The ending, when you finally get there, is dramatic and another of the major movements in the Infinite Crisis storyline . But I imagine there are a lot of easter eggs for people who read Crisis on Infinite Earth or have an important knowledge of the hundreds of heroes and villains that show in the event. However, there is quite a lot of multiversy explanations as often in big crisis events (and nowadays even in standard arcs).

But if a reader gets acquainted with, at least, CoIE, Identity Crisis, Countdown to Infinity Crisis, The OMAC project, and JLA-Crisis of Conscience, he should really enjoy this. But there's a good chance you'd enjoy the main event even whithout these; it'll just be more confusing. I can imagine some of the more hardcore DC fans might have a problem with how some characters are handled here, mostly regarding the deaths of certain characters during it.It must be pretty frustrating for more casual readers to make heads or tail of Infinite Crisis itself, though, without all these tie-ins, and I can see why some people might be turned off it without those supporting reads. Event books have this problem, while the main 7 issue arc is paced fine and works well alone, the world here is way to big because of the companions. It's also impressive how elegantly this series spins off any number of new series: Checkmate, Secret Six, Shadowpact, and Blue Beetle in particular.

Some of the best DC antagonists can be found within these pages, and some shining moments for a lot of our favorite heroes. Story: While a wonderful stand-alone tale that harkens back to Crisis on Infinite Earths and the stories between it, it does not treat it's readers with contempt and snobbery like Grant Morrison books.The main series awesome—some really impressive crowd scenes, a powerful way to make a sequel on a classic, and some genuine emotion. The intro of countdown to Infinite Crisis is edge of your seat storytelling starring Blue Beetle with a shocking conclusion that sets the tone for the entire year before Infinite Crisis begins. Their earth was simpler, and that's why they managed to keep their "purity", but when tested and immersed on hardship and harsher situations, they coudn't take the pressure. It did help setup the Infinite Crisis storyline which you won't get to until reading through some Villians stuff (decent), some magic stuff (ok if only for the interesting characters), suffer through the (awful) Rann Thanagar intergalactic war.

Its also interesting how those golden age characters end up breaking up as well - those idealistic, pure characters changed when faced with real hardship and dificulties. Johns is an expert at making that little red string connect to every dot in his writing, and even the parts of this story that seem like they had nothing to do with anything do indeed have a purpose.

It was a crazy ride from start to finish, and a more than worthwhile event that did indeed shape that which had yet to come. Phil Jiminez, George Perez, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis do alot of the artwork, and also some really good artists I had never heard of like Jesus Saiz, Justiano and Chris Batista, amogst others. Of course one can't speak of Countdown without addressing the elephant in the room: the fan favorite character killed within and the other fan favorite character who was darkened irrevocably.