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Final Crisis

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06:44 / 26.06.08

I'll give you a nickel Libra ISN'T Klarion.

Thought it was rather cute how dismissive Kraken was about Green Lantern's "local crimefighting club" and how it's a distraction from his real duty. IF Kraken's a lapsed New God, the Corps is just another crimefighting club.

07:04 / 26.06.08

So Luthor's going to be leading the resistance once Big Daddy D takes over isn't he? It's Mozzeljum writing mainstream Lex.

In a world where evil wins, he's our only hope. Him and Sivana's giant robots, with grudging Vandal Savage back-up.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

07:52 / 26.06.08

I'll just note that the (last minute?) switch to a black background made the Flash cover one of the slickest in the medium's young lifetime.

Anywho. Here's my review:

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=198

(SPOILER: I loved it!)

Also, the disintegration (at least on the Flash cover) of the trade dress has begun. Just compare the two portrait covers. You'll see.

12:44 / 26.06.08

Re: Martian Manhunter's fate . . .

Don't forget he showed up in Legion of Super-Heroes (the Five Years later series) as an older, but still wise and powerful, ally (and personal friend to Projectra). It was strongly hinted that R.J. Brande was actually J'Onn (and always had been, vis a vis Legion continuity -- such as it is/was).

Even more significantly, as far as Morrison goes, in DC One Million he had become part of Mars itself.

J'Onn ain't dead.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

13:26 / 26.06.08

I'm praying for a resurrection.

14:42 / 26.06.08

Loved how we see Batman immediately taken out, freaked out and screaming "Warn everyone!!!" before being silenced by creepy helmet full of syringes, strapped to some horrible-looking operation table. (especially when you remember the public complaint that Batman was too often the one who saved the day in Morrison's JLA)

And it was fun to read Superman acknowledging that his folk often come back to life "And pray for a resurrection". I did think that the funeral of MM at least deserved 2 pages as opposed to 1, but whatever.

Got a kick out of the 'monster hunting' specialty of Japan's heroes in the old codger's "kids today got no respect" rant.

You Know Who saying "Run!" was effective. It's what he does, after all - but this time, tinged with terror.

Bit of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe (which also eerily echoes Secret Invasion over at Marvel) when we realize that the Bad Guys here can infiltrate even the most kickass/hardcore of the Alpha Lanterns.

"*I* don't remember voting them in." Hh. Nice comedy bit there, Bats.

All in all, more effective than issue 1. Fun to see the alternate DC universes that the earthbound Monitor is sketching (plus, the Watchmen-verse)

14:57 / 26.06.08

by the way, is that supposed to be a Hal Jordan-imposter arm 'teleporting' out of the ether, or a cloaked/invisible Hal imposter...? It looks like that's what it's supposed to 'read' as, but I wasn't sure given the layout of the panel.

15:42 / 26.06.08

Looked to me like a figure in a hooded cloak, half in shadow. Unfortunately, the line of the shadow is similar to a GL uniform sleeve, which muddles the image a bit. But you can see the lines of the cloak in the lower center of that panel.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:47 / 26.06.08

I assumed it was a disguised Kraken, to be honest-- John's ring shut down much like Hal's did later, and as an Alpha Lantern she'd have to capability to give the order.

15:51 / 26.06.08

and why say 'kiss your eyes goodbye' when we only see spikes going through Stewart's arms and such, and no hint of gruesome off-panel 'injury to the eye-motif'...? Maybe it was metaphorical (meaning that they would now infect John Stewart's perception, making him all eeeevil, twisted and such...)?

15:53 / 26.06.08

Yeah, I thought Bats was s'posed to be all "Detective" when he spotted the Power Ring impression on Krakken's open palm & deduced John Stewart's powerful right hook. Trouble is, panel before Stewart actually punches pseudo-Jordan's hand, we don't see his ring on his right hand (tho it's there on the previous page). Fix that in the trade, I suppose.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

16:27 / 26.06.08

"I assumed it was a disguised Kraken, to be honest-- John's ring shut down much like Hal's did later, and as an Alpha Lantern she'd have to capability to give the order."

