Countdown to the Final Crisis... of a new crossover!

Another 6 issues of Countdown have come out so it's time to talk about another 6 issues of Countdown. I'll be short this time, I'm not going through each issue and for the most part I'm going to pretend you know what I'm talking about rather than boring you with the details of each book. Pretty much all I have are issues with this book, no they're not typical Fanboy issues of this character shouldn't do that or whatever typical Fanboy's grip about. My first issue with this book is that it's horribly rushed at times, which I could easily fix for them... stop recapping each character in every issue. Seriously I'm beginning to wonder if Dini and company or even the rest of DC even read 52? If they did, they would have noticed how issues would feature certain characters and sometimes the whole gang, but not ever issue. It gets really boring reading two pages about Jimmy Olsen and not knowing the what's, why's and how's of the situation that he's in simply because there isn't enough time. And they're parts that I've frankly just stopped caring about, for instance the group searching for Ray Palmer, don't care, they don't do anything interesting or say anything that isn't forced or frankly just dumb. Another storyline I don't care about is the Rouges. I started off iffy about them, then I really stopped giving a damn, and now I'm just tired of them being the only story we're following 100%.

Piper and Trickster are the only two that we follow every where, if they take a shit, we're there, and I don't care anymore. They killed the Flash, yet in Countdown they say they didn't. They have no redeeming character qualities to care about and yet the book asks you to root for them, but I can't they are murderers plain and simple. I'm also very much so done reading about Catwoman's buddy and Harley Quinn who just can't seem to find a home outside the animated cartoon. They just hang around and now they're becoming Amazon warriors big deal, they haven't done anything for almost two months now. My last grip for this book that's really sinking fast, is that fact that for the last six issues at least (possibly more but I can't remember) is that someone will be saying something like, "We wouldn't want to walk into a..." and it'll cut off, then on the next page a different character will finish the sentence, "Trap!" This has been happening with EVERY, SINGLE, TRANSITION! I find it very far fetched that every character is A) always talking about the same thing and B) Using the same dialog to do so. So Dini and company are you saying that none of these character's have an original voice, that they all talk the same? Because that's how this book reads. None of the characters read any differently from the others, and since the art's not that good we have to be thankful that they're wearing costumes otherwise I wouldn't know who's talking. I'll probably continue reading this book for another couple issues, I'd like to at least buy it till the name changes to Countdown to Final Crisis, but I'm not sure I can last that long. I knew the gimmick of having a weekly book would fade, but I didn't think it would fade in the middle of that book. PS the covers are starting to bore me too!

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Countdown - The Next Six

DC's Countdown... to Final Crisis!

At Comic Con this year DC announced that with issue 30 something, they would be officially changing the title of Countdown, to Countdown to Final Crisis. I know, I know, about a thousand petty little jokes just roll off the tongue. Like, "how original. Where'd ya come up with that one?" That's not what this is about, this is about the next 6 issues of Countdown. If you didn't read about the first 6, then click away!

Going through each issue is frankly very boring and since there's not a whole lot happening in this book yet, and some issues feel completly tacked on, I'll save you the details and just hit key points of issues, and overall story lines. One major inconsistency that I don't think a lot of readers may have picked up on; Mary Marvel only has half of Black Adam's powers, even though in issue 46 she receives all of Black Adam's and his wife's powers. In one of the issues she meets Billy, now the Wizard Shazam! and her powers are now half of what they were... The only foreseeable reason DC would have to do this is if they decided they couldn't get rid of Black
Adam. After all they did make him a big deal in 52 so why end his Villainous career? Several people already pointed out the fact that Piper and Trickster claim no responsibility for Bart Allen's death, even though in All Flash (I think someone reviewed that) they clearly participated. Again one of my major grips with this book is that Paul Dini is only plotting a lot of it and guest writers are doing their best at making the characters inconsistent from issue to issue. Probably one of the worst comics I've ever read was issue 43. This issue is a memorial for the late Bart Allen; several boring speeches are giving that do nothing more than fill the page. They have no heart, they have no meaning and they don't do Bart's character any justice. The worst speech, which I was hoping would be really good, was given by Robin. Now I thought that Batman had remained out of the spotlight of the JLA in order to keep the villains of Gotham guessing if his existence is real or not. In fact it's part of his character archetype. Well Robin pretty much announces his existence to thousands of people in attendance and to who ever may be broadcasting the funeral service, then Bart does it himself when Robin puts on a lame ass DVD where Bart speaks from the dead. So the Robin speech was a disappointment, but then Bart's on, and you're thinking, "Hey this will be alright". Nope! Not a damn chance, his speech sucked so bad and had no point. The worst part is that it really left his character feeling shallow and one dimensional. Also in the same issue the Monitor for New Earth proves to be the worst and most annoying character ever! He says the same line over and over for like three issues. Also there's a female character, I have no idea who she is, why she's on the run or what she has to do with anything. Frankly even if I did know anything about her I probably still wouldn't care because she hasn't done anything the entire book.

