Countdown

After the weekly series 52 wrapped up, DC immediately followed up with another weekly series called Countdown.  While 52 focused on the missing year without Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, Countdown focused on their supporting cast, primarily Jimmy Olsen, Jason Todd, and Donna Troy in the present.  Countdown started at issue 51 and counted backwards, changing its name to Countdown to Final Crisis halfway through at issue 26.  I had already lost interest before that point, but it didn't matter because Grant Morrison basically ignored all the lead-ins to his Final Crisis anyway.  Final Crisis would be its own mess, but Countdown would be a disappointing low point after the heights of 52.

Superman #665

In a Countdown tie-in that has nothing to do with what's currently going on in that series, Jimmy Olsen's back story gets a retcon.  Young Jimmy was now a homeless teen who took multiple paper routes to support himself and lived at the Daily Planet loading dock until Clark Kent discovers him hiding there.  Jimmy helps Superman stop an organized crime ring called the Ten who are trying to become the 100.  Perry White admires Jimmy's hustle and gives him a job as a copy boy, and he and Superman become pals.

Action Comics #852

3-2-1 Action part 1 of 3

Kurt Busiek takes over writing Action Comics for the next three months and it was starting to look like the finale to Richard Donner's Last Son saga would never see print.  Donner would even return after this in Action Comics #855 to start a new 3-part story which would be finished before Last Son was.

In a tie-in that does have something to do with what's going on in Countdown, Jimmy Olsen has been starting to develop random new powers like the ones he sometimes had in the Silver Age.  While accompanying Clark at a hearing for the Kryptonite Man at Stryker's Island, Jimmy flashes back to an earlier adventure where he first signaled Superman with a supersonic device, and Superman tells him he could miniaturize it into something that could fit into a watch.

Meanwhile at the Metropolis Zoo, a chimpanzee starts to manifest Kryptonite-based powers.

Superman/Batman #38

Torment part 2 of 6

Superman wakes up to find out that seeing the planet Earth transform into another Krypton was just a bad dream.  As the day goes by, however, Clark Kent is still tormented by this nightmare.  Batman continues to investigate what Killer Croc had stolen from LexCorp, and he interrogates Lex Luthor for more information.  The mysterious figure behind Superman's nightmares is revealed to be Darkseid's master torturer, Desaad.  But another Batman villain, the Scarecrow, finds Superman when the Man of Steel's mind is most vulnerable.  Though this is a team-up series, Batman appears on only 3 pages so this is primarily a Superman story.