Tagged: Final Crisis

On the Road to a Crisis

  • News
  • September 17, 2008

final-crisis-one-ff-1667347So right now, we’re halfway through Final Crisis, a crossover involving the weakening of space and time and all of reality being endangered. In the prelude one-shot DC Universe #0, readers were recapped about the fact that this is the third universal crisis to happen to the DCU (which isn’t entirely accurate and we’ll get into that soon).

But some of you folks may want a little more detail about what happened before this. Why is this the "Final" Crisis? And considering the fact that the previous two crises both involved history being altered, what do the heroes involved truly remember about them?

So here is not only a rundown of the previous crises, but the major events that have led into them and certain side stories that writer Grant Morrison may refer to again very soon. (more…)

‘Blackest Night’ stealing ‘Final Crisis’ thunder? by Alan Kistler

  • News
  • September 8, 2008

flash-three-generations-7506952

The major event in DC Comics in 2008 is Final Crisis, written by Grant Morrison. Unlike many summer crossovers, Final Crisis is not its own event so much as the third story of a trilogy (the first two stories being the crossovers The Crisis On Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis).

The opening premise is that all of the New Gods (celestial beings who inhabit a higher dimension) recently seemed to die, except for Darkseid, leader of the evil New Gods. Darkseid has found a way to survive through human hosts, his power fueled by the faith of his new followers under the prophet Libra. Determined to become ruler of reality, he has been resurrecting his sinister forces (an ability Kirby established decades ago) by placing their life-forces in new bodies as well. And since he has now learned the powerful "Anti-Life Equation", a prize he has sought for centuries, he is able to destroy free will in any who hear the equation, thus creating a new army of slaves.

So evil god-like forces have been freely walking among us and because the super-heroes didn’t realize it, they’ve been vulnerable to sneak attacks and manipulations. In short order, John Stewart, Hal Jordan, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman were all removed from the game board in one way or another.

But this is a Morrison story so that means there are usually layers to be peeled away. There are other things going on as a result of Darkseid now attempting to break the universe down to serve his will. There is, of course, the matter of the Multiversal Monitors, beings charged with maintaining the structure of the multiverse, one of whom is also living among us as a mortal man, unaware of his true nature. And there is the return of Barry Allen, the second Flash, a hero who became energy and merged with the universe even while saving it during the first Crisis over twenty years ago. Barry’s sacrifice saved the universe during that story and in DC Universe #0, it’s implied that the universe itself has brought him back so that he can save it again. It’s also possible he is here as a reactionary force to Libra, who is his opposite number in the sense that this a villain who also seemingly died years while merging with the cosmos.

And Libra and Barry are not the only dead men to show up in this story.

  (more…)

Watching the Train Wreck of “Final Crisis”

  • News
  • August 21, 2008

9672_400x600-4073908I may as well just get this out of the way up front: in my opinion, Final Crisis #3 is one of the worst comic books I’ve ever read.

Coming into this event season, I had high hopes for DC to regain some of the Infinite Crisis magic, but after three issues (sorry for the delay, but I was away from comic shops and the Internet) the latest and likely not last Crisis has clearly entered the realm of train wreck.

And yet many comics critics posted some largely favorable reviews. "I can’t wait to see what happens next!" said one not atypical reviewer.

Throughout many reviews, the critics looked at writer Grant Morrison’s approach of stringing together flashes of disparate stories into making a larger narrative and praised how new and challenging it is. There didn’t seem to be a single bizarre element he used that couldn’t elicit a glowing remark.

When reading those comments, I immediately recalled this quite-good essay by B.R. Myers on The Atlantic Monthly Web site. Writing about contemporary literary fiction, Myers complains that today’s writers have become obsessed with style at the expense of substance.

We are supposed to have entered a golden age for fiction, he writes, and yet readers don’t pick up literary fiction en masse, or much at all. Myers offers a simple explanation: the books are all self-absorbed fluff, and the nuts and bolts of telling a story have been left by the wayside.

Which brings us back to Final Crisis.

(more…)

Final Crisis and the Supergirl Cover Critique

  • News
  • August 18, 2008

Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald ignited quite the debate (to the tune of more than 50 comments, last I checked) when she posted a cover image from the third issue of Final Crisis, featuring a midriff-and-miniskirt Supergirl looking very uncertain about something, and headlined "Math is hard."

The post has prompted readers to weigh in on everything from Barbie dolls and Olympic uniforms to what the popularity of the post might mean for the industry and its fans. In fact, there’s all sorts of meta-analysis going on over there, folks — so if that’s your thing, hop on over and check it out.

Here are some of my favorite comments from the thread, though:

stan p. Says:

hey Beat—do you really find this cover problematic as opposed to, say, the grotesquely ultra-violent KICK ASS, which you promote below with none of your snark? just curious how this works with you…

Kate Willaert Says:

“not half as hard as superheroing with an exposed midriff.”

I’d say, not half as hard as superheroing in a skirt, when one of your main powers is flight. ;-)

Lea Hernandez Says:

Will you guys be quiet? Can’t you see the nice girl is ordering pizza using Wonder Woman’s invisible phone? She’ll never decide on a crust with all the racket around here.

