Final Crisis (New Edition) (Batman by Grant Morrison series)

Final Crisis had its good moments, for example: The justice league investigating a murder of a high level entity, a cool motivating scene with Black Lightning and his "rescue" mission, and some Batman cameos. However, there were numerous parts where I did not know what the heck was going on. I was introduced to characters I never heard of. Perhaps I'm new to this but I felt that I had to do a lot of investigating to understand what was going on. I did not enjoy this read. I would suggest borrowing it from a friend (to relieve him/her of the burden he/she carries, I kid). I recommend reading Future's End series, personally I think the story is less convoluted and easier to follow.

They're not fooling anyone: this is not the final chapter in the saga begun with the great Crisis on Infinite Earths (1987). That honor goes to the current series Blackest Night, including the precursor to that one, The Sinestro Corps War. But it does at least wrap up (though it also extends) the Gnostic theogony/cosmogony of the Monitors that was introduced in the original Crisis.

The reader needs to be prepared for the mind-bending approach of the great Grant Morrison with his tendency to make the story self-conscious AS a story. n this collection, Morrison is particularly quirky, and it will take some patience to crack the nut and appreciate the whole thing. I appreciate it more and more. The appearance of a thinly-veiled Dr. Manhattan, the dredging up of the old parody hero Merry Man from The Inferior Five, the inclusion of one-shot Morrison character Sunshine Superman, the echo of a tossed-off Superhero from Morrison's epic DC One Million, namely the Atomic Lantern, the resurrection of Barry Allen, the death of Batman and the return of the real Aquaman--all these are epic developments we would expect (yet perhaps fear) in an installment of the Crisis saga. You just have to read the books in the right order.

A jumbled mess perhaps because by necessity some issues that touch on the Final Crisis story, had to be omitted, but whatever the reason, sometimes I wasn't sure if I was coming or going. Some characters seemed to be little more than window dressing. This is a case where less might have been more, so I say if the character is not needed to advance the plot, don't include them. I purchased this at a near rock bottom price through Kindle, but it was hardly worth even that.

Perfectly readable but there was a noticeable fold/crease on the entire top right side and the pages had come loose from the binding partially. Had to hot glue it. If you want to order comics without worrying about damage I would suggest instocktrades.com

Basically, every bad review about this book is spot on. It's too pseudo-complicated, in that it's not actually complicated, it's just next to impossible to keep up with unless Grant Morrison is sitting with you explaining each panel and all of his thought processes along with it. Feel free to add any other of a long list of complaints about it - mediocre artwork, a slapdash plot barely held together by the paper that it's written on, characters who do things completely out of, well, character... And for all the comic snobs, card store owners, action figure collectors, and uber-nerds who look down on anyone who says that this book was hard to follow, saying that YOU get it and that it's for higher intellects and you have to put some time into it blah blah blah... a comic book should not be WORK to read and enjoy. They are supposed to be fun... remember fun? And they should not depress you or give you a headache or take the joy right out of reading about friggin' Superman! Which leads us to our final wish and that is that DC will have hopefully had their fill of all these damn Crisis titles. You know, the first one was ok I suppose. It had its moments to be sure. But all the ones since have gotten more rambling, more nonsensical, and more of a chore to get through. Something they should know by now - full scope company crossovers are very difficult to pull off (Marvel does a much better, but still too frequent, job - look at the Onslaught and World War Hulk stories - yeah, the whole House of M thing not withstanding), and they should not be done every 6 months or to make up or dig up a bunch of loser characters just for the purposes of killing them. Bottom line, this book sucked.

Lots of comics these days are basically movie scripts with drawings. Final Crisis has cinematic moments galore, but it stands on its own literary merit. Make no mistake - this is dense stuff. But if you just want to know what happens next in your story, you can get that from a TV show or movie.

Contains some minor spoilers- So i consider myself a pretty big dc fan, if I see a pic of the justic league i can name everybody and talk about them. But this had random new god characters, a gun that shoots a bullet back in time, some weird new planet that doenst really have anything to do with anything, a random god banished and working fast food, I'm a smart guy but this.... do not reccomend.

- A possessed Donna Troy, about to place a mind-control helmet on the original Green Lantern: "There's no struggle with Anti-Life!"
- Hawkman's retort, as he clocks Donna with his big honking iron mace: "Life, on the other hand, is all struggle!"

Over the past two decades I've gotten pretty jaded with all these apocalyptic crossover mega-events taking place at Marvel and DC with clockwork regularity. Just how many times can the multiverse be friggin' imperiled? In DC the first Crisis (on Infinite Earths) was the big mamajama, followed by INFINITE CRISIS, and now this, FINAL CRISIS. And how is this one supposed to top everything? Well, maybe it tops the others in terms of impenetrability. Grant Morrison is one of those fancy pants writers of which stories, to get the full gist and thrust, are better digested in their entirety, rather than as individual issues. Seven frenetic issues of FINAL CRISIS, with me forced to carefully go over each issue a number of times just to knock that sense of "So, uh, exactly what the eff is going on here?" out of my system.

Except that, after all's said and read, I'm still scratching my head. A Crisis event in the past has been marked by red skies, multiple Earths, numerous superheroes from different walks crowding the same comic book panel, and a Flash kicking the bucket. In FINAL CRISIS, we get three out of four. More than anything, writer Grant Morrison seems bent on relaunching the New Gods and basically finding a place for just about everything that Jack Kirby had created for DC (the Forever People, Dan Turpin (who plays a key role here), Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth, Sonny Sumo, etc.). The prohibitive villains in this one are the evil Gods of Apokolips, reborn in human forms and predictably targeting the subjugation of humanity. And they mostly get this done. Mostly.

Seriously serious SPOILERS from now on.

