Showing posts with label Final Crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Final Crisis. Show all posts
Saturday, February 7, 2009
You Can't Always Get What You Want... (The Begiending)
Well, here it is, the conclusion to our epic breakdown of DC's far more epic event series. Along the way, Morrison pulled one over on us in his final issues of Batman and the cyclical world of superheros whips back around from end to beginning not just with the standard Crisis-expected altering of the multiverse's status quo, but perpetuating that these stories are eternal and accepts that the endings in them are in addition to everything else, the beginnings of it all over again.And speaking of endings, I will have words on what this conclusion means for my favorite DC character, why it wasn't anything on par with the media reaction one would expect and why in the end it's fitting that the final issue revolves so much about Superman, the beginning of super-hero comics himself.
But in all, this story rolls through an incredible sixth issue and honestly, moves into seven with a few things that could have been expected and a ton and a half of stuff that tries to push into ground comics don't cover often. And unlike most events, Morrison means more than a bigger fight. But hey, let's get it on.
THE MIND%*^#
Batman #682-683 - "The Butler Did It" and "What the Butler Saw"Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Lee Garbett
When this issue was first being solicited, I supposed it was a standard issue retrospective of Bruce Wayne's time as Batman from Alfred's point of view. But the presence of the words Final Crisis caught my eye off the back, natural pessimistic instinct told me that this was just a marketing ploy to get more people to purchase. But still, Morrison had been churning out top quality Batman stories long enough to get the benefit of the doubt. Of course, the second part successfully flipped the story on its head, forcing me to reread issue #1 with a new appreciation. And here I worried the book was just killing time until Gaiman's final stories (which in my defense is exactly what's happened since these issues).
"The Last Rights" storyline might have been used far less succesfully since, but in these issues, Morrison turns crooked from the standard expectation in the same manner that Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis have turned character and line-wide events off kilter in the same manner. Dispensing with the A to B to C plot, instead this is more a splatter painting for the first issue. Simultaneously honoring the title character's abilities while refusing to shy away from addressing the inherent comical insanity of the Batman concept despite any type of realistic interpretation. The rather popular idea, Alfred presents in what is initially the worry for a loved one is that this crusade requires too much drive. A legend can't sleep or eat or take personal time. The random flashes of Silver Age images and story elements life a goofy young Dick Grayson as Robin, an silly prankster Joker, the original Kathy Kane Batwoman.
Of course, the Alfred in this story is the Lump, a tool of the Dark Gods stifting through. But true to the base of Batman that Morrison has present time and again is a man prepared for anything. Even in his dreams and memories he can recognize a phony element and hunt it down. In his own way, Batman is as indestructible as Superman. Every problem has a solution and he's thought of them all. Whether it's the physical damage caused by someone like Bane or the phycological assault of a Doctor Hurt or the Dark Gods, he will keep pushing until victory. It's as certain as the fact that the comics will be published.
Faced with his history and abilities being copied into an army of "Bat-men" clones to spread the glory of Darkseid, he is exiled into a story of a world without Batman, where Thomas Wayne saved his family and raised a rather pathetic mother's boy doctor of a son. But something that can't be copied is that drive... the history and memory of the clones presents them with a never-ending battle that drives them insane, ripping themselves apart... "What kind of man can even turn his life memories into a weapon?"
After they attempt to kill the Lump to stop the emotional transference, Batman manipulates this immobile blob into standing, walking and freeing him as the critical information of his role in Final Crisis comes into focus. Every failure and suffering, even the latest at the hands of Hurt and the Black Glove, Batman doesn't process as a human being, because he moved from man to ideal a long time ago and every pain is used as a lesson to improve him as a service for others. In "Batman's Last Case," he solved the murder of Orion and pocketed the bullet for further inspection. The final obituary of Batman, two pages perfectly encapsulating the hero and spinning him unstoppably towards defeating the Devil God that had beaten him. Nothing short of goosebumps from those final pages and for a time at least (because the end never comes forever), THAT is how you should remember Batman.
Final score: 5 stars out of 5
OH NO YOU DIDN'T...
Final Crisis #6 - "HOW TO MURDER THE EARTH"Written by Grant Morrison, Art by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco and Doug Mahnke
First off, only fair to say this issue had me from day one. In the short time since it's been out, I've read it about seven times not including referencing it again for this review. We'll get the comments about the art out of the way to start with since they really are the big problem for me in Final Crisis. J.G. Jones is a great artist. Carlos Pacheco and Doug Mahnke are very good artists. But that does NOT mean that they can split the book up and tell a coherent looking story. You could try and excuse it, but in the end it's just jarring and that's not something needed in the art of a book this crammed. Now some scenes look absolutely excellent and both Jones and Mahnke hit a grand slam on their respective super important splash pages, but the time constraints the artists were under to keep all this running just one month behind schedule had a cost and it's wrong to gloss over it without repeated mentions as we've had in these reviews of the damage caused.
The issue begins with Superman, not seen in the main title since he was pulled from Lois' beside back in the middle of issue #3. He's been busy what with fighting vampire gods of a hyperworld and hanging out with the Legion again. Brainiac 5 is informing Superman that unlike previous times, he can't be returned to the exact instant he left his own time because of the Crisis's magnitude which will end their reality in just over a minute. Superman floats along as Brainy's footsteps open the Legion arsenal to access the refined abilities of the Guardians of Oa in the last machine that translates will into being, the ultimate advancement of the fire Metron gave humanity. Because of it's power not even Brainiac will look at the well-protected device, the Miracle Machine, encouraging Superman to study it before time and space break apart and pull him out of the 31st century.
Back in the 21st century, Black Canary and the others on the JLA satellite are attacked my an armada of Justifiers. In a later scene, after Canary's pleas to her husband fail to garner sympathy, Richard's circuit shorts out the Justifier technology. Every scene set up in the Satellite looks pretty much terrible as faces are bulbous and without enough definition even in what should be a very emotional scene between Canary and Arrow.In Bludhaven, Supergirl's showdown with Mary Marvel/Desaad doesn't have too much dialogue, but looks fantastic and gives Shazam enough time to recover and begin to execute his plan to stop her. The parallel beats between this fight and one between Kalibak and Tawny keep the pace nicely ratcheted up and ends with Shazam calling down the lightning, which Tawny brutally reminds Kalibak doesn't belong to Darkseid. Mary Marvel, meanwhile has reverted to Mary Batson, who admits she can never say her magic word and become Mary Marvel again. The dual victories have secured the bridge at Bludhaven and Kalibak's tiger warriors loyalty passes to the victorious Tawky Tawny.
Back at Checkmate, the shield fail just after the symbol of Metron is revealed by Mr. Miracle to be a letter from the alphabet of the Gods, meaning "freedom from restriction." A brief half-splash reveals the arrival of Wonder Woman and her furies at Bludhaven and the arrival of the day the super-heros fail, leading Checkmate to initiate Black Gambit. Before breaking away, six wonderful panels give tons of background on the Super Young Team's love triangle and abilities. Super Bat's power... "I am so rich I can do anything."While some of Checkmate's plan revealed to Renee Montoya include psychics trying to purge the mental rage of the Anti-Life Equation, mystics trying to contact the Spectre (couldn't Renee just give Crispus a call... sorry more trouble with the continuity of Revelations) and the two Atoms, Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi, diving into a graviton superhighway to find another universe. But the Black Gambit is the Lord Eye, which is meant to dig this world into another if the Atoms can find one, where Montoya is meant to lead the remnants of this world there as the head of a global defense agency. And no, I won't say all that again.
