DCU Comic Book Reviews

Countdown To Infinite Crisis

Countdown To Infinite Crisis

April 2005

Written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, & Judd Winick

Pencils by Rags Morales, Ed Benes, Jesus Saiz, Ivan Reis, Phil Jimenez

Inks by Michael Bair, Ed Benes, Jim Palmiotti, Marc Campos, Andy Lanning

Cover by Jim Lee & Alex Ross

Synopsis

Chapter One

Twenty minutes ago…Ted Kord (aka Blue Beetle) is breaks into an office.  On a large computer screen he finds a file revealing the secret of identity of Batman is Bruce Wayne.  Kord attempts to Oracle.  Four days ago…Barbara Gordon (aka Oracle) tells Kord that $20 million was siphoned away from his company.  He’s almost bankrupt.  At that moment, Michael Carter (aka Booster Gold) uses Kord’s debit card to withdraw $300.  Kord tells him about his financial issues and Booster suggests they talk to Max Lord, who tells them he will look into it and then dismisses them.  Kord decides to visit Batman but gets the same response:  Bruce says he will look into and then dismisses Kord.  Bruce then tells Alfred he knows what the JLA did. He knows everything.

Chapter Two

Fifteen minutes ago…Kord hesitates briefly before he clicks on the Superman file to reveal the secret identity of Clark Kent.  Three days ago…In northern Chicago, a warehouse owned by Kord Omniversal was robbed.  Kord calls Oracle to get her to call in favors.  Members of the Teen Titans, JSA, and JLA come to investigate but find nothing.  Superman wants to know what was in the warehouse.  Kord tells him it was 100 pounds of Kryptonite recovered from Supergirl’s arrival.  After everyone leaves, Kord is attacked by the Madmen.  In the middle of the fight, the Madmen scatter thanks to the arrival of Booster Gold.  Somewhere outside Gotham City, Calculator says that he is unsure who robbed Kord’s warehouse.  He says Blue Beetle is up to something and may interfere.  Lex Luthor tells him Kord is not a concern.  What they need to do is expand their society.  Dr. Light wants to know what about him, where is his retribution.  Luthor tells him they are building it. 

Chapter Three

Eleven minutes ago…Kord continues to access the files of superheroes.  He begins to realize it is not about the heroes, it is bigger than that.  Two days ago…at Kord’s private residence in Highland Park, Illinois, Kord is using the computer in an attempt to determine who hired the Madmen to attack him.  Booster notices that Blue Beetle has the mystical scarab used by the original Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett.  Booster than tries to use the computer, but as he sits down, bolt of lightning hits the computer.  After Kord gets Booster to the hospital, he notices the scarab glowing blue.  He takes it to Fawcett City, where he encounters Shazam who tells him the lightning was not a vessel of magic, it only claimed to be.  Shazam then teleports Kord to his bug ship, but the scarab remains behind in the Rock of Eternity.  After Kord leaves, a voice asks Shazam that with everything that is to come, he is filled with questions.  Shazam replies that for the first time in a thousand years, yes.

Chapter Four

Six minutes ago… Kord access the file of Wonder Woman and as he stares at the screen for a moment he can forget to be afraid.  Eight hours ago…Blue Beetle has been teleported back to the streets of Fawcett City.  When he remotely acces his bug, it explodes.  As Kord gets medical attention on the JLA Watchtower, Wonder Woman comes in to visit him.  Wonder Woman believes he is onto something and asks that she keep him informed.  Meanwhile, J’onn J’onzz (aka Martian Manhunter) receives a distress call from Adam Strange; Rann is being attacked.  J’onn suggests Hawkwoman might help.  Strange tells him no; it is Thanagar that is attacking!  Back at his destroyed him, Blue Beetle is not sure what else to do.  As he tries to rub a scratch out his goggles, Kord finds a communication device hidden within designed to help.  The device was part of Skeets, Booster Gold’s robot from the future.

Chapter Five

Thirty-two minutes ago…Kord follows the signal from Skeets and eventually finds a remote castle in the mountains.  He lands his bug ship and stealthily enters the castle.  Now…Kord first examines the file on Booster before he opens the file on him.  It states that Blue Beetle is deceased.  Kord guesses the person behind it all just as he shows himself:  Maxwell Lord.  Lord explains that it really is Checkmate and he is King.  Checkmate’s primary objective is to monitor all meta-human super heroes and stop them.  Just then the files on the computer are deleted.  Kord takes the opportunity and tries to run away, but Lord captures him.  Lord gives Kord one last chance:  join Checkmate or die.  Kord tells him to rot in hell.  Lord shoots Kord in the head and then orders the activation of Project OMAC.  It is time to save the world from itself.

Review

I briefly thought about reviewing each individual chapters rather than the comic as a whole.  Each chapter is roughly the length of a normal comic book (14 pages rather than 22 pages).  Each chapter is drawn by a different artist.  Plus, each chapter ends with a cliffhanger.  The comic is almost like a trade paperback, except much, much, cheaper.  However, the comic is presented as one long story and is meant to be read that way (rather than on a monthly basis) so a single review will have to suffice (lucky, you).

I was never a big fan of the Giffen run of the Justice League and all of its different incarnations that arose in the late 80s and early 90s.  Having said that, the assessment of the Blue Beetle made by himself in this story is pretty much the assessment I would have made.  I always though of the Blue Beetle as a Batman-lite, the type of Super Hero Batman would have been if he had not had tragedy in his life.  And that is why this story worked so well for me.  As I was reading, all I could think about was Blue Beetle’s past and the way I always pictured him.  Is that the type of person he has been portrayed in the comic books?  Maybe, maybe not, but at least there was a jumping into point for me as a reader, something I could identify with.  Despite the fact this comes after Identity Crisis and despite the fact that there is a tenuous link to that series, this really is a one-shot story that attempts to encompass all of the DCU.  But as a one-shot there really is no time for exposition or set-up normally found in a story.  This throws you into the middle of the mix and expects the reader to understand what is going on.

I really liked the story and that is saying something because I knew the ending (thanks to an unfortunate click on the internet). 

I can’t discuss the story without referencing all of the four minis that are to come of this issue.  Each comes from the end of the chapters:  One (OMAC), Two (Villains), Three (Day Of Vengeance) and Four (Rann Thanagar War).  Although all had some nebulous link to the main story, all of these short pages came out of left field (except at the end of chapter one, but they may because Greg Rucka is writing both Countdown and OMAC).  All of the others were out of place and was obvious it was shameless plug for the upcoming series.  Having said that, the transition from main story to the shameless plug worked well enough that I was not disgusted enough.  And I am looking forward to all of these minis (well, maybe not Rann-Tahangar).

And how could Ted Kord have had a laptop when he was 13 years old.  When I was 13 years old desktop computers were just coming out.  But a lap top?  Either this is a big mistake or a sign that perhaps the DCU is more advanced then we knew.-- MRB

Comic Connection

In Chapter One, the headline of the Gotham Gazette declares:  “Red Hood Strikes.”  The newest incarnation of the Red Hood first appeared in Batman issue #635 (January 2005).  In the shot of Wonder Woman’s secret file, it indicates the death of Martin Garibaldi, which occurred in WW issue #209 (December 2004).  Ted Kord (aka Blue Beetle) appeared in the Birds Of Prey with Barbara Gordon (aka Oracle) in issue #75 (December 2004).

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