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Some consider The DaVinci Code to be a dumbed-down version of Foucault's Pendulum and the Nicholas Cage movie National Treasure to be a dumbed-down version of The DaVinci Code. And now Mark Milllar has dumbed down National Treasure for comics.

Edison Crane is your average billionaire / super genius / Evil Knievel stuntman who is simultaneously trying to save the world from an asteroid, play seven games of chess and land his next spectacular jump when he unexpectedly gets pulled into a globe-spanning hunt for ancient clues to thwart a centuries-long conspiracy to abet an inter-dimensional invasion. Yup.

Millar keeps it zipping along at breakneck speed and loads it up with action scenes galore, but all that cannot distract from this being total bullshit. I suppose one could view it all as satirical, over-the-top send-up if one wanted to be generous, but having waded through the whole damn insufferable thing, I cannot find such generosity in myself. ( )