http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=131066"NRAMA: Mike - hate to keep kicking this dead horse, but wouldn't this have been a great place for an Editor's Note? After all, you've got a main character referring to something which hasn't even been seen yet...so it's not as if even the regular readers know what's going on, let alone the readers who only pick up Countdown... I mean - what's the philosophy behind not pointing readers to another story they might enjoy and possibly buy?
MC: The answer remains the same: There would simply be too many footnotes in a series like this... There are already several narrators forcing several caption styles and I would still like for some of the art to show through the copy. Also the internet does much of this job for us. and we’ve just run several DC Nation pages to help you out. Again you assume this is a story that hasn’t been seen yet... When it is simply a story you haven’t seen or forgot about."
This question seems fair and reasonable. On the other hand, the answer appears obstinate. It wouldn't hurt DC to put footnotes in this series or the other monthlys. I don't understand why Marvel still uses footnotes and DC abandoned them. Doesn't DC want to encourage readers to purchase more books? I'm certainly flummoxed.
Another editor criticism, besides monthlys jumping ahead of Countdown (and vice versa), DC doesn't have everyone on the same page when it comes to the 52 Earths. The Forerunners are suppose to originate from Earth-48 or Earth-35. Who knows? I don't even think the writers do. Now, Earth-12 and Earth-15 are confused. According to Mike Carlin, the internet has all the answers.