Counting Down with DiDio

Newsarama.com talked to Dan DiDio, head hancho at DC and editor of the upcoming Countdown which picks up elements of Identity Crisis and expands on them. Spinning out of that one-shot are the following mini-series which DiDio commented on:

The OMAC Project, written by Greg Rucka with art by Jesus Saiz. Probably more so than anything else, this spins directly out of the story of Countdown. It also picks up on storylines that are left over from Identity Crisis, and starts to answer the question of does Batman know what the Justice League did to him, and more importantly, what’s he going to do about it?

The next one after OMAC is Day of Vengeance, which deals with things spinning out of Identity Crisis and Green Lantern: Rebirth. We have the Spectre spirit loose and attacking the magical aspects of the DC Universe. It’s written by Bill Willingham and drawn by Justiniano.

Number three, which follows in May, is Villains United, which also spins out of Identity Crisis. We set up the sense of camaraderie among the villains, now we’re moving it up to the next level. The villains are organizing. Who’s organizing them, and who doesn’t want to be a part of this group and why are two of the major questions being asked in that miniseries. That’s written by Gail Simone and penciled by Dale Eagelsham.

The final miniseries will be The Rann/Thanagar War. This is being established a bit in Adam Strange, and it will be coming out and crossing over with Green Lantern, and work to reestablish the cosmic scope of the DC Universe, and build on it. That one’s written by Dave Gibbons, and drawn by Ivan Reis.

I'm glad to see a publisher finally backing up it's claims that a series or mini-series will actually bring about change. I'd rather see them doing something like this where they keep running with story elements instead of letting them flounder and die until the next big event.

DiDio also mentioned a little something about trades and monthly comics:

The idea of waiting for the trade is boring to me. We create comic books that are bought on a monthly basis, and my job, and the job of everyone here is to make people go back into the store the next month or next week, and buy the next issue because they can’t wait for something to come six months or a year down the road.

I gotta agree with Dan on this one. Waiting for the trade is good for a few things, but I'd rather have the issues as they come out. What about you?