So I’ve been trying to collect all the DC events going from biggest to smallest, I just reached Countdown(to Final Crisis I guess) and I’m like…wait, what? I’ve bought all the trades with “countdown” on it and I know there are a few tie-ins like a few action comics issues and supergirl stuff, I’m fine with that. But I’m doing research and finding out there are like…whole events that tie-in, and those events have tie-in(is not even like a “red skies” type of tie in, it’s like legit “people die in those” tie-ins “we have whole issues dedicated to that in countdown core series”). There are almost no one anywhere that put together a full reading order/tie-ins list. I’m doing my best to find the trades that collect most of them, but I am sooo lost. Need help!
Yeah, fair warning: Countdown is legendarily (a) confusing and (b) extremely terrible. It’s, like, the benchmark for bad DC crossover events. My advice is to just make a list of everything on this page:
Countdown to Final Crisis has four trades. The series begins with issue #51 and ends at #1. I’m sure you know this, but I’m stating it for anyone else reading this that may be interested in Countdown that isn’t aware of it.
There are also trades for:
-Countdown to Adventure
-Countdown Arena
-Countdown to Mystery
-Countdown presents Lord Havok and the Extremists
-Countdown presents The Search for Ray Palmer
There were a variety of Countdown Specials too. Some were one and done titles, others ran for two issues. They’re all reprints of older material that featured characters that were prominent in Countdown. They’re absolutely not essential to the definitive Countdown experience (only the main series is, IMO).
The ongoing titles that tied into Countdown aren’t of major consequence to Countdown. Just peripheral stuff really.
I imagine that in 2019, all of the above mentioned trades are OOP (out of print). They should be easy enough to find on eBay and elsewhere as there’s not a huge demand for them right now.
The majority of Countdown content can also be found in digital form at Comixology for $1.99 a book. The only things missing ATM are all of the Search for Ray Palmer one-shots. Right now, the only one of those at Comixology is the Gotham by Gaslight book.
Got all those, now I’m just going through the “tie-ins” if you can even call them that, these things are events on their own
Salvation Run TPB collects 1-7
Death of The New Gods collects 1-8
Captain Carrot and The Final Ark 1-3
Outsiders Five of a Kind collects 1-5
All New Atom Hunt for Ray Palmer collects12-16
SUPERMAN: 3-2-1 ACTION collects Superman 665 & action comics 852-854 & DC Universe #14
Teen Titans Vol 7: Titans East 42-47
Supergirl Vol. 2: Breaking the Chain 11, 13-22
Amazons Attack! 1-6
Lighting Saga
The Flash-The Fastest Man Alive-Full Throttle
I’m in the minority that thinks Countdown was disappointing but not completely awful. The biggest issue is that the most important events happen on other comics which are themselves of highly variable quality. Its not something you can really enjoy by itself.
What in the Full Throttle arc from TFTFMA pertained to Countdown? There were no Countdown branded tie-ins from that series, so it must have been a very minor thing.
If I remember correctly, Full Throttle ended before Countdown began.
@vroom TFTFMA Full Throttle isn’t so much of a tie-in as its “aftermath” as they like have a memorial service for all of countdown #43. so its kinda a crossover but not. I would label it as lead up, but everything is just so confusing.
I loved aspects of Countdown, such as a focus on Donna Troy, but overall it is a series that literally went nowhere in the DC Universe. It didn’t even seem to connect into Final Crisis at all. It just seemed like a money grabbing ploy thrown into the works to try to and something out of literally nothing. It was utter ridiculous. I had high hopes for it because of 52, but yeah what was even the point?
