Well, if you ever needed convincing that making a heartfelt video for post mortem viewing is not such a hot idea, here you go. Robin and the Teen Titans decide that the best place for a first viewing of Bart Allen's last words is in front of a stadium of Keystoners. Lucky for everyone involved it was a speech on heroism and fun times, rather than Bart confessing his unrequited love for Beast Boy.On the subject of odd choices of venue, hadn't Bart relocated to Los Angeles after his return? It speaks pretty well of the people of Keystone that they can rally up by the stadium-full to mourn a Flash that wasn't even in residence.
More importantly, shouldn't this whole thing have gone down in "The Flash"? After all, Bart never even appeared in "Countdown". And where is Wally, or the rest of the JLA for that matter?
Anyone want to speculate on what it is that Rose Wilson is holding? Maybe it's just the color, but it reminds me vaguely of something I found under my girlfriend's bed once that filled me with a sense of inadequacy. It would also be nice if the Robins didn't all sport the same haircut.
The funeral as framing device/backdrop can be wonderfully executed. James Robinson's portrayal of Ted Knight's funeral at the end of "Starman" manages to showcase character, using small talking head panels that gave a sense of each speaker's movement within their eulogy. And the eulogies themselves allowed Robinson to move in and out of the funeral's events to recount the week leading up to the funeral. Here, the perspective zooms around haphazardly, giving no sense of where anyone is in relation to anyone else. The most aggregious example is on pages three and four, where Rose Wilson is shown sitting both to the left of Beast Boy and to the right of...that one that wears the hood. Also, the funeral barely skips a beat when two of the suspects bolt down the center aisle and are shot at out in the parking lot.
The bloodthirsty portrayal of Wonder Girl here is completely out of line with any prior characterization. It seems implausible that the same girl who spent an entire year trying to resurrect her boyfriend, well aware that his killer was still alive, suddenly goes Charles Bronson after losing another friend.
Enough. There are positive points here, so let's get to them. The Monarch storyline has actually become (wait for it) a storyline! While an army of...somethings...led by Forerunner is significantly less terrifying than the newly formed Sinestro Corps (and let me join everyone else in saying that the "Sinestro Corps Special" is a pretty nifty bit of storytelling), it at least constitutes an understandable plan. All you need to set up is a purpose, with a motive, and the means to achieve that purpose. Monarch and Forerunner want to stop the Monitors. Purpose. The Monitors, via an unidentified female proxy, have wiped out all of Forerunner's people. Motive. They have an army right out of "Attack of the Clones" set up in the Bleed. Means. See, it wasn't that hard after all.
Jimmy Olsen resolves to use his powers! Again!
Mutton Chop Monitor turns out to be sort of a whiny little wet blanket. It looks like he'll be playing chaperone in the wacky romantic comedy section of our story. Of course, it looks like Kyle Rayner's got bigger problems than getting his woman stolen by Zombie Jason Todd.
The introduction of Harley Quinn was nicely done, glad to see she's recovered from Morrison's "Batman" work. If any of that is actually in continuity.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but my favorite advancement of the plot this week involved the Rogues. Piper and Trickster falling into the hands of another band of villians actually catches my interest, although Piper's need to pay his respects to Bart is totally insufficient reasoning for both characters to walk into a stadium full of angry superheroes and vengeful Keystoners.
I'm finding my faith in this series' ability to pull itself out of its current slump is reaching near-religious stature. For the moment, I'm picking up the book for three basic reasons. The first is this little blog thing, which when you come right down to it, there are probably better ways for my to use my time. In fact, my editor was just mentioning something along those very lines. The second is that there is something about the relative botching of this big ticket project that's facinating in a kind of car-wreck way. But third is that I really like big, sprawling stories and DC is giving every indication that they're building up to one. I just wish they'd up and get started already.
5 comments:
All the best Countdown stuff is happening elsewhere.
I skipped the core title this week and bought the tie in All New Atom instead.
