Countdown presents - the Search for Ray Palmer - Gotham by Gaslight #1 - DC

Ok, this search for Ray Palmer storyline is interesting. But I have to ask myself, is all of this really necessary? I mean other than taking a tour of the multiverse, what have they really accomplished? And by the way, what ever happened to the Jokester that was tagging along with them for a while? Did he get lost on the Havoc world, or did he not make it through the Red Rain world? And . . . even if they find Ray Palmer . . . what are they going to do then? Supposedly he's the key to this next great crisis that's coming . . . I'm sorry, the Final Crisis . . . but it sounds like all he's doing, as he's jumping from world to world, is looking for the clues as to what that crisis may be. Ok, so maybe he has some knowledge. Actually, he doesn't even have that yet. He's just trying to gather the knowledge. But once he does get it, is he going to know what to do with it? Is he going to know how to stop the crisis, or even how to fight it? And to me, it seems like Bob here is flying by the seat of his pants. Shouldn't he be contributing to their little outing a bit more? On world 19 here, Jason, I think, is actually considering staying behind. He really feels at home in this Gotham and with this Bruce Wayne. At one point he even thinks that this time is even better than the first time. But, as with the previous chapters in this series, not much is accomplished here. All we do really find out is that there's a new Blue Beetle here, and it appears that Batman is training him. I'm guessing it's Dan, the guy with the monocle at the museum. But I'm just guessing. But somehow he is tied in to the multiverse also. He mentions to Batman at the end that they may want to speed up his training, because he might find out what it's like to travel from world to world soon enough. Don't get me wrong, it was a decent story by Brian Augustyn. And Greg Tocchini did a tremendous job on the art chores. It just seems kind of frivolous to me though, as it seems that nothing was really accomplished. As I've stated before, it bothers me when I read a series, and there's chapters in the middle that can be completely dispensed with, without really affecting the outcome, or even the flow of the story. That's the feeling I got after reading this book. I'm sorry, I just don't see why it was necessary.