Amongst the villains, Luthor has brought Sivani to his side after the mad scientist's daughter was forced to undergo Anti-Life. Together they jam the Justifier's helmets and blast Libra into oblivion, leaving them with the ability to take control of the Justifiers.
In Central City, Barry explains his plan to use the Black Racer, the avatar of Death, that has been chasing him since his return and lead him to another being that shouldn't be avoiding death, Darkseid. Together the three generations of the Flash take off with death on their heals and Iris wishing them godspeed. For a big Barry Allen fan like myself, this would be the best scene of the issue if not for...
Darkseid sits in his chair beckoning Batman out of the shadows. The image behind Darkseid is his symbol interpretation (for reference see the symbol of Metron drawn on half the remaining heroes faces)once again Morrison pushing the idea that the evil isn't just a physical being, but a unstoppable thought. Batman knows the big bad of the series is just a wounded and rotting carcass doing nothing but dragging the world to hell with him out of malevolence. So he makes a one time exception to his rule on firearms, the same bullet he used to kill Orion in issue #1 full of the Radion that is toxic the the god-essence of his kind. In a faceoff, worthy of an Eastwood western, but slowed down a bit in the world of comics for a little dialogue. Darkseid fires his Omega Sanction ("The death that is life")and Batman fired the bullet wounding Darkseid. With just enough to remind his opponent, "Gotcha." Well, Batman... has a bad day. Only four pages that means the end and the beginning of the story of Bruce Wayne. We'll have more a conversation at the end about this storyline. I will mention in regards to the double-splash... damn, i wish Jones could have drawn the whole thing.A comment on why this wasn't a bigger story at the time; the death of Batman. The Omega Beams might have killed many creature over the years, but the Omega Sanction verion was a creation of Kirby's that was used to send opponents back in time, which was revised by Morrison in his Seven Soldiers: Mr. Miracle series to send those struck into the past to life multiple lives that become more and more painful and desperate until their soul is finally dead. So it won't be a picnic, but that's where Bruce Wayne is spending the indefinite future in the "death that is life." Besides that this method of the most significant death in the series seems more honest than previous ones. In the same series that brought back DC Comics' definitive casualty, Barry Allen, the idea that any character is ever gone is just a deception.
In their prison still, Uotan speaks with a now reborn Metron, who explains the Monitor's rebirth heralds the arrival of the Fifth World, the Age of Men as Gods, and hints a threat more deadly than Darkseid if humanity will survive the ride through the bleed. At this time, Lois and Jimmy signal Superman, Hawkman and Hawkgirl spend a few moments (in one of the worst drawn panels ever), the Green Lanterns still try to push through the singularity to reach Earth, and they turns red with the requisite "Up in the sky..."
Along with the final artist of the series, Mahnke, Superman arrives, tears through the Furies and forces of the battle, firing his heat vision to decimate the bunker and push his way into Command-D. As the alternate versions of Earth come into the view through the bleed and begin to crack. As much as I might prefer Jones' the idea that we're in the hands of a single artist from here on out is comforting. This two page spread does a great job illustrating the speed and awesome power of Superman's arrival. And his first big page certainly captures the icon moment, but Superman's face looks a bit expressionless for the scene. And that's how Morrison ends the biggest roller coaster issue yet. The scope of the event is still only being teased by Metron and it's nice to know a writer can cram in so much information and so many story lines and leave me utterly thrilled.Final score: 4.5 stars out of 5
THE END IS THE BEGINNING IS THE END
Final Crisis #7 - "NEW HEAVEN, NEW EARTH"Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Doug Mahnke
If you made it this far, mind if I crank it up a notch?
That's the question Morrison asks of his audience here. And just like the last issue, let's get the art out of the way. In the place of Jones, or Jones and Pacheco, at least Mahnke managed to pencil everything here. Given the non-stop pain in the butt that's been the last few issues I suppose that's something of an achievement. The sad part is the penciling is never great, but never bad, occupying a somewhat sigh-inducing middle ground. But still the push to get everything down in only a quasi-late manner meant DC had to throw everything they had at the inking. Seven different men and contrary to some jerk in Chasing Amy, they have more of an impact than the tracing. So it's still an unevenly drawn issue, but hey, it's an unevenly drawn issue. Nothing rates as terrible and the biggest stuff is at least very good.
The hardest part is the time line in this book, some bits happen out of order, others seem to be an enormous amount of time compressed into a tiny group of panels, so in as we go along, I'll try and note the order of things and all the ideas presented and reinforced along the way.
We start in the middle of the story, with a cold open of the closest to Obama that we'll ever see in a DC Universe book. The tall, black president is briefed on the world red sky and the seemingly inevitable end of existence. Alone in the White House, he takes of for his other job, Superman. He meets with this Earth's Wonder Woman, Nubia of Amazonia who brings only Anti-War technology. The building-sized Wonder Horn, a gift older than their world to be used when all other options fail. This is the first introduction of music, which I suppose relates to the larger idea of stories and how they matter since song and music is an ancient and powerful method of storytelling that has survived almost the sum length of human existence. The song it summons is actually an the interdimensional ship of Zillo Valla (which you'd only know if you read Superman Beyond 3D) and bearing not gods or monsters, but heroes. Renee Montoya nails a couple of great lines and its revealed she's gathering Supermen of the multiverse together, including the Captain Marvel of Earth-5, whose dialog is just too much of the UBER-grandiose style of the aforementioned tie-in series (ugh).
The next scene takes place at the a point in the future after the events of Final Crisis #6, possibly a bit before the earliest scene. It is the start of the end time. A narrator (Lois Lane) begins telling the last story that all in the universe except the Watchtower is Darkseid, folded into hell. Creatures from different worlds have gathered and accidental conflicts arise like the Metal Men Justice League of Earth-44 going berserk and fighting Supergirl, Blue Devil, Atom Smasher and several other heroes and villains stranded on this last outpost. Lois and Jimmy print out the last Daily Planet with a picture of the Watchtower with the headline "Earth Endures" and along with the bat signal are blasted out of the tower, a message in a bottle to let someone, somewhere, someday know what they lived through "And read the story of the final crisis." The action is fairly straightforward in this scene and Lois' narration is certainly emotional and moving.
We now jump back in time to the end of issue #6 with Superman cradling Batman's body and confronting Darkseid, who makes it very clear he is more than a single being, but billions throughout all existence and knowing Superman won't kill him because that would mean killing Turpin, who was chosen because others like Batman would have resisted too hard and too long. And on his order hordes of Anti-Life infected individuals attempt to restrain Superman. At the threat of the Omega Sanction, Superman reminds him it isn't over. Lois' narration here is a poetic love letter to the Flash legacy and the line "the approaching thunder became the roar of a gunshot yet to be" and sure enough Barry and Wally struggle to stay ahead of the Black Racer. Her line echos back to the starter's pistol line from Barry way back in DC Universe #0.
As the Flashes approached, chased by Omega Beams fired from dozens of Anti-Life infected, really nothing more than extensions of Darkseid. In a conflicting moment of the beginning of the story and the ending of another, Darkseid fires his bullet back in time at Orion just as the Flashes race past and Darkseid meets an old friend. The Black Racer rips through the villain and reclaims the Devil God and the look of fear on his face reminds us even this evil force is a piece in the machine of the multiverse, leaving Turpin coming back in his own body. The idea of the repeating circles of the stories says quite a bit about the idea of comics. And the wave of time travel that Wally recognized is the same one he and Barry ran in on, just going the other way.The next scene jumps forward to the end time during which Superman (seated in the Mobius chair is finishing the designs of the Miracle Machine he glimpsed in the 31st century, like any crisis even the villains show up with Luthor and Sivana working on small parts of the device. Given the leisurely attitude it appears that this endtime, might last for awhile and Morrison frequently references in the dialogue that time is cracking around Earth, dragging out slowly as the descend into hell.
