Final? crisis...

I've been enjoying Countdown, really I have. I'm enjoying it more since it's editorial change-over, but I have been liking it since the beginning. But...

Let's go back several years. We've got a DC Universe that's fairly cohesive and where things fit together. Problem is, it's more than a bit dark. I'm not really sure how this happened. After the original Crisis On Infinite Earths, things were much lighter in tone. We had the JLI, which was very light, almost to the point of being a humor book. This lasted a while, including various spin-offs, but eventually it was gone, replaced by the darker and more serious JLA. Which then broke up and was reformed. Which then broke up and was...

Batman, somewhere in here, lost his way, and he became almost the epitome of dark. New black costume, his back broken (by Bane), and his city destroyed, there was, for me at least, no reason left to read his titles any more. It was a relentlessly depressing and out-of-touch reality.

The "Post-Crisis" Superman was also lighter in tone, concentrating more on the mythic than on the dark. That started changing when we hit the era of the "Death of Superman". Somehow, once we were through that, things were never the same. The stakes had been raised, and things were ever-darker.

Green Lantern's city was destroyed in the course of the Superman epic, and it drove him mad. He, well, changed, and became the villain Parallax. As Parallax he tried to remake the universe. He partially succeeded. What came out of it wasn't the universe he'd wanted, but it was somewhat different, and darker still than the previous iteration. Eventually he redeemed himself saving the earth, and died, only to eventually become the Spectre. Actually his death caused Hal Jordan to become less dark. His Spectre was more a creature of redemption than of punishment. So, of course, that promptly ended and he went on to his not-so-eternal reward.

I could continue on, itemizing the roster of the DC Universe, but why? Hopefully by now you get the idea. As time went on, the universe continued to darken, and the heroes went from heroic to, well, I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Between personal tragedies (such as the new Green Lantern's girlfriend being murdered and her body stuffed into a refrigerator for him to find) to less-than heroic behavior (such as Power Company, the super-team that was just in it for the money).

Things hit their nadir when the "Identity Crisis" struck. Instead of a 'cosmic' type crisis, this one was personal and much closer to home. Sue Dibny, the Elongated Man's wife, was murdered in their home, and all indications were that it was done by one of the Justice League's villains. As things developed, we discovered that the League had been doing some less-than-heroic things for quite a while, mindwiping villains and making them more than a little bit ineffectual. THEN it turns out that they did it to Batman, as well!

The upshot was a further darkening of the DC Universe. The original, 1930's era Superman, who was still alive off in a pocket universe, was increasingly angered and disappointed in what he saw happening, and took steps to fix things. Of course, things didn't go to plan, but the world was once again remade in the Infinite Crisis.

A major goal of this partial reboot was to 'lighten up' the tone of the heroes, and to return them to being, well, more heroic. In some ways it worked. The Justice Society disbanded and then restarted, this time with the idea of 'making better heroes'. It made incremental differences in Batman, returning him to gray and lightening him up a fraction. Others, though...

In the run-up to the crisis, Wonder Woman killed a villain, Maximilian Lord. Not by accident, but intentionally. That didn't change in the soft reboot. The intention was there for the universe as a whole to lighten up, but somehow the changes rapidly went by-the board. The first year after the crisis was skipped over, in favor of showing a 'One Year Later' universe where the changes had shaken down. Regrettably, they basically settled down to the status quo ante. Aside from the characters involved in 52 you'd have hardly known a year had passed. Out of 52 we learned that the changes in Infinite Crisis were more extensive than we'd thought, though not 'here at home'. There were 52 different but identical universes. Mr. Mind, though, managed to disrupt the fabric of spacetime, and all the worlds changed -- so we now have 52 parallel universes.

In Countdown, we're seeing something -- something? -- going on that's going to change and redefine the DC Multiverse. Again. And we already know that following Countdown is Final Crisis.

I'm really hoping that Final Crisis is, in fact, final. We've had several years of flux that's taken a well-ordered universe, albeit one which is way too dark, and created an amorphous mish-mash of realities. It was roughly twenty years between Crisis On Infinite Earths and Identity Crisis. Since Identity Crisis it's been a headlong rush from crisis to crisis.

