Blast Off

I had planned to write a scathing postmortem of DC's Countdown series tonight.

But I decided I didn't want to do that. There are a lot of things in comics that I don't like. Generally, I don't bother complaining about them (unless they involve Cassandra Cain). Doctor Polaris and Azrael do more than enough complaining (and whining in the latter's case) for the three of us.

By most objective metrics Countdown was a failure. But I'm not going to talk about that. As with all missteps, the only thing that can be done is to reflect, and then look to the future.

And so! To me the future of DC looks bright. I believe that they have learned from their recent failures (Countdown) as well as recent successes (Sinestro Corps War).

The two big coming things are of course Final Crisis and Trinity. With Final Crisis, DC has taken a cue from the successes of Sinestro Corps. They've made clear again and again that though there are tie-in miniseries, readers can pick and choose which ones they want to read. They won't be like the myriad of Infinite Crisis or Countdown tie-ins. Whatever else there is, Final Crisis can stand alone.

With Trinity, DC is taking a step back and looking at what worked and didn't work in 52 and Countdown. One problem with Countdown was that the stories seemed to jump all over with no clear goal in sight. Trinity will not suffer from that. Rather than different writers working on different issues, everything will be done by one core team.

Still, it's hard to say to what degree Trinity will tie-in to other projects. I have a feeling that like Sinestro Corps and Final Crisis, Trinity will be largely self-contained. I hope so.

For my part, I'm more excited right now about DC than I have been in a long time. The countdown is nearly ended. The next number is zero. Than all hell breaks loose.

It's going to be a grand time...