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COUNTDOWN!

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18:47 / 09.05.07

i think the larger question, which shows a problem from the start in addressing the multiverse, is why an alternate Duella, who is aware that she is on an alternate Earth, thinks she knows who is under the Red Hood.

Well, the obvious answer is that on her Earth, Jason Todd is the Red Hood as well. The real question may be... what Earth is OUR Jason from?

Rachel Evil McCall

19:07 / 09.05.07

and no Jimmy bloody Olsen until next week, so we will never know what haircut he has or whether Superman has married him to a gorilla (What? They did it all the time back in the Silver-age).

Or, more importantly, if he'll be in drag.

Phex: Dorset Doom

19:40 / 09.05.07

Ahem, I believe I implied that Jimmy would in fact be in drag throughout his marriage to Giganto and consummation thereof.
Jeez, it's like people can't process metaphor any more...

20:29 / 09.05.07

"Well, the obvious answer is that on her Earth, Jason Todd is the Red Hood as well. The real question may be... what Earth is OUR Jason from?"

okay, let's look at that. they just had this big series which re-established the multiverse as different from the current earth. the first thing they introduce is a character from a different world, who is the same on the world she comes to, recoginize a character from her world, who is also the same? oh, this Duella came from the 52 that is nearest like New Earth.

it would have been better starting the series having Darksied do his little monlogue and roll her body from a boom tube.

but i can see it now. they can create off shoot comic when Countdown is done (ala WWIII), call "The Numbers" or some such nonesense, and explain away all the bad plots (the first issue already gives them the Duella/Red Hood love story of near-New Earth.)

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

22:50 / 09.05.07

Is Jason dressed as the Hood in this? Wasn't he being Nightwing in NYC lat time we saw him?

Spyder Todd 2008

23:35 / 09.05.07

SPOILERS

Is Jason dressed as the Hood in this? Wasn't he being Nightwing in NYC lat time we saw him?

I'm not following the Nightwing book, but yeah, that was my impression. I'm wondering if that whole scene doesn't take place on Earth 2 or something.

I didn't think the issue was bad or anything, but I honestly expected more excitement and energy. It lacked punch, you know? Usually you want a first issue to be really exciting, and this really wasn't. Meh.

So are we to assume that Duela's death is going to make Joker.... more crazy?

00:44 / 10.05.07

Todd showed up as the Red Hood in Green Arrow after that Nightwing arc.

Spyder Todd 2008

03:15 / 10.05.07

Meh. Fair enough then.

rabideyemovement

03:25 / 10.05.07

Has the Countdown already come out?
I didn't see it at the shop...

I think the Red Hood should become DC's version of Ronin. Let several Gothamites trade the hemlet amongst one another.

rabideyemovement

03:25 / 10.05.07

er.. helmet.

08:19 / 10.05.07

Read this in the store.

I'd like to say "'Twas the arse", but it was just bland.

Starts with an utterly pedestrian and un-scary Darkseid. Downhill from there, with left-field characterizations of some wildly uninteresting characters and some setup of things the audience is given no reason to care about.

52 had its lame bits, often for long stretches, but it was at least entertainingly manic much of the time, with occasional stretches of brilliance.

Many have decided not to bother with Countdown after 52, and I think they are wise and well-bearded.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:30 / 10.05.07

I picked this up this morning.

It's definitely a first issue (whatever that means). No Jimmy Olsen to satisfy my dark impulses. Joker's Daughter - while she's a great concept character, especially given her tendency to fluctuate (I'd love if she ran with the _____'s Daughter idea more fully again) - felt a little mishandled. Why exactly did she used to be a Titan and then turn to crime (again?)? Was this Duella a member on her Earth, or was she speaking strictly of the local equivalent's involvement with the mainstream Titans?

And for that matter, why did they go with including an alternate Joker's Daughter? As much as I'm happy to see the flexibility of the multiverse return, if it's not directly adding anything to the plot, it's just reminding me of being a little boy playing with all my superhero toys -- kill off one of them and then bring in a parallel universe copy when I got bored and wanted to start something new. Obviously they needed a reason to lead Red Hood into meeting the Monitor, but I would have liked to see Joker's Daughter presented as a more outlandish and individualized alternate to make the plotline worthwhile.