I wonder if that's not the way to go. With pacing like this, any missed info would probably get expositioned upside your head in later issues. Of course, we know Ray Palmer's not getting found in the pages of the Atom either.
hi
I just came here from the link in I was 28 ....
I've just read all your posts - good stuff, I'll stick around if that's okay - even though I gave up buying Countdown a couple of weeks ago. It was scenes such as that dull, superfluous exposition on the New Gods; one issue ending with Amazons attacking Washington, then the next starting with the worst written J Olsen ever saying something on the lines of 'gee whizz - I haven't got time to worry about that ... and so much more in this series that just made me think DC are being totally cynical about the whole thing and have stolen my money.
So now I just read them in the shop.
Glad to have you along. It's too bad the Jimmy Olsen dialogue isn't quite "gee whiz" hokey enough to be funny. Incidentally, the Coundown editors fessed up that Monarch's flesh colored face was a coloring error and that we should have been seeing the silver sheen of Captain Atom. Maybe my "Mike Carlin will save everything" sentiments were premature.
I've read other people's concern about Cassie/Wonder Girl's "Manson" outburst.
( I like that DC is clever enough to have two prominent female Big Three representatives with the name Cassie, but I digress.)
I think it's completely possible, after all, she's had to deal with her boyfriend's death in difficult ways. Yes, she knows his killer is out there, but she can't even go up to him and spit in his face ... well ... not at the time this issue came out.
She was distraught enough to become involved with a cult in hopes of his ressurection, and then when that blew up in her face, she found out her teammate and friend, Robin had been trying to clone her boyfriend. Which of course led to the realization of possible feelings for her dead boyfriend's best friend. Ouch.
Her mentor, Wonder Woman and friend had been gone, left without telling her where she was going and offering no support for a young girl who not only has to deal with the death of her first love, but the fact that she is a super hero ... and one with a rather public identity.
Her extended family of the Amazons had gone, seemingly forever, and her other extended family the Titans had become something completely different for a (still not fully explored) time with members including "Captain Atom Girl," "Big Barda Girl" and "Plastic Man Boy."
The only constants in her life aside from pain, it seemed, at that time were her "sisters" Donna Troy and Supergirl, the latter of which was going through her own emotional crisis for a period of time.
Plus, I can imagine that aside from positive happy cheery talks between the best friends, they both sat up thinking of ways they could make Superb_y-Prime pay ... in very "Hostel" and "Saw" ways.
So you've got a Wonder Girl who's human side is going to have its own way of dealing with grief, and when one is trying to save the world on a regular basis, it would probably end up with some points having to swallow the anguish to try and then suddenly having Bart die (and don't you think Bart would have maybe changed his video once Conner died? Yes, it added "emotional fuel" to the fire that was his funeral from the writer's point of view, but it doesn't makes sense that after that, he wouldn't modify it.) ... having Bart die, who if he was like a little brother to you, would then the anguish and grief could easily come pouring out in a mass amount of hatred and malice.
Not to mention, Wonder Girl is a demi-goddess. Her biological father is the legendary Zeus who isn't always known for being calm and rational or peaceful. Think the lightning bolts.
Thus, think her own magic lasso fueled by anger.
So, you have a demi-goddess who's been tied to Ares, the Greek god of War (!), her bestest brother, and it seems ever more logical that there would be such an outburst as Cassie had.
As we have now seen with her mother's internment in a concentration camp of sorts, and a good intention gone horribly wrong with the accidental almost-assasination of the President of the United States, we see that this type of emotional outburst is extremely normal for the character, and ties into why she and Kara are best friends, for when they're angry, they're very, very angry.
So there you have it, a demi-goddess who's got all the emotional conflicts and hormones of a teenager her age would have, on top of which in a relatively short period of time, has seen her boyfriend die, her families disappear or torn apart, her life basicly a less than fun time, and then she loses someone else very close to her ... it seems pretty natural to me.
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