" of a past era. Or else it's a conscious choice on Jimmy's part to appear a little more idiosyncratic.

[galateus]

...There was a post-Crisis Jimmy Olsen series and still no Lois Lane one? Oh COME ON.

[icon_uk]

Wasn't actually a Jimmy Olsen series, so much as "The World of Metropolis", where he was a POV character (Which as a photographer made sense). It was during the Tech-Metropolis storyline so IIRC the other character was something like an android embodiment of Metropolis itself.

Plus it did, in a sort of interesting approach, suggest that Jimmy was, professionally, something of a bastard. He took great pictures (even if he did continue to use a film camera when any photojournalist would have switched to digital) but was prepared to downright offensive to get them. So when someone's husband was killed, he was the one to capture the look on the widow's face which is more than a little tasteless.

[benicio127]

So when someone's husband was killed, he was the one to capture the look on the widow's face which is more than a little tasteless.

How is that tasteless? It happens all the time. We want to see the emotion. What would be tasteless is how he approached the widow. Did he get up in her face like the paparazzi or did he use a long lens and shoot from further back?

[icon_uk]

IIRC (and I might be misremembering) The guy had just been murdered (or had his funeral disrupted) and Jimmy runs and leaps forward to get closer and takes a picture of his wife, who was standing next to him (or was in the front row of mourners) at the time.

The series was Superman: Metropolis

[benicio127]

Yeah, being a former journalist and having a significant other who is a photojournalist, I tend to like the more sensitive approach. It's not the picture that's tasteless, but if he got up in her face like that, I've definitely never been a fan of that kind of approach. There are other ways to get the job done that are more respectful.

[benicio127]

There were some good moments in Countdown, but then uhh... yeah.

I still don't understand why EVERYONE seems to know Jason's identity. What the hell? Selina, Jimmy... I'm guessing Harley and Holly know now, too...
Jimmy knowing his identity is what really kind of annoys me.

[lipsofpoison]

I thought Clark told him. He does have a big mouth.

[benicio127]

Dagnabbit Clark, what the hell! I can't believe we haven't yet fangirled over the Tucci Red Hood cover together yet. Damn these Canadian/British time zones. ;-)

[lipsofpoison]

Idk how I feel about it - Talia looks a bit strange, but the issue looks awesome!

[benicio127]

She looks very feminine and soft, I agree, but Tucci was modeling it off of the style of Alphonse Mucha.

Plus I'm totally digging the whole Pieta/baptism/resurrection/rebirth symbolism.

[skjam]

Jimmy knowing Jason's identity seems to have faded away with everything else connected to Countdown. "Bug-girl? What bug girl?"

[icon_uk]

But as already noted, that's the point and is addressed in the story. Jimmy mentions several times in these issues that he has no idea why he suddenly knows things about Jason or his connections to the Batclan, and he doesn't retain the knowledge either.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I kinda like how Jimmy is one of the guys that everybody in the business either knows or knows of. Lois Lane may be the Planet's star reporter, but Olsen is in with the superheroes.