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Post by berkley on Mar 1, 2019 1:50:31 GMT -5
With my lack of knowledge and of interest in the JLA and the DCU in general, I was the wrong audience for this series and in hindsight probably shouldn't have read it. from memory, I think I had somehow gotten the misleading impression that the New Gods were going to play a much more prominent role but of course, as it turned out, it followed the usual formula of using Darkseid as a (not even THE) Big Bad, and relegating the rest of the New Gods to the sidelines with barely a mention (e.g. Orion killed offstage before the action begins). I made a similar error with Multiversity, when I assumed that at least one of the alternate universes would feature Kirby's creations in a starring role. With all those disadvantages (from my POV) in mind, it's perhaps surprising I was able to enjoy Final Crisis at all, but I did think it contained a lot of nicely done moments and Morrison's meta-fictional commentary on the DCU was pretty clever, even if much of its detail was lost on me due to my ignorance of JLA/DCU history, recent or otherwise. I know how you feel, which raises all sorts of questions about art and commerce. Was Morrison just writing a story for his own amusement, to one-up COIE? How important is it for art to be understood by the buying public? Is obscurity self-indulgent? If you and I can't be passionate about a tentpole project like this because it requires too much knowledge of and investment in backstory, who can?
Well, in this case, I blame myself, or rather my own misjudgement, more than Morrison, who I think was very sincere in his desire to say something about the DCU and realised his goal in an intelligent, original, and yes, even entertaining way. It just so happens, through no fault of his or mine, that I don't share his absorption in that fictional universe, but I knew that going in and, one could at least argue, should have realised beforehand the kind of thing it was always going to be.
My only excuse (and here I do blame him a little bit) is that he has a habit of saying such very nice - and, more importantly, insightful - things about Kirby's New Gods that it isn't surprising that someone like me keeps expecting him to do something pretty major with them. And I don't mean major as in a big "Event" series, but something that focuses on that concept and demonstrates the same deep understanding of it that he's shown in various interviews and introductions. In my view, that's never happened.
So I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that his appreciation extends only to the intellectual level, that he doesn't feel any kind of emotional engagement with it, or at least certainly not anything approaching the rapport he feels with the DCU, and especially its flagship heroes, Batman and Superman. Which, of course, no one can argue with.
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Post by rberman on Mar 1, 2019 7:52:01 GMT -5
That character was scattered to the cosmos in his Wein appearance. Perhaps there's an intervening story in which he reconstituted? He has the same schtick and costume. I'll have to look at it again. It looked to me like he might have reached some kind of cosmic ascendance, like the Red Skull in the Captain America movie. I thought maybe he had come back from it changed in some way. It was in JLA #111, reviewed here. Libra steals half of the power from each hero, in order to power up a transformation in which he will steal half of the power of the whole galaxy. But when he tries, something goes horribly wrong. He doesn't so much ascend as discorporate, scattering the stolen JLA power in the process. So in the next issue, the JLA use Amazo as a sort of energy vacuum-cleaner to suck up all their scattered power, which they then transfer back from Amazo to themselves.   As best I can tell, Libra had no appearances after JLA #111 until he reappears here in Final Crisis as the servant of Dark Side. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 1, 2019 8:04:02 GMT -5
I know how you feel, which raises all sorts of questions about art and commerce. Was Morrison just writing a story for his own amusement, to one-up COIE? How important is it for art to be understood by the buying public? Is obscurity self-indulgent? If you and I can't be passionate about a tentpole project like this because it requires too much knowledge of and investment in backstory, who can?
Well, in this case, I blame myself, or rather my own misjudgement, more than Morrison, who I think was very sincere in his desire to say something about the DCU and realised his goal in an intelligent, original, and yes, even entertaining way. It just so happens, through no fault of his or mine, that I don't share his absorption in that fictional universe, but I knew that going in and, one could at least argue, should have realised beforehand the kind of thing it was always going to be.