This FINAL CRISIS trade collects FINAL CRISIS #1-7, FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1-2, and FINAL CRISIS: SUBMIT #1. The main storyline starts with Morrison taking an obscure villain from the '70s, Libra, and lending him instant credibility. Libra attempts to wrest control of the Secret Society of Super-villains by initially offering the villains their heart's desire. To demonstrate just how bad of a mo-fo he is, he kills the Martian Manhunter, on the behest of some negligible ninny called the Human Flame. Luthor and Dr. Sivana aren't convinced, but for now they fall into a wait-and-see. But then Libra decides to take Superman out of the picture, and more or less succeeds.

Superheroes enter the picture when the dying body of the warrior god Orion is discovered. The following autopsy leads to Batman coming up with a far-fetched theory: that Orion was murdered with a time-travelling bullet. Further ominous events unfold, and before you can say "the Big 3" Wonder Woman is captured and turned, Superman goes gallivanting across the universes, and Batman disappears for much of the limited series. The most formidable police force in the galaxy, the Green Lantern Corps, gets mired in its own crappitycrap, with Hal Jordan arrested by the Alpha Lanterns for the deicide of Orion and extradited to Oa. For the Corps, it goes downhill from there as a plot is revealed to steal away the Great Power Battery from the Guardians of the Universe. This basically leaves the less powerful heroes on their own, to keep on keepin' on.

But the Anti-Life Equation is unleashed on the Internet and soon the bulk of humanity is reduced into mindless drones. There's also a virus released which strips the heroes of their powers. Soon, Darkseid's shock troops, the Justifiers (partly composed of turned heroes), are prowling the streets, seeking to forcibly convert more victims to the no-fun Anti-Life Equation lifestyle. The superheroes find themselves cornered, forced to fight back as an ever dwindling resistance force, but still being quickly mowed down. But you knew there was gonna be a last-ditch plan of attack. There's also a desperate recruitment drive across the Multiverse. And, as ever, you can't count out Batman's knack for saving the day, although the manner in which Morrison has him accomplish this is frankly a disappointing thing. Because what Batman does here pretty much goes against everything he values.

For those who believed that Darkseid was the featured Big Bad, well, there's a secondary Big Bad, so it's a good thing this trade also includes SUPERMAN BEYOND #1-2. Else, how would you know who the hell Mandrakk.is? (Dude's a Dark Monitor). There's also another Monitor here, exiled and reborn to human form on Earth, who has no memory of his true self. But enough of his core essence remains that he's unable to blend in with normal folks. His incessant weird comments get him eventually sacked from his fast-food restaurant gig. But he plays a crucial role in the finale.

FINAL CRISIS is big things popping. It reads as a high adventure space opera, a mind-warping cosmic struggle, and a lowdown, dirty alien invasion. It offers high concept super-science mumbo-jumbo, with cool things like the Crime Bible and an impossible, near immovable book which holds every page in every book ever written. If you've ever wondered just what those strange markings are which Jack Kirby drew on his New Gods characters, it turns out that one of those markings is a facial pattern designed to ward off the Anti-Life Equation. Also here is the deux ex machina of all deux ex machinas, the Miracle Machine. And I think it's pretty funny that a Rubik's Cube becomes significant in this story. The epic story arc spans from the dawn of time all the way up to the 31st century, and, in reading it, there were occasions where I wasn't too certain of the story's fixed time and place. It's a convoluted read, and may cramp the readers' brains. Mine sure hurted awful...

FINAL CRISIS features a cast of many, with relevant roles played out by the Ray, the Question, Captain Marvel, and even the Milton-quoting Frankenstein monster (from the Seven Soldiers of Victory). This trade also chronicles the conversion of the Tattooed Man from villain to hero, because I guess DC peeked over at Marvel and noted how popular Luke Cage is nowadays.

Now the Death & Resurrection thing: In this medium, today more than ever, permanent death is off the table. Thor returned. Bucky Barnes returned. We're waiting on Steve Rogers, but it's only a matter of time. Barry Allen returns in these pages (with Death fast on his heels), as does Aquaman. Apparently, Hawkman's soul always recycles. And, in the upcoming BLACKEST NIGHT, a busload of dead heroes will crawl out of their graves. Dead heroes coming back are so commonplace nowadays that even the superhero community are making throwaway references. Note Superman's eulogy of J'onn J'onnz, in which he states "We'll all miss him. And pray for a resurrection." I frankly don't like it. The stories lose weight and relevance, when death is a fleeting thing. I can't help but feel that Barry Allen was better off dead. He wasn't that interesting when he was alive, but had built up a reputation as Saint Barry during his death. Now that he's back, he's been made over into this more modernized (read: darker) crimefighter (check out his own new series). Quite different from Saint Barry. And then there's Batman... but this limited series isn't even over before dude's back in the land of the living.

Even hardcore readers may find FINAL CRISIS a bewildering read; casual fans will just have to muddle thru, that or frequently consult Wiki. Not to mention, Morrison at times introduces abstract elements into the story. Personally, besides my snit at how Batman is written here, I found a gang of other things which turned me off. I got super-excited when the first issue showed Anthro and Kamandi - respectively, the first and last boys on earth - interacting. But, then, pffft, nothin'. Anthro and Kamandi end up not doing anything and basically serve as incidental story bookends. One thing which has been bugging me for a while is Mary Marvel's turning bad. Dark Mary Marvel is gigged out in black leather and now sports a nasty, pervy attitude. Now I do like that she's finally being treated for being what she really is: one of earth's heavy hitters, and she does simultaneously put a wicked clobbering on Captain Marvel and Black Adam. But, man, it's heartbreaking seeing her like this, a bad apple and even making lewd suggestions to Captain Marvel. You know she's off the deep end when even Black Adam is disturbed by her ("Look at her! I saw a leering old man in her eyes!"). I expect Mary in years to come to be one of the most tortured, guilt-ridden characters in DC, and I feel bad for her.

