Countdown's Jump The Shark Moment:
The Return of Monarch
The Return of Monarch
No, tell me this isn't true --
Monarch returns?
Monarch?
Monarch was played out the first time they trotted him out for "Armaggedon 2001"
Oooh, a crazy, power-mad Hank Hall! It's comic-book gold, I tell you! Almost as exciting as a crazy, power-mad Jean Loring!
The only hope?
Perhaps this is a play to put these corny characters to bed once-and-for-all.
...
Since "Countdown" is going down the memory lane of the terrific early-90s years, could we get one of those covers with the fake plastic jewel glued on it like that "Eclipso" special?
You're absolutely right. I read the last issue and thought, "could they cram even more characters that I couldn't give a shit about into this?" And then I decided to drop the book.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I hate Jason Todd, I think Monarch was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Actually, it's Captain Atom.
ReplyDeleteThe Battle For Bludhaven mini series had him get into the Monarch suit. He showed up in the Ion limited series in the bleed, and now here.
Either way, bleah. Let's send him packing permanently, please.
ReplyDeleteActually, it's Captain Atom.
ReplyDeleteEither way, the long and complicated history of Monarch makes me weep.
Actually I kind of like Captain Atom in the Monarch armor. His appearance in Ion didn't make him off as a villain, either - he was happy and smiling and IIRC, he was talking about opposing the Monitors (which didn't make much sense when I first read it but with how Countdown is going...).
ReplyDeleteI actually rather like the Monarch armor. ^^
Yeah... The Hank Hall as Monarch idea was bad... but this isn't Hank Hall... Capt Atom, upon his return from the Image universe was attacked and captured to be used in some kind of bizarre plot by Father Time and some ultra-secret Government agency. Atom had been injured and was "leaking" which (as we saw in Kingdom Come is quite a bad thing) resulted in a group placing him in protective armor to keep him from killing everything and everyone within miles. Atom eventually awoke and in a quite characteristic act of rage, incinerated the place he was being held captive (and Major Force altough with it... what is this... the 12th time Force has been killed?).
ReplyDeleteCapt Atom is still waering the armor, but has not been calling himself Monarch. We have no idea if he still *has* to wear it or is wearing it because he now wants to. Also there has been no mention if he finds it ironic that it looks so much like the Monarch armor.
Frankly I'm finding the whole thing kind of interesting. I think they are palnning on saying the the whole "Hank Hall as Monarch" was another time anomoly. In any case, it's not been too bad at all so far.
And Armageddon 2001 was MUCH better that many other terrible DC crossovers like War of the Gods, Millenium, The Kingdom and Genesis.
I personally think we should have seen this coming. After all, resurrecting the 90's seems to be the thing this past year.
ReplyDeleteStill does not mean it isn't a horrible idea. But frankly, I read two issues of Countdown, and felt they had already jumped the shark.
they are correcting the mistake of changing monarch to hank, when it was originally supposed to be capt atom...
ReplyDeleteActually they apparently already corrected it in the pages of Extreme Justice, but I didn't read that series so I wouldn't know for certain.
ReplyDeleteLewis,
ReplyDeleteYes they did. In a very weird storyline, it was revealed that Capt Atom's origin was inncorrect. That when he went into the future from the explosion on the alien metal that game him his powers the alien Metal actully "cloned' Nathaniel Adam and THAT was the person who appeared in future with the Capt Atom powers having no idea he was not the orginal Nate Adam. The REAL Nathaniel Adam was stuck in the timestream for years until he met Hank Hall who was trust there after the Armageddon The Alien Agenda mini series. They helped each other and Hall gave Adam the Monarch armor when he became Extant and didn't need it any more.
This, or course, was all according to this new Monarch and since he never appeared again... whether or not he was lying or this is actually still part of DC Continuity is a question I can't answer.
Since "Countdown" is going down the memory lane of the terrific early-90s years, could we get one of those covers with the fake plastic jewel glued on it like that "Eclipso" special?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that will be in the October for December Previews - what better Christmas gift to fans than a jeweled cover.