My only excuse (and here I do blame him a little bit) is that he has a habit of saying such very nice - and, more importantly, insightful - things about Kirby's New Gods that it isn't surprising that someone like me keeps expecting him to do something pretty major with them. And I don't mean major as in a big "Event" series, but something that focuses on that concept and demonstrates the same deep understanding of it that he's shown in various interviews and introductions. In my view, that's never happened.
So I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that his appreciation extends only to the intellectual level, that he doesn't feel any kind of emotional engagement with it, or at least certainly not anything approaching the rapport he feels with the DCU, and especially its flagship heroes, Batman and Superman. Which, of course, no one can argue with.
I never read Kirby's Fourth World, so their appearance in subsequent events like The Great Darkness Saga was more of a "Hmmm, OK" for me than a "Wow, awesome!" I've seen enough of Darkseid to understand him, but most of the rest are still ciphers to me. I can see how someone wishing to see them play a material role in Final Crisis (or Morrison's other work like JLA) would be disappointed. However, I do think that anybody who knows enough about comics to be posting on this board ought to be able to read a major event like Final Crisis without being confused as to who is doing what and why. What I think it comes down to is this: Morrison hates exposition, and his editors don't insist upon it. Perhaps they think the only comic buyers left are those who already know all the backstory and don't need recaps and references, but they are wrong. I am living proof, and I am not alone. My next project after this one will be a review of its companion, Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds by Geoff Johns, and one contrast that stuck out to me is that Johns was both willing and able to include reams of exposition in his big action sequences without getting too kludgy. |
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Post by badwolf on Mar 1, 2019 11:43:06 GMT -5
I'll have to look at it again. It looked to me like he might have reached some kind of cosmic ascendance, like the Red Skull in the Captain America movie. I thought maybe he had come back from it changed in some way. It was in JLA #111, reviewed here. Libra steals half of the power from each hero, in order to power up a transformation in which he will steal half of the power of the whole galaxy. But when he tries, something goes horribly wrong. He doesn't so much ascend as discorporate, scattering the stolen JLA power in the process. So in the next issue, the JLA use Amazo as a sort of energy vacuum-cleaner to suck up all their scattered power, which they then transfer back from Amazo to themselves. As best I can tell, Libra had no appearances after JLA #111 until he reappears here in Final Crisis as the servant of Dark Side. Yeeeeeah but characters have come back from stuff like that before. I'm sticking to my personal canon for now.  |
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Post by rberman on Mar 1, 2019 11:49:52 GMT -5
It was in JLA #111, reviewed here. Libra steals half of the power from each hero, in order to power up a transformation in which he will steal half of the power of the whole galaxy. But when he tries, something goes horribly wrong. He doesn't so much ascend as discorporate, scattering the stolen JLA power in the process. So in the next issue, the JLA use Amazo as a sort of energy vacuum-cleaner to suck up all their scattered power, which they then transfer back from Amazo to themselves. As best I can tell, Libra had no appearances after JLA #111 until he reappears here in Final Crisis as the servant of Dark Side. Yeeeeeah but characters have come back from stuff like that before. I'm sticking to my personal canon for now. Perhaps a bigger issue in this series is not so much where Libra came from (after his discorporation in #111) but where he went. He just kinda fades from the scene as soon as Apokolips types show up and start converting all the citizens and heroes. I guess he was a herald who wasn't needed once his boss arrived, which is too bad; he could have been a whole thing of his own. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 1, 2019 21:35:12 GMT -5