Here's a quick hit list of the good that happened: Darksied showed emotion, Jimmy Olson became a superhero, Forerunner took over and Army, The Bleed was featured (Even if DC had no right to use it), Batman told off Karate Kid and had a bad ass line, "What were you expecting? A sidekick job?", Comments on Mary Marvel's new outfit, Clayface getting thrown into space, Deadshot... doing stuff. I just like Deadshot even if he shows up and just smokes, he's cool. (But no smoking is not cool... unless you're Deadshot of course). Harley Quinn shows up as a Amazon woman's rehab manager... or something like that.

For me the book really isn't doing much, I know a lot of DC's history and what not, and I'm very up to date on what's happening in the DCU (Since I read almost everything they put out (You think there's a lot of comic reviews? Just think of how many there could be!)) so I have to say I'm disappointed so far. I can only hope that the next 6 issues will pick up. I will say the the quality of art was much better than some of the first 6 issues, but not by much. Maybe a title change is just what the series needs... nah!

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DC Comics Countdown - The First 6!

DC Comics Presents

COUNTDOWN

Written By: Paul Dini (HW)

with Many Others

Today we're taking a look at DC's first 6 issues of "Countdown", their newest weekly series that tackles the entire DC universe and no doubt will bring us to the next "Crisis" to plague the companies books. So far I would give the series a 7.0, I'll give my break down at the end. For now let's go through issue by issue.

51 - 50 The first issue didn't really impress me, but I had to give it the benefit of the doubt since 52's (DC's last weekly series that just concluded) first issue didn't wow me either I let it slide and gave them to the next issue. Also Kubert should not do large team shots. Not a single hero looks interesting or detailed but at least they didn't get George "My style hasn't changed in twenty years" Perez to do it. The story was a little confusing it felt like I had missed something in-between 52 and Countdown . Issue Fifty was better, since the writing is changing from book to book with only Dini to map everything out I think it'll make for a lot of So-So issues. But anything with the Joker, that's handled by someone who knows the Joker is good. Also Jimmy Olsen has Elongated Man's powers? Or possibly Plastic Man's who knows they haven't said yet. We also get the established pacing of the Flash's Rouges, The Monitor's, The Anomaly's, Olsen and Mary Marvel. The books tell part of each story and then moves on to the next. The back of the book is the History of the Multi-verse as told by the Monitors. Kurbert's Joker Cover is awesome, if they put that on a shirt or poster I'm all over it, simply Bad Ass!

49-48 The story picks up and we find out that Duela Dent the Joker's Daughter from another Universe was not suppose to be killed by the Monitor, none of them have names and they all call each other brother and sister which gets creepy after a while. Overall this issue was lack luster. 48 was actually pretty good. As you can see Lightray one of the New Gods dies, and Superman pretty much shits his pants. He actually asks Jimmy, "How can a God die?" like Jimmy's going to be, "Well you see Clark once a life ends..." Also they explain why Superman wasn't there to stop it. Please writers you don't need to write "convenient" story's on why Superman wasn't there. He's in like 5 books at once just read an issue of Superman and say he was there. Also I think we'd let it slide since it's Superman, not "Everywhere at Once Man." Jimmy apparently has the Flash's powers in this issue as he saves a group of people. Then the dying New God zaps him and I'm thinking he's given him his powers but we'll see. I think the fact the Jimmy's got two different powers might be why he has to Die. Cover was horrible again, it looks like Superman's looking into a reflection rather than a dead body in a hole. Two different perspectives happening on the same piece of art? I would say so. I thought his Dad taught art? I guess natural talent wins every time.
47-46 Not only is this one of the best covers ever, but it's also one of the sexist. Again give me a shirt, a poster a statue and a wall paper pronto! In this issue Black Adam has his powers back and gives them all to Mary Marvel! What? Yeah you read that right. Teth Adam is no longer Black Adam. Too bad the art inside isn't as good as the Cover. I don't know why DC has there most mediocre artist draw there biggest books. That was always the problem with 52 you'd get a decent artist then 7 issue of "Meh." 46 introduces us to Forerunner the weapon of the Monitors, I almost typed Guardians since they seem to be a mixture of the Guardians and Marvel's Watchers. Forerunner hands Jason Todd and Donna Troy there asses, which sucks because I was actually starting to like Jason Todd's character even if they made him way to chatty. But no he wasn't as cool as when he kidnapped the Joker and was beating the hell out of him.

I'm not super impressed by this book yet, it hasn't earned my money and I might not get it anymore. The writings a little inconsistent from story to story and they keep trying to recap what happened in the last issue. The pacing is slow on some parts like the Monitors and the Rouges which stinks because I like the story I just wish they'd have learned from 52 and realize that not every character has to be in the book each week. The covers are 50/50 right now, if Bene's hadn't done the last 2 I would probably say they were mediocre at best. If you want to read these books you'll have to track down the single issues since DC's dumb and won't Trade Paper Back them until the series is over thinking that people will still even want the trades when its over. Probably ever comic store on the planet has enough back issues of the book so it shouldn't be too hard to get it and catch up on the looming disaster that you can't get a feel for yet. DC's trying a little to hard to give you that feeling of what's going to happen next rather than writing a good story that just naturally does it. Hopefully that won't force feed it as much in the coming issues. For more Wallpaper goodness check out DC's homepage.

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