by Scott Tipton
April 4, 2005
COUNTDOWN TO LOSING INTEREST
Well, this sucks.
Those of you paying close attention may realize that this week we were scheduled to begin discussion of the Keith Giffen/J. M. DeMatteis JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL era, a much-maligned and in my opinion underrated series of JLA comics that stylishly combined action, comedy and drama in a manner that comics readers hadn’t seen before. However, last week DC Comics, in its infinite wisdom, published COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS, the kickoff to its next 18 months’ worth of continuity-shattering miniseries, in which (and those of you who haven’t read it yet can consider yourselves SPOILER-WARNED) not only is an integral Justice League International member revealed to be an evil, murdering mastermind, but JLI mainstay Blue Beetle is unceremoniously shot in the head, on panel, complete with a graphic JFK-style blood spatter. Lovely.
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So you’ll forgive me if I’m not in the mood this week to cover the Justice League, as the whole deal has left me with something of a sour taste in my mouth. Instead, we’ll take a brief look at COUNTDOWN, examine what I think DC is trying to do with it, and explain not only why I think it’s a bad idea, but also why I can’t help but feel, at some level, personally insulted by it.
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You’d think I’d be a big fan of this book, written as it is by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Judd Winick, three writers whose work at DC I’ve generally quite liked, and in Johns’ case, raved about in this very column. The fact is though, even when taking the hot-button issue of Beetle’s murder out of the equation (and yes, Beetle is another of my favorite characters, in case you were wondering, now taking up space in the superhero graveyard alongside Hawkeye. I’m telling you, it’s a miracle Hank Pym is still walking around. Hopefully Bendis isn’t reading this as he writes HOUSE OF M…), the story just doesn’t work from a characterization standpoint. In the story, Blue Beetle, portrayed here as something of a laughingstock in the superhero community, is tracking a conspiracy, as both his corporation, Kord Omniversal, and other big companies like Waynetech are being manipulated and robbed. Beetle’s efforts to get to the bottom of things lead him into contact with many of the heavyweights of the DC Universe, most of whom dismiss his concerns readily, some more gently than others, and it’s here that I begin to have a problem with the story. It’s one thing to always play the “Batman is a jerk” card, but for someone like J’onn J’onnz, who served with Beetle for years and has been portrayed in the past as thinking quite highly of him, to cavalierly dismiss Beetle and essentially ask him to leave, well, it just doesn’t ring true.
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More to the point, it reads like plot convenience, as if the plot doesn’t work if anyone was willing to help Beetle out, so all of his friends have to be portrayed as out-of-character, self-centered heels.
Beetle’s longtime friend and teammate Booster Gold agrees to help him, and is blown up for his trouble, taking the brunt of a massive explosion meant for the Beetle. Beetle finally tracks the conspirators to a castle in the Swiss Alps, where he finds a massive computer database that contains detailed files on all the world’s superheroes and other metahumans, including their secret identities. (And not just the little guys, either – Superman and Batman are tops on the list.) There Beetle discovers the mastermind behind the attempts on his life, the assault on Booster, the destruction of his home and company and the unprecedented information-gathering: Maxwell Lord, the administrator and organizer behind the Justice League when Beetle was a member. Lord confesses that this has always been his plan, even back when they were in the League together, to gain as much damaging information as possible on the world’s metahumans, so as to stop them if need be.
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Lord offers Beetle a chance to join him, as a “regular human” like himself, and when Beetle tells Max to go to hell, Max caps him in the head. Thus endeth the Blue Beetle. (And of course, I realize it’s just comics, and a good writer worth his salt could bring back Ted Kord with a minimum of effort. Hell, I can think of two or three trap doors out of it just from reading the issue. But as represented here, it looks to me as if we’re expected to treat this death as permanent, so that’s how we’ll be discussing it.)
So what’s my problem with this? (Aside from the fact that it seems to me that Beetle would easily have pretended to join up with Max in order to stay alive, as that would be the smart thing to do both for his own sake and for the people he’s been trying to protect. What better way to get the full story than to work from the inside, and take Max down from within? But if Beetle behaved logically there, we wouldn’t get the final-page image of Beetle with his brains blown out, and since that was clearly the motivating factor behind the previous 79 pages, logic goes out the window.) Well, there are a couple. First off, as I’ve said in the past, I think there should be some restraint shown when publishing all-ages comics with mainstream characters like Superman, Batman and the Justice League, and a bloody gunshot wound to the head seems to me to be crossing the line. But then, this was the same company that gave us Sue Dibny’s on-panel rape last summer, so perhaps it’s been decided that graphic violence for shock value is justified in order to make a sale.
Another question that comes to mind here is why? Why use Beetle, Booster and Maxwell Lord in a story like this? From a strictly business standpoint, I can understand why Beetle was used as the victim, as there are apparently some legal questions involving his ownership that makes him unavailable for use outside comics (remind me to tell the complicated history of the various Blue Beetles one of these days), which is why you never see him on JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, for example. However, in a larger sense, it seems like DC is going out of its way to try to “explain away” all the lighter moments in its history, first with IDENTITY CRISIS’s “mindwipe” explanation for the goofy villains of the Silver Age, and now with this supposed revelation that the goofier moments of JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL were all just a feint by Maxwell Lord to keep them distracted from his real, more sinister agenda. It’s as if current DC editorial can’t stand the thought that there was ever a lighthearted story in their history, and rather than leaving them alone as a valuable counterpoint to the darkening of the DC universe, they’re determined to force them into this new paradigm, whether they fit or not, and no matter what damage is done to the old stories in the process. It’d be one thing to just say that Max went rogue, but to assert that he was always engaged in this sort of activity, in direct contradiction to his expressed thoughts when first published? Doesn’t work for me, and makes me buy into the whole premise all the less.
From a publishing standpoint, the move is understandable. Marvel has had some success with darkening up their universe and giving away secret identities like SweetTarts on Halloween, so DC is looking to do the same. And here’s where I can’t help but feel a little insulted. In looking to draw new fans more interested in a darker, more bloodthirsty type of comic, DC is willing to alienate the older fans who’ve been with them all along. The catch is, after the rubble has cleared and your big event is over, will these new fans stay? And when they don’t, will you be able to get your old-school readers back?
Marvel editor Mark Gruenwald used to say, in reference to the danger in killing off characters, that “every character is somebody’s favorite.” I think the same thing is true of DC’s current passion for invalidating old stories – they’re favorites for a lot of people, and the dangers of turning them inside out may outweigh the benefits of using them. To be honest, I don’t see much of a benefit at all: new readers don’t really know or care who these characters are, and older fans just resent it.
DC’s Executive Editor Dan DiDio included a column in COUNTDOWN, hyping the four spinoff miniseries that will follow, THE OMAC PROJECT, DAY OF VENGEANCE, VILLAINS UNITED and THE RANN-THANAGAR WAR, as well as the mysterious upcoming INFINITE CRISIS series. DiDio closed his piece with the thought, “Comics are a medium to be enjoyed by all. Buy what you read and read what you love.”
I’m trying, Mr. DiDio. But some weeks, you guys don’t make it any easier.
For a better understanding of why some of us are so torqued about this, come back here next week for a look at the comics that DC seems to be going out if its way to discredit: Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis’ JUSTICE LEAGUE. Got questions about COUNTDOWN, or just want to tell me I’m wrong? Send your thoughts my way at stipton99x@moviepoopshoot.com.
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