It will probably surprise no one to learn that I pretty much hated this book, just like I hated the event Identity Crisis that lead up to it. What may surprise some is the reasons that I hate it, why I actually find it more despicable than Identity Crisis on some levels and why I can't quite bring myself to wholly condemn it, even though it may well make the DC Universe a hostile place for me to read for a while. Before we get into the meat of the review, I offer up the same fair warning I did when reviewing Identity Crisis. As unhappy as I was with DC Countdown, it would be both unprofessional and childish of me to deliberately spoil all the events, but at the same time, it's damn near impossible to talk about the book properly without hinting in such broad terms that most will be able to figure it out. So this review may have a lot more in the way of spoiler tendencies than my usual, and if you wish to go in without any spoilers or hints, read the book first. Honestly, at this point, most of you have already made up your mind about whether you're going to buy the book or not regardless of my review, especially given that it's 80 pages for a buck by some of DC's brightest talent.
OK, spoiler warning over, let's get into it. DC Countdown reads a lot like Identity Crisis, full of the same pomp and circumstance and inflated self-importance, the same feeling of being half comic-book story and half hype-fest event. It has a stronger structure, however, in that it doesn't introduce a ton of red herrings that will ultimately have no impact on the story being told and it ends most definitively with a couple big shockers. That I didn't buy into the shock ending, that I found it to be a waste, is almost irrelevant, more a personal taste, and I can't deny that in terms of structure, the book has all the professionalism and talent I'd expect from Rucka, Johns and Winick.
What it doesn't have is an understanding of the DC Universe. This is mildly surprising from Rucka and Winick, who have had what I would consider missteps in their superhero work but no crucial failings, but it's downright shocking from Geoff Johns, who has up to this point been one of the guardians of old school cool concealed inside modern writing techniques. The central story here is a really cool one, that there's a big all-powerful conspiracy that one borderline disgraced and isolated hero discovers and has to deal with on his own thanks to his shoddy reputation. Problem is, that description doesn't fit Blue Beetle, who has deep and extensive ties to the Justice League and Oracle, two of the most powerful forces for good in the DC Universe, and the way that he is isolated doesn't ring true, but instead follows in the Identity Crisis tradition of making the world's greatest heroes look like selfish, stupid dicks. Martian Manhunter gets it worst, considering that after his longtime association with Blue Beetle, he coldly kicks the guy off the Watchtower after an attempt is made on his life and then refuses to include him in a telepathic "all League" summons, which is the act of a petulant third grader, not "the spinal cord" of the League. Oracle doesn't come off much better, as she's both uniquely intelligent enough to comprehend the threat that Blue Beetle sees and a good enough friend to Ted that she wouldn't stop taking his calls because he had become somehow annoying.
Basically, the core concept here is that the Blue Beetle has become a joke, that nobody takes him seriously, and that they regard him as a pest. So even when his best friend is nearly murdered, someone targets him for death by blowing up his ride and his company is under attack by hostile forces, they write off his need for help as him being a goofball somehow. Even given Blue Beetle's buffoonish behavior in the pages of JLI, for the heroes to write anyone off like that is insanely callous and unheroic. We're shown that Superman offers up some kind words, and Wonder Woman says "I believe you," but these heroes don't back up these words with actions, instead they do the superheroic equivalent of turning off their cellphones so their old friend will stop bugging them with these pesky stories of how somebody is trying to kill him, despite his best friend having landed in the hospital as a result of one of these attempts. The worst part is that given the power of the adversary here, and Blue Beetle's admittedly shaky standing in the superhero community, trumped-up charges, miscommunications and other elements could certainly have been brought to bear to make me believe this behavior and isolation. These creators have the storytelling talent to do that, but they don't do it, instead they just sort of present it as a fait accompli and expect us to buy into it.
Another problem of DC Countdown is that it seems so wasteful. It doesn't feel as much like cheap shock value as Identity Crisis did, I feel like the creators earned the emotional resonance of the final sequence and do an excellent job in both rebuilding Blue Beetle into a badass, accomplished hero and rebuilding the Booster and Blue Beetle friendship as something more than a venue for cheap jokes. But to do all of this build-up and then essentially waste it for the shocker ending is a shame. The shocker is a better one than the lameass ending or hack-y manipulation of the deaths in Identity Crisis, but I still wonder why all of this creativity is put in to build someone up and then, rather than following up on that foundation, used to essentially destroy what you've just built. Granted, there could be a twist coming as to the seeming final fate of the character, and I'm having a hard time believing that all this work was done just to tear it all down in one moment, but that's sure what it looks like on the final page.
