DC's Countdown to Final Crisis: A Review
mood: 
stressed
stressedYou'd think that with a title like "Countdown to Final Crisis", I'd have realized that Countdown was merely a prologue to the much-anticipated DC event called "Final Crisis". But with 52 issues under its belt, I think I was pretty justified in my assumption that the final issues of Countdown would actually BE the Final Crisis.
Instead, a few weeks after the final issue of Countdown comes out, we get DC Universe ZERO... which is, yet again, a prologue to each segment of the crisis as it will be released in ALL THE MAJOR heroes' INDIVIDUAL books.
Well, shit.
Grant Morrison has already stated that the Batman: RIP storyline is going to run for six issues, so this means that we've got Final Crisis issues running individually on Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, as well as a couple of mini-series with (no doubt) stunning revelations that only insane completists must own ON TOP of the ACTUAL Final Crisis.
So, to recap: You remember the past 52 issues of 52? You don't have to own/have read that. Countdown which was, mind you, a hefty 51 issues (counting down from 52, duh) was the actual prologue EXCEPT nothing of great importance actually happened in it! You get a bunch of secondary characters, kill a few of them, and omfg IT DOESN'T MATTER.
I'm guessing the only books that you need to read/own to understand Countdown are the main hero books and the actual Final Crisis mini.
Clearly DC cares more about making as much money as they can off of stupid completists than actually TELLING any stories, or they would've started off with Final Crisis SIX MONTHS ago.
I miss the days when "big events" would happen over the course of 12 issues (more or less, anyway). 52 issues of 52, 51 issues of Countdown, craploads of mini-series revolving around the 52 other worlds, and now 6 months more of prologues. Damn.
What the fuck, DC.
LIZZ'S "WHAT IF": Imagine if Marvel had given the 14-issue "X-cutioner's Song" the same treatment. We'd have 50 issues of an all-new mini series with Scott being emo/Jean and Ororo having a catfight/Bishop's life story/(insert random x-man here) suddenly becoming uber important/etc. before Xavier ACTUALLY GETS SHOT.
And again: WHAT THE FUCK, DC?!
(Anonymous)
During an interview DC's Dan DiDio stated that how "Infinite Crisis" and to some degree "Countdown" was published was in error. They tried to sync everything up with the crossover books and ended up bogging everything down. Basically neither series went off as hoped.
Enter the "Sinestro Corps War." This event was contained within the Green Lantern titles and some one-shots. It went over big and flowed great. The end result being that DiDio stated the how Geoff Johns and the rest of the folks who pulled the "Sinestro Corps War" off had set the standard for how DC would look to do such events in the future.
Now, that isn't to say we won't see effects in the other books but their release dates will not be slowed by "Final Crisis" to keep everything together. "Final Crisis" will have all of its details within its own pages. I'm guessing things that show up in the regular titles will be handled more like the 'One year later' stuff in that we'll be wondering what happened in some cases and the the blanks will be filled later.
Also, don't forget that DC Universe Zero was originally supposed to be Countdown issue zero, but with what it is supposed to contain the decision was made to change the title to something that conveyed what it contained a little more.
Unfortunately my store is owned by a gimp who didn't order the issue or I'd say if the title change was accurate. For now I'm waiting to see if that is the case.
If you didn't read about the final DC panel at the NYCC then read it here (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=154379). It might quell some of your concerns about cross overs and tie-ins.
Mundist
(Anonymous)
Mundist