I suppose for the one-hundred and fiftieth post I was always going to be reviewing… this. When I did Crisis on Infinite Earths nearly two years ago for the fiftieth post, I knew that Infinite Crisis would be 100 and Final Crisis would be 150, with Zero Hour and Identity Crisis occupying the midpoints. And to be honest, although it’s not exactly a surprise, Final Crisis really doesn’t compare to those four stories. It’s without a doubt Morrison’s most controversial work, but most certainly the one that he put the most effort and time into. Whether or not this is your conventional DC “crisis” is very debatable. With the exception of Identity Crisis, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, and Infinite Crisis are all multiverse disasters that began all that time ago in The Flash of Two Worlds (The Flash 123, 1961). Final Crisis certainly has aspects of that kind, but not so much in the main plot. If you’re a big fan of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World (unlike me), then Final Crisis is right up your street as its basically Darkseid vs Earth. Or, if you’re like me and you’re here for Batman, then this story is important in Morrison’s run… sort of. Either way, Final Crisis is probably the most important DC story of the 21st Century, next to Infinite Crisis and Flashpoint of course. Hey, they’re both good. Maybe, with the luxury of hindsight and time, Final Crisis might actually be good… or perhaps readable…
Final Crisis 1-7 was published from July 2008 to March 2009. It was written entirely by Grant Morrison with several artists, such as J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino,
Marco Rudy, Lee Garbett, Trevor Scott, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen, Drew Geraci, Norm Rapmund, Rodney Ramos, and Walden Wong. Also, just to make this tolerable, I’ll be including Batman 682-683 in this as well. It’s because it takes place in the middle of Final Crisis and it’s important to the Morrison’s Batman run. That was also written by Morrison with art by Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott. I’ve read Final Crisis in its hardcover book and the Batman two-parter in the Batman RIP trade paperback. Now, without further ado, let’s get on with this…
FINAL CRISIS 1-5
Keeping in-fashion with every other Grant Morrison story ever published, Final Crisis begins with a moment that doesn't fit in or make much sense until much later in the story. We’re thrown back to the days of cavemen as Anthro, the first human on Earth, is met by the intergalactic Kirby being known as Metron. After the alien gives the human hidden knowledge, Anthro heads back to the gruesome neanderthal hunters with a new weapon: fire. And with that, we go back to the present! Stick around and you might find the relevance in that scene, or you can just skip to the end and find it to be pointless. Either way, Dan Turpin, an ally of Superman, wanders around the dockyards of Metropolis in the modern day only to find another Fourth World god. It’s Orion, but he’s dead, killed by a mysterious black figure. To investigate the killing of a god, the Green Lantern Corps unite as John Stewart heads to the scene with Hal Jordan. Upon finding the god’s dead body, they decide that a much higher power needs to be involved, that being the Alpha Lantern Corps. These guys are effectively the secret service of Oa and no doubt characters that Morrison has used in his recent Green Lantern run. Meanwhile, Turpin meets a more urban hero for help, that being the Question. Funnily enough, The Question: Five Books of Blood is actually mentioned several times throughout the story as Montoya’s exploits during that miniseries have made her a target for a higher power. Either way, she tells Turpin that a mysterious group known as the Dark Side Club is up to no good kidnapping superhumans. So far, with Morrison’s fame as a writer allowing him to kill a godly character, he sets up a good old-fashioned mystery that reminds me of his Batman run, and it gets better from there. The next scene (after a load of villains fight for Metron’s chair which is for some reason in a skip pile) is definitely one of the most twisted and dark. The Secret Society of Supervillains, with their leader Lex Luthor, meet a new masked villain named Libra. He instantly rises in the ranks of supervillains when he promises them whatever they want after wheeling in Martian Manhunter and the Human Flame, his arch-nemesis, burns him to death. Yep, Martian Manhunter is dead. From there, Turpin investigates the Dark Side Club only to find its owner, Boss Dark Side (oh, I wonder who that may be), has kidnapped super-human children and possessed them with the anti-life equation. The first part sets up Final Crisis brilliantly. It’s a great mystery story and one that, by killing Martian Manhunter and Orion, makes it into a memorable major adventure. The stakes are high like in other Crisis stories and while the real villain behind everything may be all-too clear and ridiculously so, it’s a complex but fun story. Sure, there are moments that don’t add up like a Monitor being placed into exile for a random Earth that died on his watch and Morrison writes about the characters in that scene like we should know them, but that’s Morrison. Besides, the Monitor is only really present to show that this still is a Crisis story.
