I tried. I really tried to get through 25 issues of “Countdown” for today’s column. I just couldn’t do it.
Written by Paul Dini, Keith Giffen, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Tony Bedard, Adam Beecham, and Sean McKeeverCover by Claudio Castellini
Penciled by Scott Kollins, Ron Lim, Tom Derenick, Jesus Saiz, Pete Woods, Carlos Magno, Jamal Igle, and Howard Porter
Inked by Scott Kollins, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Stanici, Wayne Faucher, Mark McKenna, Art Thibert, Jand Rodney Ramos
Colored by Tom S. Chu and Pete Pantazis
Lettered by Travis Lanham, Rob Leigh, Jared K. Fletcher, Steve Wands and Ken LopezThe Monitors discuss the various actions of the characters in the series so far—and its impact on the Source Wall and the fabric of the Multiverse itself! With a crisis looming, the Monitors must decide their next course of action.
In a small bit of mercy, six issues between #26-13 didn’t feature Mary at all. This was at the time when the series started to, ostensibly, connect more soundly to “Final Crisis,” though that’s not exactly true. Nor is it true that the more focused series was a better reader, nor is it true that, 3/4 of the way in, there was any clue as to what the series actually supposed to be about.
The Mary story comes back in #25 with Rom Lim on pencils. Lim does a good job with the Fourth World-heavy story. Here, we see Eclipso offer Mary to Darkseid as some sort of combination mage/concubine. This is hinted at a few times in the early issues, but by #22, Eclipso comes out and says it. She essentially tells Mary that all she has to do is fuck Darkseid into a false sense of security, and then she can take Apolokips and, by default, the universe.
Obviously, Mary doesn’t like the sound of that. And it’s also a weird choice for Dini and co to attempt to make Jean Loring an even bigger piece of shit after she killed an innocent, beloved character in “Identity Crisis.” But by adding ‘pimp’ to her resume, they manage to make her even more of a reviled figure.
These issues had some actually good art, with Scott Kolins, Jamal Igle, and Howard Porter, though I don’t think anyone would say that these issues represent the artistic zenith of any of their careers. It makes some of this dreck go down a little smoother. Igle’s issue, in particular, may be the best illustrated of the series thus far.
After the whole “I’ll sell you into sex slavery with the hopes you kill your rapist” segment, we see a battle between Mary and Eclipso unfold over multiple issues. None of this is particularly good or well written, but it is nice to see Mary finally taking charge of her own life, and not just going along with the magic that is flowing within her. Mary, eventually, releases all of her power. It seems like she is giving it all up, but it is unclear if she is giving the power to Eclipso, or just releasing it out into the universe, or whatever.
After her emptying of power, Mary washes up on the shore of Paradise Island, where she is greeted by Hippolyta, who recognizes Mary, but Mary doesn’t recognize her. She enlists Mary’s help in a coming war in issue #15, but that’s the last week see in this week’s batch of issues.
One of the major issues with this book is that there seems to be no continuity between where the series started and where it wants to go. The Mary story seemed to be about the corruption of Mary by Black Adam’s power, but she goes through no real personal journey. One day she’s evil, and then she gets even more screwed over, and decides to be good again. It’s a frustrating read, both because it seems like a wasted opportunity and because it seems like an arbitrary character to mess with. What is the actual purpose of this character turn?
I suppose there is a chance that it all ties up in the final 12 issues, though I seriously doubt it.
