Day of Vengeance (Infinite Crisis) (Countdown to Infinite Crisis)

And comic book publishers wonder why the audience is not expanding! 2005-11-29 Instead of focusing on gaining a new audience in order to expand on its (dwindling) existing one, publishers such as DC always opt to cannibalize the remaining (+/-) 100,000 faithful that still buy their comic book material at a specialty shop on a regular basis. At a time when the industry is competing with other forms of entertainment to capture the purchasing power of the buying public, drivel such as Day of Vengeance will not help reverse the youth trend towards video games, DVDs and internet surfing.

The plot and characters are totally inaccessible for those that have limited knowledge of the DC Universe. Seriously, how many people are waiting for the movie adaptation of Detective Chimp, Ragman or Enchantress? The only recognizable character that is featured within this story is Captain Marvel and that is if you were unfortunate enough to watch the dreadful Shazam series which aired on CBS during the 1970s or came across the pilot episode as a bonus feature on the Wonder Woman Box Set.

Day Of Vengeance is merely an amateurish piece of work to promote Infinite Crisis and hype up the hardcore fans of the DC universe for its eventual arrival on the stands. Writer Bill Willingham does nothing to get us interested in a cast that does not possess any unique powers and their traits alter from chapter to chapter in order to suit the weak plot development. Their characterization has as much depth and feel as the heroes that were featured on the Super-Friends TV show. To add insult to injury, the conclusion of this pointless saga goes nowhere fast. The lives of the heroes and villains remain relatively unaltered while there are negligible consequences from the events that transpired.

As for the artwork, it is uneven at best. Justiniano's storytelling skills need improvement. While some panels spark the imagination, others leave the reader flat on their face with the lack of background work and details. This could be attributed to the various inkers who do not have the same style and the idiotic decision to have another penciller on the third chapter of the book.

Like the other tie-in series to Infinite Crisis, The Omac Project, Day Of Vengeance fails to deliver the promise of grand excitement and adventure. Instead, we have a piece of poorly contrived work that contains no entertainment value whatsoever for even the die-hard comic book fan.

The second best of the Countdown books 2005-11-29 ...with Villians United being the first. Day of Vengeance tells the story of a bunch of B (and C)-List magic-based characters who must work together to stop the Spectere's rampage against all magic users. The team consists of: The Enchanteress, Nightmaster, Nightshade, Ragman, Blue Devil and Detective Chimp. The problem is: all the heavy-hitters, such as The Phantom Stranger and Dr. Fate, have already been taken out by The Spectre, so what chance do this bunch have? Not a very big one, but they make do with what they have.

One of the biggest problems of the most of the Countdown minis was they ended abruptly, their stories to be continued in the pages of Infinite Crisis. OMAC and Rann/Thanagar suffered from this in particular, and Day of Vengenance does to a lesser extent. While there is some sense of closure, I wish that the creative team would have found a better way to end this. That said, this was still an entertaining book, and worth buying.

- DC Universe