So far, the Mary Marvel plot thread is the most interesting to me - I loved the sequence of her saying the word and the rain starting up. "Heh." Nice bit of characterization and clearly sets up her arc - getting back the power.

So far we've got--

Batman Family: Red Hood, Joker's Daughter.
Marvel Family: Mary, Mary, quite Contrary.
Flash Family: Trickster and Piper.

Next issue's Jimmy Olsen will bring in the Superman Family and so then we're just missing Wonder Woman Family and Green Lanterns.

Art's uneven but light-years better than the flatness of 52. So great panels (Duella turning to look over her shoulder) to some lackluster ones (I didn't like how the parachute turned out and Desaad looked stiff). I like that the art chores will be rotated through issues with the writing chores, and hope to see the individual teams blossoming into a better sense of teamwork and cohesion.

21:18 / 10.05.07

Given that Donna Troy and Ion are both on that promo piece... I'd say they are covered.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:58 / 10.05.07

I'm not familiar with the artwork of Jim Calafiore, who's been tasked with next week's art, so I went looking some samples:

#1 and #2.

Doesn't look too bad.

01:29 / 11.05.07

Calafiore is decent. Sometimes his faces & figures look a little angular, but overall he's solid.

Bring on the Olsen! And the Mary Marvel! The idea that Ray Palmer is the only one who can stop the upcoming Great Disaster is interesting....for the first time in years, that concept made me actually care a little about finding Ray Palmer. I figured he's just been crying in his Frosted Flakes for a few years...

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:43 / 11.05.07

....for the first time in years, that concept made me actually care a little about finding Ray Palmer. I figured he's just been crying in his Frosted Flakes for a few years...

Ray Palmer is not insecure, Ray Palmer does not need your love! Ray Palmer once killed Darkseid by giving him a fatal aneurysm in a possible future which has since been eradicated.

According to the Dan Didio column thingee in the backs of books this week, Karate Kid will be showing up as a main character -- there's your Legion connection, Ion does indeed satisfy the Green Lantern Corps link, and same with Donna Troy for the Wonder Women. I think it'd be cool to have Connor Hawke show up to add the Green Arrow Family.

I'm wondering if this is going to end with Jimmy Olsen as a full-fledged super-person, or what? And if he does journey through the afterlife, you know somebody needs to do a Ghost Detectives book starring him, Deadman, Sue and Ralph Dibney.

09:52 / 11.05.07

And add the Thirteen family, just because.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:30 / 11.05.07

Does anyone know if they were actually serious about that "Team 13" (ugh) teaser in the latest Tales of the Unexpected? I was looking at it in the shop (trying to avoid the horror of the front Spectre story) and there it was.

It occurs to me - looking at those Calafiore samples - that he's probably going to have a very good-looking Joker.

16:47 / 11.05.07

I picked up the first (fiftyfirst?) issue after all; same with SECRET HISTORY #2.

The first thing that came to me was that this opening sequence was almost exactly like that of the LEGENDS mini-series that picked up after Crisis on Infinate earths.

Including Mary Marvel reminded me of Capt. Marvel's introduction in LEGENDS.

I'm guessing Red Hood mellowed out a little bit since his 1 year later antics which I didn't follow at all. I'd love to see him having a specialty bullet for every occasion much like BATMAN's utility belt. He could have a Shark Repellant Bullet, a Frost Bullet, a Tear Gas Bullet, a Net Bullet etc. Beyond that I don't see much promise in his stroy arc.

The Monitor Corps are kind of fun. They add that Sci Fi High Fantasy element that is still so unique to comics. But there was a sort of imposed importance of their pressence and the Source wall was not as impressive as I've seen it before.

My Fave is stil Walt Simonson's take on it way back in Teen Titans/X-men.

I'm guessing at some point Monarch will step up through the bleed and I'm curious if this will eventually carry cover into Wildstorm's STORMWATCH P.H.D. A Monitor already stopped by a few issues ago.

17:17 / 11.05.07

>> Does anyone know if they were actually serious about that "Team 13" (ugh) teaser in the latest Tales of the Unexpected? I was looking at it in the shop (trying to avoid the horror of the front Spectre story) and there it was.

Yeah, I skimmed all the Dr. 13 stuff since I love Cliff Chiang's art... but hoo boy, that Team 13 ending was cheesy indeed. Plus a total Animal Man metatexual self-aware characters ripoff that wasn't all that interesting.

