Review: Countdown to Final Crisis Vol. 4 trade paperback (DC Comics)

[Contains spoilers for Countdown to Final Crisis]

In the end, I liked Countdown to Final Crisis well enough. The final story comes down to a rather motley group of second-string heroes, which is hardly enough to hang a series on but sometimes makes for an entertaining read. And the Countdown to Final Crisis plot wasn't all that bad, in and of itself, even gripping at times -- but there's any number of instances where the book could have been better than it was.

Countdown to Final Crisis ends with former Catwoman Holly Robinson in an apartment with Harley Quinn, telling her, "Never change." It's a strange ending for these two characters -- Holly, whom with the end of the Catwoman series we may never see again; and Harley Quinn, whose future appearances likely won't reference the events of this series. Neither one is changed by this series. Their roles were essentially reductive; Harley and Holly were present to expose Granny Goodness, who herself was killed before the end of the story -- a lot of fury signifying nothing.

Indeed, we get the sense a bunch of character's didn't change over the course of this series. Jason Todd as irreverent, unsentimental, and one-sided as when the series started; Jimmy Olsen's changes, interviews have told, will mostly be swept under the rug; and despite the Atom, Kyle Rayner, and Donna Troy banding together, we'll next see them separate in three different series. I haven't minded spending time with these characters, but one likes to imagine it's a shared experience, where the characters change, too; here, not so much.

I can't help but compare this to the end of DC Comics's previous weekly series, 52, which ended with the Question effectively asking the reader "Are you ready?" It's a message of hope, intrigue, excitement; "never change" seems a message of the status quo, likely the exact opposite direction DC Comics wants to suggest it's heading. But Countdown to Final Crisis was in a way a story of the status quo -- sure, a bunch of New Gods died, and sure we got to explore the Multiverse for a while, but ultimately you can't point to Countdown as the defining moment for a character like you can with Renee Montoya, Booster Gold, or others with 52.

Or maybe "never change" is meant ironically; maybe it's meant to indicate that big change is just around the corner. I can't decide, if I were less knowledgeable about comics and simply picked up Countdown to Final Crisis off the stands, would I be more or less satisfied with the ending? This is a countdown to Final Crisis, let's not forget, so the uninitiated should have a reasonable expectation that this story continues into Final Crisis. To that end, some of the dangling plotlines -- the Buddy Blank of Earth-51 becoming OMAC, Pied Piper inspired to become a hero, Mary Marvel's turn for the worse, whether Holly and Harley will spend the rest of their lives in Holly's apartment -- might very well be picked up in Final Crisis. Knowing bits and pieces of what's to come, I doubt that, but to give Countdown to Final Crisis a fair shake, I have to acknowledge that maybe Countdown isn't meant to clean up all the pieces, Final Crisis is.

Volume four does have its moments. Certainly the two issues of the Great Disaster narrated by Buddy Blank, which feature an all-too-real viral outbreak spreading across the world, kept my attention (though volume three, with the war on Earth-51, is still my favorite). I enjoyed seeing Darkseid's plot revealed, and the ultimate roles Desaad and Granny Goodness played. And again, I liked these characters -- some days watching Kyle Rayner, Donna Troy, the Atom, and Jimmy Olsen and a bunch of Hairies run across the Multiverse is all you need in this world.

But I can't get around what I can only chalk up to poor writing in this series. Kyle Rayner, written with so much depth by Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons, becomes a boorish loudmouth here, bickering constantly with Jason Todd while Donna Troy plays referee. The characters hardly seem like heroes, let alone people you'd want to spend time with. The amount of "gottas" and "wannas" in this volume astounded me -- if we want comics to be treated as literature, that means it has to be written as literature, and Kyle Rayner and Donna Troy don't speak the same as a character in high school might. Plot wasn't the problem in Countdown; the Multiverse war and the Great Disaster were each solid ideas. For my money, it was depth that Countdown lacked.

[Contains full covers, summary of previous volumes]

That said, however, I remain excited about the DC crossovers to come, Batman RIP and Final Crisis, where I imagine the real action is. More reviews coming soon!

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Review: Countdown: Arena trade paperback (DC Comics)

[Contains spoilers for Countdown: Arena]

Countdown: Arena is so gratuitous, so remarkably incorrect and out of bounds, that even though there's very little that's redeeming to this book, I find myself recommending it if only in admiration for how gleefully twisted and just plain wrong writer Keith Champagne and artist Scott McDaniel are in this book.

