Spoiler:
The gods of evil descending, the ALE globally broadcast and sent out as a mass email, Wondy turned into what looks like the new commander of the Female Furies, Barry's back from the grave, a mass draft of superheroes not seen since WW2, Lois Lane in the hospital, Libra has singlehandedly taken over the Secret Society of Super-villains, Shilo Norman the last link to the new gods........HOLY SHIT!!!! 😱
Grant Morrison is a god. 😱 clap **** skrulls, Apokolips is so much worse.
Jeez can this get any more boring? my support for this event has been going down and this issue did not help, 3 issues in and i am supposed to worship Morrison? i have only read one good thing from him and that was animal man...this is bad,for the life of me i cant see the good points of this event....but my love for DC has me supporting it by buying it...at least i will at least have the right to voice my opinion seeing as i am going to see this thru.....the first three issues have done nothing but annoy and make me wish i had a secret invasion tie in to read this week 😬
Awesome issue.
Action doesn't equal a good story. Most of the best stories I've read in comics have very little action. It's like the people who think cheesy one liners and CGI makes a good movie.
Though I can understand if you're not a fan of the New Gods, why you'd be lost. This seems to be making a completely new status quo for DC comics on all fronts, villains, heros, and gods. The scope of it is huge already, and it's not even close to the climax.
Originally posted by Juntai
Awesome issue.Action doesn't equal a good story. Most of the best stories I've read in comics have very little action. It's like the people who think cheesy one liners and CGI makes a good movie.
I for one am getting sick of Libra, he reminds me too much of The Hood.
Barry Allen goodness? YES PLEASE.
They might seem rather inconsequential to some, but this has literally been one big event right after another across the issues. Most of the Marvel readers, or people new to the DC, or just casually followed sometimes, a lot of importance goes over your head.
If you want action, head knocking and cheesy lines, I hear Jeph Loeb is doing a smash up job on HULKs books.
Originally posted by Juntai
Awesome issue.Action doesn't equal a good story. Most of the best stories I've read in comics have very little action. It's like the people who think cheesy one liners and CGI makes a good movie.
Who's talking action...how about a good story? this is not a good story i.m.o, its all over the place and not fluid...i don't need all out action...and i don't need confusion either...i will always love animal man and thank you for the heads up, but i am not giving him a pass on DC's major event..but there is 4 issues left...and i am in it to the end...so heres to hoping for a good second half 😉
Jun, it's not like I prefer Rulk over this, but there are 2 factors, I didn't follow New Gods. With FC I feel like it's jumping all over the place, and I am always lost. I just finished reading Sinestro Corps War a few months ago and I still fresh on that...then the next big DC event is this and it's much slower. I think I will like Blackest Night a lot better.
Originally posted by starlock
Who's talking action...how about a good story? this is not a good story i.m.o, its all over the place and not fluid
That's the one real problem I've been having. He keeps cutting scenes at random so that it's hard for me to tell where anyone is or what they're doing. I'm going to have to read the whole thing straight through once it's over to really get it. Doesn't make for a bad story though, just a complex one.
Originally posted by Juntai
They might seem rather inconsequential to some, but this has literally been one big event right after another across the issues. Most of the Marvel readers, or people new to the DC, or just casually followed sometimes, a lot of importance goes over your head.If you want action, head knocking and cheesy lines, I hear Jeph Loeb is doing a smash up job on HULKs books.
Loebs Hulk/Rulk is so much fun and a good read, thanks for the plug 😉
And what does it mean to a company like DC for people who are not totaly folowing there comics? you think that makes for good promotion? "DC- a lot of importance will go over your head",cmon that sounds like an elitist view and where will it get them, ive been reading DC comics for over 30 years and it surprises me that this event is as bad as it is so far..... i.m.o
Originally posted by starlockOK.
Loebs Hulk/Rulk is so much fun and a good read, thanks for the plug 😉And what does it mean to a company like DC for people who are not totaly folowing there comics? you think that makes for good promotion? "DC- a lot of importance will go over your head",cmon that sounds like an elitist view and where will it get them, ive been reading DC comics for over 30 years and it surprises me that this event is as bad as it is so far..... i.m.o
You saying Hulk is good, and this is bad, lets me know your standpoint.
I don't have any reason to discuss this farther with you. 🙂
For anyone who'd like to read them, some of the reviews are very interesting.
As Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones' "Final Crisis" comes just thirty-odd pages away from its middle point and reaches a self-imposed (and cleverly explained) thirty day hiatus, it's clear that while it features a universe-gripping threat and more heroes than you can count, it is extremely unconventional for an event comic, or even a superhero comic for that matter.The pacing, in its consistency, has solidified itself as focusing rarely on the singular act of import -- Darkseid's transformation, Mary Marvel's possession and perversion in Granny's labs -- but instead on the events on the outskirts. Things are alluded to instead of directly illustrated, and actions are rarely as important as reactions. I am reminded of David Simon's crime drama "The Wire" in which as often as you'd see a sudden firefight or act of violence, you'd just as likely come up on a crime scene and a significant character revealed dead only then, with McNulty and Bunk lingering among the fallout.
"Final Crisis" is a lot like that. We're getting slivers of information among the collected moments that trace everywhere from Frankenstein versus The Question (truly the confrontation no one could have ever seen coming) to a recovering Jay Garrick in the West family living room. I couldn't help but notice that a very small moment in #1 telegraphed this entire approach. In the first sequence when Vandal Savage is tearing through a camp of cro-magnons, he spies the nubile daughter of the tribe leader. She is brandishing an axe. In the very next panel, Vandal is dragging her out of the tent, the axe buried in his shoulder. Pretty much every significant event in "Final Crisis" is handled like the swing of that axe. We see the before, we see the after, and it's up to us to fill in the rest.
