I enjoyed the end of the world focus of the last two issues of Countdown, and now it's back to the main story. Thankfully with everyone in one place the main story is far more focused and begins to move forward once again.
Move forward to what? Having avoided spoilers about Final Crisis I'm not sure, but I'm grading the comic on itself, not on how well it leads to a comic I won't see for at least a month.
A weekly book is fun, and having stayed on Countdown for the entire time I'm actually glad that I have. However I think they've really missed an oppertunity to do some great character development. Take the turn that Mary Marvel takes in this issue, now had they spent a lot of time leading up to such a defection it would have been an awesome moment. Instead Mary's been a background player, and we've never really gotten much of an exploration of her motives beyond the phases of "I want powers." "I want more powers." "I don't want to be evil." "I want all my powers back and will be evil." A real rich and interesting story could have been built out of the events of what happens to Mary Marvel, but instead tehy leave her as a cardboard cut out of a character.
Think of the characters in 52. I came to really like Rene Montoya, The Question and everyone of the regular characters in that book because they were all individuals. Here it feels like we're watching chess pieces, people acting because they're staying true to richly defined characteristics but instead acting randomly to serve the plot.
Story: 3 - Good
Art: 3 - Good
