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"Shock to the System": The Trickster has a nightmare wherein he revisits the events that led to his former group the Rogues killing the Flash. When he wakes up, he finds himself bound to the Pied Piper at the mercy of [[Floyd Law

Quote1 Did you see that? She winked at me. *sigh* I love a woman who dresses in star clusters... Quote2
Martin Campbell

Countdown #42 is an issue of the series Countdown (Volume 1) with a cover date of July, 2007.

Synopsis for "Shock to the System"

The Trickster has a nightmare wherein he revisits the events that led to his former group the Rogues killing the Flash. When he wakes up, he finds himself bound to the Pied Piper at the mercy of Deadshot and Multiplex. Deadshot snidely remarks that they are under arrest for the murder of Bart Allen.

In Gotham City, Mary Marvel patrols the city streets and comes upon the Riddler. Recognizing him as an infamous foe of the Batman, she scoops him up into the air. The Riddler tells her that he is reformed now, and operating as a private detective. He points her towards a trail of mud leading away from a nearby bank. Mary doesn't trust him, but decides to follow the trail to see where it leads.

In Metropolis, Holly Robinson and Harleen Quinzel explore more of Athena's elaborate women's shelter. Harleen tells her that she has retired her identity of Harley Quinn and is now content staying at the shelter.

In Ivy Town, the Monitor, Jason Todd, and Donna Troy arrive at the home of Professor Ryan Choi, who is also the super-hero known as the Atom. The Monitor is looking for Ray Palmer, who has been missing ever since his wife Jean was committed to Arkham Asylum for the murder of Sue Dibny. Nobody knows where Ray is, but Ryan's associates suggest that he is in the "Palmerverse" (at which Jason remarks that he cannot believe that Ray would actually name a universe after himself). Ryan recalibrates the controls on his Bio-Belt and the entire group teleports away.

Back in Gotham, Mary Marvel and the Riddler discover that the trail of mud leads back to Clayface. Mary engages Clayface in battle and uses her newly acquired elemental powers to generate a whirlwind that dispels his form. Mary takes uncharacteristic delight with her new powers and her emboldened attitude. The Riddler tells her that she should seek out a new mentor, perhaps someone who specializes in magic… or anger management.

On the other side of town, Batman has a rooftop conversation with Karate Kid. He tells him that he is going to try to find the rest of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He then flies off into the night.

In Metropolis, Jimmy Olsen sits at his desk at the Daily Planet and ponders the strange powers that he has recently developed. The powers are always different and their effects are only temporary. Jimmy makes doodles of himself wearing colorful costumes with code names such as Elastic Lad and the Human Porcupine.

Elsewhere, the Trickster releases a false tooth which creates a giant explosion. The blast is strong enough to propel both the Pied Piper and he to freedom. However, to their dismay, they discover that they had been taken inside of a hover-ship and are now falling to their doom.

Appearing in "Shock to the System"

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Synopsis for "History of the Multiverse (Part VIII of XII)"

The Monitors review information leading up to the most recent Crisis. Surviving the initial Crisis on Infinite Earths were Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two, as well Superboy from Earth-Prime, and Alexander Luthor – the sole survivor of Earth-Three. While the four lived alone inside of a "paradise" dimension, Luthor created a plan to reshape the Post-Crisis Earth into a New Earth. To this end, he recreated the Multiverse as his personal palette from which he could pick and choose which elements of each reality he liked, while ignoring the rest. To bring his scheme to fruition, he constructed a gigantic tower using the corporeal remains of the Anti-Monitor as a power source. The heroes of Earth fought against him, and Superboy (Conner Kent) heroically gave his life to destroy Alexander Luthor's machine. The damage, however, was done, and fifty-two parallel universes were created.

Appearing in "History of the Multiverse (Part VIII of XII)"

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Notes

Trivia

  • Batman interacts with the Karate Kid in this issue. He also encounters a different version of the Karate Kid when he travels to the 31st century in The Brave and the Bold (Volume 3) #5.
  • Panda Potter's hair is mistakenly colored brown in this issue when it should be colored black.
  • Jimmy Olsen makes a drawing of himself wearing a purple costume and calls himself Elastic Lad. In Pre-Crisis continuity, Jimmy developed super-stretching and became known as Elastic Lad on several adventures.[1]


See Also

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