March
30
Start the Clock
Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1
Creators: Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Judd Winick, writers; Rags Morales, Ed Benes, Jesus Saiz, Ivan Reis, Phil Jimenez, Michael Bair, Jimmy Palmiotti, Marc Campos and Andy Lanning, artists; cover by Jim Lee and Alex Ross.
DC Comics, 80 pages, color, $1
So? It’s a sure bet that no comicbook will be more talked about this week than this intense one-shot that sets the stage for the future of the DC Universe. "Countdown" follows up on last year’s smash hit murder mystery “Identity Crisis” and is part of a master plan for the DCU that will wind its way through four miniseries and a "JLA" arc, all leading up to this fall's “Infinite Crisis,” a sequel to 1985’s seminal DC crossover, “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”
Like “Identity Crisis,” “Countdown” features the death of a long-running DC character. Some fans will scream bloody murder at the choice of the victim while others will say, "That's it?" The death is not really the point though. As in “Identity Crisis,” the fun in “Countdown” come from what’s going on around the edges as new dangers emerge from the shadows to seriously threaten the heroes of the DCU.
This shift toward a more intense, dangerous world for DC's superheroes is welcome, though why the writers do so with characters from the very funny late-1980s Keith Giffen-J.M. DeMatteis run of “Justice League” such as Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Maxwell Lord is a puzzler. (Come to think of it, "Identity Crisis" victim Sue Dibney also was in that series ... Guy Gardner and G'Nort better watch out).
While few facts are revealed about what's coming up, this is still an exciting book because of the way it hints at big things yet to come. The upcoming miniseries — now revealed to be “The Omac Project,” “Day of Vengeance,” “Villains United” and “The Rann-Thanagar War” — look like they will inject a sense of danger and excitement into the DCU that has been missing for a while in superhero comics. These threats as well as the secrets learned in “Identity Crisis” have the potential to make the DC Universe an unpredictable and exciting place to visit.
Still, there’s plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Few of the dozens of big crossovers published in the past 20 years have been worth reading or remembering. Superhero comics should be able to do this kind of universe-spanning story extremely well and it’s been disappointing to see how few attempts at it have been worth the paper they’re printed on. Given the top talent that worked on this one-shot as well as the creator lineups for the followup miniseries, DC is serious about this new direction and it has real potential to become a classic — as long as the stories eventually pay off in a more substantial way than this single issue does.
What would be the best thing to come out of the new “Crisis” is not a series of ever-escalating event comics, but a renewed sense of creative freedom and excitement that has been missing from the sometimes-staid DCU to tell stories worthy of its iconic characters. This "Crisis" has a long way to go, but "Countdown" gets it off to a promising start and makes it impossible to not want to know what's going to happen next. Grade: A-
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You're sooo right. I've always been a Marvel guy, but this seems like something that could reach beyond the current, or near-future, "infinite" series to affect the whole DCU. And the site looks good!
Posted by: Storiz | March 31, 2005 at 07:35 PM
This is certainly something that has my attention, much like Infinity Crisis did. I've always been a Marvel guy, but lately the DCU has been appealing to me.
Posted by: Greg | April 01, 2005 at 01:31 PM