COUNTDOWN: ARENA #1 (OF 4)
Written by Keith Champagne
Art by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens
This was surprisingly good. I was a bit leary about picking it up, but the fanboy in me wanted to see the fights. Ignoring the fact no one from the main DCU Earth is present for this event and the absurdity of these fights, it was a solid and enjoyable read.
First things first, though. The art is probably the worst of McDaniel's career and looks rushed and sloppy. It could be the inker or colourist's fault, but I was less than impressed with this artwork.
Getting back to the story, Monarch has basically gathered dozens of heroes, all in packs of three apparently, for these Multiverse fights. As I said earlier, it's kind of absurd. Why kill off all these characters? Why not just enlist everyone? An army of Supermen is far more imposing than a single one. And what about the Crime Society version? He's already enlisted, so why is he getting a second Superman? When did Monarch get this powerful? Forerunner looked like she could have killed him in Countdown to Adventure. There's still a lot of nitpicking on my part in terms of the genesis of this title, but I'm willing to ignore them for now.
As for the fights, we get one featuring Nightshade characters. I'm not familiar with the character outside knowing she's shadow based and there's one in Shadowpact, but the fight was pretty good and when the winner tried to return to her Earth, I was pretty shocked at Monarch's retaliation.
The second fight is the one everyone wanted to see and featured the battle of the Batmen. I really liked this battle and only have one complaint with it. The other two teamed up to take on the vampire Batman and, once they'd injured him and he turned into smoke, they both turn on each other. They had to have known he wasn't dead, so I'm confused as to why they began fighting each other.
Verdict - Check It. Tempted to give it a Must Read, but the art really let this title down, which is surprising for McDaniel, and it's still just a fanboy book with little actual story or significance. Something akin to Marvel VS DC. I'm a bit upset they killed off Gotham by Gaslight Batman, too. So much potential wasted, but it looks like the Multiverse will be going the way of the dodo by the end of Final Crisis or at least getting a restart.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Countdown - Arena #1 Review
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