Checkmate #4 Preview

[B][URL="https://aiptcomics.com/2021/09/24/dc-preview-checkmate-4/"]Checkmate #4 Preview[/URL][/B]
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Alex Maleev

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/OxzxJoy.png[/IMG]

The Watchtower has just been...floating in space?

When has Merlyn even been there?

[QUOTE=Frontier;5745460]The Watchtower has just been...floating in space?

When has Merlyn even been there?[/QUOTE]

Not the Watchtower.

Remember in Identity Crisis? The villains used to hang out in an old Injustice League asteroid base. That's likely where they are now.

Which, when you think about it, is kinda dumb as hell. They were in a base with one way in and one way out (teleporter) that no one maintained and could easily be stormed by the good guys at any time (plenty of Lanterns around at the time).

How is the book doing setting up DC’ s Spyral?

[QUOTE=The Cool Thatguy;5746079]Not the Watchtower.

Remember in Identity Crisis? The villains used to hang out in an old Injustice League asteroid base. That's likely where they are now.

Which, when you think about it, is kinda dumb as hell. They were in a base with one way in and one way out (teleporter) that no one maintained and could easily be stormed by the good guys at any time (plenty of Lanterns around at the time).[/QUOTE]
Well, beats a swamp :p.

[QUOTE=Frontier;5746256]Well, beats a swamp :p.[/QUOTE]

Does it though?

You can breathe anywhere in a swamp. Run any direction you want and not be faced with a trackless void. And it's DC, so their Man-Thing doesn't care much about criminals

[QUOTE=The Cool Thatguy;5746355]Does it though?

You can breathe anywhere in a swamp. Run any direction you want and not be faced with a trackless void. And it's DC, so their Man-Thing doesn't care much about criminals[/QUOTE]
But it smells...

This book is SUCH hard work!
I've wanted to love it, but Bendis is killing me.
Glacial pace is a sprint compared to how this story is progressing.

So, um, did anything actually happen in this issue?

[QUOTE=ducklord;5752215]So, um, did anything actually happen in this issue?[/QUOTE]

Nope.
I was actually shocked at how anticlimactic that ending was. I actually turned the page to see if there was anything else, but no.
The cast has so much potential, but they definitely need to give them to another writer.

For me was the breaking point. I wanted the book to like me, but it didn't work. This was the last book of Bendis I was following and now I leave it here. If DC was believing than Bendis was going to built a roadmap of future events, I would suggest them reconsider that path. I don't think than the work on Checkmate is creating the enough attention or impact for future develompments.
I would recommend to use another writer.

[QUOTE=Thor-Ul;5752382]For me was the breaking point. I wanted the book to like me, but it didn't work. This was the last book of Bendis I was following and now I leave it here. If DC was believing than Bendis was going to built a roadmap of future events, I would suggest them reconsider that path. I don't think than the work on Checkmate is creating the enough attention or impact for future develompments.
I would recommend to use another writer.[/QUOTE]

They kind of are. Williamson is as close to a DC "architect" as there is right now.
His books are even beginning to contradict Bendis, and it seems like Williamson's will only grow in importance.
Justice League is the last big book Bendis still has, but even that is being largely ignored, it seems. A new issue is out and no one is even talking about it.

[QUOTE=Factor;5752504]They kind of are. Williamson is as close to a DC "architect" as there is right now.
His books are even beginning to contradict Bendis, and it seems like Williamson's will only grow in importance.
Justice League is the last big book Bendis still has, but even that is being largely ignored, it seems. A new issue is out and no one is even talking about it.[/QUOTE]

This seems to have been a problem at DC for (at least) a decade now:
- Writer/Editor comes along with grand plans for some big aspect of the DCU (its overall structure, its spy organizations, the Legion, etc.)
- While those plans are being laid, something throws one or more hitches into the plan (the writer leaves, another writer comes along and is allowed to tromp all over the plans, the writer is too damn slow, etc.)
- Shards of the original plan eventually roll out, but no one cares any more.

Maybe I'm being nostalgic, but it seems like DC used to be a lot better at this.

I think its hard to know what exactly "architect" is doing. Bendis looked like one, but many of the things he did for Superman were things that editors wanted done and probably would have happened either way.

I didn't mind it, maybe because so much of DC's writing is sub par these days in comparison to Marvel that it didn't come off as bad to me.

Things started rolling into action in the last few pages of the issue, so I'm looking forward to the next one.