Head over to The Beat to add your own thoughts to the discussion… IF YOU DARE!

Last Week’s Best: Batman, Wil Wheaton, Earthquakes and Marijuana

  • News
  • August 4, 2008

batman-00-2535110There are a lot of features coming at ComicMix readers these days, so in the interest of making sure you don’t miss the articles everyone’s talking about, here’s a quick rundown of some of last week’s most popular articles posted on the site:

Who Will Be The Next Batman Villain? — This blog post by Van Jensen generated quite a bit of reader response last week, as the comment section filled with people pondering clues that might indicate the identity of the next Batman bad guy in the film franchise.

Interview: Wil Wheaton on Storytelling, Technology and the Internet — Last week’s finale to Chris Ullrich‘s three-part interview with writer/actor/publisher Wil Wheaton was the week’s most-read original feature, providing a testament to the comics cred of the Just a Geek author. The Wheaton interview narrowly edged out Jami Philbrick‘s interview with Geoff Johns about his work on this month’s Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

Our Own Private Gotham — According to last week’s traffic, the success of The Dark Knight in theaters is a popular topic here on ComicMix, as readers were all over John Ostrander‘s Batman-focused column. In the column, the veteran comics scribe theorizes that there’s a lot to glean about the popularity of the grim-and-gritty hero given today’s political and cultural climates. On a side note, readers also had a high opinion (pun intended) of the most recent column by veteran comics scribe Dennis O’Neil, in which he opined on marijuana legalization and the greater availability of information about this and other controversial topics for current and future generations.

The Day the Earth Moved — While John Ostrander and Dennis O’Neil’s columns received a heaping helping of readers, it was Michael Davis’ latest column that had the comment crowd chatting. As it so often does, the media mogul’s column received the most comments of any article here on ComicMix that week!

Hammer of the Gods: Back From the Dead #3, by Mike Oeming and Mark Wheatley, was the most popular issue of any ComicMix comic released on the site this week, narrowly edging out Erin Holroyd and Dick Giordano’s White Viper #8.

Review: ‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ Deluxe Edition — Batman mania continued to be a driving force in the week’s traffic, with Van Jensen’s review (originally posted back in March) of the hardcover edition of Batman: The Killing Joke popping up as the most-read review of the week. Everything old is new again, apparently!

New Gods Breakdown: An Illustrated Guide to Jack Kirby’s Creations

  • News
  • August 4, 2008

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Back in June, comic book historian Alan Kistler provided ComicMix readers with a Countdown Breakdown, an illustrated guide to the 52-part event that preceded the Final Crisis storyline currently unfolding in the DC Universe. This feature was so popular that we convinced him to flex his creative muscles once again, and provide an analysis of one of the key groups of characters receiving the spotlight in Final Crisis: the Jack Kirby-created New Gods. Where do they fit in and what should you know ng-kistler_new_god_breakdown-6890502about them in order to understand Final Crisis? Read on and find out! -RM]

Well, readers, some of you have no doubt been checking out DC’s crossover Final Crisis. Personally, I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it. But I can understand that some of it might not have as much impact if you’re relatively new to the DC Universe.

For instance, a major part of the crossover revolves around those Jack Kirby creations known as the "New Gods of the Fourth World."

So who are these New Gods? How are they related to the Greek gods who speak to Wonder Woman on a regular basis? What do they have to do with that powerful giant called Gog who’s been appearing in the pages of Justice Society of America? Why does Darkseid say he’s from the “Fourth World,” whereas Gog claims he’s from the “Third World?"

Well, look no further, faithful fans! ComixMix is here to oblige! So, because you folks requested it after seeing our illustrated Countdown Breakdown, here are the New Gods in a nutshell:

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Interview: Geoff Johns on “Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds” and his Favorite Projects

  • News
  • August 1, 2008

action-comics-863-teaser-p-23-00-6574178Back in June, I spoke to superstar writer Geoff Johns about the return of Brainiac in Action Comics and all things Superman. With this month’s release of the first issue of Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, I spoke to the writer about bringing back one of DC’s most beloved superteams, The Legion of Super-Heroes, as well as some of his favorite projects.

COMICMIX: What can you tell us about the Final Crisis: Legion Of Three Worlds miniseries?

GEOFF JOHNS: It’s a really complex, big story. But the simple premise is that it’s Superboy-Prime and The Legion Of Super Villains vs. Superman and The Legion Of Super-Heroes. Superboy-Prime is foreign to the future and through what happens when he first gets there he makes an attempt to destroy everything that Superman has inspired while utilizing the Legion Of Super Villains. So the Legion Of Super-Heroes, who are struggling to come back together, who are almost obsolete at this point in the eyes of a lot of the United Planets, have got to come back and rally together for this challenge.

