Countdown: Arena

Cover to Countdown: Arena #1. Art by Andy Kubert.

Countdown: Arena is a weekly, four-issue American comic book limited series published by DC Comics. Written by Keith Champagne, the series began publication in December 2007.

Spinning out of Countdown, the series features Monarch (Nathaniel Adam) as he organizes battles among various versions of characters from the 52 Earths of the Multiverse. He will then add those he deems worthy to his army, in preparation for his battle against the Monitors. Monarch seeks to compose a powerful strike team, and in partciular seeks powerful alternate of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Blue Beetle, Nightshade, Starman, and the Ray to compose this squad.

Summary

Monarch's battles go underway, as Eve of Shadows (Earth-13), Vampire Batman (Earth-43), Ray "the Ray" Palmer (Earth-6), Scarab (Earth-26), Hal Jordan Jr. (Earth-12), Starwoman (Earth-7), Johnny Quick (Earth-3) and Wonder Woman (Earth-34) are selected as Monarch's champions, with whom he will compose his army. Others, such as the Batman of Earth-19 and Apollo of Earth-50 become Monarch's "backups" held in stasis. In some instances, characters die, although the Bat of Earth-40, returns having been sired as a vampire. Throughout the series, tensions fester between the all-American Superman of Earth-31 and his Russian Earth-30 counterpart. Superman-31 and vampire Bat are able to conclude that a transporter miraculously designed by Earth-33's Ted Kord can travel the multiverse. After the group deduce the connection between Monarch and Captain Atom, Breach volunteers to collect his other counterparts from across the 52 in an attempt to overpower Monarch. In the arc's conclusion, the Supermen fight is interrupted by a barrage of alternate Captain Atoms, who Monarch is able to overpower and absorb into himself, revealing Ted Kord-33 and Breach (actually the brainwashed Breach of New Earth, not of Earth-8) to be his accomplices, false hope of escape used as a distraction. Breach betrays Monarch, giving Superman-31 the transporter to save everyone onboard the ship. The last man standing after Superman-31's departure and Superman-15's sacrifice, the Red Son Superman of Earth-30 becomes Monarch's final team member.

Battles

Nightshades

• Eve of Shadows of Earth-13: a sorcereress named Eve Eden, who can also manipulate shadows and controls a shadow realm. She is married to Brigadier Atom.
• Eve Eden: A Nightshade who appears similar to her New Earth counterpart, who can manipulate and control darkness.
• The Shade, a female who carries a cane and wears a top hat, able to control all shadows.

The Shade attacks the other two Nightshades immediately, mentioning she hasn't killed anyone in almost two days. Nightshade's limbs are severed by Shade. Eve of Shadows manages to pull the Shade into an alternate dimension called the Shadowlands, where she easily defeats Shade. Despite being the victor, her husband and country are destroyed for her violating Monarch's rule against attempting to escape.

Batmen

• Batman of Earth-19: A Batman who started his career in the 1880s and fought against Jack the Ripper. Featured in Batman: Gotham by Gaslight.
• Batman of Earth-40, The Bat: A Batman who was a covert government operative under the alias The Bat during WWII. Featured in JSA: The Liberty Files.
• Batman of Earth-43: A Batman who became a vampire after fighting Dracula. Featured in Batman & Dracula: Red Rain.

The two human Batmen unite to blind the vampire with daggers, poison it with a cyanide capsule, and breaks its neck, but the creature turns to smoke and disappears before The Bat can plunge a dagger into its chest. The two remaining Batmen square off, agreeing to no weapons, no tricks, just skill. The vampire chooses this moment to rematerialize behind the Batman of Earth-19, causing the Bat to knock him out when he turns around. The vampire bites the Bat in the neck and tosses him away, but is blasted by Monarch before it can bite the fallen Batman (Countdown's interior art swaps the two defeated Batmen.) Monarch removes the combatants from the arena, keeping Batman of Earth-19 in stasis as a "spare." The Bat later rises as a vampire and attacks Monarch's disposal crew.

The Rays

• The Ray of Earth-10: A fascist Ray who bears a glowing Swastika on his chest. Oddly, the Ray of Earth-10 shown in 52 #52 was fighting alongside the Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters.
• Apollo of Earth-50: Member of the Wildstorm Universe's superhero group, the Authority (According to Keith Champagne, "It doesn't necessarily mean Apollo is a Ray analogue, just that Monarch grouped him together with the other two [due to the solar-powered connection]."[1])
• Ray Palmer of Earth-6: Formerly The Atom of his earth, Ray retains his size-changing belt in addition to light controlling powers as The Ray.

