Hello Enthusiasts,
Today I will be reviewing DC's epic, Final Crisis. It's going to be difficult to dance around plot points, so I would like to just throw the warning out there now, Spoilers Below.
Holy cow, what a beast this one is. This event is mostly about Darkseid killing a New God, Orion, and then using the Anti-Life Equation to take over just about everbody's minds on Earth. I say mostly because there are a lot of different stories going on in this book, nearly too much to follow. I had said other events, like Crisis on Infinite Earths, were difficult to follow, but I think this one takes the cake. It tries to tell a lot of stories at once, which does work at some points, but not so much at others.
Timeline-wise, this event takes place after 52. This mean we have Renee Montoya as The Question, the DC Trinity are back in action, and you shouldn't be holding your breath for Superboy to make an entrance.
So, some positives for this book first, of course. The art work is stunning, for starters. There are some scenes that would have just been terrible if the panel wasn't so perfectly drawn. The art remains consistant throughout the event as well, which I'm thankful for. There also some parts of the story I really enjoyed, like the travel through Batman's memories, which he uses as a weapon (you'll have to read to fully understand). The stakes feel really high throughout the volume, starting off with the death of a couple of key characters within the first part of the book. I think it's the high stakes that are the highlight of this book, every single thing is almost too big to comprehend. Also, despite how I felt through a good chunk of this book, it all did actually come together in the end; all of the various storylines did in fact mean something for the greater story.
This book is not all positives though, that's for sure. The most glaring problem for me was how many different stories were trying to occupy the same space here. The Question is charged with leading an organization of heroes, Hal Jordan is being charged with the attempted murder of John Stewart, Superman is in some kind of meta-realm, Darksied is trying to clone Batman, there are street level heroes trying to hold their own ground, and that isn't everything. It all gets far too convoluted, and it bounces around so frequently it can make your head spin. The atmosphere of the story will vary as well, going from normal, to hopeless, to positive, back to hopeless, and it just never stops.
I think all of the problems in the book can be broken down into one statement; it's hard to follow. Story wise, emotionally, it's all a little difficult, and I'm probably going to have to read it another time or two to feel comfortable to say I get it all. Being this hard to follow makes it less captivating, and it felt like a chore at some points. I would have put it down, but I knew this story was going to have a real impact on the universe, and I would probably get a few great scenes later on.
Overall, I have to suggest reading this if you are looking to keep informed on the big events of the DC universe (which was just rebooted, so it's not the universe is still feeling the aftermath). However, if you're a more casual reader, leave this one on the shelf. Yeah, it looks nice and has a few cool parts, but I don't want anyone who's looking to read comics seriously to be turned off by this one. If that sounds like you, I say to start with Marvel, their events are generally easier to digest, then go over to DC (but still, don't make this your first DC event, there are better ones).
I give Final Crisis a 5 out of 10.
Sincerely,
The Bored Enthusiast
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