Countdown: DC will eat itself...
We're now a few weeks into the new weekly series Countdown, and a number of my fears have already been realized. Much of the strength of 52, the previous weekly series, came from its largely self-contained nature. While it used a lot of the background of the DCU (and often the more obscure parts), it mostly told the reader what they needed to know. Even more importantly, 52 took place during the "missing year" immediately after Infinite Crisis. This meant that while there was a relationship with the books that were set one year later, there were no direct crossovers. You could happily read 52 even if you didn't pick up a single one year later book. And the reverse was also essentially true.
This is definitely not the case with Countdown. We know its supposed to be the "spine" of the DCU this year, but that could have meant any number of different things. It to be turning out to mean that Countdown will include scenes spliced out of other books, leaving all sorts of little cross-reference footnotes telling you that to get the whole story of your book you need Countdown, and to get the whole story of Countdown you need a bunch of other books. And there are other "event" mini-series that are being drawn into the web. So it looks like the DCU will be a big tangled clusterfuck of continuous crossovers this year.
And then there's the plotline of Countdown. Without giving too much away outside of the spoiler cut, the whole thing is intensely self-referential, and more meta than even Infinite Crisis was. It also seems to be pulling out all the stops in terms of referencing old complex continuity, and being very self-concious about it as it goes along. I thought I would enjoy this, as I love the crazy history of the DC universe/multiverse/etc., and love seeing the shared universe being used to its fullest extent. And I love examining how the state of that universe at various points reflected the world at the time. But I'm finding myself turned off by this story. We've had enough geeking out over the continuity over the past two years. Its really time to just get on with the new world(s). That doesn't seem to be what will happen, though.
So what exactly am I complaining about here? Well, now that I'm within the spoiler cut, let's look at the plot. Basically, there are now 52 Monitors, one for each universe in the new multiverse. And that starts off with a problem right there- the Monitor was the major motivating character for the forces of good during Crisis on Infinite Earths 20+ years ago. He was the guardian of the entire positive-matter multiverse, and died as the Antimonitor (i.e. the Monitor of the negative-matter universe) destroyed most of that multiverse. Now we're hauling back the Monitor concept, but with more of them (and at least one Antimonitor-looking figure lurking around the background of some panels- no idea what's up with that yet). And more importantly, DC's using them in a very meta-oriented self-aware way.
Essentially, the Monitors are guardians of the separate timelines of the 52 universes in the multiverse. In other words they guard continuity. Some of them think that any contact between universes or disturbance of normal continuity within a universe is bad, and want to "purge" the multiverse of "the world-jumpers, the death-cheaters" who "defile the multiverse". Otherse actually think that contact between the universes in the old multiverse actually had some benefit.
In other words, they sound like a bunch of comic fans bitching on online forums. I don't consider this a positive development.
I will admit that I sometimes get annoyed at shifting, irreconcilable backstories. Its a bit difficult to figure out what was supposed to happen when a current storyline references some major event from two or three universe reboots ago, and you can't figure out exactly what was supposed to happen because in modern continuity Superman didn't exist during World War II (but some of his villains did) or because you have no idea who the "Hawkman" in that story is now supposed to be since the continuity of anyone whose name is prefixed with "Hawk" has pretty much been shot to hell for years now. And lets just not get into the continuity disaster named Donna Troy. Beyond that, it can also be annoying when characters die and return with distressing regularity (especially if your favorite character dies but doesn't return).
But really, do we need a whole set of characters devoted to playing out this sort of fan-bitching *within* the DCU itself? For all of the flaws and emergency retcons it caused, the original Crisis on Infinite Earths simplified things, and the post-Crisis character versions have mostly long since settled down. We now have a new multiverse, which we're told is not the pre-Crisis multiverse returned but a new multiverse with some worlds that just happen to look familiar. But they are free from pre-Crisis continuity. So why isn't DC forging boldly ahead with this new set-up? Let's let the main DCU continue to be where the major evolution of the oldest shared comics universe plays out. Let's set some nostalgia-oriented series in the familiar multiverse earths in cases where good characters have been out of play too long because of changes in the main DCU. That way we get to see them without twisting the main DCU out of shape again. And lets set some really experimental stuff in still other multiverse earths, and build up some interesting Elseworlds-type scenarios.
Instead, it looks like the main DCU will be pre-occupied with re-examining its tangled past. Countdown seems to be delighting in old references. Those who know that Jimmy Olsen used to temporarily get all sorts of superpowers in the 60's will get a kick out of his storyline in Countdown, but the rest of the readers will be lost or at best won't understand why the old-time fans think its so great. And as much as I love the Legion of Superheroes (who live 1000 years in the future), my head's already hurting with what appears to be the pre-Crisis Earth-1 Legion appearing in JLA and JSA right now (and Superman remembering them visiting him when he was Superboy), while at the same time a re-imagined Legion is starring in their own title with Supergirl, in what is ostensibly the future of this same universe. I don't know what the explanation of this will be, but I suspect it will massively confuse the casual recent reader. And apparently the Great Disaster, which was what caused the post-apocalyptic state of the world in a number of old DC titles, is part of Countdown somehow as well.
