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Final Crisis

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12:58 / 18.01.09

Actually, that Omega Bat panel. I love the watercolours(?) coalescing into Kirby Krackle behind Batman. I could stare at that for hours.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

05:44 / 19.01.09

The annotations blog made a connection between the Marvel Family smacking each other around with buses and such, and the Miracleman arc with Kid Miracleman destroying London and fighting his mentor. Huh. Morrison's possibly getting a little subtler with his random Moore homage.

12:56 / 19.01.09

We'll have some annocommentations up tonight

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

00:35 / 22.01.09

Superman Beyond #2

I know he's used tricks he used before, but...

WOW did the 3D work. Amazingly dense and beautiful... it establishes ASS as the Batman RIP to Final Crisis.

Amazing. Seriously amazing.

And chunks of it (it felt so dense!) read like a love letter to the works of Alan Moore. Seriously, if I was the kind of guy who kept reading in Morrison vs. Moore hate into everything (if I wrote for Newsarama, in other words), I'd be stunned by this book.

While the execution of FC overall leaves a bit to be desired, the whole of the project has given me new heroes to believe in.

02:48 / 22.01.09

yeah. SB was just jawdropping. it's like ASS condensed into 2 issues and taken to another level of crazy platonic hyperreality.

mahnke is a god here, for certain. I'm more convinced than ever that he had the chops to have done FC from the start, and probably better. the monitor world is breathtaking, mandrakk is utterly horrifying ( especially in 3D) and it all feels both more grounded in the dc universe, visually, and more transcendant at the same time.

the whole thing is just... it's just superman. it's what superman is at the highest level.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:18 / 22.01.09

First off, I enjoyed the second chapter. I really enjoyed the purple prose narration -- the cosmic equivalent of the narration from FRANKENSTEIN!, just wonderfully over the top. And Billy, Billy Marvel stole the show for me. Every page he was on, bam, that's where I was. Clark's dialogue was all spot on and very, yes, All-Star -- "Sure. I've heard it all before, tough guy."

yeah. SB was just jawdropping. it's like ASS condensed into 2 issues and taken to another level of crazy platonic hyperreality.

Really? It felt to me more like an essay written about A*S than a condensation. It's more broadly and upfront with its metafiction, right down to that last page. While I enjoyed BEYOND, I wasn't blown away by it.

mahnke is a god here, for certain. I'm more convinced than ever that he had the chops to have done FC from the start, and probably better. the monitor world is breathtaking, mandrakk is utterly horrifying ( especially in 3D) and it all feels both more grounded in the dc universe, visually, and more transcendant at the same time.

Mahnke is great, I love Mahnke. I would have dug an all-Mahnke FC for sure, definitely, and I think he really owns this tie-in. He manages to give Captain Marvel an appropriately divine entrance (flashing lightning and clouds!), he's not afraid to be funny (Limbo dude in the armour, smacking evil with a fish skeleton).

And Mandrakk, along with Monitor-World, did look great. Very, very horrible and god-like at the same time.

I quite like the sequence talking about symmetries rather than dualities, I liked the inclusion and reference to the other Supermen's problems back home (Allen needs to get home, and Billy's world has gone topsy-turvy in time without a fragment of Rock of Eternity).

Now, does Mandrakk make it into Final Crisis 7, or is this a seed for something in the longer-run? Because he sort of throws Ultraman-as-Vampire out there and it seems a bit last minute for Mandrakk to be the final and ultimate conflict of the event. He's a "You haven't seen the last of me!" opponent for later, I'd wager, and this tie-in was an aside in the greater conflict.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

18:37 / 22.01.09

Superman Beyond, for some reason feels a lot like ASS' version of Batman: Last Rites. Not in bad or repetitive way, but in the way that Batman RIP and ASS were both lead ins to Final Crisis and their respective characters facing their personal apocalypses and becoming refined, ideas made, ideal.

Yeah, RIP is continuity and ASS is Hypertime/the story that Zillo Vella found/the past forged by DC 1 Million, but it still feels like Superman's bookend to RIP going into FC.

Maybe that's me. And the return of Mandrakk stuff smelled of Blackest Night plot seeding.

Superman can, Batman does and Evil Winning is always an illusion in this world or in the DCU because we have these stories.

(Final Crisis/RIP/SB makes me want to repeat stuff from Gmozz's X-men run for better or worse. The bits about absolute defeat and darkness just being the Phoenix refining you.)

Aha! I am Klarion

05:08 / 26.01.09

rather nice article about beyond

Link

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:19 / 26.01.09

I don't mean to alarm anyone, but Seven's preview is up. I. I mean, holy shit, on the strength of that -- my doubts dissolved. I'm dead broke but I'm still buying this.