I believe it's getting past time for some closure. What I want to see coming out of Final Crisis is a well-ordered universe that can be used as a good sandbox for telling stories. After several years of flux, it's getting tiring to try and keep track of who's who and what's what. I think DC is at the point of diminishing returns with the whole "Crisis" concept. It's time to wrap this up and move on to other kinds of stories.

If they want to do another cosmic redefinition, how about putting it on the schedule for, roughly, 2028?

38 and counting...

Mister Action! Robin! Hero versus Her... um. Never mind.

Once again, Jimmy manages to make a fool of himself. Oh, it's not that he doesn't have the powers, it's that he hasn't taken the time to think things through. So, he goes and applies to the Teen Titans for membership. Only thing, it didn't occur to him in advance that his powers only work when his life is in danger. So, no powers when he tries to demonstrate. Ouch.

I'm assuming his powers somehow know whether an attack is going to be life-threatening. Does that mean there's a sentience behind the powers? Otherwise, how exactly would this work?

Mary Marvel and Zatanna find their cruise ship under attack, and find themselves fighting Slig, of the Deep Six. Things don't turn out well. We do get our first glimpse of Eclipso, though. For anyone who's forgotten, she's also known as Jean Loring, the person who set into motion the whole sequence of events leading from Identity Crisis to Infinite Crisis to 52 to Countdown and, next spring, Final Crisis.

Pied Piper and Trickster have their confrontation with Batwoman and The Question, and they don't end up looking too good. On the other hand, they do get let go once The Question decides they're morons who would have been incapable of killing the Flash.

We get a brief look-in at the Monitors, who've realized that Bob, Jason Todd, and Donna Troy are missing from the multiverse, along with Ryan Choi. One of them ties this in with the missing Ray Palmer, Ryan Choi's predecessor as The Atom. For folks who are supposed to be nigh-unto omniscient, and who have theoretically been keeping their beady little glowing-red eyes on Jason and Donna, they certainly mucked this one up.

Oracle (Barbara Gordon) is simultaneously fighting the Calculator in two different arenas. First, there's the attempted hack on her database servers, and secondly there's a global virus attack (intended to sew chaos and distract her from fighting the hack). Need I mention that she shuts both down cleanly, mightily pissing off Calculator in the process.

We also get to see some of the other heroes fighting the chaos. Superman, Power Girl, and Supergirl keeping aircraft from colliding. We've got Green Lantern rescuing a space shuttle whose computers are down. The JSA recaptures escapees from "Stryker's Island" in Metropolis. Okay, Metropolis is loosely based on New York (as is Gotham City, for that matter), but is it really necessary to have stupidly named and thinly-veiled versions of New York's landmarks? Stryker's Island? As opposed to Ryker's Island in New York? Shgeesh. It's a name that might have worked in the forties or fifties, but nowadays it's enough to pull you out of the story. At least it did for me.

Oh, and we saw Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters stopping some nuclear-tipped missiles from successfully launching. It seems they thought that dropping nukes on our allies would be a Bad Idea. Silly heroes. They should have checked first with George W. and Dick C. They wouldn't have been distressed by an accidental nuke or seventeen.

Finally, we have the start of the postponed meeting between Oracle, Karate Kid, and Una. We don't find out much new, but what we do discover... if true, it's a big one.

Oh, yeah, just one more thing... Darkseid. We're starting to get a clue of his plans, and I'm beginning to think he's been a prime mover behind the scenes for several years now. He's working on something called the New Multiversal Dynasty. This sounds double-plus-ungood.

39 and counting...

Countdown 39 (from DC Comics, in case you haven''t been paying attention) doesn't flow quite as well as the past few issues, but it's still a big step above the early issues of the series.

Karate Kid and Una break into Oracle's 'inner sanctum, only to find that someone is doing a fair job of hacking her system. This is a bad thing beyond what you might expect, since she's got one of the world's most comprehensive databases of information on superheroes -- including their true identities. Ouch!

Piper and Trickster are still hiding out beneath the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. After a nice meal (courtesy of Penguin) they're interrupted by the Suicide Squad. Plus, Trickster suffers another attack of homophobia. Their squabble ends abruptly when they're confronted by the Question and Batwoman.