Make no mistake -- Countdown: Arena is a horror title. I know, I know, it's about a bevy of Multi-verse heroes fighting under Monarch's auspices, but mark my words, this is a horror title. Like the Saw movie series, Arena finds the heroes having to bump each other off one by one in increasingly bloody ways for a rapidly fading chance at survival. This is not a case of pitting your favorite action heroes against one another, as perhaps it should have been; this is nightmare where your action figures rip off one another's arms to survive.

Given this, however, I have to admire Champagne. He has Monarch slaughter the L.E.G.I.O.N. completely in the first couple pages, and follows it up with an alternate Nightshade murdering our own; that Nightshade subsequently gets her head ripped off. With seeming glee, Champagne "goes there"; Blue Beetle fans can watch as a swarm of insects consume Jaime Reyes alive, and then bloodily bore through the head of an animal Blue Beetle for seconds. Champagne stops at nothing, and though there's no real intrinsic value to the story in Arena, sometimes watching a writer's imagination zoom around no holds barred is value in and of itself.

Arena, one quickly learns, is not about the story. Champagne's portrayal of many of the characters is questionable; I'm not sure if we're meant to believe that our New Earth Nightshade and Blue Beetle die here, or whether no one took the time to consider where to place these analogues. Champagne has the Tangent Flash Lia take a surprising turn here, one that I tend to doubt another writer will pick up on. And I have to admit, while I liked Scott McDaniel's art when Karl Story inked it on Nightwing, I haven't been much of a fan since, and there's plenty of times in Arena where actions feel out of sequence and it's hard to tell who's hit who and with what appendage.

There's some surprise and a little story here, but mostly Arena is just about letting the carnage wash over you, akin to a bloody video game. In each issue, a couple characters fight; in each issue, the heroes threaten Monarch and then get rebuffed. Monarch claims at the beginning that he's closed every avenue of escape, and -- no surprise -- he's right. Heck, someone even made the questionable choice of putting an image of the winners of each of the Arena fights right. on the cover. of the book.

I recommend reading Countdown: Arena in one sitting. If you can, read it with your feet up and a cold drink in your hand. This book is not to be taken seriously; it defies, perhaps, all attempts to do so. It won't be the best comic book you ever read, but there's something to be found in the sheer ridiculousness of it.

[Contains full covers.]

We continue our reading of Countdown tie-ins, with some trepidation, with JLA: Salvation Run, coming up next.

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Review: Countdown to Final Crisis Vol. 3 trade paperback (DC Comics)

[Contains spoilers for Countdown to Final Crisis Volume 3]

There's a point, about five issues in to Countdown to Final Crisis Volume 3, where this book gets pretty good. It's a shame, to be sure, that it took almost thirty issues to get there, but in this volume, finally, Countdown to Final Crisis shows a little heft.

This volume of Countdown starts off with some of the same problems as previous. The story begins with a gratuitous Firestorm cameo that's completely out of the blue and hardly explained, making it hard to care about the character; Mary Marvel continues to flit angrily from location to location in a storyline grown far beyond repetitive. There's also almost an entire issue dedicated to Superman-Prime torturing Mxyzptlk, with absolutely no bearing on the rest of the story. The lack of real character connection and motion to the plots plagued Countdown through much of the first two volumes, and in the beginning I feared the same would be true here.

At the same time, it's clear that the writing and art team has a much stronger presence in this book right from the beginning. The issues seem more targeted, following one character through a greater extent of the chapter; Keith Giffen's drafting also comes through stronger, more like 52, with sometimes six- or eight-panels per page. And the lineup of artists involved in this volume is nothing short of astounding: Jamal Igle, Jesus Saiz, Pete Woods, Scott Kolins, Ron Lim -- even JLA's Howard Porter provides art for an issue. There's a different tone here, such to suggest that Countdown has changed.

Maybe it's the three pages of the Pied Piper, bereft of the Trickster, contemplating his own impeding death -- and the way in which his situation gets increasingly dire as he heads out into the desert. Maybe it's the surprisingly moving meeting between the Earth-51 Batman and Jason Todd (the meeting that one imagines Bruce and Jason might've had the first time around, had the latter not been trying to kill the former), which leads into a couple issues where Jason is, maybe for the first time, an actually likable character. Maybe it's the epic, expansive multi-front war between the Monitors, Monarch, Superman-Prime, and the Challengers of the Beyond that ends this volume. Whatever it is, Countdown takes a sudden giant turn in character and content, and the book just keeps rising from there.

One difficulty with Countdown is that there's so much inherit mystery, whether necessary or unnecessary, that it's hard to care when you don't really know what's going on. We've seen hints before that Athena is really Granny Goodness, but when it's revealed -- and Holly and Harley Quinn meet the real Amazonian queen Hippolyta -- the story takes a great leap forward. I look forward to the final volume, where perhaps the revelation of more mysteries might reveal the book further.