The Ray of Earth-10 immediately attempts to fly out of the arena, but is stopped by a force field. He then attacks the other two Rays, blinding Apollo with a blast of light. Ray Palmer helps the Nazi Ray escape the arena, forcing Monarch to kill the Nazi for violating his rule. Apollo attacks Ray, mistaking him for Monarch. Ray shrinks down and jumps into Apollo's head, blasting him from the inside out, defeating him, but leaving him alive. Monarch keeps Apollo in stasis alongside his spare Batman.

Blue Beetles

• Ted (Kord) of Earth-33: A giant man-sized blue beetle, pet of his world's Mr. and Mrs. Kord.
• Danny (Garrett) of Earth-39: A Dan Garrett whose scarab has bonded with him as New Earth's scarab has to Jaime Reyes.
• Scarab: A swarm of Blue Beetles from Earth-26 (mistakenly labelled Earth-21 when introduced).

Danny's scarab abandons him to join the swarm, leaving Danny defenseless; the swarm then eats him. Ted attempts to crush the swarm piece by piece, but it flies inside the giant beetle and bursts him from the inside out, leaving the murderous swarm victorious. Before his death, Ted screams for someone left to "finish [his] work", revealed to be some sort of high-tech vest, although Monarch confiscates and destroys it.

Green Lanterns

• Green Lantern of Earth-5: A Green Lantern named Hal Jordan who comes from a world home to Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family.
• Green Lantern of Earth-12: A Green Lantern named Hal Jordan, grandson of the original Hal Jordan, from the world of Batman Beyond.
• Green Lantern of Earth-32: A Green Lantern named Bruce Wayne who found Abin Sur's power ring. Featured in Batman: In Darkest Knight.

Once inside the arena, the three Lanterns cover it in a green field, preventing Monarch from being able to observe them, and causing him to burn his way inside. The three Lanterns attack him, but their combined attacks have no effect whatsoever. The Green Lantern of Earth-32 turns off his ring's safeties in order to throw one, powerful blast at Monarch's face. The blast destroys the face-plate, compromising Monarch's containment suit, resulting in a massive explosion which kills the Earth-5 Green Lantern and renders the other two unconscious. Hal Jordan of Earth-12, being the first to rise, although missing an arm from earlier in the battle, is recruited by Monarch. The Earth-32 Green Lantern is held in stasis.

Starmen

• Starwoman (Courtney Whitmore) of Earth-7: A brunette Starwoman equipped with a star rod.
• Starman of Earth-17: An intelligent gorilla who serves as peace-maker from an Earth home to Kamandi. Carries a star rod.
• Starman (Mikaal Tomas) of Earth-48: A male from "the black planet" empowered with cosmic abilities.

The Starman of Earth-17 and Starwoman chat in the arena while waiting for Starman of Earth-48, who is still on the Shiftship attacking Monarch. Once teleported to his counterparts, the blue skinned Starman disintegrates the gorilla Starman's upper body instantly, seeking to win the fight as quickly as possible. He then tackles Starwoman, who blasts his face with her star rod in self defense. She inadvertantly decapitates the angry Starman, winning her match in a matter of seconds.

Flashes

• Jay Garrick of Earth-2: A WW2 hero and a member of the Justice Society of America.
• Lia Nelson of Earth-9: The Flash of the Tangent Comics imprint, a Flash with various light-related abilities.
• Johnny Quick of Earth-3: A member of the villainous Crime Society of America, this alternate Flash is an evil counterpart to the Earth-2 Flash.

Johnny Quick chases after Lia before being punched in the face by Jay, knocking him out. Lia then betrays Jay with a blinding flash and starts punching him, crowing about not being the crying wimp she made herself out to be on the ship. Jay tries to warn her to look behind her, but she ignores him, only to be impaled through the chest with a vibrating punch from a recovered Quick, incapacitating Lia. Quick challenges Jay to a race, which Jay wins by throwing his helmet at Johnny. Johnny feigns critical wounds, and vibro-punches Jay in the neck when he stoops down to help him, knocking Jay out, leaving Quick the winner.

Wonder Women

• Wonder Woman of Earth-18: A Wonder Woman who was the sheriff of a western town in the 1890s. Featured in Justice Riders.
• Wonder Woman of Earth-21: A Wonder Woman who started her career in the 1940s. Featured in DC: The New Frontier.
• Wonder Woman of Earth-34: A Wonder Woman who freed women from the cruel oppression of King Jack in 19th Century England. Featured in Wonder Woman: Amazonia.

