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Could Countdown be seen as the longest-running existentialist comic series? Outside of Vertigo stuff, it feels like Countdown could be seen as this long journey of existentialism for these characters as they travel through the DCUniverse.
Piper and Trickster = Waiting for Godot and the Stranger:
- Piper/Trickster are waiting around and not accomplishing anything, but feeling like they're responsible but not knowing what to do with that responsibility. Also, you have the Stranger, where the main protagonist ends up shooing and killing someone "because of the sun."
Jimmy Olsen = Kafka's Metamorphosis
- Jimmy Olsen's Metamorphosis is similar to Gregor's metamorphosis in which he becomes monstrous and no one believes him. It also might explain Jimmy's relationship to the "bug."
Holly Robinson = Jack Keroac's "On the Road"
- Holly goes "on the road" and ends up meeting a Neal Cassidy-like character (Harley Quinn) and ends up getting into weird stuff before coming back home to New York.
Ray Palmer = Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus or Kafka's Notes from th Underground
- The Myth of Sisyphus is the Atom's fight against the overwhelming futility of the virus. Notes from the Underground is the Atom's struggle with identity.
Jason Todd = Satre's Nausea
- Jason Todd is the main character in Nausea, where he cannot stand the world or the people in that world. Nor, even when he tries to relate, he cannot relate to Donna Troy (his ex-crush) or the Batman in that alternative world (his comrade who he accepts for a little bit, but then goes back and feels stupid for giving in...like the main character in Nausea).
Challengers of Beyond = Sartre's "No Exit"
- Four characters who are put in the same room as a reason for punishment (like the Monitors attacking and punishing the characters) and they can't stand eachother. Hell is other people...
Mary Marvel = Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
- Mary goes into the heart of darkness with the power, and meets Kurtz (Darksied), where she is remarkably changed and rejects both society and civilization.
The Monitors = Foucault's Discipline and Punish or Kafka's The Trial
- Foucault's Discipline and Punishment is all about Monitoring and "Who Monitors the Monitors" and Kafka's "The Trial", where the main character is accused for something that is unknown to that person, but known to those that judge.
The Monarch = Kafka's Crime and Punishment
- After falling ill (Captain Atom going crazy), he becomes paranoid and ends up becoming a Napoleon Bonoparte who is above the law. His sidekick could be seen as the Sonya character, who gives the main character the power as the spiritual and religious guide.
Just throwing it out there. Anyone else see the similarity between Countdown and existentialism? |
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