With the start of the second part, you get this rather dreary and unentertaining scene with Mister Miracle, who is no longer Scott Free but someone else entirely, recruiting some sumo hero for some reason. Meanwhile, that Monitor is now on Earth serving fries to people in a fast-food restaurant, ranting about his past and eventually being fired for freaking people out. Okay, where does this fit in? Just as the second part starts, it’s already beginning to fall apart. Back with Turpin, he’s gone slightly nuts over Boss Dark Side’s plans and he heads to Bludhaven, now a molten mass of radioactive rubble after Chemo was dropped on the city (Infinite Crisis). We now meet the big three, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. There’s no time to mourn the death of Martian Manhunter as they begin the autopsy of Orion, which ends quickly as Alpha Lantern Kraken arrives and, in a usual authoritarian style, takes the whole investigation over and doesn’t listen to Batman’s diagnosis that Orion was shot. However, everything takes a further turn for the worse as when Batman is alone with Kraken, she reveals herself as a villain and kidnaps the Dark Knight for Granny Goodness. And with that, the story diverges into two routes, one interesting and important to Morrison’s enjoyable Batman run, and the other, well, this story (sigh). Turpin arrives in Bludhaven to find Darkseid’s Evil Factory, where the god is keeping thousands captive (including Kamandi somehow) as Batman is plunged into the machine and mentally tortured. It’s never clear why Batman is so important for Darkseid and the Evil Factory. It might be for his knowledge of the Justice League. It can’t be anything else because he won’t be much else use for Darkseid. Batman, for all his intelligence and skill, is just a human. Anyway, at the same time, a bomb destroys much of the Daily Planet building as many, including Lois Lane, are almost killed. Elsewhere, we are introduced to those characters who never fail to turn up in a Crisis. The Flash effectively begun the Multiverse and this time, we have Wally West and Jay Garrick out there searching for a specific point in Central City that caused some seismic disruption during the same moment that Martian Manhunter was killed. I don’t know how that makes sense, but either way it makes for a nice cliff-hanger a portal opens and its none other than Barry Allen, not dead after two decades as he is chased by a magical bullet and the Black Racer. No, he longer has skis… sadly.
After the news breaks out, the Dark Side Club is raided by SHADE operatives with the aid of Frankenstein’s Monster and the team confront the Question. For those unaware, including myself since I haven’t read it, SHADE and the Monster play a big part in Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory series. Although I like the original team, it’s not one of his most interesting runs since all the characters are very different from before. Anyway, SHADE end up capturing her when she tries to help an injured Overgirl, who has just appeared somehow from the Multiverse and crashed down to Earth, but nobody seems too bothered by it. Much of the interesting part of this story is taken up with the Flashes, who struggle to come to terms with Barry’s survival and they explain to the West family that the bullet chasing them in the Speed Force dug itself in Orion, causing his death. Essentially, it’s a time travelling bullet. Forget the Speed Force, that just makes everything complicated. Meanwhile, Libra, at the Legion of Super Villain’s not-so secret base, gives the Human Flame a helmet as a reward for
killing Martian Manhunter. Just as Lex Luthor arrives, the helmet’s true purpose is revealed as the Human Flame is enslaved to the anti-life equation. Libra tells Luthor than in less than 24 hours, choice will be removed from the human consciousness. He offers Luthor to join him or die. There are many problems with this whole scene that contribute to why Final Crisis just isn’t very good. For starters, the anti-life equation, as a concept, has always been very vague. It has always been Darkseid’s ultimate goal, but what does it actually mean? I always thought it was a simple device for just obliterating all life, but now it exists to just remove freedom so Darkseid can use humanity as a mindless army. That just doesn’t seem right to me. Also, why bother waiting 24 hours. What does Darkseid have to gain from that? If he was serious then he would surely just unleash the anti-life equation instantly. It would have made for a better story too. Regardless, all the heroes meanwhile unite not to fight Darkseid, but to basically clear Hal Jordan’s name as the Alpha Lanterns have arrested him. Wonder Woman decides it’s time to investigate the Evil Factory in Bludhaven because let’s face it, with a name like the Evil Factory, something is definitely up. Aside from a nice meeting with the Atomic Knights, much of their time is taken up with fighting an anti-life-controlled Mary Marvel. The end result is Wonder Woman herself is converted to the anti-life equation while concurrently, Oracle finds that Darkseid is using the internet to inject it into everybody. With that, the story’s mystery ends, and the anti-life invasion begins.
