SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Wednesday, November 12th, 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 (and Teen Titans). 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:
DC Universe: Last Will & Testament. Published by DC as a one-shot back in August, 2008. It was written by Brad Meltzer (Identity Crisis, The Book Of Lies) with art by Adam Kubert (Wolverine, Uncanny X-Men) and Adam’s Dad, Joe Kubert (Tor, Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art). What an awesomely artistic family! These guys work great together!

Premise:
All the heroes - knowing that the world is ending - find their own ways of saying goodbye. Many visit a preacher (who seems to be a major player in the DCU). The main arc of this story involves Geo-Man’s final confrontation with Slade. It’s great - and the ending is completely unexpected. I’m not going to give a full summary of this book - I don’t want to spoil anything. You should go buy it for yourself.

Awesome Parts:
First off, can I just say that I understood everything that happened in this issue? Cause I did. Bravo. Well written. The emotional moments were handled great. And some of the moral questions brought up in this book are wonderful. Do hereos kill? And if you do kill - are you still a hero? Can God forgive you for a sin you haven’t committed yet? These issues are discussed beautifully on a very human level. The premise of this issue is wonderful, too. Everyone knows that the universe is ending tomorrow so they are saying their goodbyes. I love getting to know these characters on a deep and meaningful level like that.

Un-Awesome Parts:
Unfortunately - in terms of the relation to Final Crisis - there was no day when everyone knew the world would be ending tomorrow. This book makes NO sense in the context of the Crisis. None whatsoever. I was a little premature yesterday when I mentioned the confusing reading order. Today’s issue is where that confusion really begins. That’s just another one of the aspects about Final Crisis that gives me the attitude of “read it all, sort it out later.” I guess from DC’s sales perspective that makes sense. But not from an enjoyable story perspective. I normally love HUGE events and giant crossovers that have cosmic level significance. The Age of Apocalypse is one of my favorite stories of all time. I didn’t mind reading EVERY single issue involved in that story. But that’s because EVERY issue was a fun read. And each issue made sense by itself. It made MORE sense in a larger context - but I wasn’t constantly confused. Come on DC - you can do better than this. ESPECIALLY for something that’s as HUGE as Final Crisis.

My Recommendation:
That said, I LOVED this particular issue - it makes a really great one-shot. Anyone who likes good emotional moments, struggles with morality, or a nice superhero fight should buy DC Universe: Last Will & Testament. Take it from me - you don’t need to know anything about DC for this to be a great read.

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Okay, that might not be as true as I originally thought. I was fortunate enough to attend Marv Wolfman’s writing seminar this year at San Diego Comic Con International. He was talking about how to write good characters. And one of the primary examples of his lecture was Deathstroke/ Slade. Also, the Slade/ Terra controversy was a large part of the Teen Titans cartoon show. So I suppose I was in fact familiar with this issue’s backstory. And that could be why I enjoyed this issue much more than any of the others. So maybe all my complaining about bad writing is just because of my inexperience with DC. I’m not convinced that’s true. I think if Final Crisis were written well I wouldn’t have to be a DC expert to understand it. But I’ll try to give Grant a little more benefit of the doubt.

On the other hand - I STILL have no idea who that character in the preacher box was - and I enjoyed his part of this story far more than anything else I’ve read in Final Crisis.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure that there were enough flashback sequences and exposition that you don’t need to already know all about Slade for this issue to be interesting. Certainly none of the goodbyes or any of the moral quandries require you to have any idea who Slade is.

There is one piece of information that I think is important to have prior to reading DC Universe: Last Will & Testament. Fortunately - having watched Teen Titans - I know that Starfire has a thing for Robin. And somehow I know that (don’t ask me HOW I know this one - some things you just pick up through osmisis when you hang out at comic book stores long enough) but Nightwing is the original Robin - the one that Starfire has a thing for - Dick. That’s his name - not an explactive. Anyway - keep that in mind. It makes two scenes MUCH more powerful if you already know that.

Alright - that’s all my rambling for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow for a quick Final Crisis interlude: my friend Robert is going to be telling you all why you shouldn’t buy The Hulk 3-disk DVD. 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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