And so we reach the final issue of Final Crisis, as writer Grant Morrison wraps up his freeform, jazz-like performance. And here's what I take away from it: DC Comics are different from Marvel Comics.
I know, it's a shocking revelation - but that's what Morrison has been playing at here.
Look at Marvel's big event - Secret Invasion. It's an action-packed mini-series that brought together virtually every hero (and most villains) to fight against an enemy that threatened the world. Since the Fantastic Four first appeared (more or less), Marvel has always been about continuity.
The characters all live in the "real" world, they interact, they have problems, but the stories (with notable exceptions) play by the rules.
DC has never been about continuity. Each hero, each comic, existed in a separate world of their own. The Superman in Action Comics rarely had anything in common with the Superman in Justice League or World's Finest (other than his general appearance). Each story of each character virtually stood alone, so the rules were easily bent or broken.
So DC was a universe of possibilities, where anything could (and did) happen. There have been attempts to change that, to bring DC into line. The first two Crisis series were designed to clear up continuity problems, though generally they ended up making more problems. Perhaps DC just wasn't built that way.
Final Crisis is Grant Morrison's way of saying, there should be no rules in comics. He brings together virtually every hero and villain in the DC Universe to fight against the ultimate evil, in a multi-layered battle that's more a battle of imaginations that a duel with fists.
The result is: anything goes. You want Earth-1, Earth-5, Earth-51? No problem! Did Orion get killed three different ways in two months? That can be fixed with one sentence. The only limits are the imagination of the writer.
The question is, how will fans react? I would hope they'll give DC a chance and see where it goes from here. It's a bright future, if it's managed well.
As for the Final Crisis series, it's still a dense and difficult read, and probably best read all together. It's loaded with lots of story fragments, some very clever bits and scenes that seem to arrive out of nowhere.
It's fascinating and creative, annoying and liberating at the same time. It's not for everyone - but if you're willing to put in the work, it's worth your time.
Let's hope DC is the better for it.
Grade: A-
1 comment:
I think you summed it up best, with "if you're willing to put in the work, it's worth your time."
This series had so much influencing it from other miniseries, to the regular monthly DC titles, that for the casual reader it was like a jigsaw puzzle.
I do think that when all the pieces are put together it was enjoyable. I know their are still pieces of the puzzle that I want to read, such as the 7 Soldiers of Victory.
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