Between issues 3 and 4, there’s a pretty dreadful and non-sensical two issue miniseries which basically sends Superman on a mental adventure to wake Lois up from her coma. It involves Superman somehow turning into a robot and some other stuff which isn’t worth going into. It’s just another example of Morrison confusing a story for the sake of it. All you need to know is that she wakes up and that’s it. While the anti-life equation is unleashed upon the people of Earth and Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the other heroes escape onto the JLA Satellite away from the infected, all structure has collapsed. To be honest, this is the rest of Final Crisis. Sure, there are some nice character moments that are somewhat emotional or at least interesting. Green Arrow stays behind on the Satellite as Black Canary teleports away, but he is quickly converted to Darkseid’s cause as well. Apart from that, the Flashes spend their time trying to take out Wonder Woman, who is now aided by the Female Furies. And (continued)
oh yeah, Turpin has been placed in another kind of machine which is transforming into Darkseid. Why? I don’t know the details of what happened to Darkseid’s original body, but why Turpin? He’s got thousands of prisoners he could use, including some muscular kid from the future also created by Jack Kirby. The problem with the story is that, when you think about its plot, it’s not really that confusing. It’s just an invasion. The problem is that Morrison places so much exposition in his script and there are so many moments of little consequence, or scenes that only exist to exude some kind of mumbo-jumbo that it creates a mess of a story. But, even without those factors, the story isn’t much to write home about. I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I...
The trial of Green Lantern, one of DC’s most powerful heroes, commences as Kraken has arrested him for being controlled by the enemy. However, the scene lasts only about six pages as Hal Jordan breaks free after an army of Green Lanterns arrive to aid him and Kraken is revealed to the Guardians of Oa to be the real villain all along. This is the last we really see of Kraken and while it’s a surprise when she is revealed to be Darkseid’s minion, Morrison doesn’t do very much with her. Sure, she kidnaps Batman, but that’s it. There’s no underlying scheme to take down the Guardians of anything. Regardless, back on Earth, the Question has been recruited by SHADE for some shady purpose while Turpin has now fully converted into Darkseid. Other than that, the battle that started earlier continues and the membership of the Female Furies grows Batwoman and… possibly Catwoman. It’s hard to tell. In fact, that’s another reason why Final Crisis just can’t stand tall with Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis. Where are the crowd scenes? In those previous two stories, there were loads of heroes turning up all over place, but here it often feels like the same group of characters appearing every once in a while. Sure, there is a huge fight in this issue with some heroes going against Kalibak and the Female Furies, but somehow the characters lack the same charm and identifiability that they used to have. Just maybe, unlike the previous two Crisis, this feels far more laboured as opposed to being crafted with enthusiasm and love. Either way, there’s an obligatory big duel while Metron has somehow ended up in a prison cell after the anti-life equation fails to affect him. He then uses a Mother Box, disguised as a Rubik’s cube, to break out. What relevance does this scene have to anything? Nothing really. Just another example of Morrison confusing things for the sake of it. Meanwhile, remember Lex Luthor? Yeah, he’s just hanging about Libra for the sake of it really. Although he wasn’t the main villain in Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis, the writers still managed to make Luthor threatening. There’s no effort to try anything similar here. Anyway, while the Green Lanterns are in space doing some weird space stuff that doesn’t make sense, the new Darkseid reveals himself to a praising and enslaved public, while some Monitor does something for a cliff-hanger. For all this time, Batman has been unconscious in Darkseid’s Evil Factory, and I’d love to join him. In fact, let’s do that because it makes for a better story…
INTERLUDE – The Butler Did It/What the Butler Saw
Now, time for a break from this madness! Throughout Final Crisis, there are several tie-ins and crossover issues that connect to the main event. Some are readable, and some just aren’t. I’ve decided to not include Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 1-2 and