[Contains full covers, "What Came Before" text pages.]

We'll follow the threads of Countdown now to Countdown: Arena. Come along!

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Review: Countdown to Adventure Volume 1 trade paperback (DC Comics)

Pre- and post-Infinite Crisis, DC Comics has tried to revitalize its science-fiction and supernatural genres with a string of mini-series set in each realm. Countdown to Adventure, with the eponymous "Countdown" in the title, is both a pre-Final Crisis crossover book and the latest of these science-fiction series (following Mystery in Space)--but it's also a subtle, moving epilogue to Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange's space adventures in 52. Writer Adam Beechen's Countdown to Adventure, I'd say, is a "thinker"--I finished it, pondered over it for a while, and found more and more meaning in the story as I thought it over.

Countdown to Adventure essentially takes the end of the space heroes' saga in 52 and then says, "Now what?" Whereas other 52 heroes like Renee Montoya and Booster Gold better achieved their own potential during 52, the space heroes struggled simply to survive; their changes were more insular, learning to rely on one another, than empowering. Countdown to Adventure finds the space heroes now necessarily separated--Adam Strange back on Rann, and Animal Man drawn back to the responsibilities of his family--only to find they're not necessarily sure how to survive without one another.

I felt initially disturbed that Beechen makes some waves in Animal Man Buddy Baker and his wife Ellen's historically model marriage, but I quickly came to understand the necessity of these waves. Buddy, like a soldier returning from war, feels no one can understand what he's been through except his fellow soldiers--in this case, the beautiful alien princess Starfire now living in his home. Beechen pits Buddy's growing reliance on Starfire against Starfire's burgeoning independence--in the absence of her powers, Starfire makes an attempt at a "normal" life--and there's great story power in the contrast of the two characters' arcs. By the end of the story, both heroes' lives return to the status quo, though Ellen ends up helping save the day in a way that might encourage other writers to give her a larger role in Buddy's adventures.

Beechen impressed me also in his use of Adam Strange. Though I can't stand that Beechen (or perhaps DC Comics Editorial) put Adam Strange back in his old fin-head costume instead of the new spacesuit that Pascal Ferry designed for Adam Strange: Planet Heist, I did think Beechen picked up on an important and previously untapped aspect of Strange's character. Adam Strange is essentially part of the bourgeoisie of the planet Rann--a vaunted hero and married to the daughter of the Rannian high muckety-muck Sardath; his feet, even without his jetpack, don't ever really touch the ground. Beechen turns this into a point of contention between Strange and the Rannians after Strange is stripped of his heroic title, and I felt we really learned new things about Strange as he had to face his own position of privilege. The end of this book brings a change for Adam Strange that I hope other stories will use as well.

Adam Beechen brings the 52 space heroes to such a good conclusion here that it seems, in a way, like the end of DC Comics's space saga for now. Fortunately DC's got Rann/Thanagar: Holy War right around the corner; I haven't heard the best reviews about the next series, but I for one am glad DC's cosmic renaissance hasn't ended just yet. Nice work here from Beechen, who brings the same level of excellence as he did in his run on Robin.

[Contains some, but not all, covers. Maybe the rest will be in volume two, along with the missing Forager backup stories?]

Back now to some Superman/Batman, and we'll see where we end up from there. Thanks for reading!

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Review: Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer trade paperback (DC Comics)

Without question, some readers are going to feel pretty burned by Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer. That is, note that this story is "the search," and not actually the finding; Ray Palmer appears nowhere in this volume, except as a teaser advertisement for Countdown Volume Three. However, if it's the journey you're interested in and not necessarily the destination--especially a journey through DC's new Multiverse--I found a surprising lot to like in this volume.

The Search for Ray Palmer takes the new Challengers of the Beyond on a tour of DC's greatest imprints, Elseworlds, and classic alternate realities. The variety of writers also brings with it a variety of approaches and levels of quality. Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti's "Superwoman/Batwoman" barely involves the Challengers at all, but is big on fun gender-bending duplicates; Peter Johnson's "Red Rain," on the other hand, involves the Challengers directly in the story, is admirably spooky, and even adds something to the Red Rain mythos. Sean McKeever's "Crime Society" story also barely involves the Challengers, but instead fleshes out the interesting (though unfortunately short-lived) Jokester character.

I liked Ron Marz's "Wildstorm" story in that Marz again writes Kyle Rayner, and follows up on the Monarch scene from his Ion miniseries, but his use of the Wildstorm characters left much to be desired. Overall Marz poorly introduces the Wildstorm characters and doesn't raise them much past stereotypes of themselves--Midnighter is violent, the Authority is uncaring, etc. The comic would hardly make me want to read a Wildstorm title if I weren't already familiar with them.