It did literally take me four reads to realize it was a hooded Lantern. It looked like a weird alien headless Lantern because of the shadows.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:34 / 26.06.08

Anyone found a torrent of this? I've got into downloading comics and all of a sudden I'm not seeing any torrents for any comics released this week.

17:20 / 26.06.08

The mouth-guard seems an odd choice. You know. In case he wanted to, say, utter the anti-life equation in someone's ear.

lunnlinssz + alanayshun + frr! + duspurr + suff-wuff
luv = lurzz, luff = duff, salf = DURK SED!

17:35 / 26.06.08

I got a bit thrown by the "No-one escapes the Alpha Lanterns" line for a bit, as I couldn't work out why she was suddenly wearing that gasmask. Look closely and her face is up on her head.. it's the mask and she's a Manhunter. Like that a lot, which might make it clear why she's resisting Granny: she's actually a machine.

18:07 / 26.06.08

well, the Alpha Lanterns are half-Manhunters, half-people, doncha know. Once they make the decision to become Alpha Lanterns they get lots of spooky surgery on them... (as seen in the pages of Johns' GREEN LANTERN series) Apparently, Morrison created the Alpha Lantern concept for Final Crisis about 1 year ago and Johns liked it so much that he fleshed it out further (no pun intended) and has been working them into his GL series starting with issue #27...

[It is interesting how first 1/3 (or even 1/2) of FC #2 is sort of a police procedural]

and yes, bullet sent backwards through time is indeed Vintage Morrison -- even with a weird parasite type thing inside it. (shades of the scorpion-like beast that the Alpha Lantern summons up a green energy construct of to 'Vulcan neck pinch' Batman) Maybe this will also be echoed by Metron's 'weapon'/gift to Anthro that echoes through time for the side of Good...

20:52 / 26.06.08

Benjamin, I shouldn't have to edit your posts to add a bloody hyperlink. You. know. better.

Naughty

23:12 / 26.06.08

What was the exact quote about the bullet being buried in the past? Embedded in the cement ~50 years ago?

Someone check the issue date on this, then.

23:28 / 26.06.08

September 1961

Three years out but John may have been rounding down. Or it might be a happy coincidence.

00:38 / 27.06.08

Doubtful. Morrison's too clever to not acknowledge the first time the universes bled.

01:10 / 27.06.08

well, Jay Garrick does say the strip club was the Community Center where he first met Barry, right...? (thus explaining the "Flash vibrations" some villain felt in DC UNIVERSE #0 at the strip club)

Anyone else think the cover of #2 (Flash cover) looks a bit like it was modeled after Michael Rosenbaum's face (Lex on Smallville and the v/o of the Wally West Flash on the Justice League cartoon by Bruce Timm)?

The name "Megayakuza" (and his subsequent heart-in-a-glass) ... terrific stuff.

And yeah, now I see that it's a figure wearing a green hooded cloak with white GL gloves that attacks Stewart -- but man, it really does look like a floating, disembodied Hal Jordan GL costume (old school Gil Kane version, with the green not extending to his shoulders) stepping out of invisibility or some wacked-out portal. Sort of like that famous visual trick where it's either a young maiden or an old crone's face depending on how you set your brain.

Batman's costume clearly has a different number of Bat-fins on his chest emblem earlier in the issue and a few less when he's screaming to warn the Justice League (almost like the Batman Beyond chest symbol), but I'm sure this is not a story point and just a 'we gotta get this art fast, we're already falling behind and giving some art to Carlos Pacheco' sort of thing; maybe a ghost inker is responsible or something like that.

oh, and the Boom Tube says "COMMAND D," which was writer Karl Kesel's clever way of rephrasing "Kamandi" when he made it a bunker in his SUPERBOY run. Also, the blonde guy behind bars ("Mister! Mister, they're making slaves!") in that scene rather looks like the real Kamadni, doesn't he...?

02:09 / 27.06.08

That's not a Boom Tube, that's the tunnel connecting the Command D bunker to the outside world.

(And Kesel didn't invent the "Kamandi/Command D" connection... Kirby did)

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

02:20 / 27.06.08

Command D was the bunker where they found Kamandi as a wee bebe, right? They named him after it? Until the Crisis, anyway, when he rewritten as Tommy Tomorrow of all people...

