SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Tuesday, November 4th, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Warning:
This is a new disclaimer I’m going to be including for the next two weeks during my Final Crisis reviews. Everything I know about the DC Universe I learned from watching Justice League Unlimited. Thusly, I am most definitely a DC neophyte, and I’m sure that has tainted my perspective of this enormous DC crossover event. Namely, I found that I did not understand a lot of what was going on. I sort of have a feel for things now that I’ve read EVERY Final Crisis book. But in order to save you from having to do the same, I’m going to be including a bit more summary than usual - which some might claim teeters on the edge of spoilers. So if you already plan on reading EVERY Final Crisis title, I recommend you skip this blog for now. Otherwise, enjoy the next two weeks of CRISIS!

Today’s Issue:
The crisis officially begins today with Final Crisis #1, published by DC in May, 2008, written by Grant Morrison (X-Men, Batman) with pencils by JG Jones (Wanted, all 52 covers of 52).

Premise/ Summary [SPOILER ALERT!]:
Premise indeed! The simplest explanation is that a New God is found dead on Earth and shenanigans ensue. But there’s so much more going on that I’m going to officially label this with a [SPOILER ALERT!]

We start with a cave man (who I now know is called Anthro.) A strange man in a chair (who I now know is the New God Metron) gives Anthro fire. Anthro uses it as a weapon against other cave men. Cut to present day where an unknown cop (who we later find out is named Mister Turpin - I think he’s a major player in the DCU) finds the body of a man in a costume lying in a dumpster. Then John Stewart, the Green Lantern - or, well, one of them - gets a message on his ring. Deicide. A God has been murdered. The Green Lanterns shut down Earth - no one in, no one out. Next we see two villains working for Libra who steal Metron’s chair from a garbage dump. Those who read yesterday’s review of Justice League of America #21 know that Libra is a disciple of Darkseid who is brining all of the villains together. The villains quibble for awhile about whether or not they can trust Libra. Libra answers that question by bringing in The Martian Manhunter and setting him on fire. Meanwhile, The Question gives our cop, Mister Turpin, an invitation to the Dark Side Club. There, he encounters Darkseid who says “There was a war in Heaven, and I won.” Darkseid has found the anti-life equation and used it to enslave some very scary looking children. Cut to outside the universe where something crazy involving all sorts of things that I don’t even understand are going on. Apparently the multiverse is in danger. Cut back to Anthro who is now in a post apocalyptic world. Someone unknown (am I supposed to kno who he is? I don’t even know!) exclaims, “Metron gave you a weapon against the Gods. We need it now!” Then cut back to Uotan - who I guess is one of the guardians of the multiverse - who awakens in a human body. On the news, he hears that J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, is dead.
So - yeah - that’s A LOT of stuff to happen in a single issue.

Awesome Parts:
I was mostly able to follow everything that happened in this issue. God died. Lantern core shuts down Earth. Darkseid won a war in Heaven. Libra killed Martian Manhunter. Got it. I even enjoyed watching the story unfold. I was intrigued by what role Anthro would play in events (even though I didn’t know his name at the time). And I was excited to see what is going to happen now that evil has won. On a whole, I enjoyed reading this book.

Un-Awesome Parts:
There were certainly some parts of this issue that made no sense. Just none. First of all, for the love of GOD use people’s names. The only reason I know some of these characters’ names is because I read the Director’s Cut (which I’ll be reviewing for you next week.) Also (I know this now in retrospect) A LOT of stuff that happens in this first issue doesn’t seem to be relevant to Final Crisis. None of the stuff with Anthro has even come into play yet. Maybe I’m just being impatient. I would have liked to SEE Darkseid win, instead of just being told he has won. And what’s up with all this stuff going on outside the multiverse? Based on what I gathered from the Director’s Cut, the multiverse is in danger. But I shouldn’t have to have read the Director’s Cut to understand that. And I shouldn’t have to already know everything about the DC Universe to understand that, either. Can’t you just tell me that the multiverse is in danger? Is it so hard for you to explain to me - a new reader - who some of these characters are? Why is being clear such a bad thing? This is something I have found consistantly with Grant Morrison - his writing doesn’t make any sense! If you read his ENTIRE arcs, then a few things become clear years later. But on a whole - in the midst of reading - a lot of his stuff just makes NO SENSE. I do NOT enjoy reading stories that confuse the living daylights out of me!

My Recommendation:
I do actually recommend Final Crisis #1. Everything bad that I had to say about it relates to the poor follow through in the rest of the Final Crisis series. But on a whole, as a stand alone issue, Final Crisis #1 was an enjoyable read. Especially if you’re a DC fan, you need to be reading this. Big things are happening.

That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow for Final Crisis #2. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold

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