Countdown was one of the lesser crossover events DC has published in their history, supposedly building up (or is that down?) to an even bigger event called Final Crisis. It was also supposed to function as a sequel to the incredibly successful and really damn good series 52, a weekly book that preceded it and explored stories with a lot of B-list characters. It was a lot of fun. Not only was Countdown a semi-lead-in to Final Crisis, but it got its own spin-offs, too. One of which was the extricable Countdown: Arena, wherein the supervillain Monarch orchestrates a Roman-style gladiatorial battle between heroes from loads of different universes, in order to build an army that will fight the multiverse-destroying Monitors. It was a goofy concept from the start, and it ended up being as needlessly bloodthirsty, vicious and inhumane as the gladiatorial arenas that inspired it. Mainly in the single issue that killed off multiple alternate-reality Batmen in one fell swoop, with the one from Gotham By Gaslight knocked out, WWII hero The Bat killed by vampire Batman, the latter of whom is summarily obliterated.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
