Books : Day of Vengeance (Countdown to Infinite Crisis)

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Rating:

- Is this necessary? You could probably skip it.
Having just jumped back into comics, I started w/ Identity Crisis, then the OMAC Project, and wound up here, at Days of Vengence. I promised myself I would start from the beginning before jumping directly into Infinite Crisis. While Identity Crisis and The OMAC Project had me hooked into the whole Infinite Crisis, Days of Vengence almost about killed it for me. Most of the reviews here are dead-on. Obviously, the book is setting up some sort of connection to Infinite Crisis, but in no way is Days of Vengence ground-shaking as Identity Crisis or the OMAC Project. While it seemed like DC was trying to start something new and inject some life into it's universe...Days of Vengence feels like something they would have made in the 90's. Remember the awful spin-offs from the Armageddon series? That's what this feels like. From the previous Countdown to Infinite Crisis books, it felt like DC was cutting the fat by letting go of some minor, but well-liked characters. This book, on the other hand, creates a new team that no one will care about. Eclipso's possesion of Jean Loring is cheap, cheap, cheap...a lame connection to the events that occured in Identity Crisis and utterly ridiculous. I guess Eclipso and the Spectre must play a role in the Infinite Crisis, but did it really require this mini-series to get us there? Even the fate of one of DC's mightiest heroes doesn't really sink in when reading this book (Arguably the only A-list character in the whole book...not counting the pointless Superman story in the beginning). If anything, this book shows how convoluted, confusing and inconsistent DC's magic universe is. After reading this, I am now skeptical about the other 'Countdown to Inifite Crisis' books... apparently their connections to Infinite Crisis are thin or can be easily re-capped in a short sentence, so I might as well just jump right to the meat and potatoes and stop wasting money. (However, if you skip all the 'Countdown' books, DO NOT skip Identity Crisis, which is a terrific book in it's own right).

Rating:

- WILDLY DISJOINTED STORYLINE
The Spectre has always been my favorite DC comics character ever since the mid 1970's and those rather gruesome stories by Jim Aparo in the pages of Adventure Comics. That said he's always been perhaps the most difficult DC character to write, as over the years he's alternated between being an all-powerful God-like being to a much powered down spirit as in the case of the second volume of his regular series. The character now is in limbo somewhat since he's been separated from Hal Jordan (long a bad idea) and now has no human host...alive or dead. Thus we get the Day of Vengeance storyline with a Spectre who, without being tethered to a host, is somewhat addled brained and easily seduced by Eclipso. Frankly I find that concept difficult to believe.

Eclipso, first having failed to find the right host with a Star Labs Doctor who steals a Lexcorp made battle suit to rumble with Superman before actually managing to possess the big "S" himself, leading to an all out battle with the world's mightiest mortal, Captain Marvel. Marvel finally defeats the Eclipso with the help of the wizard Shazam and the Spectre and then locates a new host, the criminally insane Jean Loring, who is rotting in Arkham Asylum following the tragic events of Identity Crisis. In this female identity, Eclipso seduces the Spectre, who now seems driven purely by instinct, into believing that magic is the source of all evil and that to wipe out evil, he needs to kill all magical beings in the world. This sets him on a path to take out heavyweights such as Doctor Fate and the Phantom Stranger who make little more than cameo appearances in the book. Not wanting to make any sweeping changes, any deaths that do occur are to minor characters.

Now, who stands up to oppose the twins of vengeance? The Justice League of America? The JSA? The Teen Titans? Nope...it falls to the newly created Shadowpact, a group of bench warmers that includes Blue Devil, The Enchantress, Night Master, Nightshade, Ragman, and Detective Chimp! Now, despite these characters not exactly being household names I have to admit I found myself enjoying the story although writers Judd Winick and Bill Willingham struggled to find some consistency, particularly with the Spectre and Eclipso easily thrashing dozens of magic-wielding characters (and turning the Phantom Stranger into a mouse) yet somehow having difficulty with this ragtag group. Of course, a magically turbo charged Captain Marvel bore the brunt of the battle with the Spectre before giving way to Shazam himself in what was the first time I'd ever seen the guy leave his seat. Now that was different to say the least.