I guess they're releasing a Showcase collection of those Great Disaster titles to help out, but a cheapo black-and-white newsprint collection is not what I'm looking for if I really need to read the material to understand things. Thank goodness they're finally releasing color collections of Jack Kirby's Fourth World stories, as the New Gods seem to be critically important right now. Those books should have been collected properly at least a decade ago. Now, what with the delays we're already seeing with the collections, it looks like fans my age will finally be able to easily read these stories, but not until we're well into Countdown already.
Plus, we have crap like this:
* Duela Dent gets killed in Countdown #51 (remember, it's numbered backwards)
* Teen Titans #47 shows the Titans about to go to her funeral, and then shows them afterwards, but...
* The actual Funeral is in Countdown #48, including the key scene between Donna Troy and Jason Todd
Even though Teen Titans #47 shows the funeral on the cover, the actual funeral doesn't ever happen in that book- instead a footnote tells you to look in Countdown #48, where it gets all of three panels, with the rest of the two pages told from Donna's point of view taken up by Donna and Jason's conversation.
Meanwhile, JLA and JSA are having a crossover called the Lightening Saga- this by itself is fine, as JLA/JSA team-ups are a longstanding tradition that were all too rare between the first and second Crises, but then Countdown is splicing scenes into that story, or in some cases re-running scenes that were printed earlier in one of the other books.
Going back to the Titans, next issue they get pulled into the Amazons Attack! event, which is already a crossover between its title mini-series and Wonder Woman (thankfully finally on a decent schedule since they punted Alan Heinberg off the book when he couldn't be bothered to finish his storyline). They're not quite managing the footnotes right, though, as when they released Amazons Attack #1 and Wonder Woman #8 on the same day, they failed to make clear which one you were supposed to read first (and yes, it definitely mattered).
Argh! If this is the sort of interconnected mess we're going to be seeing all year, I'm going to go crazy. And I'll be having a hell of a hard time figuring out what to buy. Countdown still holds my interest because I like a lot of its cast and DC does seem to have realized that good character-driven stories are part of what made 52 work. So once again they're using some less well-known characters to tell the main story in the weekly. But I don't really want to be chasing those stories back and forth through every title in the DCU all year. And I'll really be rolling my eyes at the Monitors talking about the "abominations" of characters who defile the continuity of separate universes. Or whatever.
This is definitely not the case with Countdown. We know its supposed to be the "spine" of the DCU this year, but that could have meant any number of different things. It to be turning out to mean that Countdown will include scenes spliced out of other books, leaving all sorts of little cross-reference footnotes telling you that to get the whole story of your book you need Countdown, and to get the whole story of Countdown you need a bunch of other books. And there are other "event" mini-series that are being drawn into the web. So it looks like the DCU will be a big tangled clusterfuck of continuous crossovers this year.
And then there's the plotline of Countdown. Without giving too much away outside of the spoiler cut, the whole thing is intensely self-referential, and more meta than even Infinite Crisis was. It also seems to be pulling out all the stops in terms of referencing old complex continuity, and being very self-concious about it as it goes along. I thought I would enjoy this, as I love the crazy history of the DC universe/multiverse/etc., and love seeing the shared universe being used to its fullest extent. And I love examining how the state of that universe at various points reflected the world at the time. But I'm finding myself turned off by this story. We've had enough geeking out over the continuity over the past two years. Its really time to just get on with the new world(s). That doesn't seem to be what will happen, though.
So what exactly am I complaining about here? Well, now that I'm within the spoiler cut, let's look at the plot. Basically, there are now 52 Monitors, one for each universe in the new multiverse. And that starts off with a problem right there- the Monitor was the major motivating character for the forces of good during Crisis on Infinite Earths 20+ years ago. He was the guardian of the entire positive-matter multiverse, and died as the Antimonitor (i.e. the Monitor of the negative-matter universe) destroyed most of that multiverse. Now we're hauling back the Monitor concept, but with more of them (and at least one Antimonitor-looking figure lurking around the background of some panels- no idea what's up with that yet). And more importantly, DC's using them in a very meta-oriented self-aware way.
Essentially, the Monitors are guardians of the separate timelines of the 52 universes in the multiverse. In other words they guard continuity. Some of them think that any contact between universes or disturbance of normal continuity within a universe is bad, and want to "purge" the multiverse of "the world-jumpers, the death-cheaters" who "defile the multiverse". Otherse actually think that contact between the universes in the old multiverse actually had some benefit.