What else sucks? I didn't appreciate that Mandrakk turns out to be a cheesy monster cliché, and the way he gets dispatched smacks of sheer lameness. The way Morrison was writing him, I thought Libra was slated for huuge uber-baddie status, but he ended up fizzling out, so that was a letdown. As usual, the good and the bad with these mega-events is that you're treated to a whole mess of superfolks grouped together, the bad being that plenty of times, they're twiddling thumbs. I also wish that the heroes who lost their lives were given more panels and more weight. It all seems so rushed. And then there's the Alpha Lanterns' lifted credo: "No Lantern escapes the Alpha Lanterns!" Oh, please.

Okay, to be fair, there are cool touches peppered throughout; I'll mention some. I dig the story arc of the Tattooed Man, a cynical family man, and a prior supervillain, who reluctantly becomes a hero. I get a kick out of the odd-flavored Super Young Team, the Japanese Forever People. I dig that one of the evil New Gods apparently resides in Al Sharpton's body. I dig Mary Marvel's epic fighty fight with Captain Marvel, Black Adam, and Supergirl. As mentioned, there are plenty of nods at Jack Kirby's many contributions for DC. And, if there's ever been a question as to whether Mr. Majestic is a Superman analog, well, this story puts that to rest. Finally, finally, I found out just what the heck the Anti-Life Equation is: a mathematical proof that Darkseid is master of everything in the universe. Oh, and this is very cool: there's a Captain Carrot sighting!!

Several terrific titles do dovetail from FINAL CRISIS: I really enjoyed FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS and the new BATMAN AND ROBIN (with Nightwing as the new Caped Crusader) looks promising. I'm also looking forward to checking out FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: DANCE (featuring the Super Young Team) and FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: SKIN (featuring the Tattooed Man, whose tattoos come to life). But FINAL CRISIS itself, ultimately, doesn't satisfy. I have to believe that it's partly Morrison's writing, which is sometimes too busy and incomprehensible, but also partly because I'm just plain worn out with these annual big events. Guys (talking to Marvel and DC now), I say take a few years off from doing these crossover things, take the time to set them up, to build up that sense of excitement and expectation. As it stands, every damn year sees a company crossover event, basically Marvel and DC doing their best to suck the last dollar from its fans. If this keeps going on, well, I'll quote the twisted Ultraman, turned even more twisted by the Dark Monitor: "Evil wins in the end!" (Okay, that's melodramatic. But you know what I mean.)

This story started out good but some where down the line Grant Morrisons imagination got away from him and left many readers confused. There were too many unintroduced characters that they spent way too much time focusing on and you didn't see much of Batman to say he was supposed to bite the big one in this story. I definately don't see myself reading this again any time soon

I fully realize that enjoyment of any piece of entertainment boils down to subjectivity. While I have every right to my opinion, I understand that others will disagree with me. So while I may express an opinion that some disagree with, what I am stating is simply my opinion.

With that said, I found this to be quite a painful read. The art work was fine but the story felt like the ramblings of a fifth grader giving us his idea of a good sci fi story while tripping on acid. It was an incoherent mess someone loosely based on the idea that Darkseid had somehow taken over the minds of pretty much everyone in the multiverse.

I understand that collections like this are brought together from different titles from the publisher. Unlike Marvel, who has had a much better idea on how to execute massive stories like this over many titles, DC dropped the ball big time with this story. It was simply not interesting and the dialogue would make science fiction television shows of the 1950's to shake their heads in shame.

The goal of any comic should be the telling of a self contained story that anyone and everyone can pick up and enjoy. If the creators are doing their jobs right they should entice the reader to want to dive into other issues to explore some of the characters they encountered. That did not happen in this case.

Again, to each their own. I get that I will not enjoy every comic ever made. If you enjoy it, great. The more comics are supported in all forms, the more we win because more people will get the chance to create. This however was not a good read. I don't regret the purchase but it sure doesn't entice me to want to buy anything else from Mr. Morrison.

I will keep this short -- the dialogue and narration are verbose, confusing, and disconnected; the story is ineffectively melodramatic; and in the end there are few lasting consequences. Oh, and cosmic vampires!? Give me a break.

What did I just read? Morrison's stories are usually a mixture of somewhat fresh concepts with bad execution. This time he only showed up with the latter. Morrison introduces characters that are heavily used in the 1st chapter or 2 of the book and then never seen again. Other characters appear without explanation. Felt like Morrison had more characters than he could handle. Iconic DC characters are given meaningless supporting roles and show up randomly to be included. Before I read this book I asked a friend, big DC fan, what Final Crisis trades I should start with. He told me "I couldn't tell you. I've read every book and still don't know what happened." Big thumbs down on this one. Should not have been touted as a "Crisis" event.

Not a very engaging book. Very messy and incoherent plot, difficult (for me at least) to keep up with what is happening and to keep the thread thorough the whole story. Have read a lot of much better stories in the genre I am afraid.

Remembering the delights of reading Morrison's Doom Patrol and JLA from the 1990's, it's a shame to see how far he's fallen. He seems to be enamored with the idea of making superheroes youth-oriented and trendy by infusing them with elements of youth pop culture, notably, hip-hop. This was rampantly evident in his runs on the X-Men, and we see it here too. There's loads of fake-swearing (using @#$%&! characters) every other page, which makes final Crisis read more like the novelization of a bleep-filled MTV reality show than an epic, heroic saga. There's also the Super Young Team, which is an updated take on Jack Kirby's Forever People but this time around it features image-consciious Japanese kids whose codenames are in mangled English (e.g. "Shy Crazy Lolita Canary"). I got the distinct impression that Morrison spends a lot of time sitting by himself watching Japanese television and listening to gansta rap simultaneously.

The story shifts around randomly with sloppy transitions. Superman's storyline is the only one of significance, and thankfully it happens to be the one that exhibits real coherence. We get appearances by the Secret Society of Supervillains, but they don't take action, they just sit around yammering. As in most of Morrion's story arcs, vague, ominous portents are tossed about liberally, including an ultrapowerful Big Evil that we should all be oh-so-terrified of. But this time around, when it gets here it's pretty lame. Towards the last third, I found myself flipping impatiently, craving for something significant or interesting to happen.