During this time, Lois' final story mentions the fall Checkmate, death of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the failure of the Atoms to escape and Lord Eye realizing the failure. In space, Black Canary and Green Arrow lived long enough to see Ray take Metron's circuit symbol back to Earth. Among the survivors on the Watchtower, Supergirl tells the children the story the Super Young Team fighting like everyday super-heros, with Motherboxxx seemingly transporting them at the last second out of the castle to the ruins of the destroyed Earth-51 wasteland along with Kamandi and the other creations of Jack Kirby.
Bouncing back and forth quickly, after the fall of Darkseid Superman is confronted by Wonder Woman and the Furies, the armies of infected and then the controlled super-villain army of Libra arrive under Lex Luthor's control and putting existence over his hatred of Superman proposes one time team-up as long as he gets the credit.
Wonder Woman in the end times offers to tell the children of Frankenstein, when he rode a humongous wolf-hound and decapitated her Hell-Hound. In that battle, Wonder Woman was cured and bound the body of Darkseid and in teh simplistic world of superheroes "no one was hurt." A cute and simplistic idea, but here Morrison begins more actively pushing the audience on the theory of the success of the heroes coming from their status of such. In the end days, humanity is effectively put into a freezer with Lois entering last, their confidence in Superman saving them absolute. Alone with the Miracle Machine, the image representation of Darkseid (as shown throughout in Metron's symbol, the primitive expression of these spirits contains a more lasting power than any body) appears, which Superman destroys with a song. I know... I know... it's the theory of storytelling and the idea that those which have lasted longer contain more power.
Finally, Superman finds the ultimate technology, Element X, the Fire of the Gods in the Mobius chair and will add it as the last piece of the Machine. And here alone and at the end of all things, Superman catches up with Mandrakk. The single biggest problem with this issue is that anyone who didn't actually read and dedicate themselves to understanding Superman Beyond 3D have no clue who this is or what is happening, but the same can be said for what happened to Batman in Command-D only being discussed in his title. With his zombie Ultraman (also see Beyond for explanation), they have defeated Supergirl and apparently Mandrakk has feasted on God's servants last seen in Revelations, Radiant and the Spectre.
Though there is no light left in the world to spark the Machine, Superman reminds Mandrakk he is a living solar battery. In the final moments, the Green Lanterns are able to break into Earth along with the Supermen of 51 alternate universes decend on the Monitor vampire god and defeat Ultraman.The last story of the Final Crisis belongs to the last participant in this battle, Nix Uotan. The Monitor of the Fifth World assembles an army to destroy his father, starting with Superman. His next step is turning three animals Mandrakk failed to kill on Earth-35 into Yankee Poodle, Pig Iron and Captain Carrot. Well, that's how I'd start my super-hero army. He further calls in God's Army, the Angels of the Pax Dei and though he starts talking in all exclamation points, any guy that starts reciting the Lantern oath to bring in Jordan and his Lantern army is alright in my book. Last but not least, the Forever People of the Fifth World, also known as the Super Young Team. In the words of Most Excellent Super Bat, "Wow."
There is no way watching a vampire god being incinerated by 50 Superman and have the Latern Corp led by Jordan drive a giant green stake through his heart, once again... cool. The showdown between Uotan and Mandrakk is really about the fresh approach of the new replacing the antiquated views of the old. And also, "No one fucks with the Judge of All Evil."
After Lois reflects on their newborn work, Uotan stands before the assembled members of the Monitors giving his report on the entire series of events. While the Monitors prepare to continue to discuss the replacements for Zillo Valla and Rox Ogama, Uotan reminds them that it was the much-maligned germ-creatures that repaired the bleed and refounded the orrery of worlds without the help of the Monitors and in fact in spite of them. It was the Lantern Corp and Supermen that pulled every universe back into place (very, very Silver Age stuff there), the Flashes represented the reunited families, and the Gods of New Genesis and Forever People began to build their Fifth World on the reborn Earth-51.
When offered his old position back, Uotan heeds the words of the oldest (called senile by his people) Monitor, Tahoteh, who mutters "...Our story has become toxic... out of control... we must end it" Uotan encourages the Monitors of the multiverse to make their peace as he unmakes them for the good of the orrery. One last time he stands with Weeja Dell and explains that this wasn't the Final Crisis of Earth-1 or the multiverse, but the Final Crisis of the Monitors... a wonderfully classic comic style to symbolize the world and story of the Monitors crumbling into the white nothingness of the page (the Overmind) and explains Superman's wish on the Miracle Machine, "He's Superman. He only wished the best for all of us. Close your eyes. He wished for a happy ending, Weeja Dell."
On the final page Uotan still exists, the white fading back to the same ending as issue #1 with Uotan a man waking in a bed. This time instead of the dark news of the MArtian Manhunters death, he hears the positive idea of the discovery of the parallel world.
The epilogue to the story ends at the beginning, with a new narrator telling us the story of the life of Anthro having spent his days spreading the fire he was given. The ssame ship that Lois launched from the Watchtower at the end of time can be seen in the background and has followed a path to the beginning of time. Anthro wears Metron's circuit on his face and as he dies, it's in a peaceful sleep. And our narrator, drawing the alternate cover of issue #1 on a cave wall, a man that lived the story reminds us that even after the old man fades like smoke, the fire burns forever.So there it is. With all it's wild concepts and great big ideas, with all the stories of super-heroes only ending to begin again.
Final score: 4.5 stars out of 5
What did I love about it?
That both the villains of the series were just ideas that tried to live past their time. A Dark God that refused the end of his age and a protector that has started feeding off of the thing he was supposed to protect.
The idea of Superman being the comic equivalent of Jesus, just a being that loves us utterly and completely.
The final showdown with Mandrakk (at least I did after I went back and read Superman Beyond 3D and more than anything else the heroic actions of my second favorite DC character Hal Jordan and the lanterns (even the Miracle Machine just being an evolved extension of their power of crafting will into being).
The Miracle Machine itself, a wonderful Kirby creation that literally is a deux ex machine... does that mean it counts as one?
Every single scene with Nix Uotan from the time of his expulsion to the very end. his relationship with Weeja was the most emotionally moving and satisfying of the series. The idea of a man remaking himself and defying the Gods of the Universe to get back to the fantasy of his love and of her feeling the love in return even before understanding what emotions are. Just a classic love story and a perfectly sad ending where once achieved, she has to be sacrificed for the good of the multiverse.
The return of the Silver Age Aquaman and Flash. My DC hierarcy is thus: Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Clark Kent. It's nice to have Number 3 back in the mix and count the weeks until Geoff Johns' "Flash: Rebirth" series kicks into gear. But still his plotline in this book is one of the weakest, carried a great deal for me on the "Yeah! Barry Allen!"-vibe. The same problem is present in nearly a dozen, quickly inserted story elements.
The fall of Dan Turpin, in all it's tragedy and undeserved suffering. The fall was dramatic and terrific, but him surviving at the end was a little too much of a positive spin on it for me. If ANYONE was going to die because of Darkseid, you'd think it would be that one.
What didn't I like about it?
Well, I both loved and hated the art. I loved its quality, but was forever disappointed by the inconsistent look. The two main pencillers, the secondary pencillers that filled in throughout and the tons of inkers.
