If you haven't been paying attention, you'll be surprised to hear that next week Countdown will be renamed as Countdown to Final Crisis, beginning with issue #26. With this half way point change in focus for the book, I will be doing a complete breakdown on everything Countdown related, from the beginning of the series back in May until now.
After re-reading the entirety of Countdown from issue #51 to 27, I feel like the story has become clearer and knowing what comes next has given me a much better grasp of the big picture, making the story read slightly better. Over the next few days, you can expect summaries and reviews of each individual storyline currently going on in Countdown. It will serve as a refresher for those who have been following along at home and also serve to help people who dropped the book months ago, when it was probably the worst comic being published at the time, catch up on what they missed. More after the break.
While Countdown has managed to claw its way back from the gutter over the past month or so, Countdown to Final Crisis still has a bit of work left to do before it can be considered a worthy successor to 52. With the change in focus and tighter plots in recent months, combined with the better crop of artists slated for the second half, Countdown to Final Crisis looks like it will be a much more entertaining read than its first act of this year long drama.
With all that said, here's a break down of what you can expect over the next couple of days.
Countdown Storyline Summaries & Reviews For:
Countdown Storyline Summaries & Reviews For:
- Darkseid: Unto Man Shall Come...A Great Disaster
- Holly Robinson & the Amazons
- Challengers From Beyond: The Search for Ray Palmer
- Karate Kid: The OMAC Virus
- Jimmy Olsen Must Die
- Mary Marvel: The Seduction of the Innocent
- Monarch & The Monitors
- The Rogues: Villains Defiant
On top of these, I intend on providing a brief introduction to the various tie-ins and related mini-series associated with Countdown, such as Amazons Attack, The Lightning Saga and The Death of the New Gods. These will only be primers, but should get people caught up on everything they may have missed. So, check back later today for the first of many updates!
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2 comments:
well first off i have really enjoyed your site. I come by every week and read pretty much everything.
its up there with newsarama and LITG for my comic internet fix.
Regarding countdown. I read your summation of some of the storylines and I can see how the story is clearer from a gestlat perspective.
but seriously are the few storylines that are well written can make this comic worthy of a pull list. I am marvel fan boy. I like some DC stuff and read all of 52 and the infinite crisis stuff before that. So i started trying countdown and have been keeping up with it through a friends copies.
And i am still bored. I have an oh cool moment ever so often, but not so much.
The holly amazon stuff and the dark mary marvel plots just make me put down the book, and don't get me started on the karate kid. (and i actually semi enjoyed the lightning saga).
I know countdown is leading to the final crisis but still i'd rather read your opinions on some image title or more marvel adventures line.
A suggestion for future columns. Dc comics that marvel fans should be reading and why. and the converse for dc fans.
Sometimes i look at the dc universe and i don't bother even trying but there are titles i am enjoying JSA, Sinestro Corps War, and parts of Morrison's Batman.
so a column helping out loyalist branch out would be much appreciated.
Thanks for the input and suggestions, much appreciated.
When I got the idea for this "mini" Countdown batch of reviews and catch up for people, I didn't honestly think it would end up as big as it's gotten and I sort of felt committed to completing it once I had the initial couple reviews up.
As far as quality, if you read any of my earlier reviews, you'd notice I was pretty harsh on Countdown to the point that I stopped reviewing it for a few weeks due to how bad it was at the time.
However, I honestly believe Countdown has gotten much better in the last month or so. The Amazons stuff is still painful to read though. Mary's story is at least progressing for a change and I'm really enjoying the Challengers stuff and seeing the new worlds.
Of course, I might just be trying to justify the amount of money I've invested in this storyline to date and rationlizing the continued purchases to myself. Hard to say at this point.
As for your suggestions, I actually had planned a sort of recommended reading / intro to Marvel and DC list. Kind of list books or trades that would be essential reading to get into each universe. Hopefully that last couple of these Countdown reviews don't bore you too much.
I'm not too big into Image or most Indy books. It's not that I don't like them. It's just I typically pick up the trades for those, similar to what I do with the Vertigo titles.
Invincible, Dynamo 5, Suburban Glamour and The Walking Dead are probably the only Image books I can think of off the top of my head that I've picked up in recent memory.
As for some DC books, without going into detail, here's a quick list of what I really enjoy from them:
Blue Beetle
Catwoman (Amazon Attacks stuff was terrible, great rest of time)
Checkmate
Teen Titans (sucked between Johns and McKeever's runs)
All-Star Superman
Green Lantern Stuff
Booster Gold
JSA
Pretty varied list, but I'll see if I can do a more indepth look at them in the future.
Thanks again for the input!
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