Thoughts On Final Crisis # 1

Final Crisis # 1 came out this past Wednesday, and just like that: we're into DC's big 2008 event.

The artwork, by JG Jones, lived up to my expectations. Almost every page is gorgeously rendered, providing a beautiful backdrop for Grant Morrison to tell his operatic superhero tale against. I hope Jones is far enough ahead on the artwork that we won't have delays or fill-ins later in the series, but it'll be a while before we know, as he's been very reticent about it, when asked. I guess it's likely that the 2nd and 3rd issues will be safe in that regard, and then there's already a skip month planned between # 3 and 4 (for story purposes), which probably means the series will stay on track until at least the 5th issue. Oh, the things comics fans have to worry about these days!

Morrison's story is harder to evaluate. As is often the case with his writing style, I had to read the issue a second time to really understand it. He packs a lot of weirdness into everything that he does, and so the first pass of one of his tales usually tends to focus my attention on the details - as I try to decipher them - with nothing in the way of brain power left over to take in the bigger picture. In this case, for example, that meant that I picked up on the death of a founding Justice League of America member, in perhaps the most ignominious of forms (for a character who's been around for over 50 years) but didn't really understand the why. As it turns out, an almost-new villain (past appearances totaling: one!) is proving to a bunch of bigger-name bad guys that he can provide their heart's desire if only they'll place their trust in a reborn dark lord. Kind of interesting, I guess, but I'll wait to see where it goes.

Other aspects of the story made no sense to me, even after a second helping. Like why Anthro (the first boy?) would appear again at the end in the dystopian future of Kamandi (the last boy), other than to provide the tag line of "from the first boy to the last boy!" Or why New God Orion's death here caused such a furor of activity by the Guardians of the Universe when dozens of Orion's fellow neo-deities had spent the 8-issue Death of the New Gods mini-series biting the bullet with no reaction whatsoever from the blueskins on Oa. Not to mention why Superman had to explain to his fellow JLAers who Orion was, when various New Gods - including Orion himself, if my memory serves - had previously been members of the League! Things like that kept taking me out the reading zone and making me wonder if anyone had edited this book. Of course, it may be that everything will be explained away, and that would be a good thing.

Overall, I enjoyed Final Crisis # 1, but wasn't wild about it. It didn't feel like the start of a major Crisis (unlike previous ones) but DC is asking us to "trust them." If this really is "the day evil won," then I'd expect the DC Universe to be a dramatically changed place by the time this series wraps up around about the end of 2008. Colour me skeptical on the true impact of Final Crisis until that happens.