Whenever the dialogue crossed my line. Being forgiving of so much the half-dozen times everything pushed against my hokey-meter. If they just didn't write such things in bold capitalization and end every sentence with an exclamation point it wouldn't be so bad, but... even I can't say this stuff is good dialogue under any circumstances.
The editorial decision to promote this as a mainstream event. It wasn't and that idea only raised false expectations for a lot of people. The entire day-to-day life of the characters in the DCU didn't change outside of a few notable exceptions. The fact is that this wasn't going to appeal to a lot of people... I mean I know it put up huge sales numbers, but so much of that were people that weren't going to get on board with this type of story, didn't do it and spent the last six months tearing it to shreds. But the name Crisis carried too much editorial weight.
Which relates to the idea that this is possibly the least-new reader friendly book in the history of comics. So much effort is required that without entering it with either a fairly deep knowledge base or an affection that leads to a few long research sessions on wikipedia, there's no way to appreciate or keep up with anything. And all those grand ideas about changes stories and their delivery and meaning and power don't have much meaning to the people outside the narrow target audience that shake their hands at the heavens and rant throughout the internet.
And if ever there was a series to stretch out to the lengths of the original Crisis on Infinite Earth, it's this one. So much is jammed together, especially issue #6 which could have easily been a couple and the final issue as well. They could have brought Superman Beyond 3D into the main series and avoided thousands and thousands of, "Who the fuck is that?" Coincidentally, take the issues Morrison wrote for the event(Final Crisis 1, 2 and 3, Superman Beyond 1 and 2, Final Crisis: Submit, Final Crisis 4 and 5, Batman 682 and 683 and Final Crisis 6 and 7) and you have a 12-issue maxi-series... now that would have been something to behold. Even if I dread the scheduling and artwork. But look at the positive, read those books in that order and we got a 12-issue series in less than a year... can't complain about that one.
THE FINAL, FINAL CRISIS SCORE: 4 stars out of 5
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Thursday, February 5, 2009
You Can't Always Get What You Want... (Part 3)
By now, it's fairly obvious that Morrison is trying his damnedest to break this series out of the rather monotonous rut of typical major epic event comics that have been regular staples of both DC and Marvel's calendar for pretty much two decades. The unifying similarity of most events is their striving to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible. But Final Crisis isn't like that. It's for the type of fan that still reads Jack Kirby's original stories, the fan that can rattle of dozens of Legionaries off the top of their head, the fan that remembers there was a DC Universe older than Crisis on Infinite Earth. Basically, this is a love letter of a DC fanboy and the rest of us our along for the ride.BACK TO THAT MAIN SERIES THING
Final Crisis #4 - "DARKSEID SAYS"Written by Grant Morrison, Art by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino
The Evil Gods ended the last issue releasing the Anti-Life Equation simultaeously from every broadcast medium simultaneously. Everyone next to a radio, television, cellphone, GPS device or computer has infected. When it comes time to give your story scale, immediately infecting a billion people to be the empty-hearted slaves of Darkseid's will... decent first step.
The rather useless resistance we meet early on is holding up in the Hall of Justice with an army of Justifiers threatening to storm the gates (well energy shield). The Ray just zapped in with Mark Richards, the Tattooed Man, who recently decided to bring Black Lightning's message to the JLA after the events of "Final Crisis: Submit." Of course, Green Arrow takes the standard, "Why'd you bring the supervillain?" approach, but of course this isn't about your standard good guy-bad guy stuff. The war against Darkseid is a war against the antiquated ideology of a society dependent on the subservience of the many for the betterment of the few and as seen in the Rogue's Revenge series, a generic criminal like Richards isn't in that camp.
Ray, one of the few characters that would be able to move freely in this world is basically a glorified paperboy, shuttling around news in the form of a Daily Planet hot off the printing presses in the Fortress of Solitude. While it could be easily mocked, given the message of the Dark Gods, perhaps the idea of a conflicting story or a dissenting voice is one of the most powerful weapons left. The paper does tease the idea of a major battle eminent in Bludhaven.
Ray, unfortunately, has the story of how that turned out... as a killing field littered with Atomic Knights, DEO Director Mr. Bones, Count Vertigo, Negative Woman and the soldiers of Checkmate. In that ruined city, Dan Turpin takes over the narration futility battling the incubation of Darkseid, holding to the ideas of not giving up, even breaking this proud man to beg help of the heavens as his body and soul turn into a rotting carcass, courtesy of some terrific close-ups from Jones. While he suffers not to fall, Darkseid's minions are already arguing of which did more to curry his favor. They even mention how Granny Goodness is within reach of Central Power Battery of the Green Lantern Corp. As an example of their genetic manipulation, Kalibak appears in the form of a tiger, fresh from devouring a Lantern.Back in the Hall of Justice, after some great barb from Green Arrow (and really what more simplistic hero could be used to contrast his own straightforward and sharp approach to the grandiose and hyperbolic ranting of Darkseid's faith) Ray reveals an informer in Libra's secret society made them aware of a secret internet created by the world's villains that can be accessed and used without exposure to Anti-Life.
Mr. Terrific, the White King of Checkmate, is now connected to "Watchtowers" - pockets of resistence scattered throughout the DCU, holding court from the Swiss castle headquarters of his organization. From there, Green Lantern Alan Scott, one of the original Justice Society member and the elderstatesman of the world's heroes, encourages faith be kept in their six outposts and that everyone bring whatever they can to bear on the bridge in Bludhaven at dawn, their last stand against the wave of destruction. Some like Supergirl, Hour Man, Liberty Belle and the Metal Men are ready and willing to leave the Fortress of Solitude, Warmaker must abandon a falling Superbia (Watchtower 5), while Freedom Beast faces a Justified Grodd in Gorilla City. Even former adversaries and enemies like the Great Ten of China will be there and Black Adam is lured by Shazam off his throne of skulls for the idea of a last stand.
As the rallying cry ends, the Hall is again cut off and just as Tattooed Man reveals a symbol, "A Circuit" that Black Lightning gave him that was supposed to be important, the former hero shows up and destroys the barriers holding the Justifiers at bay.
The circuit, by the way, is very similar to the appearance of Metron. As the evacuation to the Satellite through the JLA teleporters begins, Morrison returns to the showdown in Central City between the new Furies and two Flashes. One of the better lines of the issue comes from Barry before escape, "An unknown force just reverse-engineered me to life out of a blizzard of faster-than-light particles. I'm sorry I seem a little abstract." Was that Flash or Morrison saying that? All credit regardless for breaking up the ever-present darkness of the issue with the lighthearted return of the Flash Fact and an utterly terrific take down of three Furies, escape from Wonder Woman and running off to save the multiverse, starting with family.
In another bit of meta-conversation, Morrison again hits home one of the biggest ideas of his story after Richards questions Ray's plan to transform himself into teleporter carrier waves and get to outerspace. Ray's response, "Seriously. I thought you were a super-hero like the rest of us." They will always succeed, because the super-hero always does. But the cost to make sure there is no trail to follow is Green Arrow remaining behind so the League's leader (and his wife) Black Canary, Richards and Wally's family can ride the Ray's signal to safety. A sweet goodbye, to a flurry of arrows and futile showdown before falling to his former friend.While the skies outside Checkmate's citadel begin raining blood as the Super-Justifiers (former heroes) close in, the familiar helmet is placed on Turpin/Darkseid's head and he is told to make his choice for humanity. As that scene is cut off (a nice job holding the suspense), and Barry and Wally find Iris Allen looking at her television, succumbed to Anti-Life. No explanation is given besides a kiss and spark of lightning before she's free and even as the world falls apart, we believe along with her when Barry confirms it will all be alright.
