Countdown to Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen '08

Despite my many concerns with Countdown, the one thing that keeps me coming back every week is the fact that the main character of the series, the one tied into the two main plot lines is

The Goddamned Jimmy Olsen!

I don't know when Jimmy stepped up as one of my favorite characters. I wasn't into Superman books growing up, just occasionally picking up Bryne's Action back issues and anything that looked cool. And back then (just around the 80's I should say), Jimmy was a furniture piece, a prop to need Superman's help or say how cool Superman is.

I think it was in the 90's that Jimmy started to get some of his Silver Age moxy back. He would be working with Cadmus, being targeted by mad scientists and wearing science suits. It was great. Especially when rendered by Tom Grummet.

Then came Metropolis , a miniseries dealing with the Brainiac 13 tech that had taken over Metropolis. Lots of shenanigans were going on, people coming back from the dead and supervillains being bonded together and such, and investigating the story was Our Hero, James Bartholomew Olsen. His signal watch used as transceiver for the intelligence in the tech (Lex Luthor's daughter Lena, to be exact), Jimmy went through harrowing ordeals while keeping his laid back cool and making time with the cyber-Lena.

Then Gail Simone was writing Action Comics, and Jimmy was rushing headon to take pictures and save people. And it was shortly thereafter that I found blog posts about Silver Age Jimmy and his antics, while very weird, cemented Jimmy's position as one of my top favorite DC characters. And he's in august company with the likes of Tempest, Brainiac 5 and Lar Gand.

Just something I wanted to share.