The little group did manage to show some inventive resourcefulness, particularly Detective Chimp who leads nightshade to perhaps find the most powerful magical mortal, a teenage girl named Alice who has a rather astounding ability for dealing with the Spectre. This story is a lead-in to the Infinite Crisis story and as such, things are left somewhat unresolved at the end of the story. As to the claim that it will forever change magic in the DC universe, that turns out to be wildly exaggerated. The art by Ian Churchill and Justiniano does push the story a bit above average but this could have been a real winner with better pacing and logic.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Rating:

- Where's the magic?
Where is the magic? This book is less about mysticism and magic and more about comic talking monkeys. It reads like Friend's episode! David Blaine offers 10x more magic than this universe. Even Marvel comes closer to touching the magic with Dr. Strange than this poorly thought out drivel.

Rating:

- And comic book publishers wonder why the audience is not expanding!
Instead of focusing on gaining a new audience in order to expand on its (dwindling) existing one, publishers such as DC always opt to cannibalize the remaining (+/-) 100,000 faithful that still buy their comic book material at a specialty shop on a regular basis. At a time when the industry is competing with other forms of entertainment to capture the purchasing power of the buying public, drivel such as Day of Vengeance will not help reverse the youth trend towards video games, DVDs and internet surfing.

The plot and characters are totally inaccessible for those that have limited knowledge of the DC Universe. Seriously, how many people are waiting for the movie adaptation of Detective Chimp, Ragman or Enchantress? The only recognizable character that is featured within this story is Captain Marvel and that is if you were unfortunate enough to watch the dreadful Shazam series which aired on CBS during the 1970s or came across the pilot episode as a bonus feature on the Wonder Woman Box Set.

Day Of Vengeance is merely an amateurish piece of work to promote Infinite Crisis and hype up the hardcore fans of the DC universe for its eventual arrival on the stands. Writer Bill Willingham does nothing to get us interested in a cast that does not possess any unique powers and their traits alter from chapter to chapter in order to suit the weak plot development. Their characterization has as much depth and feel as the heroes that were featured on the Super-Friends TV show. To add insult to injury, the conclusion of this pointless saga goes nowhere fast. The lives of the heroes and villains remain relatively unaltered while there are negligible consequences from the events that transpired.

As for the artwork, it is uneven at best. Justiniano's storytelling skills need improvement. While some panels spark the imagination, others leave the reader flat on their face with the lack of background work and details. This could be attributed to the various inkers who do not have the same style and the idiotic decision to have another penciller on the third chapter of the book.

Like the other tie-in series to Infinite Crisis, The Omac Project, Day Of Vengeance fails to deliver the promise of grand excitement and adventure. Instead, we have a piece of poorly contrived work that contains no entertainment value whatsoever for even the die-hard comic book fan.

Review by Brian Grindrod

Rating:

- The second best of the Countdown books
...with Villians United being the first. Day of Vengeance tells the story of a bunch of B (and C)-List magic-based characters who must work together to stop the Spectere's rampage against all magic users. The team consists of: The Enchanteress, Nightmaster, Nightshade, Ragman, Blue Devil and Detective Chimp. The problem is: all the heavy-hitters, such as The Phantom Stranger and Dr. Fate, have already been taken out by The Spectre, so what chance do this bunch have? Not a very big one, but they make do with what they have.

One of the biggest problems of the most of the Countdown minis was they ended abruptly, their stories to be continued in the pages of Infinite Crisis. OMAC and Rann/Thanagar suffered from this in particular, and Day of Vengenance does to a lesser extent. While there is some sense of closure, I wish that the creative team would have found a better way to end this. That said, this was still an entertaining book, and worth buying.

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