But that Cliff is one solid artist. I'd like to see him on some higher-profile books.

And yeah, Simonson's Source Wall depiction rocks indeed.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:37 / 11.05.07

The Monitor Corps are kind of fun. They add that Sci Fi High Fantasy element that is still so unique to comics. But there was a sort of imposed importance of their pressence and the Source wall was not as impressive as I've seen it before.

I'm a little cold on the inclusion of the Monitors, as they take a standard trope (inter[dimensional/planetary] police force) which is already a heavily used one (Green Lantern Corps, Captain Britian Corps), and then they drain it a little of the excitement -- the Monitors look the same rather than (apparently) having diverse costumes, biologies, and histories. The only way I'm expecting to be excited by them is if there's wacky jurisidictional issues with the Green Lanterns.

And no, the Source Wall wasn't too impressive. I think the page layouts contributed to that, too many smaller panels -- the Source Wall actually warrents a splash page, I think, when few other situations really do. The figures on the wall weren't distinctive enough, the sense of scale between the Monitor and the Wall wasn't keenly focused enough (the figures are supposed to be mostly gigantic, yeah?), they didn't seem to be fiirng energy beams from their eyes, and frankly Saiz's pencils are better suited to the gritty street crime / Manhunter milieu rather than the cosmic.

With the art teams rotating, I'm surprised they aren't doing more to plot the story to play to each artist's strengths - ie, hold off on the Monitor appearing before the Source Wall until they've got an issue with an artist better suited to cosmic images.

But that Cliff is one solid artist. I'd like to see him on some higher-profile books.

I highly recommend his Beware the Creeper! revamp for Vertigo, from a few years back. The line work was a lot sketchier (an issue of inkers, I think), but still extremely fluid. The series was good on the whole, being a sort of Vertigo take on the Tangent Comics concept -- it set up a mystery surrounding the main character's identity that was sumptuously Silver Age and pulpy at the same time.

17:23 / 12.05.07

I'm feeling your blah, LDones. What a load of borecore. And, you know, it would help if the writer actually had a handle on the meaning of the word "nihilism". I like to think my cosmic space gods, might, just might be a bit smarter than me.

About the best I can hope for from this series is more redundant characters like Duella biting the dust*.

The Batfamily and Co needs to be culled big time, if you ask me.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

04:55 / 14.05.07

Bearing in mind I won't be reading this and have only seen the first few pages put up on the tubesterweb, but it's nice to see the new universe has reset Darkseid back to the 'standing around monologuing about how he's going to possibly do something... soon' rather than rather than the version we saw in Seven Soldiers who had actually solved the anti-life equation and destroyed the New Gods (at least, I think that was what the story was about).

09:50 / 14.05.07

I assume you both know Walt (and Chris Claremont) CREATED the Source Wall?

13:46 / 15.05.07

I actually didn't, thanks for the tidbit -- so its first appearance is in that X-Men/Teen Titans special?

15:15 / 15.05.07

Yep. Before that, we had the Promethean Galaxy, which was basically a bunch of giant Celestial-looking beings chained to rocks (like Prometheus, I suppose, without the vulture).

Interestingly, the flaming hand usually writes on a DIFFERENT Source Wall... a blank brick wall on New Genesis. I wonder if the artist got confused.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:15 / 15.05.07

It seems to be implying that with the new status for the multiverse and the Source Wall, the Monitors would have a different relationship with the wall then the New Gods did. Izaya received "burning bush" messages directly from the source via the flaming hand and little brick wall; Monitors apparently can gain knowledge from going to the Source Wall and speaking to the contained giants.

It's actually two completely different sources (heh) of information; directly from the source via oracle, and from the Wall's enlightened denizens.

