Countdown: New Weekly Series

[DoomJester]

Looks like there will be a "Save Mary Marvel" in later weeks. . .

I hope so. I'm not so upset about her going evil-- I am interested in that-- I just want to see it done better, and also, if she does go evil and no one does or knows anything about it until it's time for WWIV (Shipping December?!) then I think that will reflect badly on all the other heroes.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I doubt she'll have a WWIV. More likely, she'll be fixed by the end of Countdown and just be less goofy.

 

[yenaled]

I just read Countdown to Adventure #2 - I've been busy - and I can't describe how much I hate the Forerunner story. After reading it all I could think was "there is 8 parts to this story ".

I need to rant a bit to get it off my chest.

I can't understand why anyone would think the story of a unstoppable, annoying, heartless warrior girl flying round different versions of DC characters and beating them all single handedly would be interesting. So Forerunner can seemingly beat up Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Hawkman and Hawkgirl - at the same time - without breaking a sweat. Even when these characters are more vicious than the normal incarnations and would gladly kill. Then Forerunner kills some Nazi's. Am I meant to like this character for killing powerless soldiers when they aren't even at war with her? Or she isn't even from that Earth. A side note too, in IC Kryptonite from Earth-1 didn't hurt Earth-2 Superman - but now Kryptonite can be multi-universal.

Hurray, then the Monitors show up. "We cannot allow people to cross between universes" - right - so you guys are at exactly the same place that you were at in the Brave New World one shot. Excellent character progression there.

Then Monarch, he's a walking template for "how to ruin a character in one easy step" and again says "I have a plan, it will all be clear" over and over again, like he has been stuck saying one thing for months on end. How exciting.

I just find it boring storytelling - I don't feel like I have any emotional attachment to anyone in these books.

Plus Beechem actually manages to make Animal Man un-relatable. That's a skill. Although be it a bad one.

I maybe jumping the gun here, but Countdown on a whole just annoys me, it seems instead of having a set of stories to tell with a start and an end (52 to me felt like it did this very well), it is telling a bunch of stories to just get characters in position for a crossover. If we take the analogy for Darkseid's Chess game, Countdown isn't going to show a Checkmate, it'll just show a Check with a message "read Final Crisis to see Mary Marvel turn good" or "to see why they had to find Ray Palmer" or "to see the Monarch go to war".

I can almost see the Monitors in Countdown 1 saying "Now we will show the multiverse why you must not cross the boarders".

 

[moraldeficiency]

That sums me up as well. Countdown is as crappy as 52 was good. What a waste.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Eh, it's a Beechen comic.

 

[yenaled]

I know ... why do I keep giving the guy chances?

Actually the Forerunner stuff is Gray from "Palmiotti and Gray" who from Uncle Sam/Jonah Hex is a fantastic writer. He's obviously just been Editor'ed to hell and back.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Beechen's probably ghost-writing for him.

 

[BrianWilly]

I maybe jumping the gun here, but Countdown on a whole just annoys me

You figured this out just now?

 

[yenaled]

Haha - not exactly.

More I was disliking the series but waiting for it to turn, and now I've lost hope.

 

[DoomJester]

The only thing is, a series this long can always get better. You know I liked 52, I thought it was much stronger, but it had a bunch of issues that were slow. I mean, there were times near the end especially when it was fustrating.

If they come out swinging in the last two months that would be nice.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, but we're like 20 weeks in now and the whole thing's been pretty consistently weak. There comes a breaking point for a lot of people where they just say "**** it" and drop it. I've come close myself a couple times, but it's the only place where Kyle is remotely himself and I'm too much of a continuity hound to not read something as interconnected as Countdown.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I enjoy the Challengers/Search for Ray Palmer and the Piper/Trickster stories a lot and the Jimmy Olsen story has it's moments. However the stories for Monarch/Forerunner, Mary Marvel/Eclipso, Karate Kid, and Holly Robinson are really dragging this thing down.

And more New Gods stuff is needed. I'd add it in to the parts that I enjoy, but they're not in it enough to really count.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm more curious about the Karate Kid thing than anything else. I like the character. But it never gets any sort of focus in any issues. What's he done so far? Hang out with Oracle for an issue and then break into some facility?

 

[moraldeficiency]

The only storyline I've enjoyed in this has been Trickster/Piper. Olson is annoying, Mary Marvel (a character I love, or used to) is so freaking whiney now, the rest don't really seem gripping and none of the important points actually have happened in the book so far. The new gods I've been wanting to see, but at this point I've lost interest. I had to drop this from my pull list. Thank god for sinestro corps or I'd be just about boycotting DC at this point.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Blue Beetle and Checkmate ensure that I'll never be boycotting DC altogether so long as they're being published. They're just too good.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I was reaching a bit, though Amazons Attack almost had me give up on DC events entirely. Checkmate is excellent and I guess I do need my Batman fix. Used to love Outsiders, but I don't like the new direction, or the way Bats acts in the series. Not a big BB fan, used to love the Question, but 52 ruined that for me.

Come to think of it, DC has been slowly alienating me for the last few years.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Me, too. They've thoroughly ****ed several of my favorite characters up--Kyle Rayner (turning him into Parallax), Connor Hawke (allowing Winick to write him), Batgirl (making her evil, then ******ed, then a murderous psychopath), Robin (removing his personality, making him Bruce's adopted son), Nightwing (not knowing what the **** to do with him), and Aquaman (bouncing him from direction to direction, then completely abandoning him in favor of the Aquanewb). JSA was one of my favorite series, but now it's busy becoming Kingdom Come-Lite or focusing on all the characters I don't give a crap about every month. There are probably more, but I'm getting depressed just typing them out.

 

[moraldeficiency]

I understand your pain.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I think everybody does to some extent. I can't imagine anyone being totally happy with everything DC's doing to all of their characters right now.

 

[DoomJester]

I'm not really attached to anyone but Batman. Though I feel for Mary Marvel, and want her to be good in the end, I think her story could be nice if we got more than like three or four pages an issue (she wasn't in this Wednesday's issue at all).

Other than that, I'm not against changes in characters. I think many of you would probably feel the same way if perhaps you hadn't been reading comics for so long, and most importantly, if DC were doing a better job with their writing. I think characters are set up to fail just because now they have to make a story last a year.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Better writing would certainly help. I wasn't a fan of Ted Kord's death, but Keith Giffen and John Rogers have made me fall completely in love with Jaime Reyes.

 

[WompuM]

It just sucks that Nighwing always has filler-arcs, in which nothing develops. NOOOOOTHING. And now Green Arrow, who had on the most amazing and consistent series is gone. Countdown feels like a pair of concrete shoes.
Thank god for the Sinestro Corp aye?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Aye. The Green Lantern Corps portions of it, at least.

 

[moraldeficiency]

It just sucks that Nighwing always has filler-arcs, in which nothing develops. NOOOOOTHING. And now Green Arrow, who had on the most amazing and consistent series is gone. Countdown feels like a pair of concrete shoes.
Thank god for the Sinestro Corp aye?

Seconded. Other than that and WW3 DC has had the most consistantly @hitty string of events I've ever seen this year.

 

[sinewave]

Better writing would certainly help. I wasn't a fan of Ted Kord's death, but Keith Giffen and John Rogers have made me fall completely in love with Jaime Reyes.

is giffen writing blue beetle? i might have to check that out. i read the first 4 or 5 issues and liked it, but had to cut back on my weekly comic spending and dropped it.