Countdown Arena Voting Now Open

DC just opened up their Countdown Arena website where you will be able to vote on who will appear and win in December's Countdown Arena book. I have not been overly impressed with Countdown and the fact they have a story that is so cookie cutter that they can place any random hero from the Multiverse, regardless of the diversity of powers, like a vampire Batman vs a non powered 1800's version, does not inspire me to put confidence in them. However, I am a sucker for being able to vote for superhero battles, so thought I would let people know the site is up. Click for the full details on who you can vote for.

HERO VS HERO IN THE ULTIMATE BATTLE ROYALE!

The villainous Monarch begins the last chapter of his campaign against the Monitors, combing the entire multiverse to enlist the most powerful--or deadly--heroes and villains from throughout existence to join his army. The abducted must battle one another in Monarch's specially constructed Arena, where only the strongest of each will survive to join his battle against the Monitors.

Carefully selected from worlds throughout all 52 universes, including characters from WILDSTORM, SUPERMAN: RED SON, NEW FRONTIER, GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT, JSA: LIBERTY FILES, JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NAIL, and TANGENT, among many others, three of each hero will walk into the Arena, and only one of each will walk away.

Welcome to THE ARENA, where Monarch's only rule is to survive at all costs.

Written by Keith Champagne • Art by Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens • Covers by Andy Kubert • Variant covers by Dale Eaglesham

#1 on sale December 5 • #2 on sale December 12 • #3 on sale December 19 • #4 on sale December 26

The candidates they have listed so far are Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Superman.

BATMAN

The choices, from left to right, are:

Earth-40's Batman, who was first seen in JSA Liberty Files and hails from a world where it is still 1942 and superheroes have joined WWII.

Earth-43's Batman is the same one from Batman & Dracula: Red Rain. I am not sure how this Batman survived as he died in the final part of that Elseworlds trilogy, but here he is for Arena.

Earth-19's Batman is from the 1880's and routinely does battle with Jack the Ripper. He was first seen in Gotham By Gaslight Elseworlds tale.

My Pick - This one is fairly easy from a power based and fan based choice - Earth-43's Red Rain version is the winner with ease. While Earth-19's features the enjoyable Gotham By Gaslight version, there is no way he can win or even put up a fight against Red Rain's vampire version. The other one does not even matter at this point. Poor choices to go up against the overpowered Red Rain version.


GREEN LANTERN

The choices, from left to right, are:

Earth-5's GL is a new version created for Countdown: Arena and hails from Shazam's Earth.

Earth-12's Lantern is another new face created for Countdown: Arena. I am sure there were lots of GL Elseworlds tales, so I do not understand the need for new faces. Guess they want the third GL to win by default.

Earth-32's GL is a long time favourite, Bruce Wayne, former Batman and Green Lantern hailing from Batman: In Darkest Night.

My Pick - With two joke picks, they made this one easy for everyone - Batman: In Darkest Night Green Lantern powered Batman from Earth-32. They should remodel him after the version seen in Green Lantern #11 (or there abouts) when Hal let Bruce try the ring for a bit. Either way, this will be the easy winner against two no name, no history scrubs. Prep time + greatest weapon in the universe = greatest GL ever.

WONDER WOMAN

The choices, from left to right, are:

Earth-34's WW is from Wonder Woman: Amazonia and is a Wonder Woman who was kidnapped from Paradise Island by a Royal Marine and brought to man's world in 19th century London.

Earth-18's Wonder Woman hails from Justice Riders and was, along with the JLA, a lawman in the Old West.

Earth-21's hails from an earlier time period where the Cold War just ended.


My Pick - Some really poor choices here, but I will probably go with the Wonder Woman: Amazonia version from Earth-34 as she is the most aesthetically pleasing looking version to me. They should have used the Kingdom Come version in my opinion.


SUPERMAN

The choices, from left to right, are:

Earth-30's Superman is from Superman: Red Son, where Superman landed in Russia and grew up fighting for the communist way of life before taking over the entire planet.

Earth-15's Superman was created for Countdown: Arena and is an evolved version, nearly perfect. Considering he is Superman to begin with, I doubt they put much thought in this throw away version.

Earth-31's Superman is a darker version from the future as seen in Superman/Batman.

My Pick - Easy choice here. Garbage from Superman / Batman or random generic version created for Arena or the awesome Mark Millar version from Earth-30, as seen in Superman: Red Son? I wonder who they expected to win this one? Another no brainer 'choice' on DC's part. So many different versions and they make these three the versions. The mind, it boggles.


All in all, this could be one power house version of the JLA for Monarch, especially if they end up with two Batmen on the team and one with a GL ring. My guess is that the team will not be able to work together properly and infighting will stop any plans Monarch has from coming to fruition.

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