I'm not going to be one of these cunts who looks down their nose at everyone who didn't like it, or sneer at the people who've been honest enough to say that they didn't understand a fucking word of it. I'm convinced a bunch of the people doing that (not all of them, but a bunch of them) didn't understand it half as well as they're claiming anyway.
No, I can see where the haters are coming from because let's be honest chums, big chunks of it made absolutely no flipping sense at all. There you go though, what did you expect? No-one ever said Grant Morrison comics were easy reading. I used Wikipedia, Final Crisis annotations and the wisdom of several well-informed comics podcasters to help me along, and I managed just fine. In fact better than fine, I enjoyed the experience all the more for the additional work I had to put in to understand what was going on. It all felt a bit like sitting around discussing books in my sixth form English class really, which was something I used to enjoy, so you know... NOSTALGIA, YAY!
I dug the story (a story about stories. KEWL!) and mostly, the art was fine too - I wasn't bothered by the change of artist, it all looked fine to me. So I take my comic hat off to the creators. My main issue with the whole thing was the screwy release schedule that saw vital parts of the story released in the wrong order. Legion of Three Worlds hasn't even finished yet, and that's supposed to take place somewhere in between issue five and six of Final Crisis. Batman 682 and 683 are part of the story, but unless you were observant enough to notice the hastily added Final Crisis logos on the covers, you'd never of known. As for Superman Beyond, well, why were these issues not just part of the main series? Yes the creators might be at fault for not meeting deadlines, but why did DC just turn a blind eye to the problems? I mean how bonkers is it that Grant Morrison has to come out AFTER the thing's over and tell us what order we should have read it in...
FINAL CRISIS # 1- 3
SUPERMAN BEYOND # 1- 2
SUBMIT
FINAL CRISIS # 4 – 5
BATMAN #682 – 683
FINAL CRISIS # 6 – 7
SUPERMAN BEYOND # 1- 2
SUBMIT
FINAL CRISIS # 4 – 5
BATMAN #682 – 683
FINAL CRISIS # 6 – 7
Honestly! Bit late now feller! DC should've done this months ago. If they didn't know that this was the order, well...then they want shooting. If they did know and released it in the order that they did because bits of it weren't ready when they were meant to be, then they also want shooting! It might be a bummer when an artist isn't completing his work quickly enough to get a book out when it should be, but when your'e dealing with an event it also makes no sense to ignore the fact that chapter two isn't ready and press ahead with releasing chapter three anyway. By doing that I suspect that DC just alienated a lot of their readers who were already pissed that they weren't getting the paint it by numbers event book that they have come to expect. Ach well, never mind, lessons to be learnt I suppose.
Me, I'm happy enough to go back and digest the thing in the order that Morrison intended. I honestly think it was a top read and reckon it'll be even better now we know what it should look like as a whole.
4 comments:
I loved it, even though I had no idea what was going on, really. I was a Marvel kid growing up, so DC history is not my strong point. Characters show up in a way that signifies they're a big deal, but just leave me going huh? But the fact that I know they are supposed to be a big deal is all the context I need and the sheer density of ideas alone are reason enough to enjoy it.
I'm looking forward to having a read of it as intended!
crisis was like this back in the day.
it leaves me a bit cold to be honest.
I thought you were just going to have a go at me for using the word cunt again
Mr Salmond,
I definitely preferred Marvel as a kid too, but I'd say these days I'm leaning more towards DC on the whole. They just seem to be putting out better stuff (step forward Mr Johns). I too get confused by some of the more obscure stuff, but confusion is fine by me. When I were a lad, I used to pick up any old American comic from the newsagent and read it. Half the time I had no idea what was going on or who the characters were, but it never bothered me as long as the comic had lots of cool fighting and daft ideas in it. This still holds true for me today, only now I have the internet to make sense of the stuff I don't get.
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