Compared to Countdown, 52 is a failure

I didn't mean to let so much time to past between posts, but that's the way things sometimes go, unfortunately. I've been working on this post on and off, so I thought I'd post the first part, the second part to follow soon.

From its fifty-first issue, I've heard more complaints about Countdown then I think the series deserves. Many appear to favor 52 as the better series for any number of reasons and with this I disagree. I think, there was more excitement over 52's release because of: (1) the gathering of DC talent, apparently in harmony, to write the comic; and (2) people waiting for the book to stumble and miss a week. Soon, it became apparent that the book wouldn't miss a week, so more people enjoyed the comic for its own sake. Still, despite some enjoyable stories, especially Booster Gold's story, 52 left me cold, never fulfilled its pre-publication promises. For me, 52, no matter how good the stories were, was ultimately a failure because what was offered for sale was different from what was initially promised. However, I am enjoying Countdown much more than I did 52, if for no other reason then that week in and week out, Countdown is exactly the comic book promised.

I think many complaints about Countdown derive from the fact that it isn't 52, which isn't fair to either book. The two are different titles, created with two different purposes aforethought. To complain about Countdown for what it isn't is like being told a red object on display is an apple, buying it after being told it is an apple, and then complaining after taking a bite that it isn't an orange. Countdown is the apple, 52 is the orange.

When we first heard of 52, we were told that it would be a weekly comic published for one year, set in the post-Infinite Crisis DCU and where we would see how the DCU functions without Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Additionally, 52 had at least one ongoing hook, "What is 52?", though some, like me, could include the "few months later" questions, such as how did Hawkgirl become a giant and then return to normal size, as another set of mysteries in the book. In the wake of 52's success, DC announced Countdown as its next year-long, weekly comic. The raison d'etre of Countdown, we were told, was that it would serve as the backbone of the DCU as the DCU marched toward "something," which we since have learned is Final Crisis. Additionally, it was said, that if a person read just Countdown, that person could still follow the threads of story therein and when the book ended, have all the information needed in order to follow and enjoy Final Crisis.

Looking first at 52, I suggest that by the time the first issue was printed, DC promised readers they would see three things by its end: 1) Readers would honestly see the DCU without Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman; (2) The presentation and the solution of the "mystery of 52," in which I will expand to include the mysteries within 52, like the "few months later" explanations and who is Supernova; and (3) To present comic-book stories in real-time. For me, by its end, 52 only came through on (3). As for the first two points, the story driving the "mystery of 52" started strong, but that was swept aside early in the run as the writers changed the direction of the book, telling more personal stories of the portagonist(s), thereby isolating the stories more from the DCU than I think was originally intended.

Does anyone really think that the World War III one-shots were part of the 52 publication plan, especially since they weren't written by the 52 writers? I know that in light of the many Countdown-related titles currently in release, it seems absurd that the WWIII one-shots weren't planned out, but wasn't part of 52's conceit the statement that the entire story would take place within its pages. Yet, it appears to me that WWIII wasn't a planned event because within those four books were all the little bits of business necessary to show a DCU without the Big 3 and to get characters and titles to the places they were found when at the beginning of the "One Year Later" stories. People cry constantly that they are forced to buy comics other then Countdown to follow the story, an opinion with which disagree; as part of the Countdown side of this post, I may explain the difference between "necessary to follow the story" and "obsessive need to make sure some scrap of story isn't encountered first hand"; but if you are going to complain about and not the other, then you are blind to the faults of 52.

And, personally, that is the reason that 52 failed with regard to making due with the pre-publication promises. Because of the focus on five core stories--Booster, Question, Heroes in Space, Luthor gives out super powers, and Island of the Mad Scientists--the greater sweep of the DCU was forgotten. By series end, I never had a feeling for the DCU would be like without Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman because there was really nothing inherent in the stories in 52 that made them any different had they been printed as individual mini-series. The year without the Big 3 didn't feel any different reading a random story featuring a random hero.

For example, months can go by in Flash or Birds of Prey with nary a mention or appearance of the Big 3, let alone other DCU characters. You might counter this by saying Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are at least available to lend a hand in those books, but the reality is that, unless it is crossover season, the central character(s) rarely ask for outside help. That's the feeling I developed reading 52: these were five individual stories presented in the traditional DCU and the absence of the Big 3 from those stories was felt no differently by the protagonists therein then if they were going about their lives on any random Wednesday without Batman, Superman, and/or Wonder Woman showing up.

When the time came to reveal the solution of the mystery of 52, the trend of the book, save for the Booster Gold story, had moved so far from having the mystery being central that the solution felt more like an afterthought. That the mystery of 52 had become secondary to many readers was apparent from the reaction of "What mystery?" to the final house ad for the series that asked the reader, "Have you solved the mystery?" If possible, forget that Dan Didio spilled the secret in a DC Nation column months before the series was complete, and just think about 52; do you remember thinking about the mystery of 52 as any of the various stories, other then Booster's, were coming to an end?