It does, and I'm sure you'll laugh at me, make me wonder if Morrison reads Sinfest.

20:36 / 26.01.09

If that's how the book starts, that's pretty daring. And timely. Can it really be out this week?

01:23 / 27.01.09

It is - hyper-compressed releases!

I've been picking up stuff that I missed, thought Requiem was very nice, and I'm starting to enjoy the story more with each read.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

07:05 / 27.01.09

Time is out of whack, after all. Scheduling drama = Darkseid's fall deforming normal space-time into unnatural shapes.

For the record, the Sinfest strip I'm referring to is this one, which popped into my head the second I read the first page of the preview.

Meanwhile: Vathlo being the weird Silver Age (or maybe Bronze Age, by that point) island on Krypton, the one that contained all the African-Kryptonians. Same people, presumably, were behind Tyroc, one assumes. And bonus points from invoking Nubia, darling Nubia.

07:27 / 27.01.09

Jesus, talk about compression...Vathlo-born Sunshine Super-Obama. How many times am I going to have to read this thing before I get all the connections?

Not that I'm complaining. I'm just very impressed that Morrison's apparently going to smush an 80-Page Giant!!! into 48 pages without sacrificing any informational content.

13:06 / 27.01.09

Mahnkenstein!

(I am ridiculously, and slightly unjustifiably, delighted with that portmanteau, like a little child)

16:51 / 27.01.09

That new Question outfit is quite nice. And is that the Sentry wearing a mask?

*So* looking forward to this.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

18:33 / 28.01.09

Wow, that was Dense.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:37 / 28.01.09

Channel-zapping, all right. A shining hypercomic. I think there was, what, two crises in there at the same time? Maybe more? Renee Montoya owns as usual, and Frankenstein! Ooh!

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

20:27 / 28.01.09

Really a lovely finish.

20:59 / 28.01.09

must re-read.

Seems like a crystallization of the "tell" comic style of writing which had been a source for disappointment in previous Morrison works.

"How I met Frankenstein" HA.

lots of other stuff.

must re-read.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:16 / 28.01.09

I happened to read this in conjunction with the whole-kaboodle of DC One Million, having downloaded it last night -- and coming down off my epic Twin Peaks binge, so I'm all weird-spaced at the moment.

It continues off of BEYOND, honestly, a love letter to Superman. The dark side, heh, of All-Star. Because it's important to save the world from every possible angle. Love, yes, love that opening, President Superman! He's the president and nobody knows he's Superman!

In the distance, yes, is that: Omega-Man the Unknown-Superman.

"When we're done, it's time for bed, children. But first let me tell you how I was introduced to Frankenstein." Please tell me Franky's going to get his own comic before I die. Please.

Diana's freedom. Diana binding all-who-are-Darkseid.

Superman needs to learn to stop monologuing long enough to rest his voice.

And of course, that last page. I like that they didn't beat around the bush about it.

21:32 / 28.01.09

Grant Morrison Final Crisis Exit Interview part 1

DC EIC Dan Didio talks Final Crisis (video)

21:54 / 28.01.09

I'm doing a reread over the weekend and composing my thoughts, but after 2 readings of issue 7 my first impression is that Final Crisis as a whole didn't work--big, messy mess. I know I've been championing this series for the past few months, but I was actually saddened by how this all turned out, and feel terrible that it ended in this manner.

22:26 / 28.01.09

I happened to read this in conjunction with the whole-kaboodle of DC One Million, having downloaded it last night --

Speaking of which, I was a bit surprised not to see Kal Kent and his Superman Squad amongst the supermen of the multiverse.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

22:50 / 28.01.09

I was really surprised to see Kal Kent, Sunshine Superman, ect left out of the final Ultimate Superman Team-up.

That said, the Superman/Lex thing was Priceless.

And that last page was a gut punch, but a gut punch as glorious as the "To Be Continued..." headstone from SB3D.

04:22 / 29.01.09

Sunshine Superman's there! Below and to the left of Captain Marvel in the big group shot.

18:48 / 29.01.09

jeez...

I might need someone to help me break down some of the plot points on this one.

specifically, what's the deal with this dead earth 51? and is this where checkmate tunneled to? is this the kirby world of kamandi and omac and all that?

also, why were they shrinking everyone down into little trays? and this had something to do with superman (presumably) rebooting the universe with the homemade miracle machine? looks like hawkman and a few other people died before hand, and now they're back ( ? )

I can't say I've ever been lost in a GM comic before, but this was really pushing the envelope.

however... FRANNN-KENNN-STEIINNN!!!!!!

I am happy now.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:21 / 29.01.09

I might need someone to help me break down some of the plot points on this one.

