A Constructive Criticism of Countdown
I just can't stand Countdown.
I just think it's a RUSHED book in more ways than one. And the quality of the book has paid for it.
The first and most damning thing about the book is that it cannot seem to stand on its own. Ironically, the book that's supposed to be the "spine" of the DCU has little spine of its own. The book simply has been cursed with being quadrapelegic at birth. A lot of that has to do with the fact that characterization and story have been sacrificed for plot.
I should go into this in slightly more detail. One of the best things about the crossovers in the last few years from DC is that for the most part, the books have put emphasis on lesser well known characters. Ted Kord, the blue beetle perhaps being the best example. In that story you really got inside Ted's head and what made him tick. In fact, I became a fan of Ted Kord reading that comic. It was that good.
You had some great stuff following that with Villains United and OMAC probably being the best of the two. Each book featuring lesser well known characters like the Secret Six and Sasha Bordeaux. These books were met with both fan approval and critical acclaim. But part of the secret to that was that each book fleshed out those characters. As a reader, you really could start to understand them and what made them tick. In short, the characters were center stage and through their viewpoints you got a piece of the bigger picture.
This series doesn't do that at all.
Characterization and story are sacrificial lambs to the plot which MUST go through no matter what. Which makes Countdown a very uncomfortable read, especially with characters readers have become familiar with. In cases of The Question, she reads totally unnatural to how she has been protrayed in the last few years in Gotham Central and 52.
But as bad as that was, the most damning part is the main characters themselves. I cannot bring myself to care about them. I don't really know them, in spite of all that has happened. Jimmy Olsen probably has the best characterization in the series to date, but I honestly could care less. And maybe that's my failure. But the book just doesn't connect and the characters at this point aren't that interesting. I'll admit that this is a bias on my part. That said, how can I really get into the spine of the book if I just don't care? Something's wrong with that. In short, I feel at this point there is not one substantial and genuine thing about any of the main characters in this story.
I should point out that I feel this isn't a failure from the writers point of view or the artists for that matter. But rather the structure of countdown itself. Or rather the lack thereof. As constraining as 52's structure was, it set a consistant feel throughout each issue. Countdown doesn't have that kind of structure. It's flows are different from one issue to the next. And this was to some degree by design.
This particularly affected the art, especially in the early issues. Keith Giffen's value to 52 was revealed when his touch wasn't in the first dozen issues of countdowns. At times the art jars you right out of the experience. This problem has lessened since Keith has come back. The look now is more consistant. But the early issues are tough. This is one of the reasons I think the powers that be should have waited three months or so before launching this series after 52. It would have allowed Keith time to do the first ten or eleven issues he missed. Because his lack of prescence hurt.
There are still other problems. One of them being that there are pages from other books inside Countdown written by other writers and drawn by different artists. This feels like a rip off to me as a consumer. Why would I spend three dollars for the same pages in two supposedly different books? It feels like I'm paying the same money for exact duplicates of the same thing.
Which leads to the other consumer piss off: Spoilers. Black Adam perhaps being the biggest one. Other books that haven't been released yet have been sacrificed for Countdown. Black Adam was the biggest. We saw him depowered and finally empowered again in Countdown. Instead of getting that story of how that happens, he loses his power again to Mary Marvel. Keep in mind this came out months before the Black Adam series, whic his about how he got his powers back the first time.
Now tell me this, for someone that wants to enjoy the surprise of a good story, why would I buy Black Adam? I really wanted to check it out. But now I ask, why bother? I know he won't keep his powers anyway. All in all, just bad timing.
Finally, I just feel like the series itself isn't very creative. A lot of the elements in this series have been done to death in the last three years at DC. But the other part is that I don't think the writers in this series have been allowed to showcase their strengths. I just think this book is a case of the plot having to happen no matter what, without any care or consequence to what is happening. Maybe you can blame the creative teams for this feeling to some extent, but this series reeks of a strong editorial hand.
Wow. It feels good to have all this out. Now It's easy to armchair quarterback. I know a weekly series is a daunting task at best. And hey, I'll admit to my own biases. I'm much more interested in solitary tales over epic events and feel like I'm going to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. But as a reader Countdown bothers me in a lot of ways. Instead of a smooth, flowing read I am jarred out of the experience. And that's not good. That's why I dropped the book.
DC in my opinion should have waited the two or three months more before launching, they could have made sure to line up all their ducks in a row. It would have made a huge difference in the look and perception of the book in my eyes. This book in my opinion wasn't ready to come out and shouldn't have.
But it's too late. The Genie is out of the bottle. I know this feels like adding my crap to the pile that's out there in internet land, but I'd be less than honest if I said anything else. And hey, I'm sure there are people who would strongly disagree with me. And they're entitled to that.
But I just can't stand countdown. And would be less than honest if I told it any other way.
