Thursday, October 30, 2008

Final Crisis #1-3

OK, I've finally decided to cave and read Final Crisis. I wanted to wait until I had at least a majority of the series, but I couldn't wait anymore, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The main thing that came out of these comics was me scratching my head a lot and looking awfully confused...

I'm not going to even touch the Monitor stuff, because I have very little idea about who they are, or what exactly their role in the DCU is. What I did understand (I think)was that two factions of "Gods" battled and the bad "Gods" won, and have been hiding out on Earth, in the guise of normal humans, plotting to turn the Earth into some kind of hellish world. At least, I think that's what was going on... I could be WAAAAAAAAAAY off, because one thing I've learned about reading Grant Morrison's work is that he likes to add A LOT of twists and turns to his writing.

So anyway, Mary Marvel, who is now totally evil, somehow causes Wonder Woman to unleash something called the Anti-Life Equation, which turns the Earth into the before mentioned hellish world. I'm a little foggy as to how that happened, but I'm hoping it will be explained later.

As for the main heroes, Superman gets called into the future(I think), after Lois almost dies in an explosion at the Daily Planet, Bats is captured by the bad guys, Hal Jordan is arrested by the GL Corps, since they suspect he's gone crazy again, and Flash (Wally West) went running through the timestream with the recently reappeared Barry Allen Flash.

Needless to say, I'm as confused as can be, but the series is still young. One thing that kind of bothered me was the pacing of the story. It was all over the place! One panel, we're on Mars, then we're in Gotham, then it's a quick visit with the bad guys, then we head to NYC! Slow down, please! I think these comics would have benefited greatly from some extra pages, that way the pace would have been a little more leisurely, and maybe some more of the story could have been shown... I mean, the Martian Manhunter was killed off in like one panel! Shouldn't his death have gotten a little bit more attention here?

Anyway, breakneck pace aside, I'm cautiously optimistic about what the future issues have in store. I think I'll hold off on scoring this comic until the end of the series, because obviously there is still a lot of story to tell.

4 comments:

  1. All of the Final Crisis mini-series tie directly into the main story. Rougue's Revenge, Requiem, Revelations, Superman Beyond, Rage of the Red Lanterns . . plus a few more that haven't come out yet . . they all tie directly into the Final Crisis books. Actually, they help to explain alot. I agree that the story seems choppy in the main book, but when you fill in the blanks with the other series, I think, it all comes together quite nicely. Also the Death of the New Gods mini-series would help to answer some of your questions about the New Gods and the anti-life equation. It's done by Jim Starlin, and it's really a nice series. In a nutshell, the New Gods were the Fourth World. Magog, from the Justice Society series, is the last god from the Third World. And the death of the Fourth World heralds the beginning of the Fifth World, which is what's going on with all of the New God characters assuming the mantle of humans. Yes it's a bit confusing, but Jack Kirby created an amazing complex cast of characters here.

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  2. Thanks for the quick response to my post! I just finished Requiem, and was glad to see it explain what happened with J'onn in more detail. I figure I'll start Revelations next, since I have the first 3 issues of that series as well.

    I can see I'll definitely be hunting for the Death of the New Gods mini, because Jim Starlin was responsible for writing one of my all time favorite Graphic Novels, The Death of Captain Marvel. Anything with his name attached, I'll be happy to give a try.

    Thanks for the pointers. Hopefully, after I read the various tie-ins I have laying around, I'll have a better understanding of what's going on.

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  3. Death of the New Gods is horrible, and it actually doesn't tie into Final Crisis. There was a big stink about it a while ago, because Grant Morrison is taking the New Gods in his own direction. According to DC, Death of the New Gods was meant as a send off to the characters in more of a "classic" style.

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  4. Ha ha, I JUST, and I mean literally just purchased Death of the New Gods off eBay like 3 minutes ago! Hopefully, I'll like the story in it, cause there's nothing I can do about it now!

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