999

The cow patties are beginning to hit the fan as we get closer to a resolution or I guess more craziness, since this is the "countdown" to something even bigger. Even though I'm reading all the "countdown" spinoffs (I think there are 5 of them), I still feel like I'm missing some details, and I think it's because I'm not reading any of the other major titles that were still going at the time, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash etc... Seems like you'd have to be retired and rich to get the full story. :) ( )

Because I got horrendously behind, I'm writing this review without reference to the actual book, ten months after I read it. I'm finding that many of the details of Countdown to Final Crisis have faded into oblivion, even when I read synopses of the stories in the Grand Comics Database, I kind of wonder if these events really happened in something I read. All I really remember is a massive sense of disappointment and futility. But here are a couple notes:

• Superboy-Prime, now Superman-Prime, is in it. That pretty much never works to the advantage of a story, as he is a worse villain than even Monarch and Mongul.
• Pied Piper having to drag around the Trickster's body is actually kind of effective. Of course, it might have been emotionally devastating if these two had been written in a way at all interesting prior to this.
• The cover to issue #18 (by Karl Kerschl) is actually, genuinely great.
• Earth-51 is destroyed and everyone on it dies. You should remember this, because the writers didn't.
• Jesus Christ, who gives a crap about Monarch? Armageddon 2001 was seventeen years ago, DC. Let it go.

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