Final Crisis #3 “Know Evil” (September 2008) Art: J.G. Jones on pencil and ink. Alex Sinclair, colors. P.1-4: In a series of nine-panel grids, Frankenstein and his fellow Agents of S.H.A.D.E. (both seen previously in Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein, mimicking T.H.U.N.D.E.R. and S.H.I.E.L.D.) raid the Dark Side Club in Blüdhaven. The bad guys have cleared out already, but Renee “The Question II” Montoya is there investigating the scene. S.H.A.D.E. detains her to recruit her, same as they did previously with Frankenstein. Überfräulein, Nazi “heroine” of Earth-10, is found lying in the street, babbling in German about the war in heaven, and hell coming to earth. A computer-cursor finger is busy writing “Know Evil” on the black/white op-art hanging in Club Dark Side; this seems like some sort of reference to God’s hand writing on the wall of the palace during a Babylonian feast in the book of Daniel:  P.5: Nix Uotan is fired from his fast food job. Passing a TV store on the street, he watches a story about Cave Carson finding a strange symbol on a wall deep underground. It’s the same shape as the symbol drawn by Kamandi in the far future at the end of issue #1. P6-9: Jay Garrick recounts racing with Barry Allen and Wally West back through time, unable to catch the bullet before it killed Orion as depicted in issue #1. Jay breaks the news to Iris Allen that he saw her husband alive after however-long-it’s-been-since- COIE.  P10-11: Libra’s Injustice Gang gathers at the swamp hideout of the Legion of Doom from TV’s “Challenge of the Super-Friends” cartoon. Yes! I love that base, even if it is a total rip-off of Darth Vader’s helmet. Libra gives The Human Flame a new helmet to wear. It plays the Anti-Life Equation in his ears incessantly, making him a thrall of Darkseid. Libra threatens to put a helmet on Lex Luthor too, unless he swears fealty to Apokolips.  The brainwashing helmets come from Kirby's Forever People, in which they are worn by Glorious Godfrey's thugs.  P12-13: Lois Kent is hospitalized, hanging at death’s door after last issue’s bomb at the Daily Planet. Only Clark Kent’s heat vision is keeping her alive. A mysterious figure offers Clark a chance to save his wife. P14-18: As the Alpha Lanterns prepare Hal Jordan for transit to Oa for his trial, Wonder Woman and Alan Scott recruit all available super-heroes to assemble against Apokolips, plus Barbara “Oracle” Gordon as their comms officer in the Hall of Justice. Group shot!  During the recruitment drive, Green Arrow gets a hilariously on-the nose-rant about how right he always is, straight out of the Denny O’Neil “Hard Traveling Heroes” playbook.  Also, Supergirl is surrounded by drawings of potential new costumes, just like Adventure Comics #397. She appears to be the only person on Earth who still owns a sewing machine. That girl is a super clothes horse!   P19-21: Mister Miracle is at the Tokyo airport with Super Sumo, regaling him about the time (the end of Seven Soldiers #1) that he (Shilo, not Sumo) rose from the grave. When the forces of evil attack, the Super Young Team ride to the rescue, delighted at the opportunity to do something heroic. P22-27: Wonder Woman and a pair of Atomic Knights enter the ruins of Blüdhaven, where many dead replicas of Replika litter the streets. Mary Marvel appears in black dominatrix gear, a slave of Darkseid. She wasn’t doing too well in the Countdown series either. Can’t the DC writers pick on someone else? I guess her wholesomeness makes her a target for irony. She infects Wonder Woman with an enslaving bio-weapon. Darkseid emails the Anti-Life equation to the whole world in an auto-executing computer virus.  P28-29: Barry Allen is horrified to see how the Central City community center is now a strip club. Wonder Woman accosts the two Flashes, riding a giant dog, carrying an omega-embossed shield, and flanked by Catwoman and Giganta.My Other Two Cents: In brief, this issue is about “Dark Side takes over the world.” Everything else is just pages of heroes milling about. This series lacks focal characters like Pariah, Harbinger, and the Monitor to bring coherence to the narrative. Nix Uotan ought to fill that role in part, but he’s not given much to do. We were talking about how Libra could be alive if he died in JLA #111. But this is his first appearance post-COIE, so all bets are off; he doesn’t need a excuse for escaping a fate which was retconned out of existence in the 80s. I’m more surprised that he hasn’t appeared sooner, really.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 2, 2019 1:01:06 GMT -5
Lot of modern writers and artists seem to go pretty blatantly and frequently to domination images. At least Marston was a little subtle about it (well, compared to Hillman or Fox).
