Funnybook Babylon

Before I launch into the annotations for this issue, a few corrections regarding my previous stuff and other interesting things from the Director’s Cut:

1. The evil Monitor isn’t Solomon from Countdown, it’s “Rox Ogama.” The Monitor we first see in FC #1 is “Zip Hermuz”.
2. The Monitors’ world was supposed to seem largely like a dying civilization, and the number of worlds wasn’t specific in the script. It’s also mentioned that New Earth is suspended in a mercurial substance reminiscent of the supercontext from The Invisibles.
3. Hal’s scar is a clue – it’s specifically mentioned in the script.
4. Morrison mentions that the Tattooed Man will play a major role nearing the end; I can’t help but wonder what would happen if you tattooed Metron’s sigil on him…

So. Yeah. Forward! Douglas Wolk has the annotation/”Who is this?” part of this pretty damn down pat, so I’m gonna focus largely on analysis and speculation here.

Page 1 – Frankenstein, from Seven Soldiers, raids the Dark Side Club with a group of SHADE (Super Human Advanced Defense Execute – originally SADE but modified by DC, so I wonder if that played any significance regarding Desaad) agents. Inside, they find the mummified shell of the human Darkseid resided in as Boss Dark Side, and left back in #1.

Page 2 – I love the panel layout here, with the Dark Side Club scenes taking place inside the building on the street in the greater picture, both within the story and on the page. The fissure in the sky is Overgirl entering the New Earth universe.
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Well, it’s finally here. This took a bit longer than I expected to get up, frankly because there was just a Hell of a lot more to digest in this issue than I expected. I’ve gone through this page by page trying to bring up all the stuff I’m seeing below the surface, and hopefully clarify a lot of the more confusing points for newer readers/people not masochistic enough to read Countdown.

Without further ado.

NOTE: For an alternate take, Douglas Wolk has his annotations up – you probably know him from Reading Comics and the 52 Pick-Up blog, so check it out; he catches stuff I didn’t.

Pg. 1 – Establishing shot, as Anthro faces the reader from Metron’s perspective. While Anthro is holding his weapon in a defensive stance, clearly confused, he distinguishes himself in doing so from the animals, lesser beings fleeing this harbinger of knowledge.

Pgs. 2 and 3 – That first shot of Anthro and Metron from the original Christmas 2007 Didio interview, now colorized by Alex Sinclair. Metron, in what I presume is his new look due to the color scheme change, is wearing the same pattern on his outfit (this circuit pattern is important) and riding a slightly modified Mobius chair from Kirby’s original design. And, of course, he’s a smooth silver and enamel white – which implies that this is Metron in his Fifth World form, traveling back in time. Or maybe it isn’t, since the examples in the Sketchbook had Metron with the New Gods symbol on his chest – which seems odd, since the other pattern plays a part later. We’ll see.

Pg. 4 – On this page, Metron does the Prometheus routine. This is interesting, because in the Sketchbook, Morrison equated him to Mercury, even asking for the new design to have wingtips on the feet. Still, this kind of meddling is definitely in character for him, especially considering Turpin’s later statements and what this meddling causes. Either way, this page starts the issue’s longrunning fire motif, something we’ll get back to later.

Pg. 5 – Aw shit, Powers, eat your heart out. There’s really not much to say about this page other than “cavemen beating the shit out of each other.” That said, something I’m not sure about – I suspect the caveman in the center of this page might be Vandal Savage, but his eye color is blue, which seems to conflict with Savage’s orange eye color later on in the issue. (more…)