Spoilers within, including spoilers for -- dramatic pause -- Final Crisis!
Astounding Wolf-Man 6: Kirkman's got a way of keeping his books on a steady boil, always giving you the senasation that you're about to turn the page and see the entire status quo of the comic change. The other thing Kirkman is really good at is populating his books with the coolest bunch of characters this side of Astro City. Both of those are present in spades here. This is a fun comic.
She-Hulk 29: A flashback that explains how She-Hulk lost her law license. Turns out, one of her clients "Primal Fear"ed her and she did not react well. The client, by the way, is the guy we thought was the villain behind She-Hulk's recent troubles, but it turns out he's just a catspaw. Intriguing stuff. I mentioned a few issues that I had been skeptical of PAD's run and had been on the verge of dropping the book, but PAD has really won me over.
Legion of Super-Heroes 42: The bulk of this issue is taken up by a team of Legionaires fighting giant monsters on Rimbor. In true Legion fashion, Shooter uses the opportunity to give us lots of interplay between the Legionnaires. I really like what Shooter is doing on this book. I hope the rumors that he's being pushed out in the wake of Final Crisis aren't true.
Speaking of which ...
Final Crisis 1: Let me start by saying that I am not a Grant Morrison fan, at least not hen it comes to mainstream superheroics. He pushes the boundaries of the genre in ways that, it seems to me, weaken the genre (in contrast to Alan Moore, whose boundary-pushing always seems to leave the genre stronger). But what the hell -- it's the culmination of years of the DC Universe, it's got to be good, right?
Well, the first thing you need to know is that this book revels in the fact that it's the culmination of years of continuity. It draws on threads from Countdown, Death of the New Gods, Salvation Run, and a bunch of other stuff I'm not familiar with. This book is not new-reader friendly at all.
Greg's already commented on the Martian Manhunter's death, and I agree that it's an ignominious death, wrothy of Brian "I kind of hate superheroes" Bendis, Mark "I hate them way more than you" Millar, or Warren "You guys think you hate superheroes? You ain't seen nothing yet!" Ellis. J'onn is dragged on screen in a drug-induced stupor (presumably from Salvation Run, though I'm just guessing since I didn't actually read it). He's then stabbed through the hart by the ever-so-kewl Libra. I know I'm supposed to be impressed, but I'm really, really not. To be honest, I'm sick of villains who feel like they have something to prove.
J'onn's not the only hero who goes out like a punk. Orion turns up dead on a pile of trash, in what I'm sure couldn't possibly be an intentional metaphor. That, I assume, is a carry-over from "Death of the New Gods." Got to clear the stage for New Gods 2.0 which I thought was incredibly stupid when Morrison unveiled it in Seven Soldiers. It hans't gotten any better with time.
Which isn't to say it's all bad. As I mentioned in my response to Greg's post, the symmetry of teaming Anthro (the first boy on Earth) with Kamandi (the last boy on Earth) is nothing short of brilliant. And I'm always happy to see Terrible Turpin. But by and large, this issue doesn't do it for me.
Two final thoughts. First, if you're reading the book via the scans Greg linked to, be aware that the first half-dozen pages of the book are missing. Go pop 2001 into your DVD Player and watch the prehistoric scenes. Petend the monolith is Metron. Now you're up to speed.
Second, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cover -- the one with the torso shot of Green Lantern. It's made me realize something: the only thing worse than a design by Chip Kidd is a design by Chip Kidd Wannabes.
Posted by Jason Fliegel at May 30, 2008 10:09 PM
I have absolutely no right to offer comment here as i don't intend to read this series.
That being said, what is the deal with treating the Martian Manhunter shabbily in 'big event' books?
In the horrendous 'Dark Knight Strikes Again' he is reduced to down-and-out cannon fodder so that Miller can channel Spillane yet again.
In the otherwise excellent 'Kingdom Come' he is an ineffectual two-panneler taken off the board by a wafer-thin plot turn.
As if he really needed anything else to recommend him, at least in 'The New Frontier' Darwyn Cooke does what he does best; treats what should be DC's fourth flagship character with humanity and respect.
I remain on the fringes of DC continuity ('Brave and the Bold' only) and I have yet to be given any reason to move further inward.
I don't intend to read the Final Crisis but feel it is my duty to criticize it. Martian Manhunter being treated as a punk is no surprise (above post clears that up). But do we know what the end point of this is? I thought the last couple "crisis" events were supposed to be world changing. Have they? Are they rebooting this again or simply retooling again? Just curious where they are going with this.
I'm not sure it matters what they're claiming the end game of Final Crisis is, because if it's like the previous events, it'll shift to something else midway through anyway. We've had so many of these lately that my mind may be slipping on details, but it was certainly implied at some point that Identity Crisis was going to deliver us from grim and gritty, yet it just rolled us around in mud for no particular reason. Wasn't Infinite Crisis supposed to provide a big reboot button (and, oh, yeah, deliver us from grim and gritty)? I could be wrong on this one, but I was under the impression that 52 was going to rebuild the Big Three heroes. I don't recall what kind of claims they were making for Countdown, but its clear purpose was to cash in on the unexpected success of 52, though it couldn't even get that right.
And what's the point of Final Crisis? Who knows. I've seen some suggestion that Grant Morrison is remaking the DC Universe in whatever the latest image is supposed to be, but we all know that status quo will just last until the next event that changes everything.
Actually, it turns out that Dini's Countdown to Final Crisis and Starlin's Death of the New Gods (which don't sync up from the point where DotNG started on) have nothing or close to that to do with Final Crisis. Morrison wanted a moritorium on the New Gods from Seven Soldiers through FC and didn't get it, so instead he's ignoring everything.
I'm not sure, yet, that the ending of Death of the New Gods is incompatible with the first issue of Final Crisis. It's not possible to tell exactly what's going on with the New, New Gods in Final Crisis, so whatever happened between the end of Death and the start of Final Crisis remains to be seen. There are obviously new incarnations of the characters, and the dead Orion could easily be Orion v. 2, not the original.
I have no intention of reading this comic, but it is obvious it is crap. DC really sucks lately. DiDio should be fired for writing this.
{{sarcasm off}}