But we end the issue back with Turpin gone and Darkseid's finger cast downward. It's a wonderful splash considering it's just one person's face and hand. The facial expression has a large chunk of the cold rage of the villain, with still enough of the broken man's eyes giving in to the monster in his soul.
A wonderfully perfect lead-in to the busting into the Citadel of a flying hot rod car. Not so wonderful is a trigger happy soldier putting a round in Mr. Miracle's chest. C'mon people, he said they were going to save the world! Also, notice the image the Super Young Team and Sonny Sumo have painted on their faces, since it'll come up again. Even with the series' pace ratcheting up, Morrison still stuffs in a single panel at the Citadel of the Black King and Queen escorting Renee Montoya in, something that will have a dramatic effect on the endgame of the series. In this story, all the pieces matter. And while some might say that makes the series worse, I would contend it makes in denser and more complete. There are plenty of chances to read all of the story together and pick up on new wonderful things the second, third and fourth times through and beyond. Shouldn't that be what we want? Not just a character drawn in the background, but bits and pieces of the ever-evolving story bleeding together?
The biggest complaint I have isn't that Jones couldn't handle the art on his own, it's that when the decision was made to bring in Pacheco who's work looks undeniably different at a fundamental level. At the least they should have worked to get someone whose style would blend a little better. And of course, given that I loved Jones' work on Wanted, the covers for 52 and earlier in this series, never seeing his full vision of this series will always be just about the biggest shortcoming.
Final score: 4.5 stars out of 5
CHECKMATE'S IN THE GAME
Final Crisis: ResistWritten by Greg Rucka and Eric Trautman, Art by Ryan Sook
Another story of the weeks between Final Crisis #3 and 4, this story is, more than anything else, one last chance to revisit the world and characters of Checkmate through Rucka and Trautman, the former writers of the series which quickly fell apart after is was handed off to a new creative team. But here the team is back with it's largest scope yet, serparated from the main unit Mr. Terrific, Sasha Bordeaux and most of the major characters of the series are attacked as Anti-Life is being launched by former JLAer Ice and the entire facility with the exception of Terrific, the A.I. lifeform The Thinker, Black King Taleb Ben Khalid and Bordeaux, who uses the nanotech implants implanted by Brother Eye before the last Crisis to put herself into a coma to delay her infection.
The middle section of the story shows off a good bit of the groups dark humor, contrasting the world being overrun for a month with the light character of teleporter Snapper Carr and his frequent PG-13 and R-rated run-ins with Wonder Woman villain and Anti-Life survivor, Cheetah. And while this keeps it light in the face of continued failure, the real emotional weight of the story is in the later portion. The only real chance to form an army against the Justifiers is the activation of the OMAC nanovirus that 11.5 million people carry in their blood. Of course accessing the code means reviving Sasha and allowing her to be infected completely. That the choice has to be made by her lover, Terrific, is a bit melodramatic and coincidental, but his incredible determination to find some way to win against the ever-increasing legions of Darkseid also reminds us that Sasha would probably do the same thing.
It's nice to see the formerly malicious force of the OMACs and the AI that spreads the infection turned on their head as a desperate gambit used against an even bigger enemy. It's also good to have the best spy organization in the DCU getting one last chance to shine with Rucka running the show. Like Submit, this adds a lot to the story of the main book and helps give a better sense of scope to the plight the world faces against Darkseid's infestation.
Sook's work hasn't been around much lately it seems and while I like him here, he probably would have been a better match than Pacheco to work on the main series with Jones. He might not be on that level, but the feel of the two would mesh together better.
Final score: 4 stars out of 5
HE'S BACK AT LAST
Final Crisis #5 - "INTO OBLIVION"Written by Grant Morrison, Art by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino
The series continues to start each issue with it's version of a cold open, the trial of Hal Jordan. He is charged by one of the supposedly "infallible" Alpha Lanterns, Kraken, demonstrating that even the near-omnipotent powers of Oa can be infultrated by the forces of Darkseid. One of the best ideas presented by Morrison should be mentioned here. So much of this series is about stories being told, not just the plots, but the story of Darkseid thus far in the series has been insubstantive, hidden in the shadows and inside of Turpin while others act on his behalf with his words on their lips. Darkseid isn't a monster that is punched into submission. He and those close to him are almost immaterial, an idea infected someone's mind. And though Kraken might have the raw power to lash out and hurt one of the Guardians, Jordan breaks free of her constructs pointing out the power of the lantern is one of the minds, and Kraken's is fractured. Before Granny Goodness/Kraken is taken away, she has noted once again Metron's gift of an ultimate technology back in issue #1 with the gift of fire.
The real scope of problem is revealed to be more than just a madman taking over Earth by force. The infection of the Dark Gods is one of words that enslave souls and the force of the return of the message and story of Darkseid is forming a Doomsday Singularity. And even a DC rookie should know the words doomsday singularity on the foundation of existence... not a good combination. And what an excellent final few lines to the scene that perfectly incapsulates what makes a Green Lantern special. As all their world is being dragged to hell, they charge in without fear, saving the universe in 24 hours... hey it must be Wednesday.
Back in Switzerland, Amanda Waller and Khalid lead Montoya into the depths of the castle and tease their plans for the days when the super-heroes fail them. While the defenses led by Mr. Terrific act as a target to distract the Justifiers attention away from Bludhaven for the final attack.
The last remnants of Turpin seem to be vanishing while Darkseid stutters his way into existence, meanwhile the Super Young Team has a brief showdown with Checkmate, showing one of them, Shy Crazy Lolita Canary ripping off a sonic scream similar to the Justice League Black Canary's.
Shilo get back up (thanks to his impact-proof vest) and explains the messages of the Motherboxxx, and provides a bit of exposition for Morrison to explain what exactly is happening. The dawn of the Fifth World of the Gods is crashing dawning and Darkseid (a fallen devil-god) while falling to his death in Countdown began to cling to the world and the power of his fall will drag the universe down into an end time with him. He also reinforces the symbols they have painted on their faces being important, a Metron style circuit.Kalibak, now leading a large force of anthropomorphic tigers, brings them out to face a force of heroes. The rollcall of super-hero in a very nice splash page are Shazam, Black Adam, S.T.R.I.P.E., Green Lantern John Stewart, Supergirl, Iman, Vixen, Blue Devil, Bronze Tiger (and we still aren't done with the walking talking tigers yet), Liberty Belle and her husband Hourman, J.A.K.E. 2, Frankenstein (complete with motorcycle and broadsword), the father and son Wildcats of the Justice Society, Mr. America, Red Arrow and someone I honestly don't recognize. Now you can complain all you want but Frankenstein firing a revolver, pulling out a sword, driving over Justifiers on his hog AND quoting Milton... that's just four or five kinds of cool there.
While Black Adam takes on Mary Marvel, who's just unheathily concerned with taking Supergirl and making her, "Mine! Mine! Mine!," discovers she is possessed by a leering old man, Desaad. While Mary gets the upper hand (and crotch) on her opponents, Tawky Tawny (See! I told you we weren't done with the tigers yet!) arrives on his jetpack, but is attacked by Kalibak.
The best scene in the book, despite the big fight, happens in a jail cell where they store people unexplainable immune from Anti-Life. Nix Uotan is tossed in with a crippled man in a wheelchair fiddling with a Rubik's cube, which he mentions cannot be solved in under 18 moves and a cloaked man with hairy hands. This man knows a bit of the backstory as well, knowing that Uotan was a Monitor and hands him a set of his earlier doodlings, including one with the symbol Anthro was drawing at the end of issue #1. Amongst the other pictures is Superman and Weeja Dell, Uotan's lost love.
