Countdown #19

This issue of DC's weekly Countdown to Final Crisis series bears the stark tagline "Carrion Death!" right on its Karl Kerschl cover, where a bespectacled, disheveled figure scrambles desperately across a barren desert landscape while, in the background, a smaller figure is set upon by a swooping eagle and a circling vulture. The sun-scorched, golden palette gives the whole scene an eerie, merciless atmosphere that feels anything but festive — quite the contrast to the interior's "Season's Beatings" story title. With Paul Dini, Keith Giffen, and Tony Bedard steering the narrative and Jesús Saiz providing interior art, issue #19 keeps DC's ambitious weekly saga pressing relentlessly toward its Final Crisis destination.