Phex: Dorset Doom

16:11 / 16.05.07

Okay, issue 50 is here, so strap yourself in for SPOILERS

Jason Todd is still straddling the goodie/baddie line, this week mixing it up with LASER NINJAS. The Rogues are on day three of a coke'n'booze'n'hookers party and now honorary member Tom Sizemore has turned up- this is purely in the version I edited together in my brain mind you, in the real issue there's a bit of testerone and blow fueled chest beating and not much else. Madame Xanadu refers to Freddie Freeman as 'the cripple', which is charming. Then there's the introduction of Karate Kid: several pages copied panel-for-panel from that disappointing fight him and Batman had over in JLA without adding anything new- honestly, this isn't exactly selling me the series and I'm gonna love reading the justification for it in Newsarama on Friday.
We do have Jimmy Olsen in this issue- he's following up on the death of Duella Dent in the last issue, with a little help from Superman's Pal's Pal: Superman. I probably don't have to tell you that this investigation leads to Arkham, some Silence of the Lambs meets The Man Who Laughs action and another plot point that sticks out like a sore thumb. The Joker is competently written and you can practically hear Mark Hammill's masterful voice work on the Batman Animated Series, but that's kind of what bugs me. The last time we saw the Joker he was brain damaged to the point of carving a smile onto his own face, he was the Clown at bloody Midnight and now, presto-chango, he's back to purple suits and grinning fish. Surely the writer(s) of the DCU's (or is it DCM's?) backbone can keep up with developments in one of DC's biggest books?

Olsen Haircut Awesomeness Index: 0.57
Ape Marriage Probability Calculus: 0.38

16:39 / 16.05.07

are those figures on a scale of 1.0 being the highest, or what...?

We should track those for every issue.

I did enjoy 'i'm going to enjoy reading the justification for it on Newsarama' *lol*

Phex: Dorset Doom

17:28 / 16.05.07

are those figures on a scale of 1.0 being the highest, or what...?

Speaking purely theoretically, the OHAI figure can be infinite, since Jimmy Olsen's haircut can be infinitely excellent (see my commentary on Dr. Spasky Ontolopola's seminal paper on non-powered beta-male coiffure in post-Silver Age graphic novels in the New England Journal of Tertiary Characters in Genre Heroics). The AMPC is of course limited to 1.0 since, to greatly simplify the matter, Jimmy Olsen is either married to an Ape or he isn't. Please bear in mind that in all of the eighteen-million separate narrative permutations run on MIT's 'Schuster 2' supercomputer have ended with Jimmy's marriage to a primate of the species Gorilla Gorilla, most likely the Western Lowland Gorilla native to the secondary forests of equatorial Africa (though some theorists have conjectured that the Ape in question may be a Mountain Gorilla, Gorilla beringei beringei.)

17:53 / 16.05.07

Quitely gives Olsen a pretty rad, very hipster haircut over in All-Star Supes.

>> Jimmy Olsen is either married to an Ape or he isn't.

It's like Schrodinger's Cat in that sense.

18:19 / 16.05.07

The AMPC is of course limited to 1.0 since, to greatly simplify the matter, Jimmy Olsen is either married to an Ape or he isn't.

I wonder if there are countries (planets? alternate universes?) where Jimmy could legally marry multiple apes at once....

18:25 / 16.05.07

Where'd that woman marry that dolphin last year?

Olsen could marry multiple apes, or could try for a sort of mostly-ape figure, like Monsieur Mallah only to be told their union is against laws regarding homosexual marriage and then he'd be forced into trying to pass as female to get married to a gangster while continuing all the real relations with Mallah. An alternate reality Olsen could marry an ape, and thereby be presumed to not be really married to one, since it's not the real DCU really real in continuity Olsen.

John Byrne could fix it later claiming it wasn't in keeping with how Olsen used to be portrayed by the important creators.

It could be Garth Logan in ape-shape.

So many options and levels of ape-wedding.

Spyder Todd 2008

23:37 / 16.05.07

Reeling it in for a moment, here there be spoilers:

Okay, I can buy that everyone in the DC Universe apparently knows that Jason Todd used to be the Robin who died.
But why the hell does Jimmy Olsen know that Nightwing is Dick Grayson?!?!? I mean, if you know who Dick Grayson is, it doesn't take much to figure out who Batman is. Olsen knows who Grayson is but doesn't notice that Clark Kent looks remarkably like his pal Superman?
Also, could someone who's patient enough to read the current JLA please fill me in on the Karate Kid stuff?

13:37 / 17.05.07

I actually am not real crazy about 'everyone in the DC knows that the Red Hood as Jason Todd, who used to be the 2nd Robin.' Why would the average person know that? I guess I can buy Jimmy Olsen knowing it because his super-pals let him on the secret, but come ON. Also, it seems extremely odd that Jimmy would know Nightwing's secret ID as well.

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