Comments on: Book Selection of the Month: “Final Crisis” by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones

by: Todd Seavey

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:37:27 +0000

And while it crosses my mind: though I think it’s pretty obvious, from a writer-editor’s perspective, that _Final Crisis_ was essentially plotted _before_ the series _Death of the New Gods_ and _Countdown to Final Crisis_, which were published before it as efforts to put various story elements in readiness for their use in _Final Crisis_ — and that this explains the slightly-awkward join between FC and events directly preceding it — everything _technically_ fits, as far as I can tell, if we acknowledge that the Source, which created the New Gods, implied in _Death of the New Gods_ (from what I’ve read online) that it had the power to cloud the memories of witnesses to the gods’ deaths, such as Superman.

Works OK for me. No joy to be gained looking backward in this case anyway.

And, as in _Seven Soldiers_, Morrison shows some respect for continuity but always throws in a few convenient excuses in case he’s overlooked something, like the Fifth World possibly constituting a slight reboot of the universe, or the Monitors’ meta-timestream undergoing “recent” changes. Best to just accept that and allow oneself to be carried downstream — maybe things’ll be different again next year when it’s all over anyway.

by: Todd Seavey

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:14:14 +0000

NOTE: I’ve added additional analysis of Final Crisis and stuff like Hopi mythology (really) in this new entry, with a Hopi sun shield icon on top, no less:

http://toddseavey.com/2008/06/01/epilogue-to-the-month-of-the-nerds-final-crisis/

by: Todd Seavey

Fri, 30 May 2008 21:57:28 +0000

It’s become sort of an aesthetic question of whether the death was momentous enough to at least deserve to “stick” for a few years — Bucky, sidekick of Captain America, held the record at six and a half decades being “dead” before being revealed as alive and becoming the new Captain America recently — after the original Cap’s own death.

Flash has given Bucky a run for his money, though, since his epic death in the 1985 Crisis. I’ll say no more for now.

by: Sean Dougherty

Fri, 30 May 2008 21:15:14 +0000

Ok, I read the comic. Spoiler alert: do they really expect the audience to react to a showy killing of a major character when they always, always come back to life anyway?

by: Todd Seavey

Fri, 30 May 2008 16:00:58 +0000

Only the first of seven issues has appeared so far (of the one core miniseries). Scheduled to be monthly, as is the Legion spin-off miniseries, which runs five issues starting in August.

by: Sean Dougherty

Fri, 30 May 2008 15:54:03 +0000

Your post implies you’ve read “Final Crisis” but makes reference to it “starting today.”

Does that mean if I go to buy it I’m going to find only issue #1, or all of it collected?

by: Todd Seavey

Fri, 30 May 2008 15:48:10 +0000

Incidentally, to those paying close attention to DC’s transition from “Fourth World” to “Fifth World” characters at Morrison’s hands, this passage from Wikipedia about the Fifth World of Hopi mythology will come as no great surprise (especially if you’ve read _Final Crisis_ #1):

For the Hopi, the end of the fourth world is marked by the arrival of Pahana, or the lost “White Brother.” [The White Brother is scheduled to reappear to the “Fire Clan,” incidentally, though possibly transmogrified.] The Maya calendar charts out this progression through astrology, concluding that the current, fourth world will end sometime near the December solstice in 2012 (dates vary based on interpretation).

The Aztecs held similar beliefs, but they believed we are currently in the fifth world, and that it is the sixth world that is to arrive next.

The coming Fifth World (where our present World is presented as the Fourth) is said to arrive following a cycle in Nature affecting our entire Solar System, where our Earth births an Egg (Mystery Egg, Hidden Egg) and then moves “up” within our system to reach its crowning place. All of the Earth’s life is then said to be “raised” to its perfected-eternal form. Some tribes refer to this period of change as “Purification Time.” During this period of Purification, Time is said to change where we must choose between the natural Time we have now upon our Earth (meant for us) and an unnatural Time structure which removes us from Nature and our opportunity to reach the Fifth World. It is told that everyone will have to choose between the two Time frames– one leading to the Fifth World with our Earth, and the other (which will be very alluring, deceiving many) which will remove us from our Earth, taking us to oblivion.

by: toddseavey

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:58:27 +0000

In my ’hood, of course, we just have crises on multiple cranes. But remember: thousands of cranes take off and land safely each day, they just don’t make headlines.

by: Todd Seavey

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:10:14 +0000

1985 was not the first “Crisis,” grasshopper. DC had been doing multiple-worlds stories with that word in the title for over a decade by the time that Avengers story (edited by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Perez, who’d go on to do DC’s 1985 miniseries) came out.

Indeed, there was an homage to the early-60s first of those “Crisis” stories, in the form of a crystal ball scene involving the Legion of Super-Heroes, in the one-shot prelude comic _DC Universe: Zero_, an entry about which was the alpha of my Month of the Nerd, just as _Final Crisis_ is nearly the omega:

http://toddseavey.com/2008/05/01/may-one-dc-universe-zero/

by: T.A.B.

Fri, 30 May 2008 10:54:52 +0000

If the Marvel Avengers storyline was printed 10 years beforehand, how could it be an homage to “Crisis”? Unless you’re having fun with your readers.