Final Crisis: Submit basically for my own sanity, and for the fact that they add nothing to the story. Batman 682-683, on the other hand, do. It bridges the gap for Batman between Final Crisis 5 and 6 and makes for one of the most bizarre interludes I’ve ever read. With Batman RIP firmly over, you’d think the insanity of the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh would vanish for good, but there’s still more in those mystical pages of the Black Casebook. It begins soberly in Wayne Manor, with Alfred tendering his resignation in the aftermath of that famous scene in Year One when a bat crashes through the window. This time, something is different. Alfred reviews Batman’s career in front of him and as we re-witness the crucial and often traumatising events that led Batman from the death of his parents to the Case of the Chemical Syndicate, and finally to his confrontation with Doctor Simon Hurt. Alfred’s sarcasm is always apparent in the Batman titles, but this time he acts almost as the storyteller as the end of the first part reveals that he is a mental depiction of the Lump, a telepathic creature hooked up to Darkseid’s Evil Factory machine that absorbs the memories from Batman’s past, with the help of Darkseid’s evil friends. The events that are recalled are great for Batman fans, especially since Morrison notes and mentions moments from stories from decades ago as it acts as an insight into Batman’s bizarre and dark career. The second part is linked to Morrison’s run much more as his relationship with Talia Al Ghul takes centre stage as Morrison teases us about Batman’s future, and how the heir of Al Ghul will one day wear that famous cowl. Meanwhile, as Bruce takes a tour of the dark moments of his career from A Death in The Family, to Knightfall, to No Man’s Land, to Hush, and to Under the Hood, his physical body attempts to break free from Darkseid’s contraption. But like Simon Hurt, Darkseid learns that Batman can never be beaten. Using his powers of deduction, the Dark Knight works out that Alfred is simply a disguise for the Lump as it steals Batman’s memories for… purposes that aren’t yet clear. Anyway, Batman uses his willpower, and his strength becomes too much for the Lump, which escapes before disintegrating. The Caped Crusader is free! This two-parter is only relevant if you are a reader of Morrison’s run and if you are aware of the Batman mythos. Morrison plants references and other little treats for fans and delivers a story that, while often pretentious, is a fun ride that distracts us from the real useless lump, Final Crisis.
Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott, while being less distinctive than artists like Andy Kubert and less polished than Tony Daniel, deliver a bombastic story here with art that manages to stay timely to the eras that Morrison depicts. For instance, the bright colours and happy faces of the 1950s are reconstructed well here, while the gritty 1990s are done just as well. It may often more represent a type of art that I’m not too fond of due to its lack of uniquity, but overall, they do a good job, especially due to Morrison’s ambitious stories.
Story: 9/10
Art: 7.5/10
FINAL CRISIS 6-7
Welcome back! Back to the 31st Century where Superman is casually chatting to Brainiac-5 as if he’s just come from one-thousand years in the past to visit him. No, there never really is any explanation for how Superman gets to the future. He does because he’s Superman. There we go. Anyway, Brainiac-5, aware of the crisis as a distant event from the past, presents the Man of Steel with… the Miracle Machine! It’s basically a more power Green Lantern ring as it uses willpower. Suddenly, Superman begins to vanish due to the crisis, but fear not, just looking at the Miracle Machine basically gives him its power. Sure, let’s just go with that. Meanwhile, or rather 1,000 years back, Supergirl is fighting Mary Marvel in Bludhaven’s ruins while the help of Tawny Tiger, a friend of the Marvel Family. Nice to see Morrison still using silly and entertaining characters in grim and unentertaining stories. In the end, Captain Marvel himself screams Shazam as he grabs Mary and the two transform into child-selves. The crisis, at least that part of it, is over. Meanwhile, some other weird and confusing stuff is going on as Mister Terrific discovers that the best way to combat the anti-life equation is to paint its symbol on your own head, but in reverse, while the Question meets SHADE’s new Brother Eye, which has got the brain of Maxwell Lord. Yeah, good to see the brain of the man who murdered Blue Beetle being put to good use. Nearby, Luthor learns that Libra is simply Darkseid’s minion, and he tries to kill him, but he escapes. Apart from the true return of Barry Allen in the real world, the only other interesting moment of Final Crisis 6 has to be its ending. This is undoubtedly one of the best moments from Final Crisis as Batman, now free obviously, confronts Darkseid. The villain fully admits to killing Orion as the two faced one another in a final battle, with the latter obviously dying. Then, in a turn of events, Batman breaks his own rule on guns and uses one, with the time-travelling bullet used to kill Orion, to shoot Darkseid. He critically injures the god, but Darkseid’s Omega Ray is too quick for the Dark Knight. Moments later, Superman descends from the heavens and tears apart Darkseid’s Evil Factory. Why didn’t he so this earlier? Beats me. Either way, Final Crisis 6 ends with Superman standing in the rubble as the molten corpse of the Dark Knight rests in his arms...