This picture causes him to utter the girl's name, which turns out to be his magic word and as the new Metron solves the cube in 17 moves, well... something changes. The cubs pings, the symbol of a Motherboxx.
Mostly it seems to save the reveal for the end of the issue, a scene where Libra (forget about him? it's been awhile.) is torturing Calculator for betraying his society (telling Ray about the alternate internet before issue #4, which serves for little besides forcing Luthor to realize that the path of Libra and his Gods can't be his.
Back in Bludhaven, the combined power of Supergirl and John Stewart can't breach the Command-D structure where Mokkari informs his master their clone army was killed when attempting to psycho-merge them with Batman (that story to be told in the Batman title), which in Apokolips world means they are promptly killed. Darkseid finally stands and expuses his goals, dragging the world into the hell where everything is Darkseid. Jordan and the other Lanterns are dragged towards this singularity as they are returning to earth. Darkseid's big speech, said through the 3 billion voices of his states his only goal: drag the world to hell and murder their souls.
At the end, we return to the highlight scene where the Fifth World is fully born with Uotan combining with Metron's Motherboxx and is declared by the God of Knowledge (identifiable by the dialogue boxes matching the scenes with Anthro in issue #1) as the Judge of All Evil, the first Fifth World Monitor.Even with the Jones-Pacheco art still conflicting terribly, there's enough cool battle, the beginning of the underlying points about what the power of stories and the new rising to defeat the antiquated and the highlight real moments of the battle in Bludhaven, Darkseid's speech and especially the Uotan and Metron scenes to feel that bad about anything here.
Final score: 5 stars out of 5
NOW THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND
Final Crisis: Rage of the Red LanternsWritten by Geoff Johns, Art by Shane Davis
I have only one complaint about this book. And I mean ONLY one. Under no circumstances should this book bear the Final Crisis logo. It has nothing of substance to do with the event. It's an excellently written start to a new arc for Johns' Green Lantern book and the first big step toward the eventual Blackest Night saga that will play out in the title. But it tells us this happens between Issue #1 and #2 of Final Crisis and my main question is "Why?" That means nothing really bad will happen in this arc to Jordan since we see him in later issues of Final Crisis.
Not judging it as part of the Final Crisis saga, it does a wonderful job in deepening the ever-expanding world of ring-bearers with the addition of the Blue Lanterns who operate using Hope and the Red Lanterns ruled by Rage. Davis uses a bit too much dead space in his panels for my tastes, but handles the diversity that Johns loves to throw into this title.
The bits of doubt that start to infect some Lanterns might further fracture the Corp as began when Laira became a Red Lantern, obviously Johns has continued to push this in the Green Lantern book, but in Final Crisis... doesn't matter so much.
Final score: 4 stars out of 5
THE POINTLESS PRELUDE
Final Crisis: Secret FilesWritten by Len Wein and Various, Art by Tony Shasteen and Various
Not too much to say about this, my least favorite book in this entire series. Despite coming near the end of the publishing schedule, this unengaged history of the villain Libra would have meant something more when he was a driving force of the series in issue #1 or 2 before the Dark Gods showed up and stole the show. It wasn't too hard to figure out that after being absorbed into the universe deep in the Silver Age, he happened to land on Apokolips.
The art is so, so and their rather boring "bonus material" doesn't add much to the fabric of the story. In all we didn't really get much of an original story, which jumps back and forth to the original Justice League of America story. And honestly, the new writing actually seems like it was created 40 or more years ago. If this series is about moving the medium forward to the new, to something different, then this is a slap in the face to all of that.
Final score: .5 stars out of 5
... TO BE CONCLUDED
Read more...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
You Can't Always Get What You Want... (Part 2)
The Crisis continues and things get bad in a good way. And many of the tie-ins, some critical to the storyline, some not and some still not even halfway finished will be addressed.
EVIL WINS
Final Crisis #3 - "KNOW EVIL"Written by Grant Morrison, Art by J.G. Jones
The opening of this issue is another that requires some knowledge of one of Morrison's Seven Soldiers miniseries, in this case Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein. This version of the monster works with SHADE (Super Human Advanced Defence Executive) as the ultimate demon neo-noir detective, and in the raid on the Dark Side Club finds the Question examining the corpse of Boss Dark Side (note the symbol on his tie for identification). Before escaping the Questions asks all the right ones, "What kind of gangland killing leaves a man mummified?" and "What happened to Danny Turpin?"
While Montoya races after something that fell from the sky, Frankenstein watches as a computer pointer finger icon indicating the quickly disappearing prophecy of "KNOW EVIL," which I believe is a modernized version of the Source Wall at the end of the universe which the New Gods frequently interacted with. And the same time SHADE director Father Time speaks with Taleb Beni Khalid, Checkmate's Black King. Taleb wants the most expendable agents for a mission against a local warlord in Bludhaven killing anyone who wanders near his bunker (obviously Command-D), he also notes he has a role in one of their global law enforcement agencies for Montoya.
Montoya's falling object is shown to be Overgirl (Uberfraulein), the Supergirl of Earth-10 we met in Countdown who comes from a world where the Nazis won WWII. Now here's where my high school German comes in handy... Thanks, Mister Daeschner! She says, "I... I... I am... Overgirl." and "No. It's the...the bleeding heavens. Hell... is... is here." Did I just rock your mindhole with my knowledge... I hope so. Anyway this pretty much the bleed separating the universes is falling into disrepair, oh and the SHADE agents catch Montoya.Meanwhile Uotan is fired from Big Belly Burger for asking unsettling questions. You know I did feel the graviton impacts increasing, sir. He then passes by a news report where scientists discovered the ancient drawing of Metron's symbol drawn way back in issue #1 at the dawn of time by Anthro, the same symbol is appearing throughout the world in crop circles in England. Uotan moves on unaware the female monitor Zillo Valla is watching him (denoted by her big headdress). Now might be a good time to mention the recurring idea in the crisis series to pass on information through television news reports. It's nice to see the thematic tie between them and is an impressive way to show the global scope although here it's obviously just used for foreshadowing the events in Bludhaven and the ever-increasing involvement of the New Gods in humanity's history.
Another interesting tendency of Morrison is to avoid revisiting the cliffhangers of previous issues until part-way through to explain things, instead starts by throwing interesting scenes with new seemingly insignificant characters at the start. Jay Garrick is sitting in a living room explaining what just happened to the Flashes extended families (Iris Allen, Linda Park-West, Joan Garrick and Wally's children Jai and Iris West). The Flashes race ahead of the Black Racer, faster than sound and speech, chasing the bullet back in time, unable to get his fingers around it before it strikes Orion. Iris, of course, wants to know exactly what Jay means by "three generations of the Flash". As the flashback shows the Black Racer floating above Turpin and Orion's body it catches sight of Barry and begins chasing them back forward in time, Jay wore down and fell out of the timestream today and the Racer past him by to continue after the other two. Jay notes the the last the Racer can't run faster than light, but Wally and Barry can, confirming to Iris that her husband is alive.
Another old-school throwback, fans of the animated series Justice League Unlimited, will recognize the Hall of Doom (also known as the building that looks like Vader's helmet), here Libra give the Human Flame a new costume and shoves a red-eyed helmet on the man's head broadcasting the Anti-Life Equation and turning the flame in a soldier of Darkseid. "Judge Others. Enslave Others. Anti-life Justifies My Hatred."