Traveling deeper into the, um, Palmerverse (no ego problems there, either, I guess), Donna Troy, Jason Todd, Ryan Choi, and "Bob" end up in what looks a lot like Frank Brunner's version of a Doctor Strange dark dimension. I guess they shoulda taken a left turn at Albuquerque.

Mister Action seems able to handle street-level crime easily enough, but he's not really too attentive to the details. Getting distracted by the grateful -- and somewhat passionate -- thanks for saving a woman's purse, he begins mulling joining a team. In the process he forgets about the perp, who rapidly (and cautiously) slinks away. Jimmy's got hero potential, but he's also got potential to become a joke.

Holly Robinson is starting to see through Harley Quinn's facade. Yes, she's no longer idealizing the Joker and emulating his behavior, but she now seems to be devoted, in the same unhealthy way, to Athena.

Athena explains to Holly that her facility isn't designed to be able to handle persons with family responsibilities. Holly's "somewhat dubious" about all this, and Athena invites her to sit in on a "self-esteem workshop". I'm wondering just what goes on in the workshops. I guess we'll find out shortly.

By the way, as you may have notices, I'm generally not covering the back feature, the serialized History Of The Multiverse. Mainly this is because it's not really a story. It's basically an illustrated discourse on how we got from the original Crisis On Infinite Earths to the present. As such it's a fairly good precis. As a story, though, well, it's a dead zero. The way it's structured we have the Monitors standing around telling each other what they already know. It's pure exposition with no real story attached. As such there's nothing really to go over. I'll probably mention it if there's anything new that's worthy of note. It'll be ending soon, anyways, as the back feature turns to biographies of the villains.

40 and counting...

And Keith Giffen finally arrives. It's noticeable, and a definite step up for the art.

Countdown 40 is again moving the plot forward. Whatever caused the stagnancies in the early issues appears to have gone. My presumption is that the difference is the change from Mike Marts to Mike Carlin in editing. Mike Marts is a good editor, but he doesn't seem to have had a good handle on how to do either a weekly comic (the pacing) or a crossover event (what to include where). Mike Carlin has experience with both, and it shows in the finished product.

Way down in the, um, Palmerverse, we've got Donna Troy, Jason Todd, Ryan Choi, and "Bob" the Monitor in what's similar to, but not the same as, the Amazon jungle from Sword Of The Atom. Confused yet?

After a fight with the locals, they discover they're all on the same side (gee, where have I heard that plot before?) and they get some leads on where to head next to find Ray Palmer. Plus, here's the first real substantial connection back to Identity Crisis. I'm hoping they'll develop this further. Otherwise, the motivations behind his actions seem pretty empty. Why did he vanish? Grief? Despair? Embarrassment? So far we don't know. I'm looking forward to finding out.

Mister Action's uniform still looks kinda doofus to me, but based on his first outing, this might just work. Jimmy Olson is obviously trying to base his costumed persona upon Superman, but we'll see how effective is imitation. And Lois is right when she says "So it's true-- all the good names are taken." Jimmy could have been a bit more imaginative in choosing a name. Oh, I know it's because in a previous incarnation of the DC Universe he was "Mister Action" for (if I remember rightly) WGBS News, the station's sort-of-ombudsman.

We have a look-in on Mary Marvel, who's looking for help from Zatanna. Mary really does have some serious anger issues, though I have to admit having shared similar feelings towards hecklers.

Holly Robinson is getting a bit uncomfortable with some of the policies of the Athenian Women's Shelter. We're starting to see a few cracks in their facade -- just what is their real agenda?

Darkseid is making a bit more of an appearance here. He shows a few unexpected depths, though he really doesn't want anyone to know. I mean, he really doesn't want anyone to know. Plus, we see someone whom I think is Bug, though I had thought he was killed a few decades ago. Then again, on "New Earth", who knows?

Piper and Trickster follow through on their idea to enlist Penguin's help in hiding -- at least briefly. We get a connection (finally!) to the events of 52, as well. Where's that going to lead? Well, that's the question.

41 and counting...

"Seriously. Nice work."

That's the opening line to Countdown 41, and it's also a fair review of the issue, as well.

At last, as we've seen in the past few issues, the story is finally starting to move forward.

Trickster and Pied Piper find a (somewhat damp) way out of their predicament, but find themselves in a bit of a different pickle, ending up in Gotham City. They're (as they put it) "public enemies numbers one and one-A!" Trickster seems to have an idea, though, as to where they can go for help. Seems he's buds with the proprietor of the Iceberg Lounge.