With such a brilliant cliff-hanger ending and one that feels genuine, Final Crisis begins to feel more like your classic crisis story. Captain Marvel travels across the Multiverse to assemble a team of Supermen to take out Darkseid. The Question tags along, but really why? That’s just one faceless human and about thirty unkillable aliens. Regardless, as the world mourns Batman and a rocket is sent up into space to commemorate his work, Superman holds his corpse and confronts Darkseid. The Man of Steel recognises quickly that Darkseid has stolen Turpin’s body and even the villain himself gives a lame excuse for using him instead of Batman. Regardless, Darkseid just summons his army to take out Superman, but thanks to the Flashes and their speeding bullet, the god is injured again. From there, the reams of exposition become too much, and one can only pass out in utter boredom. To summarise, using an assembled gang of Supermen from across the Multiverse, along with Superman singing into the Miracle Machine, Darkseid is defeated, Dan Turpin is purified, and the crisis comes to a screaming halt. That saved us all a lot of rubbish. Because of Morrison’s love of making everything as complex as possible, you just have to read Final Crisis and work out the bits that really aren’t important. Obviously, you shouldn’t have to do that, and it certainly doesn’t make Final Crisis a classic. However, to conclude the story, we go back to the beginning. Anthro, alone in his old age in the prehistoric era, finally throws the towel in. As Earth’s first human passes, another takes his place and carves a bat onto a cave wall. The Dark Knight isn’t dead. He lives, and that is where Morrison’s Batman run takes us next. If you’re reading Final Crisis purely because you want the full Morrisonian Dark Knight experience, then you’ll naturally be annoyed. Sure, stories like Batman RIP may be just as complex as Final Crisis, but at least they made sense. Batman doesn’t feature very much at all, and it doesn’t continue as the great mystery story that it began as. Final Crisis’s start is undeniably strong as the death of Orion makes for an excellent mystery. The same applies to the death of Martian Manhunter. I can safely say that the first issue is very enjoyable. The more it goes on however, it just gets worse. All suspense is ejected when the anti-life invasion begins as from there until the end, it just becomes a siege story and a pretty dull one at that. Apart from it just overall not being very entertaining, Final Crisis’s biggest problem is that it’s just not very engaging. When you think about it, the actual story is pretty simple. Darkseid wants to invade Earth while enslaving the human race and the heroes end up stopping him. But Morrison’s total obsession with exposition and confusing situations and events purely for the sake of it really ruin this story. It may have a strong first issue, but the rest range from just about average to unbelievably dull.
The art has always played a significant part in DC’s Crisis stories and the artists who draw them are often defined by those stories. George Perez’s art on Crisis on Infinite Earths is often cited as a core reason why the story worked due to his unique storytelling, and Phil Jimenez on Infinite Crisis refined Perez’s style for the new century while delivering one of the most memorable stories post 2000. One of the things you notice from both of those stories is that, for the most part, Perez and Jimenez drew the vast majority of their stories. Others may have been included in additional pencilling and inking, but the story was theirs. For Final Crisis, although a majority of it is drawn by J.G. Jones, it doesn’t feel identifiable enough as his story due to the vast number of other artists who are credited. Regardless, Jones does a very nice job with the art and its smoothness and sense of storytelling reminds me heavily of Perez. The sense of detail is incredible and the more you examine it, you can see why he didn’t draw all of it. It may not be the most unique or thought-provoking work, but it is impressive. Other pencillers, like Doug Mahnke for instance, lack the same cleanness and the finishes often appear rough or tidy. I always think that that
kind of art never suits a Crisis story as it’s not meant to be a Vertigo story, but more of an action-packed thriller. It’s far from terrible, but unfortunately there lacks any spectacle or any artists of real note here whose work really does leap out of the page in the way that Perez or even Jimenez’s did. To put it glumly, it often feels like Final Crisis is a typical example of modern-day comic books and how any trace of a distinctive style, with the exceptions of famous artists like Jim Lee, is toned down to the point where the finished art makes you feel nothing much at all…
VERDICT
Overall, Final Crisis, to put it plainly, is just a mess. It may have a brilliant start as Morrison writes the opening issue as a thriller mystery. However, it quickly goes downhill as the plot holes become very apparent and by issue 4, Final Crisis loses any excitement or energy that it began with. Sure, there are some great moments later on, such as the death of Batman, but Morrison’s love of referencing inane events and exposition result in Final Crisis, with its fairly average story, ranking very low in the league table of DC’s Crisis tales. It’s definitely, next to Crisis Times Five, one of Morrison’s worst and most boring stories and I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody…
Story: 3/10
Art: 6.5/10
Next Week: Batman Reborn (Batman and Robin (vol 1) 1-6). Written by Grant Morrison with art by Frank Quitely, Philip Tan, and Jonathan Glapion.
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