I think this might be one of the flaws of the "channel-zapping" approach -- it oddly requires way more rereading than I think is absolutely neccessary. And this is coming from someone who's all over the multiple readings.

specifically, what's the deal with this dead earth 51? and is this where checkmate tunneled to? is this the kirby world of kamandi and omac and all that?

I believe so -- it was previously eradicated, but Nix is shown putting it back together using a design based on an old Kirby map from KAMANDI (please, for the love of god -- omnibus!) he's shown holding. So the Global Peace Agency stuff and the Command-D crew with Tawky Tawny's new group all end up there, which is apparently where the newly reborn Gods of New Genesis (shown in passing right at the end) will be as well; it's implied by the text and he explained it in an interview after the fact. I didn't necessarily get that the New Gods were going there from the comic itself, but...

also, why were they shrinking everyone down into little trays? and this had something to do with superman (presumably) rebooting the universe with the homemade miracle machine? looks like hawkman and a few other people died before hand, and now they're back ( ? )

I'm assuming the shrink-and-store strategy was designed to keep people comfortable and safe prior to Superman using the Miracle Machine and restarting time -- he wished for a happy ending, but they probably wanted to ensure they had a back-up plan if it failed, and it kept civilians out of the way during the Crisis.

however... FRANNN-KENNN-STEIINNN!!!!!!

I really, really, really wish he wasn't going to languish in obscurity after this, but I kept help but expect he's going to.

22:31 / 29.01.09

Thought this might be worth noting - Morrison's intended reading order for Final Crisis, from the Newsarama interview -

FINAL CRISIS # 1- 3
SUPERMAN BEYOND # 1- 2
SUBMIT
FINAL CRISIS # 4 – 5
BATMAN #682 – 683
FINAL CRISIS # 6 – 7

05:42 / 30.01.09

I loved this, just loved it. With Scott Pilgrim due next month, I am worried 08 comics will have peaked way too soon. I am totally down with the idea that superhero comics should pretty much jettison plot and focus on having awesome shit happen - I mean, when was the last time you read one and thought, "Man, that plot was great!" This was almost like some David Lynch type thing where I had no idea what was happening half the time, but didn't care, cause it had atmosphere and attitude and wasn't afraid to go for deep emo schmaltz at the right moment. Felt so sad for the monitor dude, whatever his name was, giving up eternal life and his one true love when he knew how shitty his life would be, going back to flipping burgers on boring-old earth.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:19 / 30.01.09

Nah, assuming people don't forget entirely about Nix being a viable character, he'll hopefully retain some of his Metron-enhancement and the world won't look so very, very bleak.

Good reading of this as a Lynch Event Comic, Jackie.

00:00 / 31.01.09

I was really surprised to see Kal Kent, Sunshine Superman, ect left out of the final Ultimate Superman Team-up.

Sunshine Superman was there. Southwest of Captain Marvel. My bet is "Let the Sun shine in" was his line.

Rachel Evil McCall

03:53 / 31.01.09

So, what's up with Combover Superman, and why does he look like Greg Feely?

20:56 / 31.01.09

It would be cosmically cool if DC Direct would produce a Frankenstein statue, designed and sculpted by Mahnke. This would make me exceedingly happy, in the gayest sense of the word.

gotham island fae

17:09 / 01.02.09

The combover Supes looked to me like Hitler without the 'stache...

I finished my first reading of #7 and said, "Wow. People are going to hate this..." I, myself, was unimpressed at first. After re-reading everything in "proper" order however, I had a much better feeling about the whole thing.

The saddest thing to me is the utter reliance upon reading Superman Beyond 3D to get the full picture (such as it is in Morrison's "channel flipping" story-telling mode).

Well, that and the absence of the Forever People presented in the Sketchbook...

Wait, and the complete lack of a logical placement for Rucka's Resist within the main Final Crisis narrative...

Oh, and the inclusion of Rage of the Red Lanterns as a Final Crisis tie-in when it has absolutely naught to do with it...

And waiting for 3/5 of Legion of Three Worlds til after the whole thing's done...

And... sigh.

BUT, even with all those gripes, I can say I'm happy to own it all. I certainly don't have the mouthful of bitter ashes that I experience every time I look at the pile of Countdown books and tie-ins I spent money on.

18:30 / 01.02.09

This is the first time I've bought an event thing like this and I've been pretty pleased overall.

Really liked the fan boy excitement of each new issue coming out and the way it has infected into different lines which has got me into reading other comics again.

I also loved the swarm of blokes surrounding the counter in my local comic shop the day the last Batman RIP came out.

Speaking of which I didn't really think that worked in fitting in with Final Crisis. The two worlds didn't seem to mix. For me the two stories didn't really gel together. Thoughts?

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