Countdown to Infinite Crisis

Countdown to Infinite Crisis

Originally released in 2005

Written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick

Art by Ed Benes

As it turns out, I made a mistake in my reading order, and I should have read Countdown To Infinite Crisis before reading The OMAC Project. I'd heard terrible things about a series called Countdown, but it turns out that was Countdown To Final Crisis. This is just a single issue, rather than a full series, and it mainly focuses on the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord.

Blue Beetle's reputation has fallen in recent years; his company is going bankrupt and the number of heroes who take him seriously seem like they can be counted on one hand. (Booster Gold, Oracle, Superman, and Wonder Woman; that seems like it's the entire list, as others like Batman or Martian Manhunter barely seem to tolerate him, let alone take him seriously)  When his finances are taken, bounced between different companies, and wind up in the hands of an organization called OMAC, he investigates the situation, finding a much deeper conspiracy.

I'm guessing that Blue Beetle's reputation as a joke stemmed from Justice League International (where Booster and Beetle formed a comedic duo, along with Fire and Ice being their own comedic duo, Guy Gardner being awful to everyone, and Martian Manhunter being frustrated while trying to keep everyone in line) and stayed in place for the twenty years between that series and this one.

Throughout this, we get glimpses of other series that build up to Infinite Crisis; I've already covered the OMAC Project and the Rann-Thanagar War, but Lex Luthor is forming a Secret Society (I'm guessing the full name, the Secret Society of Supervillains, won't be used), and there's some sort of conflict going on between Captain Marvel and the Spectre.

Beetle's investigation results in his house being blown up by lightning, though it super-charges Dan Garrett's Scarab (which wouldn't work for him normally) and causes the Scarab to lead him to the Rock of Eternity and the wizard Shazam.  It seems impressive that Ted is one of the few people outside of the Marvel Family who actually gets to meet the Wizard, though the Wizard isn't much help.

Upon being sent back to Earth (and leaving the Scarab behind in the Rock of Eternity), Blue Beetle's ship also explodes. (Checkmate, or the Brother I satellite, doesn't seem to be particularly subtle when it comes to ruining Ted's life; maybe they figure that nobody will take him seriously)

While examining his damaged goggles, Ted recognizes a piece of technology - it comes from Skeets, Booster's robot buddy who vanished.  As Skeets is a former security robot, Ted figures that these pieces were being used to spy on the heroes, and while Booster can't help (having been hospitalized as a result of Beetle's house exploding), Beetle tracks the technology to the Swiss Alps.

Here, in Checkmate's headquarters, Ted sneaks in and discovers that they have a ton of files on heroes from all over the world, including their secret identities and weaknesses.  Soon afterwards, he is met by the leader of Checkmate, Maxwell Lord, who was conspicuously absent from the list of associates of the various heroes.

Max's hypocrisy is glaring and obvious here; when Max gives a speech about how there are millions of people with superpowers, 99.5% of them are harmless, but that 0.5% justify their need to keep track of everyone, Ted immediately calls him out on the fact that he has superpowers. (Max's justification is that he can be trusted, which is an outright lie given that he's running a secret organization with an intent on spying on and murdering his own supposed friends, and he spent weeks if not months robbing Ted blind)

He also makes an offer for Ted to join him, since Ted doesn't have superpowers, though this doesn't apply to Batman or Green Arrow. (none of those three would ever join Max, and Max presumably knows this)  He also preemptively marked Ted's file as "deceased" before Ted even arrived, so his offer isn't exactly a convincing one.

With an OMAC soldier being way out of his league, Ted can only defiantly tell Max to go to hell before he's murdered, leading into the events of the OMAC Project.  I do wish I had read this before the OMAC Project; while I knew the ending twist of this before reading either series, it would have definitely helped these events to flow better.  I'm curious how this all ties into Infinite Crisis, or if it even does at all, but it was an effective and well-written end for a superhero (I'm pretty sure he's currently alive, though that's after at least one major reboot) that did a great job with making the reader feel sympathetic for him even without the context of Justice League International.