Happy May Day, you Commie scum. Yes, yes, I am well aware that many socialists and trade unionists around the world also celebrate May Day and that they are most emphatically not Marxist-Leninist Communists. To them, I say, happy May Day, you lousy pinkos.

Crises
This afternoon, I sat down and reread all seven issues of Identity Crisis, written by Brad Meltzer, pencilled and inked by Rags Morales and Michael Bair. Reading it the first time, one issues being released per month, I liked it up until issue no. 7. Jean Loring's, The Atom's wife, motive for killing Sue Dibny, the Elongated Man's wife, struck me at the time as exceedingly weak; I greatly enjoyed the characterizations and dialogue through all seven issues, but as a murder mystery I found the resolution somewhat lacking. I still think it's weak, but once again I am of the opinion Meltzer has a gift for bringing a realistic humanity to Spandex-wearing demi-gods and mystery men.

Physics professor Ray Palmer is The Atom and was married to Jean Loring until she initiated divorce proceedings. (This was long before my time.) In Identity Crisis, Jean wants to get Ray back. From The Atom's few guest appearances in comics I've read and brief stint in JLA, it seemed as if he was still quite fond of his ex-wife. Instead of asking her ex-husband to dinner, Loring took one of his old Atom suits and attacked Sue Dibny. Loring claimed that Sue's death was accidental, that all she wanted to do was scare the superhero community, thus bringing The Atom back into her arms. Loring then faked an attack on herself and hired the villain Captain Boomerang to kill Robin's father (the two men ended up killing each other). Still, to me that just doesn't hold water; even if she's insane, all that still seems like an improbably complicated plan.

Ah well, what's done is done, and at least Sue still lives in "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League" in the pages of JLA: Classified, set before Identity Crisis and before Blue Beetle's death in Countdown to Infinite Crisis. What really bothers me about Countdown and all the hoopla around this fall's much hyped miniseres Infinite Crisis is that Blue Beetle's murder was just gratuitous. It was unnecessary to the story. I hated to see Sue Dibny die, but her death was necessary to Identity Crisis and as such was treated with dignity and respect. The thinking behind Countdown seems to have been, "No one is going to pay attention unless we kill somebody. Hmmmmm. Hey, the Blue Beetle isn't popular enough to support an ongoing monthly book, let's kill him!" Bastards.

There are four miniseries with origins in Countdown to Infinite Crisis: The O.M.A.C. Project, Day of Vengeance, Villains United, and The Rann-Thanager War, one of which is supposed to be the direct lead in to Infinite Crisis. I shan't be reading Infinite Crisis both because I hated Countdown and because it is to be written by Geoff Johns, a once promising writer who has become pathetic. If Infinite Crisis holds true to form, it will be a simple rehashing of a Silver Age story, with plenty of drooling over the inability of Silver Age writers to make a single misstep. I am, however, reading Day of Vengeance and I will read The Rann-Thanager War. I like the character of Adam Strange, defender of the planet Rann, and have been greatly enjoying the miniseries Adam Strange, to which The Rann-Thanager War is a sequel. I picked up issue no. 1 of Day of Vengeance, written by Bill Willingham, whose work I have enjoyed as the writer of Robin, and the quality I found between its covers convinced me to follow the rest of the series. Plus, it promises to at least feature, if not star, Captain Marvel, and I'll read almost anything to follow the exploits of the wizard Shazam's champion.

The Power of S.H.A.Z.A.M.
Shazam, "the Wizard"
Captain Marvel (Billy Batson)
Mary Marvel (Mary Bromfield [Batson])
CM3 (a.k.a. Captain Marvel Jr., Freddy Freeman)
Black Adam (Theo Adam/Teth-Adam)

S = Wisdom of Solomon
H = Strength of Hercules
A = Stamina of Atlas
Z = Power of Zeus
A = Courage of Achilles
M = Speed of Mercury