Undeterred by this masterclass in faking out and then bare-faced lying to their audience, Marvel's Distinguished Competition kicked it up a notch with the promotion for continuity-fixing crossover series Countdown To Infinite Crisis implying that not one but two major DC characters would be killed in the process of the event. The one-shot comic even had a cover that featured Batman holding a dead hero's body in his arms, with the rest of the assembled characters looking on in horror. And who could blame them, when the hero in question was clearly meant to be the Dark Knight's original ward, Dick Grayson, then going by the name Nightwing: That was the cover that appeared in preview for the book, anyway. When Countdown to Infinite Crisis actually came out, the artwork was amended to show that the corpse was clearly that of the Blue Beetle! Except that in the original draft for the story, it was Nightwing who was going to be killed off, before DC realised how popular the character was and that having him die could potentially lose them readers. Still, that didn't stop them from pretending that it was poor old Ted Kord who was due to die all along. Similarly, the press pack the company sent out to promote the later full-length Countdown series included so many clues pertaining to the death of Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen that even the most ham-fisted detective couldn't have helped but put them all together and come to the inevitable conclusion. There was art of Clark Kent mourning his friend, of the Joker wielding Jimmy's press pass with a menacing grin, and badges distributed with "JIMMY OLSEN MUST DIE!" on them. When it came down to it, Olsen and the Joker's paths did cross in the pages of Countdown...and nothing happened.
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/