Jimmy Olson is trying to implement his idea -- to become a superhero -- and, by this point it seems like he's got a truly doofus plan to achieve it. I dunno, in the end it might all work out, but to me it looks like it's mainly got potential to humiliate him beyond all description.

Mister Action?

Mary Marvel just gets a look-in here, as she questions the changes to her personality since she gained Black Adam's powers. She's not as oblivious to what's been happening as it's appeared. It looks like she's about to pick up a mentor, welcome or not. Can anyone say Eclipso?

Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and Ryan Choi, along with Bob the Monitor (you had to be there), have left for the Palmerverse, in search of Ray Palmer. First stop, the jungle land from the long-ago Sword of the Atom.

Back in Gotham, at the Athenian Women's Center, Holly Robinson has to restrain Harly Quinn from trying to demonstrate their peacefulness by breaking a few heads. While she might be off her infatuation with Joker, she certainly hasn't lost the violent edge she had as his girlfriend. Question is, is she still homicidal?

Finally, the Legionnaires tell Karate Kid that he's not to return to the 30th Century. This is the 30th Century Legion, right? Doesn't look much like the 31st Century one. Then again, there's been so many reboots of the Legion that I've lost count. He stays behind with Una, one of the parts of Triplicate Girl. Without her counterparts, I'm not sure just what, if any powers she has. Umm. Maybe this is the current continuity explanation of Duo Damsel?

42 and counting...

Beginning with the death of the Flash (from Trickster's dream point-of-view), Countdown 42 is finally bringing in the event that the whole "Rogues" storyline was about. I think it was a mistake having the whole rogue build-up here, and then have them do the deed offscreen (in Flash 13), and then return to Countdown without even a look-in at what happened. Not everyone who reads Countdown reads Flash, and the folks who'll later read the collected edition won't have immediate knowledge of the events of Flash 13. So yeah, I think belatedly showing what happened is a good idea.

Then we see they've been captured and handcuffed together by Deadshot and Multiplex. Who they're working for is (pardon the expression) up in the air, though they do make it clear they're working for some sort of government agency. The captured duo do manage to stage an escape, only to discover (belatedly) that they were being held in a moving airplane.

The expression "look before you leap" comes to mind.

Mary Marvel, probably because of the long-term coma, is a tad out-of-date on who's who in the DC universe. Not knowing that the Riddler is now one of the good guys, she's on the verge of taking, um, drastic action against him when she spots him in the vicinity of a robbery. Convinced to give him a chance to prove himself, they wind up fighting Clayface. Mary goes awfully close to the line... She throws Clayface into orbit, with the idea that he'll be freeze-dried, and eventually re-enter. As she puts it, "He's just dirt... and dirt will come back to earth sooner or later!"

We can see how she seems -- split -- in her reaction to what she did. Part of her is shocked and horrified at her actions, the other part takes a 'good riddance to bad rubbish' attitude. It certainly seems as though she inherited more than just her powers from Black Adam. Riddler suggests, not entirely in jest, that she find a mentor, one who specializes in dealing with anger management issues. DC has already hinted that she gets involved with Eclipso, whom I suspect isn't who the Riddler had in mind.

Batman and Karate Kid have a brief scene that -- well, I can't actually figure out what's the purpose of the scene. It doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know, and doesn't do anything to illuminate the characters. We know it's a couple of pages transplanted from another issue. So... was this just put here to fill two pages that would have otherwise have been occupied by something that was deleted? Perhaps we're seeing the first effects of the change in editorship?

Holly Robinson and Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn) have a discussion about Harley's recovery, and her recruitment by Athena. Granted that Athena is a god (small "g" type), I'd have thought Harleen was too far gone to ever break away from the Joker. So, is she posing as cured? Or, has she finally put Joker into her past?

Jimmy Olson is still working on the idea of becoming a super-hero, without a lot of success. There's not much more to be said about that, at least for now.

Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and the Monitor pay a visit to Ryan Choi (the Atom 3), enlisting his help in searching for his predecessor, Ray Palmer (Atom 2). We've been told that Ray is the key to averting the Great Disaster. We'll see.

Palmerverse?