You could be forgiven for thinking life is just one crisis after another for DC Comics’ superheroes at the moment, with another formulaic slew of crossover stories and a ‘countdown’ series making its debut. Countdown to Final Crisis Volume One is the first volume of four, collecting 13 of 51 weekly comics which, in the same way as 52 charted the year after the last crisis in real time, pulls us through the 12 months to the next and no-doubt shockingly misnamed ‘final’ crisis.
As before, the book seems to be a veritable who’s who of DC Comics’ characters great and small, no doubt lining up the lesser knowns ready for the slaughter. The Atom may or may not hold the key to the story but he’s gone missing, so Donna Troy (former Wonder Girl) and Jason Todd (former Robin) are dispatched to hunt him down. Meanwhile the Pied Piper (who?) and the Trickster (who?) have broken loose and are causing havoc. We’re struggling to get excited about the prospect, having lost patience with the previous crisis somewhere around Rann-Thanagar War, but if you like this sort of thing you know where to come.