Final Crisis #1 - A Review
First of all, I didn’t get the cover I assumed I was getting. DC had been hyping the image at right for a few months now, and I thought it was a great image. It was mobile phone wallpaper for a month. I can’t even find an image of the cover I got on the internet. Let’s hope its a super-variant.
With one strike against it, I jumped into Final Crisis. My expectations were lower than low, so you shouldn’t be surprised that I didn’t like it. There were, however, some redeeming qualities.
First of all, the art is fantastic. J.G. Jones does amazing work and does a fantastic job telling the story. The story, however, is where the problem lies. Its all fodder for long time DC fans. Actually, its fodder for DC psycho-fans, because there are a number of obscure characters that take center stage with little prologue or introduction as to why they are suddenly relevant.
Secondly, the Libra plot-line? Didn’t Bendis just do this in New Avengers? Meet the Hood:
Now meet Libra:
Both wear hoods. Both brought together a group of villains under the premise of making all their hopes come true. Both made an example out of a hero.
The question I ask myself is, do I stomach it all just to keep up? Do I read through a story I’m not entirely enjoying just so if DC does put out something worth reading, I don’t lose out by not being on the ground floor?
Not this time. I’m over it. If I need to play catch up, I will sit in a bookstore and read the trade for free. Final Crisis is the story of what happens when evil wins in the war against heaven. To me, its the story of how a publisher became so convinced that there is no chance for growth, no chance to further expand the medium, it decided to make books for the same fans that have been reading for over 30 years. Marvel innovates. DC stagnates.
