Nov 06 2008
Final Crisis - Requiem
Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Thursday, November 6th, 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:
Final Crisis - Requiem. Published by DC in July, 2008. Written by Peter Tomasi (Green Lantern Corps, Nightwing) with pencils by Doug Mahnke (JLA, Batman).
Premise:
Final Crisis - Requiem is The Martian Manhunter’s funeral. The Green Lanterns bring everyone to Mars where they somehow find time to mourn J’onn J’onzz - the last Martian. Most of this issue focuses on J’onn J’onzz telepathically passing the memory of his species on to his closest friends. We get a quick single-issue history of him and his entire people. We also get to see his death in more detail than was revealed in Final Crisis #1.
Awesome Parts:
This is a good mourning issue. The tone and pacing was all done in such a way that I could really feel the pain of J’onn J’onzz passing. I understood what he meant as a friend to the other major players in the DC Universe. The ending even has Batman being sentimental, which makes the entire issue even more emotionally powerful.
Un-Awesome Parts:
Most of the issue is very expository. There’s only one issue to tell the entire history of a people and the entire life story of an important player in the DCU. At times it felt rushed, and I almost would have rather not seen all about his past. We didn’t need to know his past in order to see how powerful and significant his death was.
My Recommendation:
If you want to know everything there is to know about Martians, pick up this issue. If you want an emotionally powerful story, pick up this issue. If you like the Martian Manhunter character, then you MUST pick up this final appearance. But if you’re looking for a book that ties into Final Crisis, this is not that. And if you’re looking for a standard superhero action story, this is not that, either.
That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow for Final Crisis - Rogue’s Revenge #1 - #3. 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