Do yourself a favor. Don't bother with this mess.

For fans of the DC universe & Superman a tour du force. Great art work & deep, thought evoking story telling. If you are a fan of Heavy Metal magazine's style of poetic story telling READ Final Crisis.

This was one of the worst written story lines ever! I have been collecting comics for over twenty years and anything Morrison has written lately has been garbage. I felt Batman RIP was bad, but Final Crisis was even worse. None of it made sense and the jumping around gave me a headache. The beginning part was good and fluid but after that ... vampires ... please. The artwork at the beginning of the book was great but after that pretty poor. Plus when did superheroes start using swear words all the time to express their emotions?

Morrison did nice work with JLA but has fallen off the mark with this one. I was VERY disappointed and feel I wasted $20 and time buying and reading this garbage.

The story started well. I caught the first part as it was being released. However, I couldn't get the rest, so I bought this graphic novel to catch up. As a fair warning, I will mention spoilers; they are part of the book's weaknesses.

The story started out quite well. Darkseid feels like a threat and is having his way with the world. Rather than focus on that, the story devolves into incoherence. We get an issue with Superman and the crew running around in limbo, whereupon we find out the monitors are now a race of vampires corrupted by one of their own (the one that framed Nix Uotu way back when). There's a lot of metaphysical narrative about the nature of reality, but most people don't read comics for metaphysics, especially metaphysics that aren't presented well or coherently (this will be a problem). Superman, then, inhabits a giant robot made of nanites to fight this first monitor vampire.

This first distraction really serves to convolute, not clarify, the story. The metaphysics are poorly done and thought-out. What I'm calling poor metaphysics narrative reads something like a gritty detective comic trying to sound like Sarte. It is shallow, trite, added little, was difficult to follow...and it was boring. The issue broke the pace of the story and introduced an unnecessary complication.

The Green Lanterns spend most of the story trying to get to earth, which gets swallowed by Darkseid-come-black-hole, and we keep reading about their energy draining. Their sole purpose in this whole story is to drive a green stake through the vampire when they're at 0% energy. So, in effect, it squanders a very useful group of heroes.

After the vampire fight, Superman is sent to the future where Braniac-5 shows him a machine that can rewrite all of history. Naturally, Superman scans the machine and later rebuilds it. In effect, he miracles away a lot of the damage Darkseid did (except for the mainstream knowledge of the multiverse and Batman's "death"). So, in effect, the heroes win by constructing a machine with the power to grant an infinite wish. This is the very definition of a contrived ending.

They decide to have Batman compromise his ethics and actually shoot someone (Darkseid). This, however, fails to actually do Darkseid in. He is caught by DC's version of the Grim Reaper. This also fails to do the job. What does it take? Superman singing. Batman compromises himself, and he doesn't get the job done. They made no emotional impact out of Darkseid's frying him with the Omega Sanction, and Superman barely looks at the corpse (to his credit he does pick it up) before he gets the fight going with Darkseid. Ultimately, this isn't much of a death either, since Batman is just transported back in time, somehow leaving his ragged corpse there for everyone to bury and pronounce dead.

I could list other flaws, but frankly, it wouldn't be worth it. The point I'm trying to make is made. The story is incoherent and contrived. It started out wonderfully, with the atmosphere of "What happens if the bad guys win" really playing out. Then it degrades into one contrivance after another. Let's hope this isn't Darkseid's last act, because if it is, it isn't a good one.

I had forgotten how sprawling and impressive Final Crisis by Grant Morrison actually is! Published during Morrison's long Batman run, Final Crisis triggered his concurrent big block of "Batman: R.I.P." stories, where Bruce Wayne was believed to be dead. Part of a company-wide crossover event; including 20 issues of associated miniseries; the titular "Final Crisis" book came out over a 9 month period with changes in artists adding to the challenges of following its ambitious story. While some of the storylines seemed to have no particular place to go, looking at them now, they actually acquitted themselves admirably. Getting Wonder Woman a little bloody certainly dovetails with The New 52 version delivered by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang for 3 excellent years. Having Mary Marvel go dark is less of a cynical gimmick in light of the Thunderworld issue of Morrison's Multiversity title. Many concepts introduced in Morrison's massive Seven Soldiers of Victory interlocking maxi-series are continued in Final Crisis. Most significantly, the New 52 Superman run in Action Comics is prefigured in Final Crisis, aggressively navigating the Kirbyverse with Morrison's unmatched swagger, insisting that the 52-world Multiverse that Morrison articulated in Multiversity is a long-planned answer to how DC continuity works in the 21st century. Including the 3-D issues Superman Beyond #1 and #2, as well as the Batman issues #682 and #683, this Absolute edition lays out the tapestry that Morrison wove across the DCU quite nicely, reminding me of the halcyon days of editor Julius Schwartz, who never saw a continuity he didn't like because he understood science heroes made up the rules as they went along (with a little bit of luck)! Absolute Final Crisis proves that DC is the luckiest bloke in Burbank to have Grant Morrison improvising so brilliantly in her Multiversity!

A strong but highly confusing story, I don't claim to be the most learned reader, but I wouldn't say I was stupid either, this book however gave a numb brain on several occasions as i struggled to decipher what exactly was going on. From a romp around the multi verse with Superman to plots by both the Monitors and Darkseid just left me spinning.
Also not providing a coherent storyline as this book doesn't contain to two Batman issues which detail the nature of his captivity and his escape, inexperienced readers may not enjoy this to especially without a working knowledge of the DC universe in its entirety. To fully appreciate this book i recommend reading the Countdown to Final Crisis stories first, along with Batman R.I.P and Death of the New Gods, there are loads more storylines that tie into this but of the top of my head these contain to most relevant issues.
With plenty going on, plenty of characters and the bits that a i understood providing a fantastic story and concept this definitely has a place on true DC fans book shelf.

