Countdown to Infinite Crisis

Early last year, I was thinking about Hypertime.

I'm not sure what sparked the train of thought, but it was probably the beginning of Chuck Austen's run on Action Comics. I gave the first few issues a try; despite everything I'd heard about his work on the X-franchise, I wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, considering previous stories that had popped up here and there regarding editorial interference (not just with Austen, but with several X-writers). His take on Superman's personality had its roots in the original, Golden Age portrayal of the character. It was a bit too far past his present-day status for me to be entirely comfortable with a Superman who talked so much smack to his adversaries (although his ideas could have potentially served as an excellent take on Superboy).

To be honest, though, I was more irritated by his use of Gog. Superman was basically hospitalized by Gog in Austen's second or third issue (going by memory here), which in itself is fine, particularly since Gog's whole deal was traveling backwards through time/Hypertime and killing Superman every time he stopped. The problem I had was that Superman clearly didn't recognize Gog; Austen was treating him as if he was a new character, when Superman had definitely met him in the Kingdom mini-series. Small continuity gaffes don't bother me--I'm not applying for any No-Prizes--but when you have a story that's presented as a Big Deal Event and then completely disregard it without any attempt at an explanation, that's going to create a disconnect for me. Now, if that's part of the story a writer is trying to tell--"Why doesn't Superman remember?"--then that writer needs to establish that (in my opinion, anyway).

At any rate, the return of Gog reminded me of the concept of Hypertime. I remembered at one point Mark Waid and Grant Morrison had grand plans for Hypertime, but they both left DC shortly thereafter. They were both back and preparing new series. Morrison was doing interviews about Seven Soldiers, in which he would be creating new versions of some older characters. Waid was preparing to do a reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Connecting those projects led me to a conclusion: DC was going to have another Crisis.

Well, that seems to be definite now, but it seems I was completely wrong about the creators who would be handling it. Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick are the architects of DC: Countdown to Infinite Crisis, on sale next week (though several people have already read preview copies).It makes sense to coordinate things through these three writers; after all, Johns writes Flash, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, JSA, and now JLA (for at least five issues, co-writing with Allan (Young Avengers) Heinberg, while Rucka has one of the main Superman titles as well as Wonder Woman, and Winick covers Batman, Green Arrow, and Outsiders. Between the three of them, the core of the DCU is covered, so they can interweave plot threads between them with little trouble.

Bits and pieces of the greater tapestry of Infinite Crisis will no doubt be spread throughout the DCU titles over the next year, so any DC fan who wants to know everything will have quite a bit of reading to do. Already, there was a brief scene in the last issue of Teen Titans with Batman and Batgirl that I don't fully understand; apparently it was a glimpse at current events in Outsiders, a book I don't read (though I'll be ordering the two issues that explicitly cross over with TT). If you want to know why DC is doing this (aside from the desire to make more money), it's this: they're giving us what we think we want.

The original Crisis on Infinite Earths was noted for many things; one of them was a phenomenon called "red sky crossovers." a term still used today. Over the course of the twelve months that Crisis was published, pretty much every DCU book had a minimum of one issue that billed itself as a "Crisis crossover," but sometimes the only thing the story had in common with Crisis is that the skies were red, and otherwise had nothing whatsoever to do with it. As recently as Avengers: Disassembled, some readers complained that the "Disassembled" tales for Spider-man and the Fantastic Four were "red sky" stories. Avengers editor Tom Brevoort has stated that Marvel had heard previous reader complaints about being required to purchase every issue of several titles in order to follow one storyline, and they had tried to address that complaint with Disassembled. Marvel seems to have swung back in the other direction for"House of M," with crossovers in other titles as well as additional mini-series. DC is doing the same, but over what appears to be a longer term, with the previously-discussed story elements in several DCU titles as well and a handful of mini-series directly following DC: Countdown.

DC's strategy has to be seen as successful so far. When the new logo for DC: Countdown was revealed last Friday, the Comic News Intarweb was basically shut down due to server overload. People are clearly interested. Editorial seems to be focusing in on the aspects of Crisis that made it work the first time. One of those aspects was its massive scope, and there seems to be a clear plan laid out to incorporate all the corners of the DCUniverse (Outer space guys? Check. Magic dudes? Check.) while maintaining a tighter control over the event. Of course, another factor that made Crisis a "must-read" was the rising death-toll of the series . . .

. . . I have some reservations based on some of the comments I've seen regarding DC: Countdown, but I haven't yet read it for myself. I'll likely have more to say about it (and Identity Crisis) after I do. This year is definitely going to be . . . interesting.

Ultimate Spider-Man (and a couple more books)

My first exposure to the work of Bendis was Ultimate Spider-Man.

