Final Crisis #1 came out to a fairly lackluster response from many reviewers. Now that Final Crisis #2 is out, it’s interesting to see what people are saying now.
Jog enjoyed the issue:
Anyway, I thought issue #2 was a lot more fun than issue #1, particularly with the (excellent) Japanese superhero scene; poor Shilo Norman has to find even more obscure heroes now, a lost Fourth World dude and a hodgepodge of foreign outlooks (comics from Japan, tee hee). All the while, the evil influence brings about a souring of the superhero world… great compression in this thing. Nice, harsh location cuts.
And then there’s that odd taste of self-awareness, even a little tiredness – Superman hoping the Martian Manhunter will be revived sometime in the future, Lex Luthor acting utterly bored at the death of some expendable superhero (in an Event comic! *yawn*). Like Didio implied, these characters have seen it all. Is it good for the health of DC comics, rather than the DC Universe? Hell, I don’t know. And while I’m aware that if things get so bad they board up the windows it’ll mean less chances for people like Grant Morrison to write comics, I still find it awfully tough to shift my focus onto what’s Good For the Industry when I’m trying to interface with a particular work – my problem, folks.
But, you know, maybe I’m the second-most ideal reader for this particular thing. With a comic like this I guess the DCU hardcore superfan will forever be #1, but I have read every Grant Morrison DCU comic, and there may be nearly as much playing to that audience in here as well. Odd to be catered too.
DamienHospital had mixed feelings:
Well, after my disappointing Final Crisis #1 review, I got my hands on Final Crisis #2, written once again by icon Grant Morrison and drawn by the capable JG Jones. Going in reading this comic with ZERO expectations, I’d like to say I was pleasantly surprised, but once again I have to scratch my head how DC would allow the pacing and confusion of the Event of the Year to continue for 2 months now. YES, it was better…but not by much.
Yes, it was an easier read this time. since I know what’s going on (thanks to all of the comments I received last month for readers explaining everything to me, panel by panel), but ultimately, Issue 2 is still a setup issue with questionable time devoted to obscure or new characters.
It seems like the real word is much more exciting than FINAL CRISIS.
NatoneFLOYD thought Morrison and Jones failed to deliver:
If you were expecting a big payoff in this issue, you will be sorely disappointed. Hell, you’ll be disappointed if you were expecting any payoff at all. Both Grant Morrison and J. G. Jones fail to deliver. Morrison has cool ideas, like the Japanese superheroes and a bullet fired through time, but they are few and very far between. He tends to spread things very thin, so that I never really got a good picture of everything. His biggest problem, however, is one that has plagued him for most of his career. Don’t get me wrong, I love his work and he is a great writer, but he gets so lost in his massive knowledge of the DC Universe that he forgets that there are people (us) trying to follow him. The end result is that he knows what’s going on, but the rest of us get completely disoriented. Oddly enough, this usually makes whatever he writes very enjoyable, but, coupled with the rest of the problems this issue has, it really just makes a bad situation worse. After a few rereads, I think I finally grasped a little of what’s going on, but it doesn’t help make this issue any less of a disappointment. On top of all this, the issue stars a bunch of characters I don’t care about and, to be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure I should care about them.
So what do you think?
June 29th, 2008 at 8:38 am
The biggest problem I have with #2 is the art. I don’t understand how an event so important can have such sub standard art. It just brings up points some people have had in regards to marvel and dc, marvel’s stuff looks much more professional and their best books don’t have comic book drawings in them, they have art. which this should have. This looks like it was drawn by anyone, when it should have been something unique just as Immortal Iron Fist is unique, captain america, daredevil, etc.
June 29th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Wow, complaining about J.G. Jones? That’s a new one.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:20 am
I agree with Floyd, the pacing leaves something to be desired. I’ll keep my eye on this series to see how things develop, as it goes along.
In the meantime…
I’m going to re-read my 12 issues of Crisis On Infinite Earths to fondly revisit the time when a well-conceived (planned and executed), intelligently written and beautifully drawn “epic” limited series first left an indescribable, inspiring impression on me that still resonates in my being to this very day, 22 years strong(er) after the original experience.
