Batmans of Countdown Arena

[shankie]

The premise of Countdown: Arena is simple; The Monarch takes a whole bunch of heroes from a variety of the 52 Earths and have them fight to the death, so he can build this super-army to take on the Monitors. Just hurling a bunch of characters together to fight is a tried and true comic book standby, and it works, actually.

The Players

I'll admit, I can't name where all those guys are from off the top of my head; and exactly where the Green Lanterns that aren't Bruce came from? Not sure. But it's the Batmans I want to look at, anyway.



As you'd imagine, the vampire Batman is just the life of the party. In #1, we begin with Gotham by Gaslight Batman vs. Red Rain Batman vs. The Liberty File/Unholy Three Batman.

And it's awesome.



If you've never read The Liberty File, this version of Batman is basically Wayne, Bruce Wayne. Secret agent during WWII that deals with the crazier side of espionage with others.

Yay scans. Anyway, they fight. :D



Okay, vampire Batman? Creepy as fuck.

Jeeze.

I really get why the other two go for him before each other.







That... is made of awesome. A gentleman's agreement.

After they size each other up to a T.





If you're seeing where vampire Batman is going with this, you already know how the end of issue #2 ends.

I'll get there in a sec. :D

The story continues to be full of the Supermans bickering, everyone fighting out of stress and being kidnapped. If they should help their captor or not is a subject of debate, but since the Monarch is killing off entire populations of someone's world if they don't behave? Nobody's really getting anywhere with resisting.



But first, a nitpick. Diana calls herself Queen Diana Trevor; I don't think so. At the end of Amazonia, as seen in this post about the story, abusive asshole Steve Trevor dies and Diana marries John Charles Pantagenet, Prince of Wales.



This is, of course, the Batman of In Darkest Knight, in which Bruce Wayne gets the ring instead of Hal Jordan and becomes the sworn enemy of Sinestro.

Being a Lantern doesn't make him much more friendly than the other Batmans.







Huzzah! They're so cool! :D

Oh Hal Jordan. And Bruce. Hee.



Of course, Batman GL just has to prove how hardcore he is...

And how.









Well, shit.

See, this is why I have mixed feelings about this series. Yes, having Elseworlds characters fight each other is totally awesome. However... to the death? Really?





Of course, issues of death become a little fuzzier when you're throwing a vampire into the equation.

Hee.

So, in general, I'm really enjoying the brutality.

Except for the Blue Beetles' death sequence. Devoured by scarabs? YEESH.

I just kinda wished that murdering everyone wasn't the only way DC could find to entertain us. Turning Elseworlds into a big game of Unreal Tournament is great, but the death factor just kills it.

Comments

[jackalyn.livejournal.com]

The Green Lantern are from Earth-12 and 5. The one that got his arm cut off is from earth-12.

[chaostheory.livejournal.com]

From the looks of it, it seems that they're pitting like against like, so which group does Apollo fit into?

Is he in the Superman group, cause I thought The High was the Superman analogy of wildstorm(or maybe just Stormwatch)

[mousezilla.livejournal.com]

I really, really look forward to your scan posts. Your commentary is intelligent and entertaining, with just enough "ZOMGSQUEE!" left in so I can squee along with you. It's something fun to look forward to in my FL.
Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy your fics, too. I just realized I've never told you so.

[akoyamiazaki.livejournal.com]

Okay... Vamp-bad saying "Death is only the beginning"... Makes me think of the black lanterns.

And why are there ghosts of Apollo and Steampunk-Batman. Not that I'm complaining, but its spooky.

OH. And i LOVE how chummy Hal and Hal are. Its totally like the Bananas in Pajamas. And their love is pure and TRUE.