Possibly the most controversial story in all of DC Comics history. The narrative is deliberately confusing, and parts have been completely left out. Several artists had to be employed; I won't speculate as to why, but I can't see how there were any positive reasons for multiple artists. I read the prose volume of this story in order to understand it, and that's when I saw how much is not shown or told in the book itself. At the time of publication, the author was posting information about story points online to explain missing pieces. Not the way to write or publish a commercial story. This story has no lasting consequences on the DC Universe, and can be skipped by continuity hawks.

Originally baffling readers and drawing mixed reviews Final Crisis is a series I revisited in trade form a few years ago and I must say that this is a book that has really improved with age. It's a challenging fascinating read with many quotable moments ("Tawny Bites!") and you can really see how it would influence future creators like Jonathan Hickman, Tom King and Scott Snyder drew influence for it. Looking back a lot of "event" comics that we thought were cool at the time of their publishing (I'm looking at you Civil War) while this one has aged like fine wine.

Final Crisis by Grant Morrison

First off, look at that cover. Just how striking is that? I predict it'll be quite memorable in twenty or thirty years. Of course, the image itself is an obvious allusion to "Crisis on Infinite Earths" where Superman is carrying Supergirl's dead body. Only now it's one of his dearest friends in his arms.

There are times when the whole interrelated aspect of the DC Universe appearing in the pages of "Final Crisis" works for me. It's breathtaking in its scope, certainly, but at times it seems too disorganized and chaotic. The ending itself is a throwback to a dozen characters from corners of DC Comics I have only the vaguest idea of. Also, there doesn't seem to be very much direct action here. "Final Crisis" is an exercise of tone, setting, and atmosphere. There is little room in the cramped pages for an exploration of the more traditional, and perhaps integral, aspects: characters and plot.

Nevertheless, the story is wildly and momentously enjoyable. Morrison is an expert that creating a dark, gritty atmosphere and for filling a scene with tension and drama. He is a master of an epic scale, as seen when Dan Turpin succumbs to Darkseid's influence coupled with his terrifying internal monologue and when Superman thunders back to Earth as the skies burn red to claim Batman's corpse from Darkseid's bunker.

Most issues end in a cliffhanger of sorts and they only add to the building tension that underlies the story. I only wish we could see more of the action that goes on instead of seeing two-or three panel snapshots and moving on. It's like taking the 12-hour "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and clipping it into a single hour movie, beginning to end. It almost feels like a trailer.

But for any diehard DC Comics fan, I recommend reading "Final Crisis" and letting your mind (and some time for the reading to settle) decide how you feel about it. This was certainly a hit-and-miss for others, and my views seemed to fluctuate around for a while. I can understand the disgruntled views towards this book. Of the Crisis events, "Final Crisis" is not the best, but I think there is value in reading it and studying it to see just where DC is today and perhaps what tone their stories are going to take tomorrow. I could also argue that the other value in reading this is to evaluate the general `incoherence' of "Final Crisis" and compare that to Morisson's other credited titles. Generally, I think this falls somewhere in the middle. "Batman RIP" is still a harder chunk to follow.

I only write this review because I'm almost certain my opinions about it have settled down now. Oh and for anybody who liked Final Crisis, or are exploring the DC Universe, I recommend "Identity Crisis," "Infinite Crisis," Blackest Night," "Final Crisis: Revelations," and "Crisis on Infinite Earths" for material in the same vein. Read it in order of publication and you can see the evolution of the Crisis events since they launched their first one.

First, I just wanted to agree with the previous reviews that suggested that a healthy knowledge of the DCU and the Silver Age was essential.

Ultimately, Final Crisis is best summed up by this: If you are knowledgeable of the Silver Age, you'll get the most important points of the story. The story isn't about which character is cooler or what character can beat what character...it is the apocalypse of the DC Universe, and more importantly, it's about the stuff of heroes. What would you be willing to do to save the multiverse, and what makes Superman 'Super'. It's about more than just a hero vs. villain fight, Final Crisis is the war of ideas, and how Darkseid really is the most evil figure in the DCU.

That being said, it is confusing and can be a bit too cerebral when it needs to be very straightforward. I don't necessarily think it's bad, but I think that 'Blackest Night' accomplished the same goal without the confusion. This isn't to say I don't appreciate Morrison's writing, I think however that if you're going into the book with expectations of seeing typical comic action, you will be sorely disappointed.

I think that ultimately, it's about heroes, and how they define themselves. The book as truly epic moments, and I think that if nothing more, it restores the 'iconic' DCU at the end, which by itself is worth it.

An important note: Get the annotated version, and make certain you get the copy of the TPB that has the associated series, such as the 'Superman:Beyond' series. Final Crisis makes a heck of a lot more sense if you have the books around it, much like how Morrison's 'Seven Soldiers' makes more sense if you read all the issues in chronological order.

Grant Morrison often goes back and forth between genius and insane person. This is sadly the latter.

This story feels like it was written down on napkins, over the course of a year, while eating breakfast for dinner at 24-hour diners. It pieces together concepts issue to issue, sometimes page to page, in a scattered fashion.

Its entirely possible this story is just too smart for me, but its just as equally possible it was nonsense.

The art was great and some of the Batman issues were solid. But you could read those in Batman RIP I believe and save yourself the time.

I put off buying Final Crisis because of the many terrible reviews I've come across here and on other sites. Before reviewing this, I must say that I had low expectations for this book and I anticipated a very disorienting experience based on the aforementioned reviews as well as my own experiences with Morrison's work. In fact, I finally caved in simply because I ripped through Morrison's Batman arc, from Batman and Son to R.I.P, and I just had to find out what happened next.