In other words, they sound like a bunch of comic fans bitching on online forums. I don't consider this a positive development.
I will admit that I sometimes get annoyed at shifting, irreconcilable backstories. Its a bit difficult to figure out what was supposed to happen when a current storyline references some major event from two or three universe reboots ago, and you can't figure out exactly what was supposed to happen because in modern continuity Superman didn't exist during World War II (but some of his villains did) or because you have no idea who the "Hawkman" in that story is now supposed to be since the continuity of anyone whose name is prefixed with "Hawk" has pretty much been shot to hell for years now. And lets just not get into the continuity disaster named Donna Troy. Beyond that, it can also be annoying when characters die and return with distressing regularity (especially if your favorite character dies but doesn't return).
But really, do we need a whole set of characters devoted to playing out this sort of fan-bitching *within* the DCU itself? For all of the flaws and emergency retcons it caused, the original Crisis on Infinite Earths simplified things, and the post-Crisis character versions have mostly long since settled down. We now have a new multiverse, which we're told is not the pre-Crisis multiverse returned but a new multiverse with some worlds that just happen to look familiar. But they are free from pre-Crisis continuity. So why isn't DC forging boldly ahead with this new set-up? Let's let the main DCU continue to be where the major evolution of the oldest shared comics universe plays out. Let's set some nostalgia-oriented series in the familiar multiverse earths in cases where good characters have been out of play too long because of changes in the main DCU. That way we get to see them without twisting the main DCU out of shape again. And lets set some really experimental stuff in still other multiverse earths, and build up some interesting Elseworlds-type scenarios.
Instead, it looks like the main DCU will be pre-occupied with re-examining its tangled past. Countdown seems to be delighting in old references. Those who know that Jimmy Olsen used to temporarily get all sorts of superpowers in the 60's will get a kick out of his storyline in Countdown, but the rest of the readers will be lost or at best won't understand why the old-time fans think its so great. And as much as I love the Legion of Superheroes (who live 1000 years in the future), my head's already hurting with what appears to be the pre-Crisis Earth-1 Legion appearing in JLA and JSA right now (and Superman remembering them visiting him when he was Superboy), while at the same time a re-imagined Legion is starring in their own title with Supergirl, in what is ostensibly the future of this same universe. I don't know what the explanation of this will be, but I suspect it will massively confuse the casual recent reader. And apparently the Great Disaster, which was what caused the post-apocalyptic state of the world in a number of old DC titles, is part of Countdown somehow as well.
I guess they're releasing a Showcase collection of those Great Disaster titles to help out, but a cheapo black-and-white newsprint collection is not what I'm looking for if I really need to read the material to understand things. Thank goodness they're finally releasing color collections of Jack Kirby's Fourth World stories, as the New Gods seem to be critically important right now. Those books should have been collected properly at least a decade ago. Now, what with the delays we're already seeing with the collections, it looks like fans my age will finally be able to easily read these stories, but not until we're well into Countdown already.
Plus, we have crap like this:
* Duela Dent gets killed in Countdown #51 (remember, it's numbered backwards)
* Teen Titans #47 shows the Titans about to go to her funeral, and then shows them afterwards, but...
* The actual Funeral is in Countdown #48, including the key scene between Donna Troy and Jason Todd
Even though Teen Titans #47 shows the funeral on the cover, the actual funeral doesn't ever happen in that book- instead a footnote tells you to look in Countdown #48, where it gets all of three panels, with the rest of the two pages told from Donna's point of view taken up by Donna and Jason's conversation.
Meanwhile, JLA and JSA are having a crossover called the Lightening Saga- this by itself is fine, as JLA/JSA team-ups are a longstanding tradition that were all too rare between the first and second Crises, but then Countdown is splicing scenes into that story, or in some cases re-running scenes that were printed earlier in one of the other books.
Going back to the Titans, next issue they get pulled into the Amazons Attack! event, which is already a crossover between its title mini-series and Wonder Woman (thankfully finally on a decent schedule since they punted Alan Heinberg off the book when he couldn't be bothered to finish his storyline). They're not quite managing the footnotes right, though, as when they released Amazons Attack #1 and Wonder Woman #8 on the same day, they failed to make clear which one you were supposed to read first (and yes, it definitely mattered).
Argh! If this is the sort of interconnected mess we're going to be seeing all year, I'm going to go crazy. And I'll be having a hell of a hard time figuring out what to buy. Countdown still holds my interest because I like a lot of its cast and DC does seem to have realized that good character-driven stories are part of what made 52 work. So once again they're using some less well-known characters to tell the main story in the weekly. But I don't really want to be chasing those stories back and forth through every title in the DCU all year. And I'll really be rolling my eyes at the Monitors talking about the "abominations" of characters who defile the continuity of separate universes. Or whatever.