Breaking down The Big Tease: Part 1


Remember early last year, when DC released this image?

Countdown is now over, so let’s take a look at what all these teaser images were referring to, moving clockwise from the left side, and compare them with Dan DiDio’s comments from last January.

1. Big Barda and Scott Free are dead. They got killed in DONG.

2. The Statue of Liberty is knocked down. Cloverfield.

3. Kyle Rayner and Donna Troy are looking … beyond? They became the Challengers from Beyond in Countdown. Donna changed costumes in the middle of a battlefield. DiDio said “The color is important key to her future and her allegiance.”

4. Jason Todd as Red Robin. Dan DiDio said in the initial Q&A that physical distance could represent emotional distance. Jason become Red Robin to aid Earth-51’s Batman, but ended up not learning a single lesson from that one potentially meaningful episode in the year-long series. He’s still the same jerk he was, hence his separation from his traveling buddies Donna and Kyle.

5. Oliver Queen. Is he separated from Black Canary after getting married? I haven’t been reading that series.

6. I assume it’s a Batman from another earth, as all those Elseworlds books are now in-continuity, but DiDio said “The image is symbolic in natural and it is indeed the Batman you are reading now. As for the sword, it’s not the first time he used one.” I still don’t get this one.

7. One of those Flashes. Some people can tell the Flashes apart from their costumes. With the exception of Jay Garrick, I can’t. So maybe this is Wally West, or maybe this symbolizes Dead Bart. Either way, even if it just symbolizes “Something’s gonna happen regarding Flashes this year,” it did not lie. DiDio said “If that was Barry, shouldn’t he be lying on the ground with the dead instead of standing with the heroes?”

8. Mary Marvel sitting there looking up. Does the looking up just symbolize that she’s involved in the interstellar drama? DiDio said everything in the image is significant — “there are no accidents in positioning, body or gaze,” and I don’t see how looking up symbolizes her “evil” turn.

9. The Question is dead. That happened before 52 wrapped up.

10. Jade is dead. I don’t remember when that happened, but I thought it was before this image even came out. I’m probably missing something.

11. Superman is sad, crying into Wonder Woman’s breasts. Is he sad about the Death of the New Gods? I don’t know what that thing is lying at his feet.

12. Max is dead. Definitely happened before this image came out.

13. Black Canary is looking away from Ollie. Like I said up above, I haven’t been reading this series, but I’m assuming that once again, their relationship is having trouble. Maybe she read GAYO. Maybe because she appears to have a male bulge. Perhaps he discovered that on the Honeymoon.

14. Ray Palmer is reaching up out of the ground. They found him in Countdown.

15. A Legion flight ring. I’m guessing this is referring to the version of Karate Kid who came back with the others in the Lightning Saga. He died, right? They left him behind in the 21st century so he couldn’t get cured or something like that. What happened to his ring?

16. Ted Kord. He’s back alive now in the pages of Booster Gold, isn’t he? Although DiDio said the half-buried status of the bodies is “Symbolic in nature, the ground gave up the bodies but not completely as to confuse anyone that these characters might return.”

Some DiDio comments that I didn’t decode include:

Where you stand and how you stand can determine your ultimate future.
Light and shadow also play a role.
The ground they stand on and the skyline are both “mysteries” to be solved.