The Positive:
I liked it. There is not one part of Final Crisis that I can say I disliked. There are several parts that were confusing, but the ideas and concepts were so unique in presentation and execution that I found myself hooked. The "Submit" storyline featuring Black Lightning, a character I know very little about, was one of my favorite parts. It does a wonderful job showing what the "little guy" is going through while Gods clash above and destroy the world around them.

The other thing this book does well is convince you that the world really is facing the end. I'm an avid comic reader and have read crisis type events from both Marvel and DC going back as far as the 70s, and this feels like an entirely new level of urgency and inevitability. Morrison expands the readers view of reality in a very disorienting way that works nicely in that it feels like your brain is not capable of comprehending the big picture. You see it but it feels like your head will explode if you think to hard about it. That's how your supposed to feel! I think a lot of people just don't realize Morrison's intentions here. He's not trying to insult your intelligence in comparison to his own. He's trying to put you in the shoes of the hero when the curtain lifts and he/she sees something bigger than themselves.

The Negative:
Spoilers***
- I felt that the New Gods of Apokolips being reborn in human bodies on Earth was interesting, but could have been presented in a more effective way.

- Batman does not get as much time in this as he should, especially considering this is supposed to follow such a cliffhanger in the "Black Glove" arc.

- I still don't know why Darkseid wasn't killed by Batman when he fired the God bullet. I understand that death was tricked into coming for him (or was he?), but it seemed like the significance of Batman's actions were greatly diminished.

- I also still don't understand where Kamandi fits in. I don't know anything about him and there is no attempt to explain his role here. He just randomly appears in panels. Even though I have read that he is featured in the Countdown books, he should have been mentioned in the text or somehow introduced.

I would not recommend this to a casual reader. This is for mature (simply meaning not for kids) DC fans who are primed for a unique, disorienting but also very rewarding experience.

There are particular qualities that comic book fanboys thrive on, and these attributes are a well worn path of predictability and sentimentality. Final Crisis deserves some credit for ambitiously trying to break out of this mould by not offering much reassurance that good will triumph over evil, nor that anyone has things "under control". But despite its inventive and thought provoking story, the complexity of Final Crisis combined with its fast moving macro coverage leaves out a sense of approachability from the story equation. I think it helps if you know ahead of time, or at least recognize immediately, that this really is a crisis situation.. as in the stability of the superhero status quo is gone, the leaders are either dead or unaccounted for, and the information our heroes have about what is going on is either incomplete or non-existent. For these reasons alone this series is refreshing to some extent. There are plenty of cool, high-minded concepts floating around in moments of sheer comic book brilliance, but it's downfall is that the characterization and central plot is so scattered and peripheral, lost in unordered sequences of conceptual vignettes, that Final Crisis often feels like a hurling train that is so driven to reach a destination that it forgets where it's actually trying to go. It also doesn't help that this a company wide event involving almost the entire DCU inventory of characters in some capacity, and considering that the plot doesn't offer a consistent viewpoint from single characters or teams, and because you can't rely on the barrage of patchy metaphysical ideas to clarify plot points, the context of events tend to blur into white noise the further the story progresses. There just isn't enough here to solidify the readers empathy into the story. For some I suppose the ungrounded feel of the story might appeal to readers as being similar to the confused state of the characters themselves who are caught within this crisis, and you can't help but to try and draw your own half baked conclusions, but even so, it feels to be more of a relief when finishing Final Crisis than a satisfying challenge. But don't get me wrong, Final Crisis has reading value, but in all of it's cool, conceptual glory it's hard for the reader to dig in and find it's beating heart. For better or for worse, this is likely what Morrison intended it to be.

This is not a positive review that will harangue you for "not getting it" if you disliked the book, this is just my opinion.

A fine work by Morrison, with 2 main threads. One featuring the main Final Crisis event, and the other the Superman Beyond side story.

Superman Beyond could stand alone as a fine Graphic Novel. Its multiversal shenanigans, intriguing new villain, and its intelligence made me fall in love with it.

Final Crisis itself is an epic tale of the New Gods and Earth, capturing Darkseid as no one since Kirby has.

Why all the hate from many other reviewers?

Why the star off on my review?

These two stories did not need to converge. Superman Beyond's elements undermine Darkseid as a villain, and feel utterly out of place when the 2 stories converge.

That said I still LOVED this collection, but I completely understand the hate.

Like much of Morrison's solo-written work, this book is a dense collection of incredibly powerful ideas, like those which would be recorded during a brainstorming session. What is lacking is a good storytelling writer to collect them into a cohesive final product.

Morrison delivers one blindingly fantastic idea/setup/clever observation after another. But there is no flow whatsoever, even between sequential panels of the same scene. There is no...story.

That said, it is still better than nearly all of the "comic book stuff" out there today...

For full appreciation of Final Crisis, it is a prerequisite to read Jack Kirby's Fourth World stories (recently collected in "Omnibus" books), since at least half of Final Crisis is a continuation and "resolution" of that original story which Kirby was not allowed to finish. Morrison takes those ideas and gives them new life, deeper meaning in a way to make a Fourth World reader giddy. (Finally a truly terrifying Darkseid - His impending rebirth is perfectly harrowing and imparts a chilling sense of growing dread and despair on the reader).

Additionally, Morisson expands on themes explored in his Animal Man series and previous Crises, whereby the DC universes are recognized to some degree by some of it's inmates as stories in comic books.

Morrison likewise applies a hundred other twists or illuminations to other DC cannon, so brilliant as to bring tears to one's eyes and make hairs stand.

J.G. Jones' art is (as usual) wonderful - beautiful and detailed to just the right degree to complement Morrison's carefully crafted (overly worked?) words on each panel and not compete with them.

Final Crisis is well worth reading (hence the high rating) just to admire and consider each idea/panel/page on it's own. But it leaves one with a sense of loss at the stories that could have been produced from these ideas had Morrison teamed up with an accomplished storyteller. I think 52 was a successful example of this, and can only hope that Morrison finds worthy collaborators for future projects.

