Musing? DC's Countdown

DC Comics amazes me. Seriously.

Newsarama link.

So you know 52 right? The weekly comic book that works in real time that DC is publishing 52 issues of? Yea, that one. Well, it seems they think it's a great idea (which it is, but that's a digression).

DC Comics is going to be releasing a book called Countdown. A year long comic book that starts at issue 51 and will be counting down to what I assume will be issue 0.

The book is being written by Paul Dini and others. It seems like Dini might be doing most of the plotting, though, that's speculation on my part. Like 52, Keith Giffen will be providing art breakdowns, not that I know what those are, but I can guess.

I love Dini, and I think it's certainly interesting that the creative teams will be switching on and off, but I have to wonder why DC didn't go with the brain trust type creative team that they did with 52. No matter, 52 has been wonderful and I can't see this being much different in terms of quality.

My immediate reaction: HOLY CRAP!

I'm all for innovation in comics. I want the medium to succeed. I can't decide whether this is genius or just smart business. I'm leaning towards insane genius though.

Not only does a venture like this create enormous buzz within the comic industry, it might have some spillover outside of the industry. It's fantastic and newish conceptually.

52 was one thing DC doing this again, so soon, is just something else entirely.