Published between 2007 and 2008 by DC Comics, Countdown to Final Crisis was designed as the weekly lead-in to Final Crisis, following in the publishing model established by 52. Running for 51 issues, the series attempted to lay the groundwork for the next major crisis in the DC Universe while following multiple parallel storylines involving cosmic threats, multiversal instability, and several major DC characters.
Things didn’t turn out as well as with 52. It was a massive editorial blunder. As Grant Morrison explained it at the time: “Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written.” But despite that, the writing led by Paul Dini seems to lack enough details to not contradict what would eventually happen in Final Crisis. As a result, plotlines in Countdown had diverged so much that continuity between the two publishing initiatives became partly nonsensical. Some elements complement Final Crisis and add a greater understanding of the end story, but most do the opposite. Characters who died end up alive (and are killed again), and whole storylines are redone in Final Crisis, and the overall tone doesn’t fit. If you add to that Death of the New Gods by Jim Starlin, to which Countdown began to respond before veering away from it, the confusion became maddening.
Today, Countdown to Final Crisis is a complicated affair to deal with for readers. If you are a completist, you can’t skip it. Idem if you are trying to follow some secondary characters. Ultimately, this is widely considered to be non-canonical.
Read More “Countdown to Final Crisis Reading Order: The Year the Multiverse Fractured”