I’m trying to focus in on character here. I’m trying to introduce these characters to people that don’t know them and for those that do, to see them go through new experiences and new challenges. My main goal in this series is to tell a gigantic, epic story that centers on Superman and The Legion Of Super-Heroes. It’s just like when I worked on Sinestro Corps War, I wanted to do an epic Green Lantern story. There is a lot of emotion behind everything in this. That’s what I’m trying to focus on: the emotion of the characters and what they’re going through. Why should you even care about a character like Lightning Lad, Sun Boy or Dawnstar? What makes these characters compelling? Why are they worth following? Why are they worth learning about? My main goal is to, by the end of it, have people say, “I love Dawnstar! I love Sun Boy! I like Lightning Lad" or "I like Cosmic Boy!"

(more…)

Marvel’s Tom Brevoort Disses DC

  • News
  • July 14, 2008

Safe to say there isn’t a lot of love lost between Marvel and DC these days, with that writers’ spat over Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, then rumors that DC pulled out of an awards ceremony over a Marvel joke.

Now over at Marvel’s Cup o’ Joe column at MySpace, editor Tom Brevoort has gone straight middle school on the other New York comics giant. In addition to previewing some Secret Invasion pages, Brevoort writes:

I want to announce that I’m not at all interested in replacing Dan DiDio at DC after he is booted three weeks ago, and I haven’t taken many secret, high-powered meetings with key DC and Warner’s executives, who’ve long admired my great success with Civil War and Secret Invasion and New Avengers and so forth. Dan’s doing an excellent job over there, and I’m sure I couldn’t raise their market share by 10%, 15% or 20%. Despite the fact that many top-selling, exclusive Marvel creators have called me up in response to the rumblings to let me know that they’d love to work on a DC project for me if I was running things over there and begging me to consider it, I’m not remotely intrigued by the possibility. If called, I will not answer; if I answer, I will not parley; if I parley, I will not accept the job; and if I accept the job, I will not work very hard. So there’s no truth to the wildfire speculation that links me at the hip to that position, and makes me the obvious next choice to sit in that chair. Just to make that all perfectly clear.

Ouch. I’m sure it’s all in good fun for Brevoort or Marvel, but that has to sting for DC, which has had some serious struggles lately. And, as someone who was at Heroes Con watching DiDio as those rumors came to a head, let’s just say he didn’t look like a happy guy.

Are Marvel and DC still playing softball against each other? If so, this year I’d watch out for the cleats.

The Real Day Evil Won

Comic books usually fall back on stories of good versus evil, superheroes battling against villains with the fate of the world on the line.

DC Comics is taking a new spin on that with their big summer event, Final Crisis, which posits that the dark side of Darkseid has triumphed, and the heroes are left scrambling. Grant Morrison, the writer of that incoherent mess, would be well served to take a few lessons from an all too true story of evil defeating good.

In the not so recent past, a wealthy Oklahoma businessman swooped in to buy the Seattle Supersonics (my favorite team in my favorite league, the NBA). The new owner, Clay Bennett, agreed to keep the team in Seattle, where the Sonics had won a championship and built a legion of fans.

Gradually, it became clear Bennett wanted all along to steal the team away to Oklahoma City, spurning his supposed "good faith effort" to remain in Seattle. The man who’s supposed to oversee the NBA and prevent things like entire fan bases from being ripped off is commissioner David Stern, at right.

Unfortunately for Sonics fans, Stern and Bennett are old chums, so the commish managed to actually speed along the move, even telling Seattle it was the city’s fault.

The city did all it could to fight back, but ended up not having the muscle, and the Sonics are now history.

We’ll see if Superman, Batman and company end up victorious in Final Crisis. But in the real world, the good guys don’t always win.

‘Final Crisis’ tanks; WildStorm Sales Worst Ever

There’s a lengthy breakdown of DC’s May sales up at The Beat, and it only serves as further notice that the ol’ warship is taking on copious amounts of water.

The big story, of course, is the soft debut of Final Crisis, which couldn’t even crack 145,000 issues, a paltry sum for any big comics event. It’s not only well south of the 250,000 issues of Secret Invasion #1 that sold, but even the 178,000 from the much less ballyhooed World War Hulk #1. Not good.

The problem, according to Marc-Oliver Frisch, is mainly one of marketing:

One reason that may have led to this loss of faith in DC’s product is the publisher’s recent string of high-level failures. … Retailers had learned their lessons, and I suppose there was no reason to presume that they were going to forget them when it came to ordering Final Crisis. DC would have to put out all the stops to convince them that this was going to be different.

Which they emphatically did not do. Crucially, DC never bothered to tell anyone what Final Crisis was going to be about. … The slogan with which DC chose to advertise the content of Final Crisis when pressed for it, “The Day Evil Won,” doesn’t really address the problem. I mean, congratulations, so you’ve got a second act in there somewhere, at the end of which the bad guys temporarily win, which they always do.

In short, there is no hook.

Which sounds an awful lot like what I had to say about the first issue.

Things go from worse to, well, worse for DC, as its WildStorm line is basically not selling any comics. The average units sold for the line was a shade over 9,800, which is its worst ever mark, Frisch writes.

All told, sales are down everywhere and a whopping 11 series have been canceled because of poor sales.

The only good point was Vertigo’s new House of Mystery series, which debuted at well more than 20,000 copies.

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