Why do you build me up?

There was really only one reason I was reading Countdown at all. Well, actually two... I was reading mostly for the Piper & Trickster storyline, skipping over the rest of the bits, which were, to me, confusing and uninteresting due to having no idea who the characters were or what they heck they were doing. The Rogues' story was easy to get into for someone who had really no idea what was going on, and it introduced characters that immediately were appealing, although in some cases I've really no clue why. By some cases, I mean Trickster. Honestly, he's a total dick, but he's a likable dick... so I guess that's ok.

It says someting about the storyline that I remained interested when the story went from "Flash's Rogues are squabbling" to "Flash's Rogues killed him" especially since I only started reading because I love Bart so much. In any case, I kept following the exploits of the innocent(ish) rogues despite my great sadness regarding Bart. And I was rewarded with a most excellent story of Piper and Trickster running from various forms of authority while chained together. Oh So Classic. Hilarity ensues and I'm now caught up in the story of two quite minor characters who have been bumped to higher status by the inclusion of their story in the company event of Countdown.

Huzzah! minor characters have been elevated to a position of popularity in which they can now carry a story on their own and have an actual fan following. Now what should DC do with this? Spin it off into another book they can sell for more money and greater appeal? Nonsense! They should kill one of them off!

I forgot, the purpose of building up minor characters is actually so you can kill them off dramatically later, to artificially bump sales without having to do something inconvenient like killing a "real" character. How silly of me. Just like the "Death of the New Gods" bonanza, killing Trickster is a way for DC to show that they are oh so serious about changing the status quo without actually changing anything. No one cared about Trickster's story before, but they certainly care now.

Why would they want to keep writing that interesting story when they could sacrifice the character to boost an otherwise totally sucky event? Why bother building up new characters anyway? Certainly not to gain new readers or expand their current appeal. Who would want to do something like that?