The Mary Marvel thing says a lot about DC editorial, at this point and I don't think it ha improved since. I also think it demonstrates how little oversight Morrison and some other superstars had. You get the impression of a lot of rubber stamping going on.
The hand writing on the wall is probably also a reference to the Source Wall, as a hand would write on it, in fire, in Kirby's New Gods.
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Post by rberman on Mar 2, 2019 19:00:12 GMT -5
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D Part 1 (October 2008) Art: Doug Mahnke pencils, several inkers, David Baron colors. P.1-8: Zillo Valla the Monitor stops time on Earth-Zero and appears in the hospital room of Lois Kent, offering Superman a chance to save Lois by joining Zillo’s quest. He must collect a preserved sample of the inter-dimensional ether known as The Bleed or Ultramenstruum. This ether is a reference to the Brane Theory of higher dimensions in superstring physics, as previously mentioned by Morrison in Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #1. P.9: Zillo takes Superman to her craft, the Ultima Thule (an ancient term referring to uncharted lands), which looks somewhat like the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. It is piloted by plucking strings on a giant harp, a concept hearkening back to the original “Flash of Two Worlds” story in which differing vibrations were said to be the way to cross between dimensions.  On the Ultima Thule are fellow heroes Overman (from Nazi Earth-10), Captain Marvel (Fawcett Edition, from what used to be now Earth-S but in a visual pun is now Earth-5), and Earth-4’s Allen “ Captain Atom” Adam (the Silver Age Charlton hero, now looking very much like Doctor Manhattan, his analogue in Alan Moore’s Watchmen). I am a little confused as to whether the Nazi Overman is the same one depicted in Animal Man, wearing an American flag for a cape. I wouldn’t think so, but the theme of “imagine a Superman on a world where the bad guys won” is present in both cases, and of course it’s a major theme of Final Crisis as well. “Who makes these awful worlds?” asks the Psycho-Pirate. The answer, of course is that Grant Morrison and his peers make them.  In fact, there’s another Nazi super-team, Axis America, which was a group of Nazi operatives working in the United States during World War II. Grant Morrison worked that team’s Uberman into Animal Man briefly as well.  P.10-18: Zillo grants Superman “4-D vision” which allows him to see across dimensions. He sees Lois as well as a clock about to strike twelve, another Watchmen reference as well as a marker of Lois’ dire state. As the Ultima Thule flees the enemy Destroyer ship Echo of Midnight, Ultraman (of the Crime Syndicate from what’s once again known as Earth-3) appears and begins tearing the Destroyer to shreds. We get glimpses of several worlds in series: • Earth-6 is a parody of Marvel’s Skrull-centric “Secret Invasion” event; does that really deserve a whole world of its own? • Earth-13, the occult universe, in which Etrigan the Demon is their version of Kal El; • Earth-20, the pulp hero universe (home of Doc Fate, an amalgam of Doc Savage and Doctor Fate) which will be the focus of the Society of Super-Heroes issue of Multiversity; • Earth-17, the nuclear-irradiated home of DC’s Atomic Age heroes like Adam Strange and Atomic Knights – both of whom were already part of Earth Zero continuity, for what it’s worth! Why do they need a separate universe now? • Earth-51, the former “Kirby future timeline” universe of Kamandi, now a “graveyard universe” thanks to Countdown, into which the Echo of Midnight can safely crash and explode without harming anyone.  P.19-21: The truculent Ultraman joins the Superman squad on the Ultima Thule. Zillo has made a promise to each of them to secure their involvement: Each will get his heart’s desire. They arrive at Limbo, the home of forgotten archive characters like Merryman. Grant Morrison introduced this realm toward the end of his run on Animal Man almost twenty years prior. Scholars of the Golden and Silver Age will know all these characters; the only one I recognize is Ace the Bat-Hound.  P.22-23: In Limbo’s library is a single book containing every possible book; it was written by the proverbial monkey given infinite time to peck randomly on a typewriter, also as seen in Animal Man. Superman and Captain Marvel combine their strength to lift the book and expose its pages.    