Week Forty-One

Nothing happens this week. Seriously. Week Forty-One is completely worthless and throw-away. Filler! I could take filler back in Week Thirteen, but this is the point where we’re supposed to be getting into the payoff that all of that filler once promised. For the sake of formality, though, I suppose we can all take a second to discuss what actually transpires this week.

For starters, it looks like Montoya’s going to finally become the new Question soon. She does a bit of training in Nanda Parbat, and is left with a question at the close of her story: “Which will have greater rule over you…your fear or your curiosity?” She makes her choice and goes to a cave to meditate, to see who she can be.

Meanwhile, Ralph Dibny does some investigative work that was foreshadowed six months ago (in comic time, not real time), as he shows up at the place they were once holding Professor Morrow prisoner before he was kidnapped and taken to Oolong Island (without leaving a trace to show how). Ralph starts to figure it out, blah blah blah, and eventually steals the Silver Wheel of Nyorlath. From a cripple. Ralph sees this, becomes terrified at what he’s done, and flees with the Helmet of Fate, who claims, “the final hour is at last upon us.” Since it’s only Day 3 of Week Forty-One at that point, I’m guessing that he was being metaphorical. Or, he just meant that the final hour is upon them…in about five days or so. It’s interesting, though. Ralph’s still drinking from that flask (what’s he drinking exactly?), and he seems to be TOTALLY CONTROLLED BY THE HELMET OF FATE. Montoya’s thinking about who she is, Adam Strange is thinking about how to get home, Booster Gold’s thinking about ways to escape Skeets, and, meanwhile, all Ralph Dibny can think about is where he’s going to get his next Helmet fix.

Oh, yeah, I forgot, those space idiots finally run into Green Lantern Mogo this week, and they’re on his planet now. If only they’d been there forty-one weeks ago, they would’ve seen a kick-ass fight between two Supermen and Superboy-Prime. And they’d be home by now. I think they’re finally safe, at long last.

All in all, I just wish something would happen already. There’s no mention of Booster/Rip or Black Adam/Osiris or anybody, really. Ralph Dibny’s still collecting stuff, Montoya’s still afraid of becoming who she’s meant to be, and the space idiots are still lost. That’s all this issue established.

Oh, and on a side-note, if Geoff Jones keeps making Starman say, “52! Ha!” as an out-of-the-blue punchline to a joke in his head over in “Justice Society of America,” I think that I’m going to have to track that guy down and crack him over the head with a wrench. Or beat him to death with a pillow-case full of batteries.

See ya in seven.