Comic Genius

I feel like I just said a bad word by typing “countdown” in the subject line. The year-long, weekly event that was supposed to set up the events of Final Crisis, and finding a person who would outwardly share their enjoyment of the series was like finding a needle in a haystack.

I didn’t come into reading comics on a regular basis until Countdown was in full swing, so I tried to stay away from it for the most part. Once it was down to the last couple issues, I did start picking it up so that I would know what had happened when Final Crisis started. Weird, but I didn’t quite understand at the time why so many people disliked this series. The issues I saw were exciting and made me want to see the journey these characters went on to get to the point they were at right before the beginning of Final Crisis.

I managed to pick up the first volume of Countdown a couple weekends ago so that I could start getting caught up with everything that happened. After reading the first volume, I know have to wait until the end of July to read the next volume, and that bothers me. Along the same vein, I’m also starting to wonder what some of these people were thinking when they dissed the writers for such a horrible weekly series. Maybe this is something that just reads better as a trade, instead of weekly issues, I don’t know.

I like the fact that I don’t have great knowledge of some of the characters featured in Countdown. Karate Kid? I know next to nothing about the Legion of Super-Heroes. Ryan Choi? Other than the fact that he’s the new Atom, I’m ignorant. And there are others that I can’t even think of right now. Holly Robinson and Harley Quinn. I’m ready and willing to learn.

And of course, there’s Jimmy Olsen. The beginnings of his superheroism are found in the first pages of Countdown, and we get to see some of how he’s dealing with his new abilities and how it will eventually fit into the overall storyline.

And…Renee Montoya!!! Part of the reason I can’t wait for volume two is because the sub-plot with Renee and Batwoman interrogating Piper and Trickster is coming up, and this is an exchange that I’ve read before and absolutely love. It will be nice to finally read it within the context of the larger story as a whole.

So what’s the big deal with Countdown? I think it’s good so far.

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