To Wolfman, Perez and everyone else involved…”Thank you for getting-it-right and setting the standard,” which has yet to be surpassed.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Am I the only one who noticed that they made sure that “F—” was blocked out with symbols as per usual, but “a-hole” went through completely without the symbols ? I don’t recall this happening outside of a Vertigo Book at DC.
Not a prude, just wondering when it became an acceptable word.
S.
( page 11 of art, panel 3 , the beatdown of Mad Hatter)
June 29th, 2008 at 9:56 am
@jeffrey – I thought Jones’ art was muddy and washed out compared to the first issue’s. It was far from somethign to complain about, but it was definitely a noticeable drop in quality to me.
As for the issue, I thought it just kept piling more and more questions and subplots on top of everything introduced in issue oen without explaining anything. There’s also far too many sudden scene shifts that left me wondering if pages were missing in my copy or not.
I’m not saying its “confusing” or whatever a lot of people are complaining about. It just feels like it was a 90′s X-Men title with a million different things happening with no answers ever forthcoming.
I also understand it’s only the second issue, but this doesn’t read like an uber event. If this was just some random Grant Morrison follow up to Seven Soldiers, that would be fine and all. But this is supposed to be something every DC fan can read and understand and see how they are changing the universe and all the characters.
As that it fails. He draws on obscure characters that he never references or explains where they came from, like Sonny Sumo or Turpin, he doesn’t explain the Alpha Lanterns to anyone that doesn’t read Green Lantern and doesn’t even point out that the “evil” one, Kraken, is from Apokalips originally, it ignores all of Countdown (no excuses, someone messed up) and the main crux of the story, the New Gods, is drawing heavily on the Seven Soldiers mini that barely anyone, relatively speaking, has read.
I did like the issue and fully expect it to all come together in an insane Grant Morrisonian manner at the end, but I think it will ultimately fail as a mega blockbuster event and end up similar to Morrison’s DC One Million – remembered and enjoyed by those that read it, but little to no impact in the grand scheme of things.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Final Crisis is awesome and you are all whiners. How can you possibly complain abot JG JOnes’ art?
You people actually want Countdown to ground this series? Screw that. The Death of the NEw Gods was simply not as it seemed. Morrison addresses this when Orion shouts at Turpin that they “did not die,” they fell. And the Gods are in all of mankind now. And with his last words he tells humanity that they have to “fight.”
Okay, Morrison writes pretty intensely out-there stuff.
But people who say they do not understand what is happening aren’t reading the damn book. Granny Goodness/ Rev Goode lays it all out. This “is the Final CRisis of mankind,” and these are “The Gods of Apokolips manifesting” in human bodies. One panel. Explained.
Darkseid was Boss Dark Side, but like Morrison’s Hexus CEO in his MArvel Boy limited series, he consumes the bodies and moves on.
Real questions: If the Gods of Apokolips fell, where are the Godsof New Genesis? SHiloh Norman and SOnny Sumo seem to follow the pattern. WHo else is a God?
Why would Libra choose the meeting place of the Flashes as his HQ?
That bullet looks to contain the Morticoccus virus from Countdown. WHo fires it in the future?
Metron’s chair sans Metron? I Know what happened in Death of the NEw Gods, but so what?
WHere is DeSaad?
June 29th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
I’m of the same mind as Jog on Final Crisis #2. Morrison’s challenging, brainy take on the super-hero event really has me excited now. I found my mind kept wandering back to the story for hours after I read it.
There’s no problem with the high quality of the writing and art. I do question the marketability of this cerebral, over-the-top super-hero story. Secret Invasion is easy for readers to wrap their around, but Final Crisis is far from easy.
June 29th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Muddy art-
It was a printing screw up.
There are several pages where you can see the color registers are off. (yellows extending beyond the outlines, etc…)
Shilo’s intro, some of the Kraken JLA pages.
Seemed really obvious to me.
Maybe I just pay too much attention to what I’m reading.