I can see how this can chafe. A common complaint about the book is that nothing happens. Of course this couldn't be farther from the truth. Lois Lane is on Death's door. Gods have been murdered. A Flash has been resurrected. Hal Jordan is in custody. Batman is captured. Turpin is subsumed by the ultimate evil. But more often than not, we're not shown these things. We just know they happened.
So why exactly is Morrison staging "Final Crisis" like this? Why gather up a brand new All Star Squadron if only to show them in a splash page standing around looking worried? Where's my 100 v. 100 massive battle spread?
One need only look to the biggest fight in this book, Wonder Woman versus Mary Marvel, for your answer. Instead of an abstract beat-em-up sequence made up more of impact bursts than actual fighting, we have an unmistakably brutal sequence of hand to hand combat; Teeth are knocked out, arms are broken. You can't multiply that across the hundreds of combatants Alan Scott lets loose in this story and retain the same impact.
That critical sense of realism is naturally enhanced by the artwork of J.G. Jones, who turns in his most consistently great work of the series so far in this issue. The seams of the costumes, the grit surrounding open wounds, the shrapnel flinging away from sudden explosions; they all contribute to the sense of an all-too tangible impact of an increasingly horrible and perverted evil.
A lot of the more interesting moments of "52" and "Infinite Crisis" were when someone like Crispus Allen was on the ground level, staring up at the impossible. In "Final Crisis", Morrison has done this to the entire DC Universe. Even the strongest heroes among them have been rendered inert, trapped on the ground level of their own staggering event book.
They're not superheroes anymore, not in any way that can really make a difference. They're powerless. If a more dire and impossible threat has even been laid at a superhero universe's feet with such implacable verve and detail, I have to admit, I've never seen it.
Ign's review.
As someone who's fully aware that comic book fans are a fickle and diverse bunch, and that there will always be a subsection of fandom – no matter the size – that hates certain brilliantly crafted comics and adores certain crappily crafted ones, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at some of the negative reaction to the first two issues of Grant Morrison and JG Jones' Final Crisis. Still, I am surprised. Very surprised, actually, that such a boldly ambitious project could be derided as redundant or insubstantial mostly because it retold certain story beats and ignored others from a weekly series that most hated in the first place. More significantly, I'm absolutely amazed that so many people would dismiss this work as inaccessible, mostly because it dares – no demands – readers to take in each page and panel with the utmost attention and care.Having just finished Final Crisis #3, I'm confident in calling all those gripes utter hogwash, at least in this reviewer's opinion. This is an ingenious, utterly unique and expertly constructed take on the "Big Event Mini-Series," one that doesn't just boast a "nothing will ever be the same again" tagline (one that it just might deliver upon), but is itself nothing like we've ever seen before from one of these major superhero blowouts. In a medium that reeks of recycled ideas and over-used conventions, Morrison and Jones are delivering a series that smacks of originality and is quiet literally jam-packed with high-concepts, all the while retaining an attention to character needed to tell an emotionally engaging narrative.
I suspect a lot of the fan backlash over the first two issues had to do with the way Morrison refused to show much of his hand in those first two installments, but I thought the story's deliberate elusiveness lent those two issues a dire sense of foreboding that worked wonderfully. Regardless, Morrison finally reveals some of his hand in this issue while still no doubt keeping a few tricks guarded up his sleeves, and we're for the first time let in on a big chunk of Darkseid's scheme to take down the heroes once and for all. Suffice it to say it's scary as all hell.
The pace is unrelenting from start to finish. We begin with a three-page rapid-fire sequence focusing on Frankenstein, SWORD and Rene Montoya's Question that absolutely pops with the staccato rhythm of JG Jones' inventive nine-panel page breakdowns. (If there's one area where this book might suffer once Carlos Pacheco steps on to lend Jones a hand, its this level of stunning visual design. Here's hoping Jones handles the page breakdowns for Pacheco's pencils.)
From there, Morrison whisks us rather brutally from one plot thread to another, leaving us with the impression that these tangential incidents are all aligning themselves towards one – pardon the saying – great big freaking disaster. As many have pointed out, it's one thing to say this story is about "the day the bad guys won." It's another thing entirely to successfully convince us the good guys have no chance. And with this issue, Morrison has accomplished just that.
As I wrote earlier, nobody can complain about the lack of plot progression in this issue. Everything from Barry Allen's bid to outrun death itself, to the Libra's frightening ability to get things done, to Mister Miracle and Sunny Sumo's story arch develop significantly. The heroes for the first time take a proactive stance against the oncoming threat, and there's a call to arms sequence where Morrison takes the time to zoom in on a number of personalities. As for the villains, they at last show themselves in horrific new forms.
I have no doubt that many of the same critics will look at this issue's breakneck pace, deeply layered structure and enormous cast and once again scream about inaccessibility. I'd implore those critics to give this issue, as well as the first and second issues, multiple reads. All of the major and minor players are introduced rather succinctly, and while the structure is deeply layered and complex, it is by no means impenetrable. For the most part, I'd say the only aspects of this story that reward readers for their longtime, careful DC patronage is the inclusion of Frankenstein and a shout out to Mister Miracle's journey in his Seven Soldiers of Victory miniseries. Other than that, Morrison and Jones have put it all on the page for us to dig through ourselves, and I'd implore you to do just that.
Final Crisis #3 was one of the finest superhero comics I've read in some time, and trumps most other attempts at ambitious big event comics you'll find from past or present. This is reality shaking, good vs. evil, heart-pounding storytelling at its finest. I wouldn't call the series close to perfect just yet, but it's an absolutely engrossing read that kept me glued to every page. I know I can't wait for issue #4, that's for sure.
Dan's Score: 9.5