Cover to Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Art by Jim Lee and Alex Ross.

Countdown to Infinite Crisis is a one-shot publication and the official start of the Infinite Crisis storyline. It was released 30 March 2005, sold out, and quickly went to a second printing. When this comic was first published, the cover showed Batman holding a shadowed corpse, so as not to ruin the surprise of who dies. For the second printing, the shadows were removed to reveal the identity of the corpse. File links The following pages link to this file: Infinite Crisis ... File links The following pages link to this file: Infinite Crisis ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Nelson Alexander Alex Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book painter, acclaimed for the photorealism of his work. ... One Shot is a high powered action film that is produced in Sri Lanka with the highest expense. ... To publish is to make publicly known, and in reference to text and images, it can mean distributing paper copies to the public, or putting the content on a website. ... Infinite Crisis was a seven-issue limited series of comic books published by DC Comics, beginning in October of 2005. ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (90th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Countdown was a special 80 page comic originally priced at $1, much lower than would normally be the case for an 80 page comic, although the second printing was priced at $2. Creatively, it was something of a jam-session. The script was co-written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick, while the art chores were divided up, generally on a chapter by chapter basis, between the penciller-inker teams of Rags Morales & Michael Bair, Jesus Saiz & Jim Palmiotti, Ivan Reis & Marc Campos, and Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning. Artist Ed Benes pencilled and inked his chapter. Geoff Johns (born 25 January 1973 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics. ... Greg Rucka is an American writer of novels and comic books. ... Judd Winick at Midtown Comics East in New York City, June 24, 2004. ... Rags Morales (born ?) is a comic book artist. ... Michael Bair is an American comic book artist, whose most notable work includes the inking of DCs Identity Crisis. ... Ivan Reis (real name Rodrigo Ivan dos Reis ), born 1976 in São Paulo, is a Brazilian comic book artist. ... Cover to DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #1. ... Andy Lanning is a British comic book writer and inker. ... José Edilbenes Bezerra (born in 1972 in Alto Santo, Ceara Brazil) is a Brazilian comic book artist, better known as his pen name Ed Benes. ...

Synopsis

The main plot concerns Ted Kord, the superhero and former Justice League member known as the Blue Beetle, investigating the theft of funds from his company that has left him nearly bankrupt. Most of the other DC heroes dismiss Kord's concerns, either politely or outright. Only Booster Gold, another superhero and Kord's best friend, eventually decides to help complete the investigation, but before he can he is seriously injured by an explosive trap. The Justice League, sometimes called the Justice League of America or JLA for short, is a fictional DC Universe superhero team. ... Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional comic book superheroes. ... Michael Jon Carter is a fictional character, a superhero in publications from DC Comics, who goes by the names of Booster Gold and Supernova. ...

Maxwell Lord shoots Blue Beetle. Art by Phil Jimenez.

Alone and unaided, Blue Beetle continues to follow the clues to Switzerland where he infiltrates the castle base of the Checkmate organization. There, he confronts Maxwell Lord, who is revealed to be using his Justice League files and Batman's satellite, the Brother MK I, to keep an eye on the superhero community, which he considers a threat to the human race. After Kord's refusal to join the anti-metahuman strike, Lord shoots the Blue Beetle in the head, killing him. Image File history File links Maxwell Lord shoots Blue Beetle. ... Image File history File links Maxwell Lord shoots Blue Beetle. ... Cover to DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy #1. ... Checkmate is a fictional covert operations agency within the DC Comics universe. ... Maxwell Lord is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. ... OMACs are an organization of powerful cyborgs that exist in the DC Universe. ...

Crossovers

Countdown was bannered as a bridge to all four of the Crisis leadup titles, but featured each of them unevenly. The main plot was essentially an extended prologue to The OMAC Project. The events of Day of Vengeance were foreshadowed, when the Beetle confronted the wizard Shazam, but no particular hints about that title were made. The Rann-Thanagar War was mentioned on a single page, but seemed to already be underway in the story. The main characters of Villains United were featured in a single chapter of the book, but one that did not connect up to the Blue Beetle storyline in any way. The OMAC Project #1; cover by Jose Ladronn. ... Day of Vengeance #1; cover by Walter Simonson. ... Shazam is a comic book character created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck for Fawcett Comics. ... Rann-Thanagar War #1; cover by Ivan Reis and Marc Campos. ... Villains United is a six-issue comic book limited series, written by Gail Simone with art by Dale Eaglesham and Wade von Grawbadger, published by DC Comics in 2005. ...

Countdown was reprinted as part of the trade paperback collection of The OMAC Project, published November 2005 (ISBN 1-4012-0837-1). In comics, a trade paperback (TPB) specifically refers to the periodic collections, published in book format, of stories published in comic books, usually capturing one story arc in the series. ...

Trivia

The title was parodied in Marvel's Exiles number 86, "Countdown to Infinite Wolverines".