None of the writers, unfortunately, succeed in making the Challengers of the Beyond any less annoying than they start out. Former Robin Jason Todd is the Guy Gardner of the group, cracking mediocre jokes and acting "too cool for school"; Kyle Rayner vacillates between portrayals as stuck-up or a buffoon; and Donna Troy incessantly rolls her eyes and wonders what to do about the two. Uniting the three was likely a premise that sounded good on paper, but having multiple writers offers no room for character growth, and so they just bicker all the way through the tales. Rather than giving these characters a place in the DC Universe, The Search for Ray Palmer unfortunately reinforces why these characters are second-stringers.

The Search for Ray Palmer is a promising tour of the new DC Multiverse; now the question remains as to what DC will do with all these characters. Despite my complaints about this volume, I enjoyed learning about the alternate characters, and many of them would seem to have potential--the female Blue Beetle mourning the loss of Booster Gold, the Manezons rumored to reappear, the loved ones that the Jokester leaves behind--and I wouldn't mind seeing many of them in the DCU proper. That, at least, would give The Search for Ray Palmer greater purpose--not a tour, but a beginning.

[Contains full covers, summary page.]

On now to get dangerous with the Suicide Squad, and then maybe some Outsiders.

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Review: Countdown to Final Crisis Vol. 2 trade paperback (DC Comics)

It's not hard to see why Countdown drove so many in the blogosphere so crazy. The second volume of Countdown is an amazing collage of filler material and non sequiturs, punctuated by an occasional flash of brilliance of DC Comics nostalgia.

You would think that, given that Countdown doesn't have to show the natural progression of time in the way that 52 did, the writers would have an easier time balancing the multiple storylines and characters. Instead, what drags down the pace of Countdown are numerous unnecessary scenes that seem intended mainly just to "check in" with the cast members.

Holly Robinson, for instance, takes just about forever to depart for and arrive on Themyscira, while the story continually beats us over the head about the evilness of Athena (really you-know-who). The writers also offer multiple scenes of Mary Marvel's generic evilness toward random bystanders, when I couldn't help but think just one example (or at least an example with more plot relevance) would have sufficed.

The fun side of Countdown, however, is the way in which it's becoming It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Countdown--that is, a cast of thousands. The last volume offered the forgotten New God Sleez; this volume had a bevy of Cadmus characters last seen in Superboy, including Serling Roquette and the Newsboy Legion (though missing, unfortunately, Flip), and also Mr. Orr and Equuis, late of Superman For Tomorrow. These are by no means headliners, but they do show an obscure depth of DC Comics knowledge that's fun for the dedicated fan, even if a new reader might be lost.

Countdown also continues to shout out to longer-established DC Comics fans. In addition to the use of Jack Kirby's Cadmus and the New Gods, Jimmy Olsen's nascent powers match those he had in more than a dozen Silver Age Superman stories. The second volume of Countdown also brings in Kirby's OMAC, Brother Eye (in their Infinite Crisis forms) and Buddy Blank, though as someone not familiar with the Kirby OMAC mythology, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing something through much of the Karate Kid/Buddy Blank scenes.

Indeed, perhaps in its attempt to be the "spine" of the DC Universe, Countdown jumps around a lot, and requires a very patient reader. Karate Kid has apparently contracted a virus, though I completely missed where we were supposed to understand this. Mary Marvel is embroiled in a fight with the Shadowpact which thankfully skips a lot of exposition, but comes on remarkably suddenly. Most notably, Jimmy Olsen learns a major fact about Clark Kent (and come on, what other major fact is there?), a plotline that's barely touched on again, and it's only because I read Superman: 3-2-1 Action that I had any idea what was going on.

The final chapter of Countdown to Final Crisis's second volume serves to summarize the series so far and shed light on the book's overriding conspiracy. While I appreciate Countdown offering a bit more cohesion at the halfway mark (and I did feel something of a thrill at how everything interrelates), I couldn't help but think it had all been done before. Mary Marvel, it seems, serves to harness the power of magic in the DC Universe, while Karate Kid's taking care of the technology ... it's Alexander Luthor's plan from Infinite Crisis, right? Unfortunately, this only underscores how much better Countdown to Infinite Crisis handled the conspiracy plot; here's hoping Countdown to Final Crisis is headed for something different.

[Contains full covers, summary pages.]

On now to some Countdown crossovers, and then we'll see where we end up after that. See you next time!

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