Count-down, Let-down The oldest trick in the book ...
Will the REAL Wolverine please stand up?
Count-down, Let-down The oldest trick
in the book (and how I fell for it)
By "The Ace of Knaves"
Damn! As it turns out DC WAS kidding when they called their big event
"final crisis". After my lavish praise for their bold plot and excellent
storytelling for countdown issues #06-05, they followed up with a Disappointing
Cheat in issues #04-03.
Once again it's the "biggest announced event of the
year" where actually nothing much really happens.
Sorry folks! Wrong universe! It was the oldest trick in the book and I
fell for it. Turns out it was "universe 51" that was totally destroyed
and not the mainstream one. I should have been suspicious by the lack
of continuity with the ongoing series and by the sudden absence of the
twin globes in the top left panels which usually announce which dimension
stuff is happening in. I don't now if I'm angrier with myself for falling
for this or with such excellent writers as Dini and Giffen for choosing
they easy way out. I guess I was spoilt by the absence of parallel universes
in DC recently, so I forgot that "it only happened in a dream/other universe"
was the easiest way to chicken out. Still it wouldn't have been so bad
if issues 04-03 were up to par with the excellent writing of 06-05. But
all the emotional stuff was absent in overstuffed action issues. Only
Holly and Ray seemed to care that the "heroes" just screwed up and let
a world die. The others didn't give a rats arse. "Hey, it was just some
other dimension right? Not like those people there matter!" I would expect
this behaviour from Jason Todd (can someone please bring out the crowbar
again!) but not from Kyle or Donna. They should have been devastated.
The rest of these issues was also un-involving as now it was my turn not
to give a rats arse about Mary Marvel or Jimmy Olsen. I liked Piper and
Trickster. They were B- level villains but they really shined. Mary Marvel
as "bad girl" just doesn't work. I felt sorry for Jean Loring when she
was eclipsed, but I couldn't care less about "the corruption of Mary Marvel".
Bring back Black Adam! And as for Olsen taking centre stage: What a revoltin' development! 'Nuff said!