P.24-27: What follows is the heart of this issue, a very meta-laden parody of the origin of the Multiverse told at the beginning of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The DC Multiverse exists within the mind of a creature which to them is unimaginably large; that creature ultimately is you or me or anyone else who reads or writes comic books. But within the logic of the story itself, that creature is the intelligent void which, under exposure to heroic fiction (especially Superman), becomes a race of Monitors (i.e. comic book creators/editors). But the Multiverse has gone downhill “from splendor to squalor” over time due to “loathing and greed beyond measure.” The loathing belongs to disdainful fanboys; the greed belongs to the comic book companies, and perhaps to collectors who distort the market.  But at its best, says the Limbo-book, the DC Multiverse is a genius’ weapon to combat the ultimate enemy, Darkseid, i.e. skepticism/nihilism. This is a replay of the final issue of Flex Mentallo, in which youthful, innocent Wally Sage (i.e. Grant Morrison) faces off against his cynical teenage self with the help of super-heroes, to save his adult self from a life of despair and dissolution.  P.28-31: Merryman whines that some writer (maybe Grant Morrison?) ought to exploit Merryman's secret “talent for gritty drama” rather than leave him stuck in Limbo. Now a more straightforward in-story exposition: Dax Novu, firstborn of the ur-Monitor, has chained a Beast, the Eater of Life, within the the Plague Pit, the Sepulchre of Mandrakk the Dark Monitor. Soon it will be released, so it’s quest time! Zillo has played succubus, draining power from Ultraman to heal injuries she sustained earlier in the issue. But while everyone else was chatting about Mandrakk, Ultraman has run off to the limbo library and come back carrying the infinite book. He is excited to read it and discover that evil will prevail over good. My Other Two Cents: I’ve already commented on the meta-textual elements above. The other things I noticed is a variation on Morrison’s “Drugs make you better” motif: Usually this is about someone on the lower plane of existence taking drugs to gain the ability to see higher dimensions. But Captain Adam (Atom) turns it on its head; like Doctor Manhattan, he is inherently aware of all existence, so he must take drugs that dull his senses so that he can focus on the here-and-now.  
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 3, 2019 2:36:47 GMT -5
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Post by rberman on Mar 3, 2019 21:29:38 GMT -5
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D Part 2 (October 2008) Art: Doug Mahnke pencils, Christian Alamy inks, David Baron colors. P.1-11: Mandrakk the evil Monitor attacks the dimension of Limbo, whose citizens take up arms in defense. Superman sends Captain Marvel in the ship Ultima Thule to warn the rest of the Multiverse. Captain Atom smashes Superman and Ultraman together, creating a matter/antimatter explosion whose immense power allows him to beam Superman’s essence up to the higher dimension of the Monitors. This is similar to how Braniac in Morrison's JLA: Earth 2 hoped to smash Earth-One and Earth-Two together to provide enough energy for him to ascend to a higher dimension.  P.12-15: Here, “Beyond 3D” on the “realm of pure thought,” Superman's essence inhabits a giant Superman-shaped automaton with one green eye and one red eye, sort of like a pair of 3D glasses, but also like the green circle/red circle “stop/go” dichotomy familiar from Morrison’s Flex Mentallo and The Invisibles. Superman also sees the whole universe of Limbo as small enough to fit in his hand, just like Jean Grey with the galaxy at the end of “Here Comes Tomorrow!”   P.16-17:Uotan Nix’s Monitor girlfriend Weeja Dell leads Superman to past the Orrery whose worlds are being “drained dry” by “celestial parasites,” i.e. editorial mismanagement. This is similar to Seven Soldiers, in which the Sheeda, human dregs from the far future, raid the fruits of past cultures for their own benefit.  P.18-25: Mandrakk the Evil Monitor, the personification of bad stories, faces off against Superman, the personification of the most awesomest comic book story ever told. Superman recognizes Mandrakk as the former Dax Novu, the monitor who was discomfited by the concept of story, the concept of multiverse. Superman casts Mandrakk into the void, and in reward the Monitors grant him the reward he sought: a vial of Bleed to save the life of Lois.  