Wait, that’s not true—actually, it was the Daredevil: Ninja mini-series. It had Daredevil and ninjas—easy money, right? That mini was . . . not my cup of tea, and probably why I passed on it when he took over the actual Daredevil title. (I wasn’t reading the previous stuff by Kevin Smith, Bob Gale, or David Mack anyway.) At any rate, when USM was first announced, I was skeptical, having sampled John Byrne’s Spider-Man reboot attempt and found it not to my liking. Nevertheless, I thought I’d give it a try; after dropping all of the regular Spiderbooks in the aftermath of the Clone Saga, I was hoping to find one Spider-man title that was . . . well, at least readable.

Ultimate Spider-Man came out, and it was good.

Last year, Tales of Wonder had a sale on their USM hardcovers, offering the first three HCs for $34.95. It was a deal I couldn’t pass up, so I passed along my trades and some singles to some friends at DragonCon in September. I gave them everything except for the arc that had just started, “Carnage.”

It was while reading this arc that I began to have doubts about Bendis.

One of the appeals of the Ultimate universe is that it takes characters and concepts that long-time readers are familiar with, and presents them in different ways. In USM, the new takes on characters like Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, and the Enforcers were interesting and entertaining, but of all the re-imaginings, my favorite was Gwen Stacy.

The original Gwen Stacy died a couple of months before I was born, so while I’ve read a fair amount of the classic material she was in, I can’t say that I’m heavily invested in that character. I feel I know enough, though, to say that Bendis’ Gwen was very different from the original, with a distinct personality. (Actually, you could say that about Mary Jane as well.) She added something different to the mix of the book, and MJ’s jealousy issues with her promised further conflict down the road. I looked forward to the day when Gwen found out Peter’s secret—it seemed inevitable—and wondered how the relationships would change between the three of them because of that knowledge. Then . . . she was gone.

I’ve heard it said by some creators that one of the reasons why they try not to speak about certain new books or upcoming plot points is that the fans all immediately begin to write the comic (or book, or movie, or what-have-you) in their head, and the more time they have to play out those internal scenarios, the more disappointed they are when the actual material comes out and it doesn’t match what they’d been visualizing. Perhaps that’s true, to an extent, in my case. However, USM wasn’t the only Bendis title I was reading. The Avengers Disassembled event was going down, and it didn’t work for me. Overall, I felt that too many people were acting out of character in order to make the story work; all due respect, but simply being told to “read it again, knowing what I now know about Wanda” doesn’t quite plug enough holes for this reader. I still thought (and think) that Bendis is a hell of a writer, but between The Pulse, Secret War, Daredevil, New Avengers, Powers, and USM, he had put too much on his plate—that’s a lot of books for one guy to write, not even counting his work on the Jinx screenplay and the semi-secret USM video game that I expect will be announced at E3 this May.

So the issues following the Carnage arc were a little light, a palate-cleanser after all the heavy stuff that went down, and they were okay, but I didn’t really know how I felt about the book . . . Bagley was still great (though the newer inks by Scott Hanna were a little funky in a couple of places), but I had doubts that the writing would maintain the level of quality established in the first couple of years (or, alternately, that my feelings about the changed elements of the title would affect my enjoyment to the point that I personally would find the book to be of lesser quality—how’s that for being fair?); I knew that the next big arc would focus on Harry Osborn, and I hoped that it would kick USM back up a notch.

Well, I’ve just read Ultimate Spider-Man #74 . . . and it’s made me remember why I love this book. There's a bit of action served up with the high school angst. Peter’s life is screwed up, just the way we like it (apparently). Harry’s beginning to make his moves. We finally have a chat with a character we’ve glimpsed before—and I hope she’s able to stick around for a while. Mary Jane’s going to be in the middle of things, and it looks like it’s going to be ugly. I can't say too much more without entering spoiler territory, but this is the good stuff, people. 9/10

What else did I pick up yesterday?

Ultimates 2 #4—the Ultimates meet up with some European flag-wearing super-soldiers and find out more about the mighty Thor. Oh, and Tony gets Natasha a new outfit. Millar’s take on Thor has been one of the most interesting facets of the Ultimates; the info given this issue very much appears to be solid (my supposition is based entirely on one panel on page eighteen), but I want to know more. I’m enjoying Hitch’s pencils more now that he’s back with Paul Neary on inks; Andrew Currie’s work was more ”scratchy”, if that makes any sense . . . more gritty. Neary’s work is clearer, but still dark enough for the subject matter. 8/10

Teen Titans #22—the Titans’ battle with Doctor Light kicks into gear. Geoff Johns has thought of some interesting applications for the Doctor’s abilities; I never would have come up with a couple of those bits. We get an appearance by Hawk and Dove as well, and the pairing seems to be very appropriate; I believe Scott will approve. It looks like next issue will be the big mega-Titan throw-down. We have more threads from Identity Crisis here, but Johns seems to be handling them well so far; we’ll see where he ends up. 7.5/10

Coming from DCBS at the end of the month: Wonder Woman #214 (the second part of the crossover with Flash), Black Panther #2, Incredible Hulk #79, and Young Avengers #2.