JP
I just think it's a RUSHED book in more ways than one. And the quality of the book has paid for it.
The first and most damning thing about the book is that it cannot seem to stand on its own. Ironically, the book that's supposed to be the "spine" of the DCU has little spine of its own. The book simply has been cursed with being quadrapelegic at birth. A lot of that has to do with the fact that characterization and story have been sacrificed for plot.
I should go into this in slightly more detail. One of the best things about the crossovers in the last few years from DC is that for the most part, the books have put emphasis on lesser well known characters. Ted Kord, the blue beetle perhaps being the best example. In that story you really got inside Ted's head and what made him tick. In fact, I became a fan of Ted Kord reading that comic. It was that good.
You had some great stuff following that with Villains United and OMAC probably being the best of the two. Each book featuring lesser well known characters like the Secret Six and Sasha Bordeaux. These books were met with both fan approval and critical acclaim. But part of the secret to that was that each book fleshed out those characters. As a reader, you really could start to understand them and what made them tick. In short, the characters were center stage and through their viewpoints you got a piece of the bigger picture.
This series doesn't do that at all.
Characterization and story are sacrificial lambs to the plot which MUST go through no matter what. Which makes Countdown a very uncomfortable read, especially with characters readers have become familiar with. In cases of The Question, she reads totally unnatural to how she has been protrayed in the last few years in Gotham Central and 52.
But as bad as that was, the most damning part is the main characters themselves. I cannot bring myself to care about them. I don't really know them, in spite of all that has happened. Jimmy Olsen probably has the best characterization in the series to date, but I honestly could care less. And maybe that's my failure. But the book just doesn't connect and the characters at this point aren't that interesting. I'll admit that this is a bias on my part. That said, how can I really get into the spine of the book if I just don't care? Something's wrong with that. In short, I feel at this point there is not one substantial and genuine thing about any of the main characters in this story.
I should point out that I feel this isn't a failure from the writers point of view or the artists for that matter. But rather the structure of countdown itself. Or rather the lack thereof. As constraining as 52's structure was, it set a consistant feel throughout each issue. Countdown doesn't have that kind of structure. It's flows are different from one issue to the next. And this was to some degree by design.
This particularly affected the art, especially in the early issues. Keith Giffen's value to 52 was revealed when his touch wasn't in the first dozen issues of countdowns. At times the art jars you right out of the experience. This problem has lessened since Keith has come back. The look now is more consistant. But the early issues are tough. This is one of the reasons I think the powers that be should have waited three months or so before launching this series after 52. It would have allowed Keith time to do the first ten or eleven issues he missed. Because his lack of prescence hurt.
There are still other problems. One of them being that there are pages from other books inside Countdown written by other writers and drawn by different artists. This feels like a rip off to me as a consumer. Why would I spend three dollars for the same pages in two supposedly different books? It feels like I'm paying the same money for exact duplicates of the same thing.
Which leads to the other consumer piss off: Spoilers. Black Adam perhaps being the biggest one. Other books that haven't been released yet have been sacrificed for Countdown. Black Adam was the biggest. We saw him depowered and finally empowered again in Countdown. Instead of getting that story of how that happens, he loses his power again to Mary Marvel. Keep in mind this came out months before the Black Adam series, whic his about how he got his powers back the first time.
Now tell me this, for someone that wants to enjoy the surprise of a good story, why would I buy Black Adam? I really wanted to check it out. But now I ask, why bother? I know he won't keep his powers anyway. All in all, just bad timing.
Finally, I just feel like the series itself isn't very creative. A lot of the elements in this series have been done to death in the last three years at DC. But the other part is that I don't think the writers in this series have been allowed to showcase their strengths. I just think this book is a case of the plot having to happen no matter what, without any care or consequence to what is happening. Maybe you can blame the creative teams for this feeling to some extent, but this series reeks of a strong editorial hand.
Wow. It feels good to have all this out. Now It's easy to armchair quarterback. I know a weekly series is a daunting task at best. And hey, I'll admit to my own biases. I'm much more interested in solitary tales over epic events and feel like I'm going to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. But as a reader Countdown bothers me in a lot of ways. Instead of a smooth, flowing read I am jarred out of the experience. And that's not good. That's why I dropped the book.
DC in my opinion should have waited the two or three months more before launching, they could have made sure to line up all their ducks in a row. It would have made a huge difference in the look and perception of the book in my eyes. This book in my opinion wasn't ready to come out and shouldn't have.
But it's too late. The Genie is out of the bottle. I know this feels like adding my crap to the pile that's out there in internet land, but I'd be less than honest if I said anything else. And hey, I'm sure there are people who would strongly disagree with me. And they're entitled to that.
But I just can't stand countdown. And would be less than honest if I told it any other way.
JP