Countdown to Countdown

Okay, we've all seen the cover and made our guesses as to who gets the wrong end of an ass-whupping in the upcoming Countdown by DC comics. Well, in an attempt to dig a little deeper into the biggest question in comics since "Wait, why did Wanda go crazy?" Newsarama got a hold of series writers Greg Rucka, Geof Johns, and Judd Winick and asked them some questions. The trio was assembled together on the Warner Brothers lot by Dan DiDio to talk over the story, but it wasn't smooth sailing from the beginning:

JW: Well, the buzzword in the room for about an hour was “A DC Primer.” We finally got away from that, and realized what we had to have was a story primer. We had to pick a character and then find a beginning, middle and end, and pull out the important elements that make this story go forward…

Not wanting to write a mere two pages for each series in the DC Universe, the creators decided to write a story that inculde elements of that but put into one concise story:

GR: Right – the story had to be big enough that it would incorporate the major players of the DCU, and it had to be big enough to be able to do that, but small enough so that it would fit in 80 pages, but big enough again, so that it would propel the action in everything that comes after it.

As many of you have already heard, the seeds for Countdown were planted back in Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day, so how will all these pieces fit together?

GR: We’ve been building this puzzle for almost two years now, and we’ve got all these pieces and all these segments out and around separately. It’s like when my son plays with Legos – he has big sections spread out around the living room, but the whole thing, that makes something you didn’t quite see coming...he hasn’t hooked those pieces together yet. Countdown is the keystone to the structure. It’s an 80 page critical piece that, a whole bunch of other pieces that have already been assembled but not seen are going to hook into.
JW: Right – it’s kind of a “Holy shit, they’ve been planning this all along” piece.

When asked about the cover and leaking any story elements each writer had something to say:

GR: I’ve seen and heard all sorts of speculation, and have had people ask me questions, but the thing is, the fans are so focused and very smart. If you drop anything, they’ll tease it out and solve it, even though you thought you were being so clever…
NRAMA: So the guy in Batman’s arms is?
JW: Silver St. Cloud. But actually, the cover that’s been around is a parody cover, and people will see the real cover when Countdown hits the stands.
NRAMA: And you’re lying now, aren’t you?
JW: Am I?

I almost wish this was true. I'd like to see a company actually play with the readers a little bit as long as they pay off is just as good or better. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.