COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #1Written by Steve Gerber and Matt Sturges
Art by Justiniano & Walden Wong and Stephen Segovia
This was a strong start to another Countdown tie-in. If only Countdown itself would learn from these mini-series tie-ins. Each one seems to offer more story and development than the actual series that spawned them.
First, I would like to say I have never been a big fan of magic-based characters in comics, but decided to give this issue a try based on the exquisit cover and, hopefully, a more fleshed out story related to the faltering Countdown. I was not disappointed in either regard. The first half of this issue is devoted to the return of Dr Fate. My only real complaint was with the pacing of this issue. Far too much of the issue is spent catching readers up to date on the previous history of Dr Fate and magic in the DCU. This would have worked much better if they had broken it up over a couple issues, intersperced with more action or non-history segments. As it was, I felt like I was reading a text book instead of a comic book for most of the Fate half of the book. However, it did the job and that ending with the splash page transformation into Dr Fate was more than enough to entice me to come back for more of this story next month. With the backstory taken care of and the helmet in our new hero's hands, this story should really take off next month and I expect big things.
The Eclipso side of things was kind of the opposite to Fate's half. Mostly action or random dialogue and little explanation of things. It served its purpose though, as I am curious to find out how Eclipso returned from space, how this syncs up with her appearance in Blue Beetle and ESPECIALLY with that last splash page with Darkseid claiming to have created the Eclipso entity.
While not the best issue this week, it definitely enticed me enough to want to come back next month and find out more about each half of this double header issue. The only problem with this issue might be readers' reluctance to pick up a more expensive issue if they are only interested in one part of the story, much like the problem Countdown to Adventure faces with its dual story nature. With this issue though, I'd wager it was one of the strongest Countdown tie-in mini's so far, so it isn't as big an issue in my opinion. Take a chance on this issue, more than likely you will enjoy at least one of the stories.
Verdict - Check It
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