Rant Timing #7: Countdown To Nothing
I was thinking last night. Usually this leads to insanity, but for once I was hit with some clarity. To be specific, it was about a certain 52 issue series that just wrapped up over in the DC Universe. Countdown to Something Something Yada Yada and so on.
What if instead of Countdown/Countdown to Final Crisis, we were presented with a series of miniseries, similar to how it was done with Infinite Crisis? That is, the story lines that were used at different parts of Countdown separated, as opposed to interspersed and then spliced together at the end? Instead of Dini supervising and only writing two issues, this could have opened the door for Dini to craft the overall plot and perhaps write a full miniseries as well. Also, instead of using the Countdown moniker, the miniseries would have Final Crisis in their name, followed by a subtitle. This gives a feeling of an overall brand, leading up to Final Crisis itself. Some of these could stand on their own without the Final Crisis, but that’s up to editorial. Here’s what I came up with.
Final Crisis: Mary Marvel – Black & White (6 issues miniseries) – written by Peter Tomasi with art by Doug Mahnke.
Final Crisis: Death of the New Gods (12 issues) – written and drawn by Jim Starlin (same as it was, only have the ending take place in issue 12, as opposed to Countdown #2)
Piper and Trickster: Tied at the Hip (6 issue miniseries) – written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey, art by Tom Mandrake – this one doesn’t need the Final Crisis subtitle, as it stands on its own and in my opinion, could have done without the trip to Apokalypse and back. Just a simple Rogues story, leading up to Rogues Revenge.
Final Crisis: Arena (12 issues) – written by Paul Dini and Keith Champagne, art by Scott McDaniel – This is the miniseries which would tell Dini’s overarching Monarch story. The forming of the army, the Arena battles, the attack itself, and the attempt at intervening on the part of The Monitors. This would lead into…
Final Crisis: The Great Disaster (8 issues) – written by Jeff Katz, art by Pat Oliffe – Karate Kid’s story, told nice and quick so it doesn’t have to be drawn out. It begins at the end of The Lightning Saga, and explores the Monitors, Karate Kid and Una, and Bob asks for their help to find Ray Palmer as opposed to The Challengers, leading to a dejected Ray Palmer making his way home without those who came to save him.
Final Crisis: Amazon’s Reign (6 issues) – written by Sean McKeever, art by Pete Woods – This is Amazons Attack done right. The rise and fall of the Amazons at the hands of Granny Goodness, ending with the New God killer cleaning house.
I leave out The Challengers and Jimmy Olsen because, in essence, they did not need to be there. Kyle, Donna and Jason have their own things to worry about in other titles, as is proven by the current climate of the DCU. This allows Kyle’s story to run its course properly in GL and GL: Corps without Countdown giving anything away, and for Jason to appear regularly in Batman and Nightwing looking to find a path, as opposed to adopting something new only to drop it immediately. As for Jimmy, despite those of you who feel it makes perfect sense for the best friend of Superman who other than a few transformations back in the day has no powers to all of a sudden become a power battery, I’ll pass on that. If you want to form an Olsen Bug relationship in Busiek’s Superman then by all means, but he’s staying out of the Darkseid story in my opinion.
If you’re looking to tie these together and prep everyone for Final Crisis, then release a DC Universe one-shot, which is basically DC Universe #0, only work with these stories instead. For the story of DC Universe #0, see Final Crisis: Prologue for all that material.
This my Earth 2 working of Countdown. To me it simply makes more sense to flesh out each and every story without jury rigging together a plot. Not all of these stories deserved to be in the same place at the same time, and this story was not made for a 52 issue weekly series. Here, we can pick and choose which stories we wish to read, and all is well with the world. The 52 issue weekly idea takes a year off to regain steam in the eyes of exhausted fans, to return with Trinity, as it should.
If only, right?
