Countdown to Adventure #1 Review

COUNTDOWN TO ADVENTURE #1
Written by Adam Beechan & Justin Gray
Art by Eddy Barrows & Fabrizio Fiorentino

Drop the main Countdown series and pick up this. It is a million times better than the sub par stuff DC is throwing out week to week. This issue comes with a huge $3.99 price tag, but it is well worth it in my opinion.

This issue sees the return of the space fairing cast of 52 in the form of Starfire, Animal Man and Adam Strange. At this point, I do not know how this new adventure will tie into Countdown or if the Countdown is just there to reference the Forerunner back up story. As for the contents of this issue, the first half is dedicated to our 52 compatriots while the latter half is focused on the origin of the Forerunner race. I can see why they packaged these two stories together as a single issue as the Forerunner story reads very much like a backup story and would be a terrible standalone issue in my eyes. That is not to say that it was a bad backup story. Quite the opposite actually. But it is told in a very generic style with average art at best.

As this is the first issue, the main story is mostly build up. We see what the trio from space have been up to in their time since 52 and there does not appear to be any major villain or menace obviously apparent at this point. The only plot points we are given are Starfire and Animal Man's powers are both not working properly and Adam Strange being replaced by a new champion from Earth in the form of Champ, a movie star that Animal Man is stunt doubling for as well. There is one other oddity in the form of Animal Man's son and Champ both freaking out in a similar manner when questioned by Animal Man and Adam Strange respectively. Each person gets a crazed look in their eyes and seem overcome with rage or anger. Whether this is a side effect of some disease the space fairing team brought back with them or something else remains a mystery.

The Forerunner origin story is quite entertaining for me, as she was one of the better aspects of Countdown and I was enjoying her character until they shunted her out of the weekly with the promise she would show up in a future tie-in miniseries, which I am reviewing here today.

Looking past the cheesy, "tell me your origin Forerunner", premise where Monarch requests her origin, this story shed a lot of light on the Forerunners and apparently they are from the forty-eighth Earth, where humanity was a war mongering race that has gone extinct. Earth, now a war world for other races to wage conflicts, sparing their own planets in the process, is where the survivors of each war from the different races have bred over the years to become the formidable Forerunner race.

Another major revelation by Monarch is that the Monitors have apparently used one of their other slave races to wipe out the Forerunners, making the now named Forerunner, Viza Aziv, the last Forerunner in the multiverse.

I enjoyed both stories for different reasons and feel it justifies the price tag attached to this issue. The first one for its ties to 52 and the new adventures of those characters and the second story for its revelations pertaining to Countdown and the Forerunner race. Others who are only interested in one of the two stories may feel burned by the hefty price though, especially considering the lackluster art in the Forerunner story. If the rest of the Countdown miniseries end up like this one, this will mark the first time an event's tie-ins will far surpass the main book.

Verdict - Check It

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