There are other, smaller problems with Countdown that add up over the course of the read. One is that the book is 80 pages, and Dear God does it feel like 80 pages. I understand that the creators are going for a tour of the DC Universe feel, but instead of really building up the danger of the conspiracy and their effective isolation of Blue Beetle, we get what amounts to repeated scenes with Beetle being treated like a bug by various different characters, while he idolizes them in his narration. The narration, which features faux-important and insightful things like "He makes you feel useless and important at the same time" about Superman (WTF?), is the thing that most reminds me of Identity Crisis, and one of the things that really could have used either tweaking or all-out removal. It reads like the creators congratulating themselves for their insight into these characters, even as they completely miss the point time and time again. Another is that it almost feels like DC has some sort of personal grudge against the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League at this point. The revelation about who's behind it all, on top of being about as credible as revealing G'nort as the secret mastermind behind Parallax, is like a punch in the gut to all those fans who actually liked the Justice League International. "See how stupid you were, to think that there wasn't some dark, adult secret motive behind all that fun?"
The bitch of it is, Countdown is definitely better than Identity Crisis. The story, while long in the tooth, is considerably more focused. The tension feels earned, the character moments between Booster and Beetle feel genuine and the shocker is a legitimate shocker. Sure, the plugs for Villains United, Day of Vengeance and the Rann-Thanagar War are naked marketing, but they're inserted relatively smoothly (the Day of Vengeance tie-in is easily the weakest and most tangential). Sure, I don't buy into much of the characterization, but the plot itself makes sense if you don't care that all the heroes are out of character, and the motivation of the villain is a hell of a lot more believable than "I'm crazy, and I happen to carry this flamethrower around with me! FWOOOSH!"
There's also undeniable talent in the artwork. Ed Benes's work is the weak link in the chain, but even that is solid enough, and the rest of the artists absolutely bring their A-Game. Morales and Bair open with a crazy-cool infiltration sequence and some really nice, normal guy moments between Beetle and Oracle and Booster, Beetle and Max. For all that Benes's work generally didn't click with me as much, I can't deny that his depiction of a horde of Madmen taking on Beetle, and the shiny new/old look of Booster Gold, just rocks. Saiz and Palmiotti and Reis and Campos both get their explosions on with very effective attacks on Beetle's home and his mode of transport. And Jimenez and Lanning probably do the best job of all by finishing up Beetle's infiltration job and bringing both great action and emotional resonance to the final scenes.
Sadly, though, all of this talent is wasted on driving the DC Universe a few more miles down a road I don't have any interest in. I remember the grim and gritty '90s, when heroes were killed off because they were deemed not kewl enough and it didn't matter if the plots made sense or the characters were consistent or the heroes were murderous, amoral bastards as long as the art was purty and the hype was good. Truthfully, I don't really care that they offed the character that they did, even though it seems like a waste. I don't even care that their plot and mastermind reveal is essentially another groin-punch or two at what Giffen and DeMatteis brought to the DC Universe. What disappoints me more about Countdown than Identity Crisis is that with Identity Crisis, I felt like there were still some corners of the DC Universe that were safe from the hand-wringing bullshit angst that permeated that series. However, if three of the main architects of the DC Universe can write something that essentially feels just like that and spreads the net wider over the universe, than I may have to grit my teeth and ignore something I hate in almost every DC book I read, and that's a damned shame.
In the end, I'm far more divided over this book than I was about Identity Crisis, and so I'm doing something I haven't done in a long, long time, and that's offer up two ratings. Basically, if I was looking at this from the point-of-view of whether I buy into it, whether it makes sense and if it looks and reads well, I'd give it a 6/10, for the many reasons detailed above. If I were to rate it on pure personal gut feeling and how much I wanted to chuck the book out a window after first reading it, I'd give it a 1/10.