Luthor attempts to surprise Libra, but Flame and another soldier turn on Lex and Libra demands the big bad of the DCU give up on science and swear an oath of loyalty to his master, Darkseid. Clark is now in the hospital keeping watch at Lois' bedside and even I, who defended the idea of running through time, have to call bull on the idea that Lois is only being kept alive by Superman's heat vision... seriously, there's nothing the hospital can do, but heat vision saves the day? That it's followed by by a shadowed Zillo Valla demanding in a new high of hyperbole, "I offer you one ultimate chance to save her! But we must leave this world now before it's too late!"
Despite Wonder Woman, Black Lightning and Alan Scott's objections about a lack of evidence the Alpha Lanterns are taking Jordan to a trial on Oa. After they leave, Scott mentions the international meta-military organization Checkmate is currently starting to investigate the battles in Bludhaven instead of the Orion investigation. He mentions that if Diana's intuition about the Evil Gods of Apokolips is correct, whichout the New Gods to balance the scales they need an army to battle them and plans to enact Article X, the superhero draft.
Scott asks Oracle to coordinate the effort and quickly gets the world out to various heroes... the new Aquaman (whose is told by a whale), the current Shazam (Freddy Freeman), who mentions that Mary has been missing since the days of Countdown and his friend and anthropomorphic tiger, Mr. Tawky Tawny. Also, seen are Supergirl saying goodbye to her cat Streaky and Black Canary and Green Arrow, who of course rants how this is all authoritarian militaristic crap and proves he's right about everything.But just as the heroes are fully assembled and about to get their marching orders, Morrison cuts the legs out from under the momentum to go back to Shilo Norman and Sony Sumo at a Japanese airport. But sometimes it isn't the big superhero gatherings that can change things. As he is about to board the plane, Shilo recounts his story from Seven Soldiers: Mr. Miracle where he crawled out of his own grave. Sumo thinks Motherboxxx is familiar, but doubts an escape artist and sumo wrestler are the ones to stop it. Of course, before boarding the plane is shot by a rocket launcher and they are attacked by an army of the Anti-Life infected minions of Darkseid. Just as Sony asks for a miracle, the Super Young Team pulls up in their Wonder Wagon futuristic car and they peal out with Darkseid's forces hot in pursuit. Sony seems to accept his fate calling to cancel his match with Killotron, "I'm on a mission from the Gods." Shilo thanks them and insists they shouldn't get messed up in this. To which, Most Excellent Super Bat remarks, "Excuse me. We are the Super Young Team. We've done this sort of thing before." and their car takes off into the sky. And even the Morrison detractors have to give him that one, cool rescue.
In Bludhaven, Wonder Woman is visiting a refugee camp on the outskirts of the city. She is about to investigate the city with some of the Atomic Knights, originally created in the early 1960s, the Knights wear medieval armor and ride gigantic dalmatians. Since Infinite Crisis, they patrol the devastated ruins of Bludhaven. As the group pass the many corpses of Replika, who was killed there in SS: Frankenstein. It's safe to say Morrison is dedicated to tie a large chunk of those series into the background of his Final Crisis. The now-villainous Mary Marvel, who "just couldn't stand being so wholesome and plain and boring" shows up fresh from a make-over at
Darkseid's Flesh Farm at Command-D... or perhaps a brothel in Amsterdam. The funny thing is Morrison gives as thorough an explanation of her transformation here as DC did in 51 issues of countdown. After killing one of the Atomic Knights, Mary is defeated relatively quickly by Wonder Woman, but reveals a broken vial with the symbol of the Anti-Life Equation, making Wonder Woman the patient zero of the new infection. Immediately after, Mokkari starts a computer program that sends an email to every address on the planet, as Oracle attempts to cut off the internet before it finishes opening.Finally, we're back with Wally and Barry who run out of the timestream back in front of the strip club in Central City. While getting away from the Racer, they overshot to a couple weeks in the future. The two finally talk and Barry has no idea why he's come back or what has happened to this red-skied world. In the final panel, the new Furies (Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Batwoman and Giganta), all controlled by Anti-Life, corner the Flashes. We are finally seeing Darkseid's master plan taking form and it's gone pretty well so far. He's working his way back to life in a new body, has taken Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman out of the picture and begun infecting humanity to his new Lowlies.
The red sky is a symbol that's pretty standard fare in the DC Crises. Morrison made the move to isolate the three biggest heroes, let smaller well-known ones have a place, but leave the action driven by relatively obscure creatures like Libra, Turpin and Shilo Norman, letting them have the opportunity to shine. By now, Jones' artwork is starting to look rushed with the best work left for the major scenes and a more hurried approach to others like Clark in the hospital or the superhero group shot, which we quickly learn is not as important as you might think something like that is. An item that I didn't get the first couple of times through was a subtle indictment on the corrupting influences on technology. Take note that in the superhero draft, all the characters receive a letter as opposed to the Anti-Life Equation being spread through the internet. Or maybe that's just why evil wins.
Final score: 3.5 stars out of 5
SO WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF STEEL, PART 1
Superman Beyond 3D #1-2Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Doug Mahnke and Various
Let's right off the back, address the idea of the use of 3D. It doesn't work. It certainly never added anything to a movie, not Jaws 3D, not Beowolf. It didn't work as Geoff Johns' interpretation of sight in the Phantom Zone and it doesn't work in here. Especially with comics there's nothing so distracting as my giant red hand holding the book open. A long time multiverse afficianado doesn't really need a 4D vision upgrade like Superman to understand the bleed, the arteries between the universes. See, you understood what I said right there if you've read any crisis story or Planetary. So it's a distracting gimmick. Repeat after me... NO.
This and the Legion tie-ins mostly looked like the excuses to keep Superman out of the main storyline of Final Crisis for a time when they were announced. But the story picks up inside of Final Crisis #3 and doesn't last more than hardly a few heartbeats. The fact that it shared the writer of the main series arose more interest. The crowning achievement of this series is the attempt to portray the multiverse as a living entity, the lifeblood of which, the bleed, can heal any injury. Superman is promised a chance at it between Lois' last heartbeats by Zillo Valla (who pauses time throughout the universe) in exchange for his help.
This is really the main fine line that Morrison always walked, the one between concept and execution. Even his greatest apologists like me know he tumbles away from a decent and coherent story. When he nails it like in Seven Soldiers, We3, All-Star Superman and New X-Men (thought I know Billy will fight me on that one), it's one of the great fantastic rides in this medium. When he doesn't it's an over-the-top shock-schlock like "The Ressurection of Ra's Al Ghul" and "DC One Million." And he goes there here, which is a shame to waste the concepts like the living multiverse, a team of a half dozen Superman (including a Dr. Manhattan riff), finding the points of view of a Nazi superman searching for his lost cousin, and the Monitor Dax Novu corrupting their people making their judgment wrong and turning into a vampire god feeding on the lifeblood of existence. Of course he just coincidentally is Nix Uotan's father and Zillo Valla's lover. Then he gets lost at the edge of existence by a giant robot Superman... um, yeah.
The relevant points are the defeat of Mandrakk, the exile of his conspirator Ogama (who plots to retrieve his master and turns Ultraman into a vampire monster) and him pulling some of the bleed back to save Lois.
Final score: .5 stars out of 5
SO WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF STEEL, PART 2
Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #1-5Written by Geoff Johns, Art by George Perez
Taking place only immediately after Superman Beyond3D, this series is what takes Superman out of the plot of Final Crisis. A must-have for Legion fans (and largely inpenitrable to most others)this series faced incredible delays with issue #3 only appearing this week. There's a bit of hope the schedule improves since there are few better artists to tackle the super-huge cast than Perez and few writers better suited to confusing topics like the Legion than Johns.