In the end, all 52 was was just an anthology title sold to a readership that, so we are told, do not like or want anthologies. It was not pre-sold that way, but that is what it became. All the flaws of 52 are ignored while a majority (or maybe a more vocal minority, afterall, this discussion is happening primarily on the Internet) fixate on the many problems with Countdown, the main problem being that it isn't 52. Next time, why Countdown isn't as awful as people think it is.

Cover Comments

Over at Comics Should be Good, Brian Cronin usually posts commentary regarding the covers shown in each month's Marvel and DC solicitations. Here are links to his comments on DC and Marvel comics solicited for release this coming December.

Personally, I have no idea what he is talking about, but I think he is looking at the covers with an artist's eye, so I'm sure we have different standards regarding a comic book cover and its purpose. Myself, I think the covers of most titles published by the Big 2 are rather pointless. If the cover doesn't actually reflect the contents of the comic to which it is attached--that is, a cover presenting some moment from the comic itself rather than a meaningless picture of the lead character(s) and drawn by a different artist then the one drawing the interior--the point of the cover is rendered moot.

Suffice to say, I have little love for covers as they are currently used. In my opinion, a cover is meant to sell a comic to people who wouldn't necessarily buy that comic and I think most mainstream covers don't serve that purpose. In fact, because the audience for comic books is so insular, bought by people who know what they want long before they walk in the door, I would go so far as to say that having a newly drawn cover each month isn't necessary. I do not think sales would be adversely affected if each month both of the Big 2 had blank covers except for the company logo, title logo, and UPC. To make it easier for the consumer, the covers for a month's worth of comics from each company would be printed in a different color. For instance, for comics published in November, Marvel comics could have green covers and DC comics blue covers. Come December, Marvel's might be yellow and DC's red, January another pair of colors and so on.

At one time I planned on presenting a group of covers from the December solicitations as the ones I found particularly annoying, but some things aren't possible, mainly because I misplaced the flash drive with the covers I'd chosen and I'm too busy to gather them again. However, that doesn't mean I can't offer a few, at least the few I had sense enough to upload before losing the drive.

All Star Superman #10


This cover, at least, doesn't suffer from what I consider one of the primal sins on covers today: presenting the image so close up that the action is lost. Can't have a wider shot than one that shows a giant Superman ready to catch the Earth if it were too fall. However, I have to ask if anyone else thinks Superman looks like Dick Van Dyke?

Countdown Special:  The Atom 80 Pg. Special #1



This is a great example of a bad cover, if that statement is based on what I wrote a few paragraphs back. As part of DC's plan to reprint everything even tangentially related to events in Countdown, DC is reprinting some pretty obscure comics. In truth, the stories that will be in this issue; and the next, it runs for two issues; are probably pretty germane to Ray and Jean Palmers' story that began in Identity Crisis, as the stories show the Atom's search for Jean after she went off the deep-end (again). However, is there anything about this picture that relates that information? The stories reprinted are from Super-Team Family, so not only do the stories feature Atom, but at various time Supergirl, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Aquaman, Captain Atom, and Wonder Woman also appear. Is that information presented by the cover? For everything that image tells me, the cover might just as well be a solid color.



Bat Lash #1

The phrase "continuity porn" is thrown around a lot these days, usually in reference to the mainstream comics from the Big 2, though, I guess, there are people who are actually concerned about continuity in pornography and are "taken out of the story" because of some silly little error. I don't necessarily agree with the reasoning behind the phrase, but the covers offered for the first issue of Bat Lash kind of supports the continuity porn concept.

What do I mean? Let's assume that there is going to be a logo for the comic and all the other particulars common to mainstream covers. Ok, after that, what is there about any of these covers that tells you what or who is a "Bat Lash?" A knowledgeable comic fan might purchase it because of the creators involved or because he knows the name "Bat Lash" from either seeing the character on Justice League Unlimited or recognizing the name from house ads in DC comic books printed in the late sixties, early seventies. An unknowing fan might think it related to the Batman titles in some way. I give both covers, the issue ships with a variant cover, credit for showing action scenes that I'll assume actually occur in the story, but is there anything on those covers that would make a unknowing person want to buy this comic? Western comics, in general don't sell and haven't sold for decades, so the genre isn't the selling point. DC must expect to make sales based upon the name only and since the name is recognizable only to comic-book fans, Bat Lash is a form of continuity porn.

Compare those covers with select examples from the first Bat Lash run:



I think these serve to describe the character much better than the newer covers. They tell a potential buyer the comic is a Western, one that may not take itself too seriously, with a central character who may nor walk the straight and narrow consistently.

Good thing I didn't post more covers.