P.26-29: Superman falls back down into the Multiverse and destroys some of Mandrakk’s attack ships with the aid of Captain Marvel and Nazi Overman. Ultraman appears elsewhere and is transformed into a vampire by Ogama the Monitor, servant of Mandrakk. Ogama takes the Limbo-book which contains all the pages ever written. “I’ll be back!’ he promises. Morrison has stated that his approach to writing is to follow a heroic victory with the revelation of yet another powerful foe, so that the story never ends. P.30-32: Superman uses his bottled Bleed to heal Lois. The tombstone of the Automaton-Superman in the world of the Monitors is revealed; its epitaph is “To Be Continued,” signifying that the best kind of story is the one that keeps going.  My Two Cents: As you can see, it’s quite a meta story, with not a lot of actual story to hang on it. The core conceit is that, having adopted the metaphor of The Bleed as the ether in which the Orrery floats, the greatest parasite on this creation would be a vampire, a bleed-sucker. On more of a theological level, Morrison is rejecting the concept of duality as overly Manichean. Captain Adam goes so far as to say “There are no dualities, only symmetry.” If existence equals story, then evil is necessary, because there’s no story without it. This to me shows a profound lack of imagination (ironically!) about possible modes of existence not dependent upon conflict. And if evil is necessary, who’s to say it doesn’t deserve to come out on top? 
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Post by rberman on Mar 4, 2019 21:06:27 GMT -5
Final Crisis: Submit (December 2008) Art: Matthew Clark pencils, Inks by Norm Rapmund, Rob Hunter, and Don Ho (yes really) The Story: The world has been taken over by Anti-Life. In Blüdhaven, the Tattooed Man saves Black Lightning from being converted to evil. Then Black Lightning helps Tattooed Man and his family (Michelle, Leon, and Lauren) commandeer a school bus to drive his family to the S.H.A.D.E. checkpoint at the edge of Blüdhaven. Leon is blinded by his prejudice of superheroes; he shoots Black Lightning, who is captured and converted to Anti-Life while everyone else gets to safety.  My Two Cents: It’s an extremely straightforward issue. The main drama was the bickering between Black Lightning and Tattooed Man, the latter of whom reflexively rebels against all commands, even when his family’s life is at stake. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 5, 2019 18:58:07 GMT -5
Final Crisis #4 “Darkseid Says” (November 2008) Art: Pencils by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco. Ink by Jesus Merino. Color by Alex Sinclair. P.1-7, 10-16, 20-24: Anti-Life takes over all electronic communications and everyone using phones, TVs, and computers. The Ray brings Tattooed Man to the Hall of Justice, and the heroes discuss how things aren’t going well. Tattooed Man shows them a pattern on his body which he learned from Black Lightning; it’s the same symbol Kamandi was scrawling in the dirt back in issue #1. When the bad guys break in, Green Arrow stays behind to cover the escape of everyone else who is teleporting to the JLA satellite; he is converted to Anti-Life.  P.17-19,26-27: in Central City, Barry Allen and Wally West catch up on the story, and Barry mentions “Flash Fact,” one of Morrison’s favorite Silver Age tropes, as mentioned in the Flex Mentallo and JLA threads. The two Flashes fight briefly with Anti-Life possessed Wonder Woman then race to the home of Iris Allen for her tender reunion with Barry.  P.8-9, 25, 28-30: Darkseid’s lieutenants discuss Dan Turpin’s gradual conversion into Darkseid. Mokkari calls Libra “The Anti-Life that walks,” perhaps a reference to pulp hero The Phantom, “The ghost who walks.” Ultimately, Turpin succumbs and dons the helmet of Darkseid, while Mister Miracle is shot by a trigger-happy guard while trying to enter S.H.A.D.E. headquarters.  My Two Cents: Another conceptually simple issue; things are getting worse, and more good guys are getting converted. It’s also the second issue in a row with a black guy getting shot while doing nothing aggressive. The most interesting aspect was the gradual transformation of Dan Turpin into Darkseid, but it would have been better if some moral choice was involved rather than just an infection-like process.
