I really don’t know what to say about this one. It’s just….wired. I mean, just wired. And this is the final part of my Final Crisis Trilogy but just…what the hell did I just read? Immediately after reading this comic I looked at the reaction other people had and found that I was far from the only one who thought this comic was strange. I mean it’s an odd, wired and messy story that defies description at some points. So where do I even begin with this mess?
Well, I guess I would start with the plot but to be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure what the plot of this story is, as it takes so many different turns. At first it seems like it’s a battle against Darkseid as he starts implementing the Anti-Life Equation on Earth but then turns into some kind of cosmic battle where the fates of all the universes are linked and I honestly have no idea. This book was just confusing as hell.
Before I actually get into what’s wrong with it let me go into the pros of the story. For one thing I read it from the hard cover edition so some of the stuff is actually is filled in in this version. But sense I never read the paperback version this was inconsequential to me and the stuff that was added only further confused me. But as far as pros go, the dialog is still pretty well written and believable. The drawing style is also pretty good and like the last two comics I mentioned, between it and the coloring everything look the way it should.
The first fourth of the story was actually really good. While I’m still not entirely sure what happened, it starts off when the New God of Genesis, Orion is killed and starts off the whole event and the buildup to a certain point is really good and the concepts were actually fantastic and incredible.
Things, however, really start to get wired the moment Barry Allen comes back from the dead and the series starts to bring in all these contrived elements that make next to no sense and various things that are ultimately inconsequential to the plot.
From what I gathered, the general consensus of the story is this: when reading this story most people tend to think that they keep flipping over pages. And that’s pretty damn accurate. Everything seems like it was glanced over and there were more details that were supposed to be included but weren’t. To put it simply the story needed a lot more exposition then it was willing to give and it just confused the hell out of readers including myself.
Right alongside this is the way things were put together. For one thing, it seemed like entire issues were missing from the story and again it had me flipping back to make sure I hadn’t missed something. Then there was the way the panels were actually arranged and, my God was it off. At times it seemed like entire panels were missing or that they were out of order. There were also a lot of events, particularly towards the end where events just seemed to be thrown in together out of order, especially dealing with the “solution”, (which I’m still trying to figure out and was the weirdest part of the book).
Then there were the action panels. While much of the last two thirds of this book were dealt with the superheroes of Earth fighting back the people who had fallen to the Anti-Life Equation the action was very poorly managed. I guess the best comparison I can think of is comparing it to the action of the Lord of the Rings films, mainly the way you would see a few minutes of the fight and then it would cut to something else entirely. With Lord of the Rings however, it worked. Here, it just pisses you off and by the time you cut back to the fight, it is, for all intents and purposes, over.
Spoiler alerts for those who haven’t read it on this paragraph and the next but there are also two other plot elements that I just found completely unnecessary and feel that I have to mention. For starters, is the death of Batman which came completely out of nowhere. Throughout most of the event, he had been Darkseid’s captive and then just appears and fatally shoots him, before being zapped with Darkseid’s eye beams. I mean what the hell?! He was in the series for maybe a total of ten pages and is then quickly killed off at the end. What a bullshit way to end one of the greatest superheroes of all time, (yes I know he comes back but it still came completely out of nowhere and it’s still irritating).
The second is the “true” villain, apparently some creature known as Mandrakk. Why does this irritate me? Well, mainly because he wasn’t a necessary villain. Darkseid was really all this comic needed and if it wasn’t for all the wired crap that happened throughout the event he would have been a more then suitable villain and bringing this guy in just seemed to downplay Darkseid as a villain. And even after he’s revealed, we still have no idea what he was after or know anything about him or his motivations so he just seems to come out of nowhere. Not to mention we have no idea what his role in all of this was. Was he manipulating Darkseid? Was he commanding him? Was he just waiting for everyone to kill each other? Explanation please!!!!
Finally, we have the resolution. Again I still have no idea what the hell happened and I’m not sure if was something that was supposed to be Deus Ex Machina or something that was supposed to have a deeper meaning. Either way, it was just beyond confusing and even after reading the Wikipedia Article on it I’m still not sure just what the hell happened.
All around this book was just a mess. It had good ideas for sure but the way things were ordered, explained and executed you’ll just find yourself wondering just what the hell happened. I may like Grant Morrison’s other work but this one was just bad. It is the definition of a story with great ideas but was ultimately too big and too complex for its own good. It is not one that I would recommend and the only purpose it should have in any one’s house is as kindling.
All Around
4/10
And those are my thoughts on Final Crisis. I actually went into this thing knowing next to nothing about the event and boy was it a shock to find what I found. In a nutshell, I would recommend The Injustice League and say to go ahead and read Sanctuary if you care, but this story? Save yourself and keep as far away from it as possible. You have been warned.
So until next time, this is The Illusive One saying,
ANTI-LIFE JUSTIFIES MY HATE!
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