The Doomino Effect for the week of August 15, 2007

How embarrassing! As I sit down to write this, it’s 11:20pm on Tuesday and it just occurred to me that I forgot to write this week’s Doomino Effect!! I even sat here and commented on the site several times today. In my defense, I kept thinking today was Monday. I also kept thinking that yesterday was Monday, so either I thought that this week had two Mondays or else maybe I just thought Monday was really long.

Well speaking of embarrassing things that drag on, let’s start with Countdown #37. I think I said last week that I didn’t think #38 was as awful as the previous ones, or maybe it showed promise or something. Well, this week, I’ll go so far as to say that I kind of liked the issue.

I don’t really know why though. I don’t think Doom DeLuise has bothered to write his review this week, so I’ll spare no detail. I thought it was stupid that Oracle told Karate Kid to sit down so that she could deliver no news. You tell people to sit down when you have bad news, not just to build up drama for an anti-climax. She also seems somewhat surprised that maybe the virus is from the future. Could this be, I don’t know, obvious perhaps, since Karate Kid is from the future?? It seems like it was all just set up for Triplicate Girl to refer to “The Great Disaster.”

Then we’re treated to Inconsistencies With Zatanna’s Stupid Spells, as she says “Emoh su ekat” and “Ffats ekat a kaerb” in the same scene, which either means she cast spells saying “Home us take” and “Staff take a break” or else people at DC Editorial can’t wrap their heads around one of the stupidest spell-casting mechanisms in history.

Like what if she’s hanging out with her mom, and her mom makes this amazing cheesecake. Zatanna takes a bite and says “Wow Mom!” because normally her mom sucks as a cook. All of a sudden, will there be like tapdancing ostriches in the kitchen attempting to impress her mother? So very very stupid. But I’m digressing, because the inherent stupidity of her spells is not exclusively a problem to Countdown. Just the error with “Emoh su ekat.”

We return to tiny land where Jason Todd continues his competition with Nightwing to be the most horribly miscast character in the DC universe. Jason is an evil genius, but instead he’s written like a cocky, dim-witted meathead.

I still want Piper and Trickster to die, and I still don’t care what’s going on at the women’s shelter, but I think the big thing that made me like this issue was that – with the cliffhanger of Jimmy knowing Clark is Superman – I actually want to know what happens next issue! I do believe this is seriously the first time that has happened with Countdown.

Here’s my two-part theory at this point:

1. All of these stories are taking place on different Earths in the multiverse – we just assume they’re all happening on our Earth, thus explaining the characters acting stupid or at least not how we would expect them to.

1b. Some of the characters we know from New Earth have found themselves in other Earths, but have yet to make sense of how things are different – for example, New Earth Jimmy’s consciousness has been shifted to a different Earth, but he’s having to slowly realize what’s different as it presents itself. So like theory 1, we’re seeing a different Earth, but we’re seeing our Jimmy.

I also really enjoyed the Poison Ivy backup story. Scott Beatty and Stephane Roux made me interested in a character I’ve otherwise never cared about. Perhaps it is because Roux managed to make a leaf-covered green-skinned lady look really hot.

Speaking of backup, that leads me to The Flash #231 in which the brand new Flash series reverts to the old numbering. I’ve never been a huge Flash fan, but he’s one of those characters I enjoy if he’s in a good story, so I thought I’d pick it up since Mark Waid is writing it. I also really enjoy the painted stylings of Daniel Acuna. This issue was largely setup, but I’m okay with that because it introduced the fact that not only are Wally and family back, but the kids aged rapidly and they have their own powers.

I would say that a Flash Family has the potential to be awful in a 1960s sort of way, and it definitely does, but the situation is written with an informed perspective of what this actually means for the mother, father and children involved. It seems interesting enough, but my future participation at this point is probably dependent upon how many books I’m already buying the week that it comes out.

Speaking of coming out, that leads me to Booster Gold #1, in which Booster makes his best attempt to return from the ashes and reclaim his rightful position as Genuine Super Hero. But like everything in his life, it doesn’t quite work out. He’s forced to re-enter the convoluted DC timestream, which – in the same issue – manages to mock DC’s approach to continuity (“Punching history. Please.”) and make it a whole lot worse (going in and out of time to “fix wormholes” by creating temporal inconsistencies?).

Where the book failed in its obsession with multiversal stupidity, it succeeded in making me feel bad for Booster – the way he had to humiliate himself in front of the JLA and the way he genuinely misses Ted make all the nonsense worth it for me, because in a way, the reader and Booster are in the same boat – none of that crap that Rip Hunter / Geoff Johns says makes sense – we’re just along for the ride.

Speaking of confusing time-travel that’s still fun to read about, that leads me to The Brave and the Bold #6, the conclusion to the first arc in this series. This book has been a blast to read and I hope Waid and Perez can keep it up. It’s like this book offers the innocent joy of reading disposable superhero comics from the 60s and 70s without the stupidity of the storylines. If anyone looks back on this series in 20 years and thinks it’s laughable crap, they’d better have some awesome holographic scratch-and-sniff 3D hallucinogenic comic books or something.

And speaking of scratch and sniff, that leads me to Sub-Mariner #3, in which Namor battles Wolverine. We still don’t know why Namor appears to be dead and Atlantis appears to be destroyed in the present, but in the past, Namor’s quest manages to result in alienation from Charles Xavier and a single-handed takedown of the Sentinels. The submerged subversive squad continues to plot while Namor gets taken down by Venom to lead into a fight next issue. This miniseries may ultimately prove to be irrelevant, but much like Brave and the Bold, it’s fun to just read a better-than-decent superhero adventure comic. Even though those ankle-wings look stupid, I sure did cringe when Venom tore them off.

And speaking of the maiming of winged people, that leads me to Captain America #29 where Falcon catches on fire. Nothing much more to that, but for the purposes of the segue, I had to start there. Bucky’s on the hunt for Tony Stark, but he’s also on the hunt for the Red Skull. He found one without realizing it. Sharon and Falcon are still on the hunt for Bucky, and she’s having flashbacks about that time she was naughty and killed Captain America. Meanwhile, back at SHIELD, Tony’s realizing how much his job sucks and how everyone beneath him appears to suck even more as the Skull’s gang effortlessly waltzes in and frees Crossbones.

I don’t think many doubted it was possible, but I love how this book is succeeding even without its title character. One can easily have read the past few issues and just completely overlooked that fact because of how well this story is unfolding. I also keep forgetting to mention this, but I really like the way the issue is broken down into chapters with the little sub-heads. I can’t really put a name on what kind of “feel” that gives the book, but it gives it a “feel” and I like how that “feels.”

There’s just not much bad I can say about Captain America these days. About time the big lug got out of his own book and stopped bigfooting the midcarders.