I dug issue 1 but issue 2 was monster aces. Dreading each turn of the page knowing I was getting closer to the end.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Let me get this straight. After INFINITE CRISIS and HOUSE OF M, now we’re complaining about a crossover event being hard to follow and inaccessible for new readers?
Hasn’t that boat sailed already?
June 29th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Loved it. I like the slow build up. And to be honest I don’t need to get everything on the first read, just the broad strokes, and i find with grant morrisson that the 2nd read is always better. but i don’t need, big payoff’s for me to enjoy the comic.
and what i like the most is that i can’t predict how the heroes will win this. other crossovers have been fun but i’ve been able to predict how it will play out, with this comic i feel like i’m on to something new and different, like i know that supes and gang will win, but have no idea how.
and if i rememeber correctly infinite crisis had alot of big moments on the last page of every issue, but people still hated it.
i lament the day with grant gets tired of writing mainstream comics.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Whoa Don MacPherson! I haven’t seen you since thefourthrail.com shut down! (maybe I’m just not paying attention..)
June 30th, 2008 at 2:40 am
C’mon guys. You know what our problem is? The WEEKLY comic has spoiled us at DC. We want the whole story NOW! I’ve read both issues of Final Crisis and the only problem I had was the wait between the 2 issues. The story and art is excellent. Enjoy the build-up…. If we have “earth-shattering” events happen every issue, you’ll get bored with the little things.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:16 am
I didn’t have any problems with either issue. The first issue did fail to grab me, but that’s not a rare occurrence. I don’t have every hero/villain in the DCU memorized, so I expect to see characters I didn’t know.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:52 am
I was a lot more impressed, especially after the second reading. Things made sense, the pacing was better, and it feels like Morrison is the writer after an issue that seemed like it was done by a committee imitating Morrison. I still don’t want to get my hopes up too high, after being left disappointed with the endings of the last two Crises, but I’m back on board.
June 30th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Billy Cox speaks truth.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Don McPherson’s site:
http://www.eyeoncomics.com/
June 30th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Second issues are notoriously about the payoff. Why no payoff? Wanty wanty now!
Let’s get a grip.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
You see, normally I’d be all over a comic moving too damn slowly (since we do pay by the installment), but- this isn’t. Important things are happening at a fairly swift rate. J’onn has been killed. John Stewart has been attacked and Hal Jordan is the suspect. Darkseid is reincarnating in Turpin’s form, the Evil Factory is starting up again, Batman’s been captured, the Daily Planet gets bombed, and all of a sudden you have Barry, a weird looking bullet, and the Black Racer. That’s story. That’s incident.
Didn’t really have trouble getting it either- granted, I’m a Kirby buff and love the Fourth World in particular. Still, I don’t even think this is as difficult as Morrison is on average; the literal action thusfar has been very clear.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Evan, Re: Turpin:
I think it’s more than just Darkseid possessing him. I’d say it’s Orion tagged in there as well. He got off way too much on that ultra-violence Hatter beating. Imagine the Ultimate War being waged within one man’s soul… now consider that Grant described Turpin as Kirby drawn by Frank Miller. Orion and Darkseid’s (5th or 6th) final battle being waged inside of Jack Kirby’s soul…
June 30th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
True, looking again it’s not clear who he’s got in there. It may even be Kalibak, which would be ultra-ironic. But the idea of it being Orion AND Darkseid is intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
More crazy potential spoilers on the identity of Libra:
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What if Barry Allen is Libra? In DCU 0 The narrator, assumed to be Barry, has two captions on solo panels featuring Libra “…AND IT’S MY BREATH.” and “AND THIS IS ME.” as a blue-eyed Libra stares at the reader. The narrator “materializes” at the strip club we learn was where Barry first met Jay.
Now, if evil has won in Heaven and the very fabric of reality has changed to allow the bad guy to win, Barry, being part of the multiverse itself, is inherently changed from good to evil as well. When Barry appears at the end of FC #2, Libra is no where to be found. What if Barry is conning them in his Flash guise and setting them up for the ultimate betrayal/fall?
Food for thought…