DC Crisis 2/Countdown Speculation AND BEYOND! (with possible spoilers)

The rumours say that there is a clue to the upcoming Crisis2 (The Revenge?) somewhere in Identity Crisis, now in the 1st issue of Identity Crisis, wasn't that a suit of Lex Luthor's pre-Crisis Earth-1 power armour in the box? I don't buy every DC Comic in existence (Lack of both money and time, coupled with the fact that a large number of them are crap, get in the way) but I was under the impression that that particular prop hadn't been seen for 19 years or so...

The Luthor Battlesuit has been seen from time to time, first in a slight variation as the gear worn by LexCorp Security, most recently in Superman/Batman #6 where Pres. Luthor officially loses his nut. He'd been injecting a mixture of Venom (a super-steroid from Batman comics--used by Bane, I think) and Green Kryptonite, and finally suited up in the armor (amped up with Apokoliptian--aka Darkseid--tech). Of course, Supes and Bats took LL Cool L down, and he was presumed dead, buried in the wreckage of the LexCorp building, but on the last page of that issue they showed him cackling about how "There will be a reckoning...a CRISIS!"

Next we see the suit in IC, and that plot thread was just picked up in the latest issue of Teen Titans, still on the stands. I won't spoil the whole thing, but the two kids who shot Bolt in IC #1 are using it, and somebody (guess who!) wants it back!

All gorgeously rendered by Rags Morales.

I am guessing that Batman is cured of his mindwipe thingy and stops being a dick, but I don't see how this is going to rock the DCU to the very core of it's being - unless he declares war on all the other superheros or something.

God, I really hope that was big dumb foreshadowing, cos otherwise, who the hell would use the word crisis like that?

Great cover idea for DC: Group Therapy - birds' eye shot of a bunch of DC heroes strapped to tables arranged in a circle preparing for electroshock therapy, with the Psycho Pirate in the middle of the circle, fists raised in triumph, cackling. Cover caption = "MY PSYCHOANALYST ... MY ENEMY!" (Artist, of course = Brian Bolland.)

COPYWRITTEN SO DON'T COPY ME!

http://www.popcultureshock.com/reviews.php?id=3911

Sweet crap, how about a more crap title? (Like THE RANN / THANGARIAN WAR?) I'm geeked, sure, but, sheesh, allow my geekage to be somewhat justified!

I would say "I can't wait until Marvel's War of Secrets," but then again, we just had/are having/will have forfuckingever Secret Wars, so there we go. Maybe next year they'll have The Apocalyptic Age, or Mutants Falling, and meanwhile Christopher Tolkien's Ringlords will be optioned by Lucasfilm and queued up behind Warstars: The Menace of Phantoms.

Bring on FORCE NIGHT and MYSTERY HOUSE!

INFINITE CRISIS, what the Christ. That's like a working title so you don't need to remind everyone what you're talking about. After this will be CRISIS IDENTITIES, and then the big one, the enchilada, CRISIS ON IDENTICAL EARTHS, where the Superman of Adventures of Superman, the Superman of Action, and the Superman of Superman finally meet up at last.

DC COUNTDOWN - i) countdown to unspecified big things, which can include all 4 spin off minis as well as anything else that follows. ii) since the story structure seems to count down to something ("20 minutes ago" etc) the title links to that. iii) prominent inclusion of DC reinforces the "jumping on point" for non-DC readers and makes it clear this encompasses their entire universe.

COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS - i) countdown to specific event, which then isn't immediately following, leaving less of a link to the minis. ii) references 20-year-old story giving impression this is 'one for the fans' not for newcomers. iii) unwieldy to say the least.

I wonder if Marvel will respond w/ MARVEL'S COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE DISCS, a 12-part maxi-series about a world FED UP w/ AOL mailings!

Yeah I know that but with this event their whole core audience will be getting it ANYWAY! And it's an ideal opportunity to get the DC-agnostic part of the comics shop audience back.

AND it means that the meagre surprise PR value from an announcement of "Infinite Crisis" has been blown.

(Of course I've just realised that all the actual orders for this will have been under the DC Countdown name anyway. And that this is a price-driven event so all this is somewhat irrelevant.)

I doubt they're interested in a new audience with this series, though, that's true -- but I think it pretty much is one just for the fans (if you don't watch Law and Order, would you bother watching an arc devoted to major changes in the cast/plot?), so there might not be anything wrong with a title that makes that clear. The specific title still sucks, but not necessarily for that reason.

I must say that I like the look of the Spectre mini, it looks sorta washed out like those old Aparo Spectre comics. I kinda hate the way everything has to look so slick and quasi-3D nowadays. When I was a kid reading comics, it was 2D and we loved it.

But the loss-leading $1 cover price (for 80 pages!) seems to suggest that they ARE making a play at a new audience. Though the "new audience" they're targeting might just be Marvel Zombies w/ a secret desire to become DC Cadavers. If DC's making a play for that demographic, then the butt-ass title (ref. history & glories past) might be the way to go.

I'd enjoy reading about a Spirit of BWAH-HAH-HAH (and I know that joke's been made / alluded to, but I DON'T CARE)!

ihttp://www.supermanartists.comics.org/silverage/Eclipso-HOS61.JPG

The anti-meta biz has been around since Byrne's revamp of Superman--more specifically, since Byrne's revamp of Lex Luthor, and it's a theme often visited in Superman and in Green Lantern for ages. The fear is not so much the Marvel-style (as I vaguely understand--mainly from X-Movies) fear of The Other as it holds to a philosophy that the surplus of super-powered beings on Planet Earth encourages humanity to not take responsibility for their own destiny. Luthor, especially (and I think this is currently being played up BIG TIME in the Azzarello mini), believes that Superman and his buddies diminish the glory of human achievement.
Batman, ideologically, if not ever in practice, seems to find himself on Luthor's side, though I guess that's all being retconned to be less of a philosophy and more of a psychic backlash against his Zobotomy.

Does this date from Kingdom Come, or Dark Knight Returns, or is it older?

Superman: "Out of curiousity, is there any part of your costume you particularly wouldn't want to catch fire?"

OMG!!! DRUNK CHIMP ROXXORS BEST PART OF INFINITE CRISIS!

(that better?)

Within two weeks, two major references to pre-Crisis continuity in post-Crisis continuity books!

First in Superman/Batman #19, as (SPOILER!!!) S & B foil the badguys and ride the timestream back to their proper place...we/they see Superman holding dead Supergirl just like in Crisis On Infinite Earths #7!!! She's even wearing a headband!

Now, in JSA #72, the old farts beat the badguys and ride the timestream back their proper place, but not before Per Degaton makes an offhand comment about the Huntress being wiped away...and then whiile they're riding the t/s, Rip Hunter says, "There's a knot in the time stream...in 1985!"
And the Power Girl freaks out!

[pointed x-post, I'm guessing]