DC’s new weekly series Countdown began this week to interesting reactions.
Point:
Brian Cronin of Comics Should Be Good has his doubts.
Excerpt:
So, in Countdown #51 (I’d really prefer to call it #1), we have Jason Todd chasing around “the Joker’s Daughter,” with such dialogue as “I may be from a neighboring Earth, but I have to maintain my bad girl cred, too.”So, Countdown JUST started…52 JUST ended…and ALREADY we have fifth-rate villains talking about the multiverse like it’s no different from being from a different city?
And then the Monitors show up!
Oh lord, do the Monitors show up.
Goodness, do the Monitors show up.
Why do the Monitors show up?
Why?!?
Counterpoint:
Blogger Diamondrock on the other hand really liked the issue, especially the Monitors.
Excerpt:
The Monitors are DC’s new continuity cops. Nobody is going to just randomly reestablish themselves on another Earth. Nobody is going to be hopping around willy nilly. Because inter-dimensional has consequences. The Monitors — who clearly have power in spades — aren’t going to sit idly by while people screw with the Multiverse.You go where you don’t belong, you get capped. Or worse. And I for one am very pleased with that turn of events. Because these Monitors do more than simply monitor. They are border guards. They are the watchmen of the multiverse.
So what are your thoughts?
May 12th, 2007 at 2:08 am
i thought the first issue of coutndown was a good set up issue. i don’t mind the monitors in the least.
May 12th, 2007 at 6:05 am
“You go where you don’t belong, you get capped.”
But… Duella wasn’t from any of the currently existing alternate worlds. She merged into Earth-1 existence like so many other characters at the end of CoIE–and DC has been very explicit that the new multiverse is not the same as the old one, with all new world. So no dimension-hopping for Duella, and no clear reason for a interdimensional traffic ticket in the back of the head.
May 12th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Duela herself mentioned dimension hopping in the issue, so it would seem the “traffic ticket” has reason.
May 12th, 2007 at 10:59 am
So the new “Anti-Monitor” would be the good guy who thinks you should be able to jump universes?
May 12th, 2007 at 11:48 am
No, because jumping universes is BAD. Ergo, bad guy.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
But who says dimension hopping is bad? The Monitors.
May 12th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
John Byrne says these kinds of comics are killing the industry and I agree. Enough with the crossovers and give us the Doom Patrol back!
May 12th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
What an incredibly poor selection of quotes! The first talks about the actual issue, the second praises it based on some fanfic notion of what might happen. Based on that, “Diamondrock” didn’t like the issue, s/he liked their own fantasy about its continuation.
What puzzles me is why this bit of fanwank deserves attention and what’s wrong with Melissa Krause’s critical thinking skills that she labels that nonsense a “counterpoint”.
May 12th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Markus: Thank you for commenting.
When I choose my issues for point/counterpoint I don’t choose them for their applicability to each other, I choose them because they represent a spectrum of opinion to be found online.
Diamondrock’s post is not and was never intended to be a direct response to Brian’s review. However it does fit my one important criteria which is a significantly different reaction.
Brian didn’t like the issue. The Monitors were an element of what he disliked about the issue. Diamondrock enjoyed the issue, and the portrayal and role of the Monitors was a key reason why. I feel this difference in response to the same characters in the same book was a particularly interesting element which warranted being showcased in a quote.
May 12th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
“But who says dimension hopping is bad? The Monitors.”
The Monitors, and ME.
That being said, despite the trigger-happiness of one of the Monitors, they ARE nigh-omnipotent cosmic beings who understand things that the rest of us cannot comprehend.
Even the original Monitor acted in ways that on the surface, seemed to be bad. But he was really working to save all of space and time from the Anti-Monitor. So I’m willing to give them some leeway…
May 13th, 2007 at 4:51 am
As much as I like the guy, John Byrne can go screw himself on this issue. Superhero comics have been doing this type of stuff for years, ever since their inception. Shut up and keep and open mind. Only judge something once its done, not before hand.
May 14th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Is anyone else tired of all of these event books?
May 14th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
John Byrne says these kinds of comics are killing the industry and I agree. Enough with the crossovers and give us the Doom Patrol back!
I don’t entirely disagree with Byrne on this issue, but the Doom Patrol has been given about a dozen comeback opportunities by now and blown them all uniformly, particularly the horrible Byrne iteration. Sometimes it’s not a bad idea to leave something in the ground for a couple of years.