The three Wonder Woman agree to give this fight their all, and proceed to slug it out with punches and kicks. Just when the Wonder Woman of Earth-18 is about to step on Earth-21 Wonder Woman's face, she's knocked out by a punch to the neck from Earth-34 Wonder Woman. She and Earth-21 Wonder Woman square off, delivering simultaneous blows to the head. Being the first to rise, Earth-34 Wonder Woman is declared the winner by Monarch.

Captain Atoms

• Breach (Major Tim Zanetti) of Earth-8.
• Ronald Raymond & Nathaniel Adam of Earth-37: merged to create Quantum-Storm.
• Captain Atom of Earth-38: Leader of his world's Atomic Knights.

The final fight will be between the Captains Atom and the Monarch. Sensing this, the now-vampiric Bat uses the teleporter (built by Blue Beetle and powered by Breach) to send Breach to scour the Multiverse for more Captains Atom, and then takes the other two Captains down to help him rescue the survivors. Breach assembles a team of his many counterparts including Earth-13's Brigadier Atom, Earth-22's Kingdom Come, Earth-4's Charlton Comics Captain Atom, Earth-30's Soviet Atom, a Doctor Manhattan-lookalike, President Atom, the robotic Quantum Mechanix, Quantum Boy, Captain Addama, a Hulked out "Attum" and many more. The Bat and the two Captains are confronted by Monarch and an army of soldiers. Monarch reveals that he had planted the teleporter for Earth-33's Ted Kord to assemble (although Monarch seemingly mistakenly refers to him as a native of Earth-6) to give the group false hope, and also that Breach had been working for him all along and was in fact New Earth's Breach, who had survived the Infinite Crisis and been brainwashed by Monarch. He then proceeds to murder the Bat and the Captains Atom, adding his counterparts' power to his own. Saving Earth-4's Captain Atom for last, Monarch simultaneously laments that he sacrificed his morality for the cause of defeating the Monitors, and also taunts Atom with the fact that since they are essentially the same man, a spark of Monarch's personality exists even within him. Breach betrays Monarch by giving Earth-31 Superman the fully-charged teleporter device to save the heroes onboard Monarch's holding cell. Monarch kills Breach for his betrayal, although he admits he was planning to kill him anyway.

Supermen

• Superman of Earth-16: As verified by Keith Champagne, this Superman is Christopher Kent, who in the main DC Universe is the pre-teen biological son of General Zod. Earth-16 is referred to the Pre-Crisis world of the "Supersons" who as Superman Jr. and Batman Jr. were the direct sons of the famous characters. Originally Christopher was stated to be from Earth-15, where Zod is also Superman, apparently replacing Kal-El. However, prior to Countdown: Arena, Earth-15 and its heroes were destroyed by Superman-Prime.
• Superman of Earth-30: A Superman who lands in Communist Russia 35 years earlier and directly leads the Soviet Union to conquer most of Earth-30 openly. Similar to the character featured in Superman: Red Son.
• Superman of Earth-31: A super-patriotic Superman as seen in All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

The three Supermen battle, with Chris Kent holding a definite advantage. The Earth-31 and Earth-30 Supermen fly out of the arena and are nearly poisoned by the radiation, but Chris saves them. The trio again battle, with Chris absorbing enough of the other two's powers to become a glowing red giant, who tries to destroy Monarch and fails, killing himself in the attempt. The proceedings are then interrupted by Breach, who has brought with him every other version of Captain Atom in the Multiverse. Monarch proceeds to kill each and every one of them, adding their atomic power to his own. During the confusion, Earth-31 Superman is given the transporter rig by Breach who had managed to free himself from Monarch's control, and uses it to free Monarch's "spares", and escape. In the aftermath of the battle, the Earth-30 Superman is the only fighter in the Arena left alive, protected by the Earth-30 Captain Atom. Monarch adds him to his roster, and prepares to attack the Monitors.

Other

A page from the comic which appears in Previews and online solicitations also features Earth-26 (animal) Teen Titans, alternate Firestorms, alternate Batgirls and Robins with one pair appearing to be based on Batgirl and Robin Thrillkiller while the other Robin matches the appearance of his precrisis Earth Two counterpart, an alternate Lobo, L.E.G.I.O.N from the Legion elseworld story L.E.G.I.O.N. 90210, Justice Society of America members (Mister Terrific I, Black Canary I, Hourman I, Doctor Mid-Nite I) from JSA: The Liberty Files, and JLA members (Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl and the Atom) from JLA: The Nail, but whether they'll feature in the combat is undiscussed. Monarch appears to obliterate all these characters shortly after bringing in Superman of Earth-31, the last combatant, in order to demonstrate his own ruthlessness.

Website

On September 14, 2007, DC launched an Arena website where fans can vote for which heroes will appear in Monarch's army. The only heroes that people were able to vote for were alternate versions of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman. [2]