Grant Morrison is a great writer and is very good at intertwining complex plots to create a full bodied story.
That being said, his work is often hard to follow - sometimes even to a fault.
Final Crisis is one of the finest examples of this. I read Final Crisis from google books and it included: Final Crisis 1-7, Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 1 & 2, and Final Crisis: Submit. Both of these side stories are necessary to the overall plot of the series and need to be read with them. The story line goes Final Crisis #1-3, Superman Beyond #1-2, Final Crisis: Submit, Final Crisis #4–5, Batman #682–683, and finally Final Crisis #6–7. I had also previously read Batman #682-683 before reading Final Crisis so I knew what to expect (these are not included in this trade).

So, here is my advice to anyone trying to read Final Crisis.
1) Do other reading prior to reading Final Crisis
- I would suggest reading Seven Soldiers of Victory since it is an amazing story, gets you used to Grant Morrison's style, and is relevant to the plot of Final Crisis with 3 crossover heroes in the main story (really only 2, but you see Zatana in Final Crisis 6)
2) Have the tie-ins or know what happens in them. The three mentions above are absolutely necessary to understand the plot.
3) Read it twice. Some parts are confusing but knowing where you will be going will help make sense of what is happening and you pick up on a lot of the subtleties you miss out on.

I think this is a great comic book and the series really helps to understand how the DC Multiverse works and the New 52. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the artwork is absolutely incredible. This comic is a beautiful piece or work.

-My Grant Morrison knowledge is considerable since I read his entire batman series, Seven Soldiers, and Animal Man before reading Final Crisis. His Batman run, which I wholeheartedly recommend, is as follows :

Batman and Son
Batman: The Black Glove
Batman: RIP
Batman: Batman and Time (Final Crisis Batman Synopsis comics #701-702 are in here)
Batman and Robin Volume 1-2
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Batman and Robin Volume 3
Batman Incorporated
Batman Incorporated Vol 1: Demon Star (New 52)
Batman Incorporated Vol 2: Gotham's Most Wanted (New 52)

Love most of the art and the concept behind Final Crisis. As usual Grant's work is challenging, high concept, borderline incomprehensible. Originally I read each individual issue as it came out and was for the most part, totally confused. Re-reading it in one sitting in this volume was more coherent and way more rewarding even if the ending still irritates me.
I think that's what a lot of the negative reviews come down to: the simply ending isn't great and doesn't deliver on the promise of previous chapters. Throw in Superman Beyond 3D and you realize you've never read a mega-crossover comic book event like this one (for good or ill). 4 stars for the art, most of the story and the effort.

Comic sales have been in a slump for decades. Even in the midst of a golden age of superhero movies the printed material has continued to sag prompting the big two publishers to increasingly fall back on the `LOOK AT ME' tactic. DC and Marvel both learned that big events sell but at what cost. You can only have so many monster events before they become commonplace. The death of Superman was huge, the death of Captain America not quite as much and when Batman died last year the media hardly took notice. It was 22 years between Crisis on Earth Two and Crisis on Infinite Earths and then 20 years until Infinite Crisis was published but then just 3 years before Final Crisis. At this point there seems to be no gap between events with a large lead in to Infinite Crisis followed by the series 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis. One need only look at the greater than 35% reduction in sales between the first issues of Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis to see that the real crisis is in the viability of the comic industry. But putting aside the commercial success or failure of Final Crisis how did it fare artistically?

I was a huge fan of Infinite Crisis. Right from the start it felt like a big event with Bizarro pummeling the Human Bomb to death and Mongul attacking Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, harkening back to the legendary story by Alan Moore. It brought back feelings I hadn't felt since the mid 80's when DC was cranking out five star material like the Watchmen, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Swamp Thing. The return of Alexander Luthor and the corruption of Superboy-Prime were moments I won't forget. I felt none of this in reading Final Crisis. Somehow Grant Morrison was able to make the death of The Martian Manhunter seem bland and forgettable. At first I wasn't even sure it was The Martian Manhunter since his death occupied a total of two small frames meaning that it undoubtedly occurred in another issue and this leads into perhaps the biggest problem with Final Crisis. I never read Countdown to Final Crisis because it got very bad reviews and it appears that it's a mandatory read because I found myself completely lost. Personally I felt that Infinite Crisis worked as a standalone story that was augmented by reading the leadup stories. Final Crisis on the other hand is all over the place. It's clear that the seven issue series picks up in the middle of a story. Why is Darkseid and crew living on Earth as humans? How did Libra reconstitute himself after being obliterated IN 1974 and when did Mary Marvel become a murderous punk and how come Frankenstein is fighting with the superheroes? Final Crisis asks WAY too much of the readers.

It seems these days that Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns write half the stories that DC Comics publishes and although I consider Morrison to be the better writer in this instance I think that Johns did a much better job. Morrison wrote, "I wanted to do the biggest crossover there's ever been" Instead I found it to be by far the weakest of the three big Crisis storylines. What I found most interesting was that Final Crisis #3 was the highest selling and highest rated book of the Crisis tie-ins while Superman Beyond #1 was the lowest (based on reviews by IGN). Personally I found nothing that interesting in issue #3 whereas the Superman story was the first moment that actually attracted my attention so this is clearly a subjective topic. As much as the first half of the series disappointed me the later half particularly the final issue was a complete mess. The worst element had to be the final villain who never even previously appeared in the Final Crisis series. You had to read the tie-in Superman Beyond 1 and 2 to find this character and to call him/it disappointing would be highly generous.