03:03 / 27.06.08

Basically. It was the bunker he was raised in by his grandfather. It was mentioned on page 1 of Kamandi #1, but Jack didn't spend a lot of time in backstory.

04:52 / 27.06.08

thing inside the bullet - Chronovore, maybe?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:38 / 27.06.08

That really was fun stuff. So presumably Darkseid takes out the JLA and Shilo creates a new team to defeat him, was Shilo a JLA member like Scott was, back in the day? Oh, and do we know whether Scott Free made it out or whether he is really genuinely dead for the moment?

So, Shilo = Batman, tactics.
Sonny= Superman, powerhouse?
They'll presumably have three Flashes, so maybe Didio will get his wish and Wally takes the dirt nap.

08:45 / 27.06.08

"Oh, and do we know whether Scott Free made it out or whether he is really genuinely dead for the moment?"

He's dead....kind of.

By the time we got to the end of Countdown and Death Of The New Gods, all of them were dead, with the exception of Orion, who had just killed Darkseid, and wandered off into Metropolis with apparently mortal injuries. Scott died "onscreen" in one of the closing issues of DOTNG.

...now, clearly enough a number of the 'bad' New Gods are still living in some form or another, within their human avatars.

My theory on this is as follows:

We've been hearing about this War In Heaven that was won by the Dark Side (cue Imperial March), and always assumed that Heaven was New Genesis/Apokolips. I now suspect that Heaven was 'wherever the New Gods went after being killed' - a plane of reality even higher than New Genesis/Apokolips. The battle continued there, and Darkseid won; following his victory with a fall backwards through time until he intersects with our reality in the Dark Side club.

I think that the souls of ALL the New Gods are intact, either within their human avatars or still up in Heaven. The only one who is genuinely dead is Orion.

(Sorry, I know it's a bit fanwanky, but it works)

09:11 / 27.06.08

I'm subediting a feature on non-life insurance risk management. Whenever the author goes on about "non-life" I keep thinking about Darkseid's anti-life equation... The feature is so horrifically boring to wade through, that I think he may have actually discovered the equation and is transmitting it to me through the medium of financial journalism.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

09:39 / 27.06.08

If Orion ripped out Darkseid's heart that might explain something of what happened here, he incarnated as a mortal to survive and rebuild his power base, presumably turning Earth into the new Apokolips will give him the power boost to return to his normal appearance and whatnot.

09:43 / 27.06.08

>>> and why say 'kiss your eyes goodbye' when we only see spikes going through Stewart's arms and such, and no hint of gruesome off-panel 'injury to the eye-motif'...? Maybe it was metaphorical (meaning that they would now infect John Stewart's perception, making him all eeeevil, twisted and such...)? <<<

I think it is literal. The first thing I would take out in a Green Lantern would be his/her eyes. The ring is a direction-based weapon. If they can't see you, they can't punch you with a giant boxing glove.

10:57 / 27.06.08

The first thing I would take out in a Green Lantern would be his/her eyes.

Of course, of course. Unless it was the F-Sharp Bell, in which case a clout to the ears should suffice.

It is awesome that you have pondered this, Gary.

11:34 / 27.06.08

Wouldn't the injured hero just Lantern-up a pair of new eyes, though? New eyes. That shoot lasers.

11:52 / 27.06.08

I'm amazed that DC are actually paying GM (not just in terms of writing fees - consider the marketing budget!) to put its main properties through all this weird, harrowing material. A fair amount of the new issue wouldn't have seemed out of place if it had shown up in 'The Filth'.

Artistically, it could turn out to be a triumph, it's too early to say, but financially, what are DC thinking of? All this pent-up rage that must have accumulated during '52' seems to be boiling over now, in grand style.

Needless to add, I thought it was great.

13:13 / 27.06.08

>> thing inside the bullet - Chronovore, maybe?

Good call - it does look like that, doesn't it?

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:23 / 27.06.08

(Sorry, Boboss. You're right.)

Anyways, the detritusizing of the cover dress also goes for the sliver cover. I checked yesterday.

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