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Post by berkley on Mar 5, 2019 19:42:35 GMT -5
Lot of modern writers and artists seem to go pretty blatantly and frequently to domination images. At least Marston was a little subtle about it (well, compared to Hillman or Fox). The Mary Marvel thing says a lot about DC editorial, at this point and I don't think it ha improved since. I also think it demonstrates how little oversight Morrison and some other superstars had. You get the impression of a lot of rubber stamping going on. I'd say Morrison agrees with you about the mishandling of Mary Marvel and that this was his way of saying so. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 6, 2019 18:53:07 GMT -5
Final Crisis #5 “Into Oblivion” (December 2008) Art: Pencils by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco. Ink by Jesus Merino. Color by Alex Sinclair. P.1-6, 28: At Hal Jordan’s trial on Oa, he, Kyle Rayner, and John Stewart prevent Granny Goodness (possessing Alpha Lantern Kraken) from corrupting the main power battery. Hal is reinstated to active duty. A squadron of Green Lanterns including Hal Jordan warp into Earth orbit to help fight the bad guys.  P.7: The Question gets a tour of S.H.A.D.E. headquarters, including the BiOMAC construction area and a mention of the Brane theory of higher dimensions, as discussed previously in Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #1.  P.8-9, 25-27: Inside his Command-D base, Darkseid intones solemnly to his worshiping minions. Libra’s forces face the heroic attack; he offers Luthor an opportunity to rape Supergirl after the battle. There’s a line about “the Batman psycho-merge killed the clone army these fools tried to build!” This refers to events in Batman #682-3 as described next. P.10-21: Mister Miracle (not as dead as he seemed), Sonny Sumo, and the Super Young Team are admitted to the S.H.A.D.E. headquarters. Frankenstein leads a good guy counterstrike on the evil forces outside, quoting Milton’s “Paradise Lost” (as typical for him) as he goes. A big ol’ Marvel Family fracas is a major feature, with Black Adam fighting on the side of life. The heroes are way too concerned with the welfare of their opponents, to their detriment.  p.22-24: Nix Uotan is thrown into a cell with two others who are immune to Anti-Life. One has very hairy hands and a drawing of Kamandi’s mysterious shape. His identity won’t be revealed until Multiversity several years down the line. The other prisoner is in a wheelchair (thus, Metron) and has a Rubik’s Cube which he solves in fewer moves than is theoretically possible. (I’ve seen it suggested that this symbolizes the ability to do things better than conventional wisdom allows, not being stuck in the past.) Uotan is encouraged to actualize his dreams about superheroes and Monitors. There’s some dialogue about how the Dark Side represents unhealthy conformity that squashes individuality, like the baddies in The Invisibles.
 P.29-32: As Darkseid demonstrates his control over the hive mind of humans possessed by Anti-Life, Nix Uotan manifests amidst shreds of his superhero drawings; he is now Superjudge the Monitor, wearing a holographic Monitor helmet and privy to a wide variety of camera images just like the original COIE Monitor.  My Two Cents: Morrison is playing super-nice with the narrative in this main Final Crisis series. Everybody exposits their actions and motives to the Nth degree, Bronze Age style.
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Post by Duragizer on Mar 6, 2019 19:29:18 GMT -5
This thread's done a good job convincing me Grant Morrison's a pretentious, self-indulgent hack who churns out pretentious, self-indulgent tripe. Between him and Geoff Johns, it's no wonder I give modern DC a wide berth.
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