The art is sufficient but inconsistent and sometimes bland. It was nice that they included three tie-in issues, including the aforementioned Superman Beyond, to try and fill in the gaps but I think you would need an encyclopedia to figure out what's going on. DC Comics is going to milk this one for awhile before gearing up for the next big event but stories like these are just going to turn off rather than attract new fans. The series is inaccessible to anyone except the most ravenous DC reader and even then I wonder if Final Crisis would be considered anything better than average. In the end it felt like Grant Morrison was indulging himself which is a shame because you only need to read All-Star Superman and Batman R.I.P to see that he is an extremely talented writer. From my perspective Final Crisis is a major misfire and as time goes on I suspect history will not be kind.

Final Crisis is one of my favorite DC crossovers in recent memory. It was especially enjoyable after the long-line of depressing or awful crossovers they had put out (namely Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and the stores Attack!). Final Crisis is basically what comics should be about. It has nearly every character you could possibly think of, and some you probably wouldn't, showing up for either cameos or starring roles. It deals with an enormous stretch of DC history, going as far back as classic Jack Kirby and some of the original Justice League stories, as well as also having elements from Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, 52, and numerous other big crossovers from DC's past. The plot is relatively simply: Darkseid has been killed by his son Orion, however, while this killed his body, his spirit is now trapped inside the body of a criminal known as Boss Dark Side, and he now seeks to return. When this starts to fail, Darkseid says "Screw this!" to all of reality, and decides to take the multiverse with him as he dies. With the Earth taken over by Darkseid's followers, namely the other New Gods possessing human hosts and the members of Libra's Secret Society, and the Anti-Life Equation, the heroes of the multiverse have to team up to defeat him. Meanwhile, other subplots include the return of the original Monitor, who is now a dark vampiric god that feeds on reality, the fate of Superboy-Prime and the Time Trapper, as well as the journey of Superman to recruit every other version of Superman from throughout the multiverse into a Superman army.

The crossover is obviously not for everyone, with Grant Morrison's love for continuity clearly showing and it can really be confusing to read at sometimes, especially if you've only read the individual issues. The trade really helps make it clearer, while also including several of the other one shots released at the time that help fill in gaps. I'd also recommend checking out Morrison's Seven Soldiers meta-series and his Batman run, as well as the Terror Titans mini-series, which all lead up to Final Crisis in their own way. It is not for everyone, but I personally really enjoyed, even the over-the-top or ridiculous bits, like Superman saving the multiverse by wishing. Its dumb and silly yes, but so what? Comics are supposed to be fun and entertaining while containing larger than life characters and threats, and Final Crisis provides all of them by mixing it with the DC universe.

I normally try to not put spoilers in book reviews. This isn't so much a review so much as it is an explanation of the story to people considering reading it.

Here's the first thing you need to know about Final Crisis - it is not a stand alone story. Having read ALL of the intro material in real time (about 70 comic books in total), a large chuck of the information in those books is essential to get a fuller picture of just what the heck is going on in Final Crisis. But to save $200 and a week of your life, just read the Origins section of the Wiki entry about a group called The Monitors. It's short and covers the most important information that feeds into Final Crisis:[...]

Here's the second thing you need to know about Final Crisis - it is not a stand alone story. I know I just said that but when Final Crisis came out there were 5 mini-series printed concurrently with it and all whose conclusions dovetailed directly into Final Crisis #6. Unfortunately none of those stories appear in this collection so there are massive changes that seem to come out of nowhere in the Final Crisis story itself. The complete reading order is: Final Crisis #1-3, Superman Beyond #1-2, Final Crisis: Submit, Final Crisis #4-5, Batman #682-683, and Final Crisis #6-7. Thankfully the Superman story explains a great deal and on its own is fine story but in the grand scope it feels tacked on with a villain that really just dilutes the main story.

Here's the third thing you need to know about Final Crisis - it unfolds using an experimental format. Morrison tells a story that is an exploration/explanation of what a story really is. That's a concept that is quite meta on its own, but he goes further to try to blur the lines between story and reality and import actual physical changes to the narrative as it is being told.

MAJOR SPOILER: In a nutshell, the evil New God Darkseid is dying but has decided he will descend from the higher realm where the New Gods live and have his death occur on Earth. That death, the death of a being from a higher reality in normal reality, dents the space/time continuum which will result in Earth collapsing in on itself as if it had never existed. It's Darkseid's final middle finger to the heroes that have thwarted him time and again. The ripple effects of that future event (in issue #7) begin to manifest backward in time into issue #4 (1/2 way through the story). The kicker is that Darkseid's death is SO powerful that, as the story approaches the finale when he bites it, the ripples of that event spill over into our reality literally affecting the physical book that you hold in your hands (well, not "literally" literally...or may be it is?). We see this in the comic book panels themselves as they appear to skip ahead (the way a scratched record/CD does) caused by the collapse of time and space in the DC Universe that radiates out from the moment Darkseid dies. The trick works and you can easily see it when you understand what Morrison is doing but the reveal doesn't come until the last 10 pages or so.

SPOILER OVER: However whether or not this trick - and the holding of the reveal of it to the end - positively contributes to the overall narrative is debatable. And that is what is a real bummer about the whole thing. Conceptually, the story is amazing and really makes you think. In execution, there's a lot left to be desired. With a story that begins on page 1 well into the ongoing narrative, with many character motivations that make no sense plus debasement of other characters that leaves the story feeling icky, changing artists midstream (blame Jones, he couldn't keep up and had to be replaced), and over-the-top concepts that distract, it's no wonder many people do not like Final Crisis.

I'm a Morrison fan and while it's not the birdcage liner that some seem to think it is, even I do not think this was his best work. However, if you want something more than just a standard hero adventure you are certain to find it here.

This is actually a very complex work
Mr. Morrison crafted something very complex here and in the end, if you think you understud it, well, think again cause it's really full with beautiful hidden gems that are actually quite a delight to find, and if you, after a couple of reads and some research, still don't like it, check out the grant morrison interview dvd talking with gods, on the second disc of the special edition, Grant explains the end of final Crisis, and it's every bit as awesome as you would expect from the man