Countdown #49 - Give Dini A Chance!

POSTED BY , 23 May 2007

Okay, to all the haters, let me just say one thing: I liked 52. I’m not saying all 52 issues were great. But there was a lot to enjoy, such as:

• Booster Gold being a huge jerk and then getting flash-fried
• Lots of people on the road to crazytown – Black Adam, Dr. Magnus, and my favorite, Ralph Dibny.
• Renee Montoya/Batwoman
• The desert island vacation resort/prison for mad scientists!

So having enjoyed 52, I was perfectly willing to give Countdown a shot. In fact, I expected it to be BETTER than 52, because the head writer is PAUL DINI for god’s sake! PAUL DINI! I will go out on a limb right now and say I have NEVER read a bad story from Paul Dini. His work on the Batman animated series was the ONLY reason I started reading mainstream comics, and he created what I would argue is THE portrayal of the Joker.

So imagine my disappointment when the first two issues of Countdown turned out to be…boring. NO! The worst thing a comic can be! Even the big Silence-of-the-Lambs style Joker scene in #50 was boring – oh, Duela’s not really his daughter? Wow. We know. That’s not a reveal. Jason Todd said as much the previous issue, and it wasn’t surprising then either.

(Countdown #49 spoilers start here!)

I almost didn't get this issue, but my life-debt to Paul Dini made me hold on. Thankfully, the series seems to be on an upswing. Some highlights:

• Jimmy avoids disembowelment at the hands of Croc by busting out with some stretch-armstrong moves. Is this the return of Elastic Lad we’ve all been waiting for? Will this lead to a surprise visit from Ghost Detective Ralph Dibny? I hope so – Ralph is one of the only 52 protagonists not to get their own upcoming series, and I’d like to know what he’s up to.
• I guess the Karate Kid is going to be a big part of this series, but I really can’t get past his name. Red Arrow even makes a joke about it in this ish, but I ain’t laughin. Couldn’t that name have been one of the bits of continuity that Mister Mind ate?
• Pied Piper is being hard-sold as a sympathetic supervillian (?) with a heart of gold. I’m guessing his upcoming Handcuffed-to-Trickster subplot will probably be more about angst than Three’s Company style misadventures. Which is okay. He won me over in #51 when he had a dance party on the roof with his little rat friends. I’m ready for an emotional journey of acceptance now.
• Finally, anyone else a little disappointed that Black Adam is back so soon? Great entrance in this issue, but still, his de-powering was such a great way to end the World War III, I wish we could have seen a bit more of him as a devastated mortal.
• Finally, this issue contains the start of a “History of the Multiverse” feature, which is a big help to people like me who aren’t really up on their DC history. It’s appropriate that the history is related by the same Monitors featured in the story, since they’re basically just exposition machines anyway.

-AHR