The direct sequel to Johns excellent Action Comics storyline, "Superman and the Legion of Superheroes" my great hope of this series is to create a single unified Legion between the three previous continuities, one of which just ended after issue #50. Unfortunately right now there's a couple great battles and a strong story, but the final score can't be determined this early.
As to the question of why Superman left, remember the presence of the Evil Gods of Apokolips is still unknown and in the past the Legion has always returned him to the moment he left. Of course, by now we're familiar enough with the series to realize it's indicative of a problem with the entire DC line right now. Most of their significant creators and longtime fans of the mythology and history of the line, especially Morrison and Johns. And their work tends to be mostly well-regarded by the fanboys, but often verge into being difficult to follow to near impenetrable to new readers. Luckily, for this series' chances Johns generally stays towards the understandable side of the spectrum.
SPEED KILLS
Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge #1-3Written by Geoff Johns, Art by Scott Kolins
The three issue series gave some background on Libra's villain recruiting related to the refusal of the Flash villains, the Rogues. While this has almost nothing to do with the continuing plotline of Final Crisis, it's by far the highest quality among the tie-in miniseries. Johns and Kolins worked on the Flash together for years and this is possibly a new highpoint for the artist. Johns has the voice of each Rogue down solid, playing to his personal strengths with Captain Cold as the narrator. And it's noticable how much better Mirror Master plays and more in-character he sounds here than in issue #1 of Final Crisis.
What makes the Rogues some of the most compelling villains as Johns writes them is their incredible realism. Now, obviously their names and powers are rooted in the touch-in-cheek style of the Silver Age, but their current decisions and motivations are often those normal criminals might make. That being the point - these aren't villains out to conquer the world, but violent criminals. They fully expect the heroes to win and defeat Libra. Whereas Lex Luthor can't help himself from being tangled up in the large-scale machinations, Cold and the others need no part of it and will not get involved. More often than not, they aren't trying to defeat the Flash so much as avoid him whenever possible.
More exciting than the little effect it has on Final Crisis is how much the series changes the status quo for the Flash without ever showing one outside the final page in a tease for next year's Flash: Rebirth series. Wally's greatest villain Zoom is depowered and Inertia, the lead killer of Bart Allen is murdered by the Rogues in revenge for making them break the rule about never killing a speedster. Iris Allen even has a couple pages to shine and further sell her emotion over the return of her husband, Barry.
Final score: 4 stars out of 5
GOD SITS ON THE BENCH
Final Crisis: Revelations #1-5Written by Greg Rucka, Art by Philip Tan and Various
The original plan for Rucka's miniseries was to tell a "from the street" story about how the events of Final Crisis would alter life for the average person. Hopefully from the image to the left you can figure out for yourself that they didn't end up going in that direction. Instead Rucka chose two characters with backgrounds rooted in the streets of Gotham where he wrote them in the wonderful and gritty Gotham Central: Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen. But both allowed him to tell a bigger story because of the changes both went through in the aftermath of Infinite Crisis with Montoya inheriting the identity of the Question and the murdered Allen became the new host of the Spectre.
The first episode centers around Allen delivering vengence on Dr. Light and Effigy, but cannot touch or recal the true name of Libra, showing the characters with some real power going beyond what had been seen early in Crisis. A problem with the well-written and drawn debut issue is one of continuity. Montoya in no longer in America as she was in the first several issues of Final Crisis, but it is after the Martian Manhunter has been killed. But it's not so jarring and I think I might be in this a little too deep to start questioning when she took a flight across the pond. But it is in service to the story as the Spear of Destiny she is trying to take from the followers of the Crime Bible is eventually used to kill Vandall Savage and raise Cain of the Fourth World, the first murderer marked by the Spectre, in his place.
Most of the story however takes place in Gotham City the day the Anti-Life Equation is released in Final Crisis #3, of course further continuity questions come up since Renee references being at Checkmate Castle weeks later in Final Crisis #4 and 5 as the past. Allen's struggle to accept the role as God's Spirit of Vengeance is something that until now was never really explored. The idea of him not being able to punish Libra leads to some generous raging at God (personified by the Spirit of Mercy, the Radiant) since there was no mercy for his own son, when Allen was made to kill him. By issue #3, we see both Radiant and the Spectre unable to effect those effected by Anti-Life and to watch Cain utterly defeat the Spectre and be called his, "Master" the idea story blends into an excellent crisis of faith. Did God abandon man? Or is the battle ours to win or lose? While it doesn't fit from much of a timeline perspective with the main series, Rucka tells a strong story and the art is overall fine, but some of the story points are drawn too tight and it makes it unclear exactly what happened, especially when the Spectre and Allen are temporarily severed. The real balance to find in the score is a pretty blatant disregard for what the main character is doing in other titles with the quality of the story which is pretty high on its own.
Final score: 3.5 stars out of 5
HELMETS OF HELL
Final Crisis: SubmitWritten by Grant Morrison, Art by Matthew Clark and Various
While the original purpose of this issue was to bringe the cliffhanger of Final Crisis #3, the release of the Anti-Life Equation on the world, with the world's new status quo in issue #4. Unfortunately delays (highlighted by the use of three inkers that gives the book's art somewhat of a jigsaw feeling) had it shipping the same day as the next Final Crisis issue, which makes the time spend in a world with an active resistence seem even more rushed.
Consider that point from the last issue of Final Crisis pounded home. Technology bad, paper good. The issue starts with Jefferson Pierce on what looks like a newspaper delivery route (it actually turns out to be a rescue mission) with a bag of Daily Planet papers. It actually make sense that if every media outlet is broadcasting Anti-Life 24-7-365, this is a way some bastardized for of mass communication can still take place. And Mr. Pierce makes damn sure those chasing him remember. "That's right. Black Lightning!"
I suppose the newspaper is better than technology approach isn't too preachy and it's a major point of Morrison's approach to this series and DC in general... things used to be better. While I'm certainly note endorsing that statement and have some huge problems with the concept, I mean you aren't reading this review in the New York freaking Times... I appreciate the sentiment behind his position. Maybe the fact that the old ways were harder added some value to them. I mean, hey if Superman took the time to build a printing press at the Fortress of Solitude, I'd skim an issue.
Regardless the main storyling has Lightning eventually chased down by Darkseid Cylon-headdress toting minions, the Justifiers if you please. He is saved by the superhero loathing Tattooed Man and his son, eventually taken to where his entire family is hiding. Excluding the cool opening scene, Clark's art make virtually every fight scene unintelligible. When Lightning wakes he ask his rescuers not to burn the newspapers for heat or the books they've found.
They couldn't have chosen a better hero of the people to try and help this family that can't stand superheros. Lightning comes off as an intelligent and selfless, but really human in the way he can relate to others. It turns out the Tattooed Man's wife and daughter used a computer to call for help, meaning the bad guys are right on their tail. The chase scene, complete with the staple of any mindless zombie apocalypse, the school bus, lacks in detail, but still comes off sharp enough.
The awfully broken down art makes the final confrontation lack much of any understanding. The dialogue for three pages needs to be reread a couple of times to even start to understand what is happening. In the end, Pierce sacrifices himself to the family can escape and Clark's close-up of the man's face as the Justifier helmet is lowered over his head is actually pitch perfect. Generally, if some type of action isn't involved the art is just fine. In the end, Tattooed Man takes up the remained of his rescuers mission to contact the remains of the League at the Hall of Justice, while Black Lightning burns the books he previous espoused the virtues of and commits that "Anti-Life is the answer."
Final score: 2.5 stars out of 5
...TO BE CONTINUED
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